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First time use feedback

First time use feedback

Postby bastailuros » Mon May 14, 2012 7:11 am

I bought this app last week so that I could rewrite a choir piece from SATB to SSAA. I've pretty much finished, apart from some of the lyrics, and while there's lots that is good about this app, there's still plenty of work to be done to make it a bit more pleasant to use. Hope this helps. If there's something that I've got wrong, let me know. I'm not finding any support docs for the iPad version on this site.
    1: It would be fantastic if note entry could use the timings when played, but as an optional thing. At the moment, entering notes is very much select note length, play note, select note length, play note, and it's a bit exhausting if you don't have a lot of repeated lengths. I know that accurately depicting the played timing could get very complicated, depending on what level of granularity is used, but even a rough depiction of the timing would be better than adjusting timing note by note.
    2: If you can't implement the timing thing above, how about changing the editor so that if you change the timing of a note, it automatically moves to the next note. That way, you can play the notes, then tap out the timing afterwards fluidly instead of selecting note by note.
    3: Changing the timing of a note should trigger a recalculation of where the bar lines should be. Might be a little processor-intensive for big pieces, though. Perhaps a button to auto recalc the bar line positions?
    4: If I want to select a section of music across 2 lines, I can't. It would be great to be able to tap to start a selection and tap again to end it, instead of the current drag.
    5: If I don't want a subtitle to the music, don't default it to 'Subtitle', default it to blank. At the moment, I have to put a space in the subtitle box to blank it out.
    6: Please add fields for entering more meta-information such as the arranger and year of composition in addition to the current composer field. Best yet, allow users to pick which meta-info fields they'll need.
    7: I've already seen plenty of posts about the 2-bar-per-line thing, but I'll add my voice to this. It needs to be configurable for the print view, and a continuous horizontal scroll would be much better for the editing view.
    8: When typing lyrics, if the syllables of a word are stretched over more than one note, I need to be able to insert some dots to indicate that it's a single word. Just sticking some dots in after the syllable doesn't look right, they need to be stretched to the start of the next syllable.
    9: If I get to the end of the current allocation of bars and I need to keep going, I have to keep hitting the insert bar button (and focus keeps jumping to the top of the piece on alternate hits). It would be a much better idea if I could just carry on tapping out the notes and let the app auto-add new bars as I go.
    10: The spacing between lines is pretty irregular. All 4 of my parts work at the same range and have the same lyrics, but they're spaced differently.
    11: I can't figure out how to playback just one part at a time. If this possible then it's not very intuitive.
    12: In addition to the current method of note deletion, it would be great to be able to use my finger as an eraser for mass deletion instead of having to focus note by note to delete stuff.
    13: When using the scroll left and right buttons at the bottom right, make them jump to the spaces between notes as well. They can be a swine to select if notes are close together.
I think that's it for now, will add stuff if I think of anything.
Cheers
Jen
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Re: First time use feedback

Postby thorrild » Mon May 14, 2012 8:40 am

Hi Jen,

Here are a couple of pointers to make up for the lack of full-fledged instructions for the iPad app:

4: If I want to select a section of music across 2 lines, I can't. It would be great to be able to tap to start a selection and tap again to end it, instead of the current drag.

I think that's a great suggestion, if it can be done without offending Apple's guidelines for app behavior, or creating confusion between the app and Notion's own desktop scoring program. Currently, you have to temporarily hide the staves you don't want to include when highlighting a section a spanning system break: Tap the gear wheel in the menu bar (Settings), and in the resulting window, tap the "eye" icon for staves you don't want to see right now. Tap OK, highlight the section you need to edit, and when you're done, make the other staves visible again by tapping the Settings icon and re-enabling the "eyes." In other words, it's possible to do this, but not terribly handy.

8: When typing lyrics, if the syllables of a word are stretched over more than one note, I need to be able to insert some dots to indicate that it's a single word. Just sticking some dots in after the syllable doesn't look right, they need to be stretched to the start of the next syllable.

If I understand correctly, you are talking about word extensions for melismas (same syllable held for more than one note). When you type in the lyrics, the underscore character makes this possible: If you have the word "lyrics" spread out over several notes, as in "ly-y-ri-i-ics", enter the following in the lyrics field (not the quotes): "ly-" "[space]" "rics__" (that's 2 underscore characters, indicating that the syllable spans a total of 3 notes). Dots are not used as word extensions in standard notation.

11: I can't figure out how to playback just one part at a time. If this possible then it's not very intuitive.

Use the mixing board (slider icon, center right, on the menu bar when the keyboard is visible). Each staff has its own channel with a mute button at the bottom right.

12: In addition to the current method of note deletion, it would be great to be able to use my finger as an eraser for mass deletion instead of having to focus note by note to delete stuff.

You can highlight and cut larger sections of music, although with the limitations you point out in No. 4.

Best,
Thorrild
27" iMac 2013; OS 10.9.3
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Re: First time use feedback

Postby Henrymark » Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:08 am

Thanks for sharing this nice and very informative post here with us.
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