Custom Accidentals in Nihavent

Hi,
Since the first beta of Nihavent, the microtonal notation app, many people
wrote to say they need to create their own accidentals and with version 0.6,
released yesterday, this is now possible. If you tried the app but wasn't
satisfied with the built-in accidentals, I suggest you check it out again in
its latest incarnation. Several other "missing features" are now also
present, such as copy/paste, MIDI export and percussion notation. Download
here: http://www.nihavent.net/en/

As always, all questions and comments are welcome.

Utku Uzmen

Dear Utku,

I am very pleased with your progress on Nihavent. But I feel the
previous versions were more elegant with the tuning interface than
this version. Specifically, the bunch of accidentals lined up on the
left of the common toolstrip are a sight for sore eyes. Besides, they
still do not address the problem of irregular tunings and temperaments
where the same accidental is made to correspond to different values
for each note.

I know you will suggest duplicating the same sharp/flat symbol with a
different value and name tag, but this method will just overcrowd the
accidentals toolstrip column and increase the confusion during
scoring. There are tunings where one can hardly remember which comma,
sharp, etc... comes after a natural.

My earlier suggestion might ease things a bit: Allow the user to
specify the values for every sharp/flat for EACH of the seven natural
notes (C,D,E,F,G,A,B). The naturals are in turn defined in the tuning
window.

Exampli gratia: Semitone sharp is made 100 cents up from C, 92 cents
up from F, etc...

My recommendations for this version:

1. Reorder the sharps to the right and flats to the left of their own
toolstrip which is placed beneath the common toolstrip. Reflect the
seperation of flats and sharps thusly in the Accidentals Window.

2. The double sharp (tanini) symbol looks too big. Compensate for the
increase in size for suchlike accidental symbols.

3. There is no need to pile up all the symbols a composer has in his
arsenal for an open score that will not use all of them. Why not
categorize symbols into bundles? For example, the common bundle that
comes with Nihavent is Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek. I might make my own bundle
named Yarman-36 and might not want them to mix together. Let the user
select which bundle(s) to display in the toolstrip.

4. It would be swell if one could hear every pitch one inserts into
the score as one types into the score. Can you make it so that we hear
the pitch when we click-enter a note into the score?

Cordially,
Dr. Oz.

✩ ✩ ✩
www.ozanyarman.com

On Jul 17, 2010, at 4:35 PM, Utku Uzmen wrote:

> Hi,
> Since the first beta of Nihavent, the microtonal notation app, many
> people
> wrote to say they need to create their own accidentals and with
> version 0.6,
> released yesterday, this is now possible. If you tried the app but
> wasn't
> satisfied with the built-in accidentals, I suggest you check it out
> again in
> its latest incarnation. Several other "missing features" are now also
> present, such as copy/paste, MIDI export and percussion notation.
> Download
> here: http://www.nihavent.net/en/
>
> As always, all questions and comments are welcome.
>
>
> Utku Uzmen
>
>

My comments on Ozan's comments on Nihavent 0.6...

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Ozan Yarman <ozanyarman@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Utku,
[snip]
> My recommendations for this version:
>
> 1. Reorder the sharps to the right and flats to the left of
> their own toolstrip which is placed beneath the common toolstrip.
> Reflect the seperation of flats and sharps thusly in the
> Accidentals Window.

Definitely.

> 2. The double sharp (tanini) symbol looks too big.

Definitely.

> 4. It would be swell if one could hear every pitch one inserts
> into the score as one types into the score. Can you make it so
> that we hear the pitch when we click-enter a note into the score?

Definitely. And afterward to audition a note by clicking on
it (perhaps right-click) rather than having to use the playback
shuttle for the whole score. And to be able to select a note
and drag it up or down on the staff. The common theme here is
selection of score objects, which I mentioned after the previous
release also.

[snip]
> Besides, they still do not address the problem of irregular
> tunings and temperaments where the same accidental is made to
> correspond to different values for each note.

At the risk of being somewhat selfish, this is not a feature
related to supporting regular temperaments. And it would be
comparatively complex to implement. Therefore I suggest waiting
until regular temperaments are well supported -- and until some
of the other functionality expected of a WYSIWYG score editor
(see above) is implemented -- to tackle this.

-Carl

Thank you Dr. Oz and Carl for the suggestions; those are all good points.

Toolstrip changes: this was necessary because the number of accidentals is no longer fixed, so the accidental group needs to be able to extend to the right as necessary. I will probably make it at least 2 columns wide. The double sharp looks too big because it has a square aspect ratio and scales to fill the entire glyph area.

Irregular temperaments: My intention from the start was to not assume that there is a fixed number of natural notes. But I will keep this in mind. Also, in the future the value of an accidental will be displayed in the toolstrip to reduce confusion.

Auditioning notes: I agree that this will be very useful and is on the to-do list.

Tuning and accidental bundles: this can be achieved by putting all the tunings/accidentals in a (empty or otherwise) score file, and importing the score file in the Tuning and Symbols windows. In the next version a clean-up command will get rid of all unused tunings and symbols in the score.

Utku Uzmen

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "l99th" <utkuuzmen@...> wrote:

> Toolstrip changes: this was necessary because the number of
> accidentals is no longer fixed, so the accidental group needs
> to be able to extend to the right as necessary. I will probably
> make it at least 2 columns wide.

Two columns are very helpful cognitively, because accidentals
come in pairs according to offset magnitude.

> The double sharp looks too
> big because it has a square aspect ratio and scales to fill
> the entire glyph area.

That's a good reason - now fix it! :)

> Irregular temperaments:

A hornet's nest for sure and should be, in my opinion, a low
priority.

> Auditioning notes: I agree that this will be very useful and
> is on the to-do list.

Great!

-Carl