Rallentando

[Monty Maizels]

Is there a quick and easy way to write a rallentando over two or three bars? Is that the purpose of NTempo, which I haven't yet explored? So far, I have discovered that it not possible to write new tempi except on the first beat of each measure, whereas in, say, Harmony Assistant it is possible to insert them frequently enough to be able to get very well-defined rubato.

And does anyone know of experienced Notion users in my home town? Especially in the Eastern suburbs. It would be handy to correspond with someone close at hand.

Monty Maizels
Melbourne Australia.

[thorrild]

Is there a quick and easy way to write a rallentando over two or three bars? Is that the purpose of NTempo, which I haven't yet explored? So far, I have discovered that it not possible to write new tempi except on the first beat of each measure, whereas in, say, Harmony Assistant it is possible to insert them frequently enough to be able to get very well-defined rubato.

And does anyone know of experienced Notion users in my home town? Especially in the Eastern suburbs. It would be handy to correspond with someone close at hand.

Monty Maizels
Melbourne Australia.

Greetings, Monty,

If you press the R key, the cursor will turn into a "rit." (If you press R twice, it will turn to "accel.")
When you see the "rit" cursor, click in the score where you want the rallentando. So far, the slowdown in tempo is predefined: It is displayed as a "rit." and its end tempo is set, I think, to 75% of the current tempo. If you double-click on the word "rit.", you'll be able to edit both the term and the end tempo. For instance, change "rit." to "rall." or "rallentando" or "poco rit." or "morendo" or "SLOW DOWN, FOR *%!" Each tempo modification is stretched out over as many measures as needed, until a new tempo is encountered in the score. In other words, if you want a "rall." to last 3 bars, then enter a new tempo on bar 4. If you don't want to see this new tempo on the printed page, then hide it from view.

A tip for entering a tempo modification somewhere other than on a downbeat:
- Press R once or twice, as needed.
- Click in a staff that has a note or rest on the beat you want the rit. or accel.
- The indication will still appear at the top of the score, even if you don't click the top staff: If the only instrument with music on beat 3 of a bar is the very bottom staff, then click beat 3 of that staff, and the result will be perfect.

NTempo is a special "conductor staff" that is added to the score exclusively for so-called live performance of the score, that is, a playback of the score in which you determine the tempo of every beat by tapping certain keys on your computer keyboard or on an attached MIDI keyboard, according to a rhythm entered in the NTempo staff.

I don't know any Notion users in or around Melbourne (or anyone else, for that matter!), but his forum seems to me a pretty handy way of getting help without the constraints of geography.

Best wishes,
Thorrild.

[Monty Maizels]

Thanks Thorrild.

That is so cool and so simple. Can you tell me please where that was hiding in the Manual?

In my haste to get on with things, I have probably missed the solution to many other little problems.

But best of all, is my delight with how much better my trivial efforts sound in Notion3 which I have now had for about 5 weeks. Looking forward to getting my hands on Notion4 so I can import the audio of the vocal of this old-ish piece and see how the rall. and the subsequent a tempo match up.

Thanks again.

Monty

[thorrild]

You're welcome, Monty.

The tempo-change tricks are described on page 11.34 in the Notion 3 manual.

Best,
Thorrild