Composition tools - Dragging and dropping scores |
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Basic principles [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] The "dragging and dropping" of musical scores is the
basic principle of the new Pizzicato library system. With it, you
will be able to build full music compositions very fast. It gives
you the power to test and try music combinations very
efficiently. Let us define precisely the drag and drop operation
inside Pizzicato. It is the operation consisting of the 3
following steps: According to the exact type of the object, the result is
commonly one of the following: This lesson will explain which object can be dragged and where
they can be dropped. Let us first create a little score by using
these principles, so that you can have a better insight of what
we mean by composing music by dragging and dropping scores and
musical objects. A practical example [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] Music libraries / Patterns by instruments /
Individual instruments / Rhythms and arpeggios / Arpeggios in
eigth notes / Arpeggio 1 This score is now part of your current document. It has
been copied into the document and may now be modified without
any effect on the original library. A score has been created with a simple drag and drop and
contains an arpeggio played on the piano. We can now continue
to build that little score by adding other contents in it,
with the same principle. The next operation is an important
one, and has some specific features associated with it. You will notice that the time position is displayed on the
closest beat of the measure. If you hold down the SHIFT key,
you may increase the precision to one 16th note (the unit
changes : 120 = 1 x 16th note, 240 = 2 x 16th note, 360 = 3 x
16th note). The new arpeggio score has been added at the end of the
first one and the score now displays: You should be careful to drop the score between the limits
of the upper and lower lines of the staff, otherwise
Pizzicato will create a new staff above or below the current
staff, to place the contents of the score you drop. Music libraries / Prepared structures /
String quartet / 8th notes staccato / Violin+Alto+Cello+Ctb and drag and drop it on the first beat of the first
measure, but below the piano staff. The 4 string staves are
then added to your score: Several options may be specified to further determine how
the drop operation should be executed. For now, we just want
this score copied three times instead of one time, so in the
text box entitled Use all rhythms fill in
"3" and click on OK. The score becomes: You will notice that the scores of the libraries are
written in the C Major tonality. We can now drag and drop a
chord progression inside this score. Locate the following
node in the library: Music libraries / Chord progressions /
Measure 4-4 / C Major - 3 notes chords / 4 measures - 2
chords/measure / This chord progression contains two chords per measures.
Drag and drop it on top of the first staff, on measure 1 beat
1. The score becomes: At a first glance nothing has changed in the score, except
that the chord symbols of the dropped chord progression have
been added. In fact the score displays the C Major version of
the score. To display the arranged version, click on the
"C" (= Computed measures) check box in the toolbar
of the score view, just to the right of the "..."
button. The score now displays the following: The yellow background shows that it is the arranged score.
This feature is part of the score arranger function, that
gets automatically activated when you drag a chord
progression inside the score. A specific lesson will explain
the score arranger features. Instruments and templates / Basic
instruments / Woodwind / Oboe and drag and drop it on the first staff. Then play the
score and you will hear that the instrument has been changed. Music libraries / Effects / Volume /
Crescendo - 2 beats - from 0 % to... / 80 % By using this simple drag and drop function, and by learning
to know the contents of the Pizzicato musical libraries, you have
a powerful tool to test and try music combinations and apply
effects, chords and instruments to your composition. The musical objects and their icons [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] Here is the list of the icons you will find in the libraries
and their meanings: You should accustom yourself to the above icons because they
are the symbols used inside the music libraries of Pizzicato. Creating, deleting and editing the musical objects [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] If you click on a musical object with the right mouse button,
a contextual menu appears. Depending on the object you click, you
will find a menu item to: You can also drag and drop most of the objects between various
locations of the library, so as to create and organize new
sections of the library, with the following general rules: We suggest you to create all the libraries you want inside the
prepared folder named My library. In this way, the
original library is left untouched. It is indeed susceptible to
be often improved by ARPEGE, so that in the next release you
would not find the personal changes you did to the library. The My
library folder will not be touche or modified by future
versions, so you keep it even when you install a new Pizzicato
release. For a score object, you can specify which musical aspects are
used when you drop it on another score or use it in a music
generator. Right-click the score and select the Play
options... menu item. In the lower part of the dialog, you
will find 5 check boxes to specify if the score is used for Rhythms,
notes, chords, instruments and/or effects. The
corresponding icons will be displayed to the right of the score
icon, to show which are active. Using the objects in a document [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] Here is the list of operations you can do with the musical
objects of the library: Here are some more drag and drop operations that may be
useful: The drag and drop options [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] If you hold down the CTRL key at the moment you release the
mouse button to drop a score inside an open score view, a dialog
appears to specify additional parameters that will influence the
dropping of the score: The five check boxes entitled: are initialized according to the icons found to the right of
the score icon. You can modify them, depending on what is really
present inside that score. You may for instance prefer to copy
only the notes and rhythms of a library score, while not touching
to the instruments specifications of your composition and you can
then uncheck the transfer of instruments. The four first check boxes have additional options: You may also add a label and a color to the block of measures
that have been transfered. It helps to remember which block was
copied. By default, the label is the name of the document, group
and score. To apply the drop operation, click on OK. You can
also cancel the operation by using the Cancel button. This lesson contains the most basic principles used to
composition with libraries. Another lesson will soon explain you
what you can find in the libraries. You should well understand
the above operation, because they are the key to intuitive music
composition with Pizzicato. Try each operation by yourself and
read the lesson again. Then let your imagination work and you
will find it quite powerful.
C Major / 1 - 100 / 28/41
- A Pizzicato document. It can
contain scores, folders, groups of scores, virtual
keyboards, instruments, music generators, harmonic spaces
and other musical objects.
- A folder. There are two kinds
of folders. The folders that correspond to Windows
directories (or Mac folders) may contain only other
folders, Pizzicato documents or Midi files, SoundFont
files, STY files, musicXML files and NIF files. The
folders that are inside a Pizzicato document may contain
other folders, virtual keyboards, instruments, music
generators, harmonic spaces and other musical objects.
- A score. You can find a score
either in a Pizzicato document or in a score group. A
score is a set of staves and measures, with their
contents and their instruments specifications. You can
display and play a score. To the right of a score icon,
you can find one or more of the following icons, each
representing a specific aspect of music that will be used
if you drag and drop the score in your composition:
- The rhythmic values present
in the score will be used
- The note pitches present in
the score will be used
- The instrument
specifications of the score will be used (clef,
number of lines, transposition, associated sound,...)
- The chords present in the
score will be used
- The effects present in the
score will be used (volume, velocity, pitch bend,
patches, tempo and other MIDI controllers)
- A group of scores. It can only
contain scores. You can have a group of score only in a
Pizzicato document.
- A coloured square is an
instrument. It can be found in a Pizzicato document or
inside folders of a Pizzicato document.
- A virtual keyboard (do not
confuse it with the instrument aspect icon, which is only
found to the right of a score icon). It can be found in a
Pizzicato document or inside folders of a Pizzicato
document.
- An harmonic space. It can be
found in a Pizzicato document or inside folders of a
Pizzicato document.
- The definition of a chord. It
can be found in a Pizzicato document or inside the
folders of a Pizzicato document.
- The definition of a scale. It
can be found in a Pizzicato document or inside the
folders of a Pizzicato document.
- A music generator. It can be
found in a Pizzicato document or inside the folders of a
Pizzicato document. A music generator may contain scores
and folders, but the scores are displayed with a blue
background (
) because they are only potential
scores, that are created on the fly when you try to use
it. To the right of a music generator, you can find the
same 5 icons found after a music score. They show you in
one glance what you will find in the scores generated by
it.
- A music vector. It can be found
in a Pizzicato document or inside the folders of a
Pizzicato document. It is a musical object capable of
generating a melodic structure that can be adapted to a
chord or scale progression. It can be dragged and dropped
inside the measure of a score and will then generate its
notes in that score.
- A virtual instrument. It is an
audio synthesizer or sample reader that you can drag in a
measure so that the notes are played with this
instrument.
- An audio WAV file. It can be
edited with the audio window by double-clicking it. You
can also drag it in a measure so that the sample is
played with the notes.
- A MID file. It can be imported
into a Pizzicato score with its contextual menu (right
click).
- A musicXML file. It can be
imported into a Pizzicato score with its contextual menu
(right click).
- A NIFF file. It can be imported
into a Pizzicato score with its contextual menu (right
click).
- A STY file (Yamaha style). It
can be imported into a Pizzicato score with its
contextual menu (right click).
- A SF2 file (SoundFont file). It
can be imported as Pizzicato virtual instruments with its
contextual menu (right click).).
or
- You can drag and drop a score:
- You can drag and drop an
instrument:
- You can drag and drop an
harmonic space inside an existing group of score of the
main area of the conductor view. Or you can drag and drop
it directly on that main area and a group of score will
be created. See the lesson on the harmonic spaces and the
real time arranger for more information on this object.
-
-
- You can drag and drop scales,
chords and music vectors inside the measures of a score.
See the lessons about the scales and chords and about the
music vectors.
- You can drag a virtual
instrument directly into a measure to assign its sound to
the notes that follow. You can also drag it in the
conductor view, on a score rectangle or above, between or
below a staff. In each case, a new staff is added,
assigned to that sound.
- You can drag an audio WAV file
directly into a measure to assign this sample to the
notes that follow.