Graphic and Midi symbols [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro]
In this lesson and the following, we
approach one of the most advanced aspects of Pizzicato: the
modification and the creation of
graphic and Midi symbols by the
user himself. Let us start by reminding the general
philosophy of graphic and Midi symbols.
In musical notation, there is a whole
series of graphic symbols that can be placed on the score.
They are used to specify how notes must be played. They can
influence the force with which they are played, the speed of
a score and other aspects. When the performer reads the
score, he or she sees these symbols and modifies his (her)
performance according to them.
In the Tools menu, you have a
great choice of symbols which you can place on the score. If
Pizzicato would be limited to display and print a score, the
graphic aspect would be sufficient. But Pizzicato can also
take the control of your synthesizer or sound card and play
the score. It is thus needed to describe the significance of
each symbol so that the resulting sound effect can be
produced when the score is played.
The score plays on your synthesizer through
the Midi system. When Pizzicato finds a symbol in the score,
it needs a Midi description of the sound effect to create.
The symbols located in the tools palettes may thus contain
Midi information, therefore we use the graphic and MIDI
symbol expression.
Because of the new possibilities offered by
the modern synthesizers (reverberation, incorporated sound
effects
), new types of symbols allow to produce these
effects. Some symbols could not be performed by the musician,
as for example a symbol which increases the reverberation or
modifies the sound panoramic.
Let us notice that you can create a symbol
which is only graphic and which does not influence the
performance. Conversely, you can create a symbol which is
graphically invisible on the score but which produces a sound
effect in Midi.
You will find most of the current symbols
in the original tool palettes, as well as a large variety of
symbols to control the synthesizer sound effects.
Most of the users will find in the current
symbols all they need to create their scores with sound
effects. They can largely exploit and in multiple manners the
provided original symbols.
The most creative and adventurous users
will however find limits to these symbols. They will want to
be able to create new symbols or to modify the existing ones
so that they are better suited to their creativity. The
system explained in this lesson and the following will help
them to create the most various symbols, as well on the
graphic level of the score as in the Midi universe.
Tools palettes [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro]
- Start Pizzicato and open the Main Palette.
Notice first that a palette can be resized. Its original
form is the following:

If you move the right bottom corner of this window, Pizzicato
progressively adjusts the shape of the palette. By dragging this
corner to the top and to the right, you will be able to get
respectively:

You can adjust them to make your screen more user-friendly.
The shape of the palette is memorized with its position when you
close it. When you open the palette again, it keeps its position
and form.
- With the right mouse button (Option-click on Mac), click
on one of the tools. A menu appears:

The upper part is addressed to the palette while the lower
part relates to the tool you clicked. Select the Palette
properties item. The following dialog box appears:

The palette title can be modified. This title appears in the
title bar of the window, but also in the Tools menu.
Just below, a popup menu select the tool size of this palette.
Eight standard sizes are provided. Click OK.
The choice Delete this palette
is used to erase
this palette completely. A dialog box asks you to confirm . Do
not erase this palette, because it contains the main working
tools. If you do a wrong operation on palettes, just reinstall
the program and the original palettes will be restored.
The tools contained in the Main palettes and the Notes
and rests contain the Pizzicato working tools. The graphic
and MIDI symbols are in the following pallets.
- Open the Main symbols palette. This palette has
larger boxes. It contains the most common symbols found
in a score. With the right mouse button, click one of
this palette tools. The following menu appears:

An additional menu is present in the graphic and Midi symbols:
Edit tool
It is with it that you can modify and
create new symbols and determine all their characteristics. The
basic tools of Pizzicato (notes, rests, keys, measure
tools
) have a fixed behavior in Pizzicato and do not
contain this menu item.
Creating a new palette [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro]
The Tools menu contains all the original palettes
provided with Pizzicato. You can create new palettes to add at
the end of this menu. For this lesson and the following, we will
create a new palette to illustrate what you can do with these
palettes and tools.
- In the Tools menu, select the New palette
item. A small empty palette appears:

- With the right mouse button, click
this palette and select the Palette properties... item.
The following dialog box appears:

- Modify its name to Test palette and click OK.
Consult the Tools menu and you will see that this
pallet has been added at the end of the list. It does not contain
any tool yet, although its size is ready for one tool.
You can move and duplicate tools from one palette to another.
This lets you create a personal palette grouping the tools you
use the most. To do that, hold down the CTRL key (Control) and click
for example on the arrow tool
from the main palette
and drag it towards the palette you just created. When you
release this tool on the new palette, the following dialog box
appears:

Three actions are possible:
- Move tool: allows you to insert the tool in
another palette. The tool is put in the new palette but
it disappears from the original palette.
- Duplicate tool: in this case, the tool is copied
in the new palette while remaining available in the
original palette. In the case of a graphic symbol, the
tool is really duplicated. You can then modify the new
symbol without modifying the original one. Remember this
difference. When you wish to modify a symbol of the
original library, (for example to create a Forte symbol a
little more loudly than the original), we advise you to
duplicate the tool and to modify the duplicate in order
not to modify the original. Modifying an original symbol
implies that all documents previously created with
Pizzicato will be affected if they use this symbol.
Respecting the original symbols establish a standard
format for a future version of Pizzicato, which will
enable the exchange of documents and create libraries of
compatible Pizzicato documents.
- Delete tool: you can erase a tool. In this case,
the tool disappears from the original palette and it is
lost.
Click on the second choice. The new pallet is now displayed as
follows:

- Similarly, respectively drag the following tools, from
the main palette to the new palette (while holding down
the CTRL key):
- Then, drag the following tools, from the symbols palette
to the new palette:
The new palette looks like this now:

The exact order of the tools depends on the location where you
dragged the tools into the palette. When you drag a new tool, it
replaces the one on which you put it and shifts the other. The
positioning order of the tools in the palette is done as follows:
- The first tool is the one located at the top left
position
- The following is the one located just below
- When there is no more place below, one starts again a new
column just to the right
Modify the shape of the pallet to obtain for example:

If you wish to modify the order of the tools in a palette,
take a tool and drag it to its new position. Take for example the
tool and drag it to the
top left corner. In the dialog box which appears, keep the Move
tool option. You get:

The other tools were shifted according to the rules stated
above.
We can now create and remove palettes, move/delete and
duplicate tools. We will see in the next lessons how to create
and modify graphic tools, as well as all their characteristics
(graphics, MIDI aspects, keyboard shortcut,
).
Importing the tools created with a previous version of Pizzicato [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro]
For the users of a previous Pizzicato version, if you created
your personal symbols, you may import them in Pizzicato 3. To do
this, select the Import tools... item of the Options
menu. A file open dialog appears. Go to the folder of the old
Pizzicato version and open the Misc or DataEN /
prefs folder. A file named Tool.def appears. Click
on it and then click on Open. Then it asks you to open a
file named Tool.pal. Pizzicato imports the symbols and
palettes you had created.