Nightingale 3.0 has several dozen new features and important fixes added since the 2.0 release. Documentation for these is provided below, and will be incorporated into the new Nightingale User’s Guide very soon.
• NoteView 2.2 Worldwide Sheetmusic Viewer
Included with every copy of Nightingale 3.0 is NoteView 2.2 and the NG/NoteView Converter. This is a free, Internet version of Nightingale which can be distributed worldwide so that your scores can be viewed and listened to by anyone, but they cannot be edited, printed, exported or altered. NoteView makes it possible for you to electronically publish your work before a global audience without the use of paper or postage. For more information, please see the file titled "NoteView Information" in the Nightingale Folder.
• Line drawing tool (for creating perfect glissandi, or whatever line graphics you like). Its use is very much like the slurring tool:
1. Click on the “pencil” icon in the tool palette (you may need to open the tool palette to its full width to see the icon) or press SHIFT-Hyphen to select the tool.
2. Click the cursor on any note and hold down the mouse button.
3. Drag the cursor to any other note.
4. Release the mouse button.
5. While the newly-inserted line is still highlighted/selected, choose the QuickChange command (in the Edit menu) or press Command-h.
6. Choose a line thickness between 1 and 127 (40 is a normal thickness for glissandi).
7. Click on [OK] to exit QuickChange.
8. Double-click on the newly-entered line to call up shaping boxes on its endpoints.
9. Drag the line by its shaping boxes to any desired angle or position.
• Open Finale ENIGMA Files
Nightingale is the world’s first program to be able to open a Finale file. For the release of Nightingale 3.0, only scores created with Finale 3.2 or earlier are accepted (future updates will read more recent Finale types as well). Please see instructions below “How to Use Open Finale ENIGMA File.”
• Choice of Three MIDI Drivers
Nightingale now lets you choose between the Apple MIDI Manager, Opcode’s OMS driver, and a new Built-in MIDI Driver that is internal to Nightingale. Whenever you start up Nightingale, you will be asked to choose which MIDI system you want to use. If you do not wish to be asked, then use the NightCustomizer utility to tell Nightingale your preference (launch NightCustomizer, choose MIDI Prefs, then select “Which MIDI System?”). Even if you specify a MIDI system in NightCustomizer, you can press the Shift key whenever you start up Nightingale, and you will again be asked to choose a MIDI system for temporary use.
• OMS Support
Nightingale now supports Opcode’s Open MIDI System. It is strongly recommended that if you wish to use Nightingale with OMS, you obtain OMS version 2.0.2 from Opcode (available free of charge at numerous Internet and electronic bulletin board sites, including http://www.opcode.com). Please see instructions below “How to use Nightingale with OMS.”
• New Built-in MIDI Driver
Nightingale now includes its own “built-in” MIDI driver, which eliminates the need to use MIDI Manager, OMS, or any third party MIDI connection software. No system extension files are used, which eliminates many potential conflicts with other MIDI driver programs.
Use the MIDI System Setup command (in the Play/Rec menu) to indicate which port you wish to use for built-in MIDI signals.
Warning: The simultaneous use of the Modem Port by any other application (including fax and modem communications software) while Nightingale’s Built-in MIDI is set to use the Printer Port can result in serious damage to your computer. If you wish to use both ports at the same time, you must use one of these safe solutions:
1. Set Nightingale’s Built-in MIDI to use the Modem Port and your other program to use the Printer Port;
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2. Use MIDI Manager or OMS for Nightingale’s MIDI connections.
• Record Merge with “Overdubbing”
When using the Built-in MIDI driver, you are now able to hear all the music that is already in your score as you record new music into the score (this feature will soon be added for use with MIDI Manager and OMS as well). This greatly enhances real time recording in Nightingale, allowing you to record one part after another, hearing the combination of all parts in the score as you record new music.
When you click in an empty staff and select Record Merge, the Record Merge dialog is displayed letting you choose various parameters for recording, including whether to hear a metronome. Click on the [Record] button, and you will hear two measures of “count off” beats from the metronome, which will bring you in on the first beat of the measure. The count off beats are adjusted according to the time signature of the piece.
• Electronic User’s Guide
The entire Nightingale User’s Guide is now provided to you as an electronic file which you access on your computer. This innovative style of user’s guide offers many benefits over a printed manual:
1. It allows easy searching for any topic;
2. It facilitates jumping between related subjects without the need to search through an index;
3. It allows for frequent updating and inclusion of new features in a form quickly accessible; and
4. It allows you to print out any segment of the guide you wish.
You will find detailed information on every command, tool and feature in the on-line User’s Guide. It is organized as follows:
- Topics Section — Individual entries (arranged in alphabetical order) containing detailed information about each of the palette tools, and about broad topics relative to the use of Nightingale (e.g., “key signatures”).
- Commands Section — Individual entries containing detailed information about each menu command (arranged in alphabetical order and by menu).
- Tips and Tricks
- Troubleshooting
- Reference Topics — quick reference documents for topics not covered elsewhere in the User’s Guide.
- The NoteScan User's Guide
For further explanation on the use of the user’s guide, please see Chapter 8, “How to Use the On-line User’s Guide” in the Nightingale Tutorial booklet.
• Ten Screen Magnifications - You can now view your score at 25%, 38%, 50%, 75%, 100%, 150%, 200%, 300%, 400% and 600%. Each view has a key command equivalent (command-option 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0, respectively) so you can instantly zoom to a desired magnification. Just remember that Cmd-opt-5 = 100%, and you’ll soon have the others memorized. You can also use a handy popup submenu in the View menu to point to the magnification you desire.
NOTE: When opening older scores created with Nightingale 2.0 (or earlier), you may see staff lines spilling off the side of the page. In this case simply zoom in/out one time to have the new screen magnifications correctly take effect, and then re-save your score.
• Through Speaker Playback
Through speaker playback is now possible with Nightingale using a combination of the free MIDI QT or OMS QT utilities, QuickTime 2.0, PatchBay and the MIDI Manager. Nothing else is required, meaning that Nightingale scores can be heard without the use of external MIDI equipment or interfaces. Please see below “Instruction for Through Speaker Playback.”
• New Palette Tools - Pedal on and pedal off markings have been added: D.S., D.C., breath marks, pedal marks, and other symbols currently available in the Sonata font character set will be added to the tool palette very soon in a future version.
• Colorized Voices
The new Color Extra Voices command (in the View menu) displays any additional voices in the staff using colors. The default voice in a staff (usually Voice 1) will be displayed as black. Additional voices are displayed in blue, red, green, purple, and yellow.
• MIDI Instrument Setting command
The new MIDI Instrument Setting command (in the Play/Rec Menu) lets you quickly adjust MIDI instrument settings without going into Master Page. Simply click anywhere in a staff, select the MIDI Instrument Setting command (or press Cmd-opt-m), and select a new patch and channel number . If you are using OMS, you can also assign a different MIDI device.
• Dashed Slurs and Ties
You can now any range of the score containing slurs and/or ties, and change them to dashed slurs using the QuickChange command. If you select an individual slur, QuickChange will automatically display the choices available for slurs. If you have selected a larger range of notes containing different types of symbols, you must tell QuickChange which type of symbols in the selection to affect.
In the first popup field, choose “Slur/Tie.” In the second field, choose “appearance.” In the third field, choose “dashed” or “solid” as desired.
• Accidentals in Parentheses
You can now select any range of the notes in the score and change accidentals to be enclosed in a pair of parentheses using the QuickChange command. If you select an individual note, QuickChange will automatically display the choices available for noted. If you have selected a larger range of notes containing different types of symbols, you must tell QuickChange which type of symbols in the selection to affect.
In the first popup field, choose “Note/Rest.” In the second field, choose “accidental.” In the third field, choose “In ()” or “normal” as desired.
• 18 new fields of control in NightCustomizer
New options include special Ledger Line Controls to set line width for ledger-lines, plus ledger-line length on both sides of the stem.
• New Hidden Keys-The "Control Key" acts as a secret modifier key for "relax restrictions" or "don't check" for the following:
Leave Master Page without reformatting even if music will dangle off the right edge of the page or systems will dangle off bottom of page.
• Enhancements to Extract Parts
1. Extract Parts now shows all hidden staves, and sets system boxes to the normal size in all extracted parts. This eliminates confusion about parts which have numerous staves hidden in the main score (during extended sections where a part rests), and displays all measures in the extracted part. Multi-measure rests are automatically calculated for long sections of rest for all extracted parts.
2. New controls for the Extract Part command:
The options to “Respace Measures and Reformat the Page Breaks now results in the same arrangement of measures on each system the same as the original score, but the placement of systems on the page are recalculated. If the part is being respaced and reformatted, Multibar rests will be calculated and spaced, and page breaks will be recalculated, but no system breaks will be changed.
This eliminates the chance of symbols such as double or repeat barlines being inadvertently altered or changed due to their measures being moved to different systems (i.e., changing of special barlines into single (invisible) barlines as they are moved to the front of a system). It also eliminates any truncating of repeat ending brackets, hairpin crescendos, the attachment of rehearsal marks to the first (invisible) barline in a system, and prevents the unnecessary drifting of rehearsal marks, crescendo marks, repeat endings, and other graphics onto the wrong system.
3. Other options in Extracting Parts
If no respacing or reformatting is selected, then the parts are extracted containing the same number of pages and the same number of systems per page as the original score. This option lets the user exert full control over all page breaks and system breaks on a part by part basis.
• Extra Control over Reformatting
Throughout Nightingale, whenever changes are made to the score which normally require reformatting of page or system breaks, you are now warned about the presence of any hidden staves in the range of systems to be reformatted. This is because reformatting of systems that contain hidden staves may yield problems (notes displayed with no staff). Nightingale now puts up an alert warning that this will cause problems, and it gives the user a chance to cancel.
There are several commands which can cause a reformatting to be needed, including Add System, Respace Measures, and changes made to the margins or staff sizes in Master Page. It is recommended that all such changes to the score be made *before* hiding any staves. In all cases, Nightingale will now give you the chance to continue without reformatting, after which you may carry out score formatting changes “by hand” with the Move Measures Up/Down or Move System Up/Down commands.
Recommended Method for Reformatting
It is also highly recommended that you deliberately use the Reformat Systems command with the “change system breaks” portion of the command un-checked. In this way you can control the page breaks (which systems fit on which pages) without adversely affecting the placement of some measures on hidden staves.
• On Print, if any systems in the pages are to be printed aren't right-justified, optionally warn and let the user cancel.
• New menus and new key commands
New command-option key equivalents have been added for numerous command in Nightingale, including Cmd-opt-b for Beam by Beat, and Cmd-option-a for Extend Selection.
• Increase Finder's "preferred size" of the application to 2000K.
• Fifth Additional Customizable Text Style
An fifth text style has been added for use in any way. It can be set to remember any font size, style and format you wish, but will be introduced with Helvetica Size 24 for use in Titles.
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HOW TO USE OPEN FINALE ENIGMA FILE
The Open Finale File command lets you open as a Nightingale score any Enigma Transportable Format (ETF) file created with Finale versions 3.0 through 3.2 (for Macintosh).
To import a Finale/Enigma file:
1. Launch the Finale application, and Save the Finale file as an Enigma Transportable File.
2. Quit Finale
3. Launch Nightingale
4. Choose the Open Finale File command (in the File menu)
5. Locate the ETF file on your computer and click on [Open]
This command tries to be faithful to the ETF file, capturing all notes, rests, lyrics, barlines and ties, and maintaining page and staff size as well as score layout.
Current Limitations:
1. Open Enigma File ignores all beaming information in the ETF file.
Instead, it internally invokes Nightingale's Beam by Beat command (Note that this will not beam grace notes.).
2. Open Enigma File ignores the following objects:
- Articulation marks
- Staff and score expressions (incl. dynamics and tempo)
- All Smart Shapes, including slurs and hairpins
- Title text (e.g., headers & footers)
- Text blocks
- Chord symbols
- Performance data (e.g., MIDI velocity)
3. Instead of trying to attach lyric syllables to the correct notes, Open Finale Enigma File lets you choose between the options of immediately importing the lyrics to Nightingale’s Flow-in Text/Lyrics dialog, or saving the lyrics as a
Simple Text file. Later you can copy this text, paste it into Nightingale's Flow-in Lyrics/Text dialog, and flow the lyrics into the score.
4. Open Finale Enigma File does not create cross-system ties, nor does it warn you that it ignores such ties.
5. Open Finale Enigma File does not maintain staff groups (i.e., adjacent staves connected by brackets and bar lines) with one exception: A part of two staves will be created whenever the ETF file contains two adjacent staves in the same group, connected by a curly brace. This is designed mainly for correctly converting keyboard parts. The part takes its name from the higher of the two staves.
6. Open Finale Enigma File does not place cross-staff notes on the correct staff. They remain on the staff on which they were created in Finale (You can use QuickChange to move them to the other staff of a two-staff keyboard part. See note 5 above).
7. Open Finale Enigma File ignores right and left system indents. Also, it does not preserve the spacing between adjacent staves within a system, or between adjacent systems on a page.
8. Open Finale Enigma File does not handle nested tuplets (e.g. a triplet
inside of another triplet within one voice). You should not lose notes because of this limitation, but the rhythm in that measure will be simplified, and then you can recreate the nesting of tuplets by copying the tuplet notes into a new, unused voice which aligns with the beats of the main notes in the part.
9. Open Finale Enigma File cannot understand non-standard key or time signatures.
10. Open Finale Enigma File understands only the set of 8 clefs contained in the "Finale Default File." If you edit these using the Clef Designer, the pitch of converted notes will be wrong.
11. Open Finale Enigma File correctly converts multiple voices on a staff, using either the "separate layer" method or the older "V1/V2" method, but in neither case does it adjust stem and tie directions. You will have to use Nightingale's Multivoice Notation dialog (or the Flip Stems command) to adjust stem directions for individual voices.
12. Open Finale Enigma File has trouble with a fairly obscure rhythmic situation that can arise when the ETF file uses the "V1/V2" method of creating two voices on a staff (Nightingale’s own editing tools can be used to easily correct this initial problem):
If there is a gap in the “V2” voice, and its next note is "launched" from a V1 note that is in a tuplet but is not the first note of a tuplet, then this V2 note will not sync correctly. No notes are lost, but the rhythm on that staff in that measure will be wrong.
Example:
Voice 1: 8th 8th Triplet 8ths 8th 8th
Voice 2 8th 8th 8th
In this example, the second eighth note in voice 2 is launched from the second note in the three 8th notetriplets. In Nightingale, it will not initially sync with the second triplet eighth in voice 1 unless you deliberately reinsert the note in voice 2 with the Insert by Position command turned on.
13. Though Open Finale Enigma File preserves the number of measures on a system, it does not preserve note spacing (This may be a bonus, since many Finale scores have less elegant spacing than that used by Nightingale).
14. Open Finale Enigma File preserves some aspects of a tuplet's appearance, e.g., whether it shows a numeral and/or bracket, but it does not preserve the placement of the numeral or the bracket.
15. Open Enigma File will ignore any independent time or key signature changes (that is, a key or time sig. that appears on only one staff).
16. If a staff in the ETF file has a Staff Clef set in the Staff Transposition dialog (e.g., in order to notate a bass clarinet a 9th higher than it sounds), Open Finale Enigma File will not transpose its pitches correctly.
17. Open Enigma File ignores multi-measure rests (as found in orchestral parts). Instead, it just creates the requisite number of empty measures, and places them on the same system the multi-measure rest would occupy. Nightingale will re-create the multi-measure rests when you extract parts, and you can always use the Set Whole/Multibar rests command to adjust any selected whole rest.
18. If a Finale file has never been in Page View, then it will not contain sufficient formatting information. In this case, Open Finale Enigma File simply reformats the entire score.
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HOW TO USE NIGHTINGALE WITH OMS
SPECIAL NOTE: If you are a new user of Nightingale, please work through the Nightingale Tutorial using the Built-in MIDI driver. OMS should only be used after you have become completely familiar with the basic use of Nightingale.
1. Install OMS
To use OMS with Nightingale, you must have OMS 2.0 or newer (preferably 2.0.2.). If you use an older version of OMS, you may see inconsistent results. Follow all instructions for Installation provided with the OMS software. NOTE: YOU MUST REMOVE MIDI MANAGER FROM THE EXTENSIONS FOLDER BEFORE USING OMS, OR OMS WILL CAUSE YOUR COMPUTER TO CRASH.
2. Start Nightingale
As you start Nightingale, it will ask you which MIDI system you want to use, unless you have used NightCustomizer to specify a MIDI driver to be used (OMS, MIDI Manager, or Built-in MIDI). Even if you have specified a MIDI system in NightCustomizer, you can press the Shift key whenever you start up Nightingale, and you will again be asked to choose a MIDI system for temporary use.
3. Choose OMS as your MIDI system
If you have not used OMS with another MIDI software application, it will now ask you a series of questions and will automatically set up its connections to recognize the MIDI devices and interfaces attached to your computer. (Skip ahead to step 11 below).
If you have used OMS before, you need to tell Nightingale about your OMS connections.
4. Click on the [New] button
After choosing OMS as your MIDI system, Nightingale will display a dialog asking you which score you wish to open. For your first time using Nightingale with OMS, click on the [New] button.
5. Select the OMS Setup command (in the Play/Rec menu)
6. Choose either the modem port of the printer port.
Indicate to which port your external MIDI equipment is connected.
WARNING: Do not use OMS’s “Easy Setup” command - it is very unreliable and may cause your computer to crash.
7. Click on [OK] to exit OMS Setup
8. Select the Open Current OMS Studio Setup command (in the Play/Rec menu).
Note: If your computer does not have enough memory to run OMS from within Nightingale, see “OMS Troubleshooting” below.
9. While viewing the OMS studio setup window, use the MIDI Cards and Interfaces command to automatically detect where MIDI data can be sent/received, and use the Auto-Detect Devices command to tell OMS the names the MIDI devices you are using. The MIDI devices shown in your OMS studio will now be available for use in Nightingale.
10. Return to Nightingale by clicking in the score window (you may choose to quit OMS setup, or leave it open).
11. Select the MIDI Preferences command (in Nightingale’s Play/Rec menu).
12. Choose a Record MIDI input device from the popup list (all devices in OMS that are identified as input devices are included in the list). Click on [OK]
13. Choose the MIDI Instrument Settings command (in the Play/Rec menu).
14. Choose a MIDI device from the popup list (all devices in OMS that are identified as playback devices are included in the list). Indicate a patch and channel to be used for playback. Click on [OK].
MIDI Playback and recording through OMS will now work. If you open an older score that was created and setup without OMS, you will need to repeat steps 11–14 to hear MIDI playback through OMS.
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OMS TROUBLESHOOTING
1. All Notes Off may cause repeated and unusual signals to be sent to your MIDI device. This is an Opcode error that they must correct (it occurs using Overture as well).
2. Upon quitting Nightingale and OMS, the MIDI port may not be released until you restart your computer. This is an Opcode error that they must correct (it occurs using Overture as well).
3. If you make changes to the OMS studio setup, you may need to restart Nightingale before you see new MIDI devices become available in Nightingale’s MIDI Preference command.
4. If you make changes to the OMS studio setup, you may need to dump the Nightingale 3.0 Prefs file (which can be found in the Preferences folder that resides inside the System folder) before you see new MIDI devices become available in Nightingale’s Instrument MIDI Setting command (or in the Instruments command in the Master Page).
5. Sometimes the option for "Ignore Parts Settings" in MIDI Preferences does not behave as expected (e.g., you ask Nightingale to send MIDI playback over the same device and channel as the Record Input device, but the specific devices, patches and channels set up for each part are still used).
6. If you use the OMS Setup command (in the Play/Rec menu) and select Easy Setup, it may report that the MIDI port you are using is *not* available. If so, *CANCEL* the Easy setup (it will crash), and use the Open OMS Studio Setup command instead. This is an Opcode error that they must correct (it occurs using Overture as well).
7. Using OMS with QuickTime: If you have set up OMS to use QuickTime and QuickTime Musical Instruments as a playback device, changes to patch settings may require a second playback for the new patch to be heard.
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DEFAULT MIDI DEVICES IN OMS
Nightingale has four places where a default MIDI device may be used if you have not specified a device:
- In the MIDI Preferences command
- In the Instrument MIDI settings command
- In the Metronome command
- In the Instruments command (in the Master Page).
If you make changes to OMS, you may need to restart Nightingale to see any change in the device used as a default in any of the above commands.
To have Nightingale *remember* the default device used in the MIDI Preferences command requires choosing the device from the popup list, and then quitting Nightingale. A dialog will be displayed asking if you wish to “save” the changes to the preferences. Click on [OK].
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WHICH DEVICE IS USED AS THE DEFAULT?
In the Instrument MIDI settings command, the Metronome command, and the Instruments command (in the Master Page):
- QuickTime always becomes the default if it is available (may require user dumping the Nightingale Prefs file).
- The Modem or Printer port becomes the default if it is available and QuickTime is not available (may require user dumping the Nightingale Prefs file).
In the MIDI Preferences dialog:
- The Modem or Printer port becomes the default if it is available (may require restarting Nightingale).
- The IAC becomes default becomes the default if it is available and no other devices are available (may require restarting Nightingale).
- MIDI Preferences never lists QuickTime as an available device for MIDI input
If QuickTime is the only device listed in OMS, then Nightingale ‘s MIDI Preferences command does not list it. However, playback will come through QuickTime (if it is available) for all parts in the score, regardless of whether you have chosen the option for "Ignore Parts’ Settings" in the MIDI Preferences command.
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THROUGH SPEAKER PLAYBACK WITH NIGHTINGALE AND QUICKTIME
NoteView users can hear music played on the Macintosh’s built-in audio system via QuickTime® for so-called “through-speaker playback.” This is done using a combination of QuickTime with:
OMS and its Quicktime Music OMS Driver
-or-
The Apple MIDI Manager a software extension called MidiQT™.
QuickTime 2.0, Apple MIDI Manager, and a free demo version of MidiQT are provided with Nightingale. MidiQT connects to Nightignale through the Apple MIDI Manager and its PatchBay control panel. Complete instructions for the use of MidiQT are provided with that program in the Nightingale Utilities folder.
• How to Use MidiQT
1. Be sure that you have QuickTime 2.0 in your Extensions folder (QuickTime Musical Instruments can also be installed optionally to provide better quality sound). You MUST use at least version 2.0 of QuickTime: earlier versions will not work.
2. Be sure that the Apple MIDI Manager and PatchBay™ are properly installed. NOTE: The specific file named “Apple MIDI Driver” is NOT required for through-speaker playback and, in fact, if it’s present, your ports may be left in an incorrect state after you quit Nightingale. So it’s better to leave it out or, if it’s already present, to remove it from your System Folder.
3. Drag the MidiQT Demo program onto the icon of the closed System Folder and restart your computer.
4. Launch Nightingale and choose a Nightingale score to view (or select [Cancel] to view no score at the moment).
5. Select PatchBay from the Apple menu. Icons for both QuickTime and Nightingale will appear.
6. Draw a connection from the “output” triangle of Nightingale to the “input” triangle of QuickTime.
7. Close PatchBay. Playback from Nightingale will now be heard through the Mac’s audio system.
MIDI QT is provided as a free as demo version. It gives accurate playback using a standard piano sound. The creator of MIDI QT, Tim Rand, is hoping that users will want to purchase the full-fledged version of MIDI QT for $20, which provides a full set of orchestral sounds through the Mac speakers. Ordering instructions are included in the MIDI QT.doc.
