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I am attempting to transpose an imported .xml file, but the transpose function will not move the notes. It is a four verse song with the lyrics in four rows. I have input some cue notes to move lyrics a little here and there. Transpose will change the key, but not move the notes. Attempting to go from Am to Dm. Help, please! Oh, BTW, I cannot move the notes up or down at all with the arrow keys either. My "conductor" is grey.
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by Surf.Whammy on Thu Sep 19, 2019 3:20 am
markgreer1 wroteI am attempting to transpose an imported .xml file, but the transpose function will not move the notes. It is a four verse song with the lyrics in four rows. I have input some cue notes to move lyrics a little here and there. Transpose will change the key, but not move the notes. Attempting to go from Am to Dm. Help, please! Oh, BTW, I cannot move the notes up or down at all with the arrow keys either. My "conductor" is grey.


Transposing and moving notes with arrow keys works, hence solving this puzzle requires a bit more information . . . :)

THOUGHTS

I do everything on the Mac, and transposing is one of the things I do frequently, mostly to create harmonies but also for other reasons . . .

Although I touch-type rapidly, I am primarily a mouser, so using a mouse is another important aspect, which among other things maps to not using arrow keys, although I did a quick experiment with arrow keys and discovered the rules . . .

If you are trying to do everything with a keyboard but no mouse, trackpad, or drawing tablet pen like a Watcom unit, then there will be a few rules that I cannot determine or verify easily, but so what . . .

HOW TO MOVE A NOTE WITH AN ARROW KEY

This appeared to be a logical activity even though I do not recall using it . . .

I did two experiments, and the second one solved this part of the puzzle . . .

You need to select the note, which will cause it to turn a different color, which here in the sound isolation studio is orange or something thereabout . . .

Image

Once you have the note selected you can move it upward or downward with the respective arrow keys, but you cannot move it leftward or rightward . . .

You also can select a set of notes--which can be contiguous or otherwise--and move them as a set or group upward and downward with the respective arrow keys . . .

Image

There is a way to navigate from note-to-note using arrow keys, and as best as I can determine the strategy is to use an arrow key to move the "playback" cursor to the desired note and then to press the "Return" key . . .

Pressing the "Return" key selects the note, and then you can use the up arrow or down arrow to change the pitch of the note . . .

Since I am a mouser, doing any more of these types of keyboard-only experiments is more than I can tolerate, because for me it's beyond awkward . . .

Navigating with a keyboard should be explained in the NOTION User Guide . . .

HOW TO TRANSPOSE A SELECTED SERIES OF NOTES

The keyword is "selected", but it's a different type of selecting than the type that turns notes orange . . .

There might be a way to select a subset of notes using only the keyboard, but as noted (see above), I have exceeded my tolerance for keyboarding, hence will not even try to discover how to do it--presuming there is a way to do it with only the keyboard . . .

Instead, when I want to select sequential series of notes or measures, I do this by dragging-and-dropping the mouse cursor or pointer to "encircle" or "lasso" the respective notes and measures . . .

Once this is done, I right-click the mouse to activate the context menu, where there is a context menu item named "Tools ", which I click to see the fly-out submenu where the "Transpose . . ." fly-out submenu item is found, which I click to get to the "Transpose" tool . . .

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As with many of the functions and features of NOTION, there is a way to navigate to the "Transpose" function via a keyboard, where in this instance you will find a "Tools" menu, and it has a "Transpose . . . " menu item . . .

For reference, the "Tools" menu has some of the same menu items as the relevant context manu, but the "Tools" menu has a few additional menu items that are not on the context menu . . .

Image

The reason the "Tools" menu is a bit different from the relevant context menu is a matter of Graphic User Interface (GUI) design and focus, where as a general rule context menus are focused on a specific scenario, while a high-level application menu has a more general focus . . .

For example, consider that it's raining . . .

A context menu for relevant things when it's raining probably will include an umbrella . . .

A high-level application menu might include an umbrella, but it probably also includes snowshoes, which likely makes no sense for the scenario where it's raining . . .

The logic--or lack thereof--in GUI designing and programming tends to make "normal" people a bit crazy . . .

It has the same affect on software engineers, but the level of confusion is diminished by providing software engineers with general GUI Design standards, procedures, and perhaps thousands of pages of some of the most boring technical information devised by otherwise intelligent people . . .

How boring? :roll:

When you look at your computer display--presuming you are a "normal" person--what you see is what Apple and Microsoft, in cooperation with highly paid software engineers, graphic designers, and other folks want you to see . . .

Years ago, this was called "What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG)", and in those days nearly everyone on the planet was "normal" because nobody had any idea how anything happened, which is a way to explain that those were magical times . . .

Everything mostly was logical, and everyone tended to be happy . . .

But there were dark forces at work, and many of them had backgrounds in such things as (a) mainframe programming, (b) UNIX programming, and (c) language compiler designing and programming . . .

In particular, the latter group of folks always had too much free time with nearly no adult supervision, and this led them to attempt to change everything constantly, with one consequence being having the idea of "enhancing" the "C" programming language, which after they made a virtual festival of "enhancements" they called "C++" . . .

In contrast to the "C" programming language where there generally is exactly one way to do something--much like the keys on a grand piano--in the "C++" programming language there are many ways to do the same thing . . .

So, instead of having "Middle C" is an unique key on a grand piano which mapped to an unique note on a treble staff, there soon was a set of different ways to refer to the same thing {G#####, E♭♭♭♭, . . . } . . .

The world needs to be peopled, and these folks spawned generations of what we now know to be "career bureaucrats" . . .

The good news is that by focusing diligently on such things as the NOTION User Guide, you can prevail and discover how to use NOTION productively--preferably with a mouse . . .

GREY CONDUCTOR

I have been using NOTION daily since sometime in early 2010, and I have no idea what a NOTION "conductor" might be, although intuitively I think there is one . . .

As a general rule, when something in the GUI of an application is grey, this is a clue that it's either (a) unavailable or (b) not relevant to the current activity and focus . . .

This could be the result of running NOTION in "demo" mode or some other problem having to do with licensing, but it also could be a modal type of thing . . .

If it's the Conductor icon on the transport bar, then it toggles Performance Mode, where in the following image the Conductor is blue, which indicates NOTION is in Performance Mode . . .

Image

Here in the sound isolation studio, if I click on the Conductor icon when it's grey, it turns blue, and vice-versa . . .

NOTION operates in two modes:

(1) NTempo

(2) Edit

You can toggle or switch from one mode to the other via a mouse click or a keyboard action (Shift+Enter) . . .

Try it, and it should work, but if not then post a follow-up message . . .

It will be useful to know if your computer is a Mac or Windows machine . . .

Making sense of all this stuff takes a while, but it's worth the effort . . .

If you do something in NOTION every day, then after a while it starts making intuitive sense and you will become very productive in composing and making music in the digital music production universe . . .

This is one of the songs I have done in NOTION, and everything except my singing is done with music notation and virtual instruments in NOTION and a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application in a series of ReWire sessions, where for this song the DAW application is Digital Performer (MOTU) . . .

[NOTE: The female soprano is Realivox Blue (RealiTone) and is a virtual voice managed and played by Kontact (Native Instruments) as a VSTi virtual instrument. Blue is my "go to" female soprano. This song is enjoyed best when listening with studio quality headphones like the SONY MDR-7506 headphones (a personal favorite) . . . ]

phpBB [video]


Project: "Sweet Hour of Prayer" (PreSonus NOTION Forum)

More recently, I have switched to Studio One Professional (PreSonus), which when working with NOTION has distinct and useful advantages . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. If you have just started using NOTION, then you probably know more than I did when I first started using NOTION . . .

It was vastly confusing, since until 2010 I did everything "by ear" with real instruments, and I had no idea what a virtual instrument was . . .

I knew a bit about music notation from being in a liturgical boys choir, but that was over half a century ago . . .

Fortunately, treble staff continues to make sense, and with NOTION I can do everything on treble staves, which for me is golden . . .

Making it all the more mind-boggling, it was only a few years ago that I realized in an immediately conscious way that I am not a soprano . . .

Nobody told me I was a baritone, so it wasn't something I considered until I added Pretend George Martin to my collection of imaginary personas and Pretend George Martin told me that I needed to practice singing a lot more in my natural vocal range, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :P

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Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!

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