Edit Notes, Custom Beaming
Congratulations on getting the new update released. There's lots of good stuff to explore, and although it looks like it will take a little time to re-find all the old familiar features, so far, I like everything I'm seeing.
About custom beaming, it could be that there's an additional step to take now, but it used to be that if you needed to change the beaming, you could select a note to edit amongst the various beamed notes, then from the Edit Notes on the Customize tab, you had the choices of Beam and Unbeam (as an aside, I see we now also have a choice to Subdivide Primary Beam). I see those choices still, but they are always greyed out and unavailable. As an additional aside, that also happened with the Cross Up and Cross Down feature, that it used to be available but then was greyed out after the upgrade, but that was 'unlocked' as soon as I paid the additional $4.99 and works fine now. What is the trick to access this edit feature on the Customize tab?
More on beaming... I had occasion to revisit several saved and finished works, and Symphony Pro had changed the beaming in several measures. Where 1/8th notes were previously saved correctly, beamed in clusters that corresponded with the beat, Symphony Pro had now changed it, seeming to prioritize by order of how notes appeared, rather than prioritizing by beat cluster (if that makes sense). For example, in a 4/4 measure, if I had a dotted quarter followed by 5 eighths, Symphony Pro previously automatically understood that the last 4 eighths should be beamed together, commencing on beat 3. But now saved works re-beams these eighths so that the first four are beamed together commencing on the 'and' of beat 2 and the fifth eighth note hanging out at the end on the 'and' of beat 4. In new works, Symphony Pro now beams them all together, again commencing wherever the first note starts.
I did finally figure out how to rebeam my existing works, but in my opinion, it's not as easy as it used to be. To rebeam, I had to select all the beamed notes, then select Edit Notes from the black line menu. Still from the black line menu, choose Unbeam. Then rechoose the desired notes to beam together and repeat the steps (choose Edit Notes from the black line menu, then choose Beam).
Am I missing something?
About custom beaming, it could be that there's an additional step to take now, but it used to be that if you needed to change the beaming, you could select a note to edit amongst the various beamed notes, then from the Edit Notes on the Customize tab, you had the choices of Beam and Unbeam (as an aside, I see we now also have a choice to Subdivide Primary Beam). I see those choices still, but they are always greyed out and unavailable. As an additional aside, that also happened with the Cross Up and Cross Down feature, that it used to be available but then was greyed out after the upgrade, but that was 'unlocked' as soon as I paid the additional $4.99 and works fine now. What is the trick to access this edit feature on the Customize tab?
More on beaming... I had occasion to revisit several saved and finished works, and Symphony Pro had changed the beaming in several measures. Where 1/8th notes were previously saved correctly, beamed in clusters that corresponded with the beat, Symphony Pro had now changed it, seeming to prioritize by order of how notes appeared, rather than prioritizing by beat cluster (if that makes sense). For example, in a 4/4 measure, if I had a dotted quarter followed by 5 eighths, Symphony Pro previously automatically understood that the last 4 eighths should be beamed together, commencing on beat 3. But now saved works re-beams these eighths so that the first four are beamed together commencing on the 'and' of beat 2 and the fifth eighth note hanging out at the end on the 'and' of beat 4. In new works, Symphony Pro now beams them all together, again commencing wherever the first note starts.
I did finally figure out how to rebeam my existing works, but in my opinion, it's not as easy as it used to be. To rebeam, I had to select all the beamed notes, then select Edit Notes from the black line menu. Still from the black line menu, choose Unbeam. Then rechoose the desired notes to beam together and repeat the steps (choose Edit Notes from the black line menu, then choose Beam).
Am I missing something?
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Comments
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I'll add that I am using an iPad 2, and the latest IOS.0
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Hi Anya,
I'm very glad to see some feedback from you on Version 4. You've brought up excellent points & issues that reveal important difficulties with menu changes, which still need to be addressed in the new version.
I've followed-up with your feedback on beaming below:
1. Regarding the Edit Notes Menu customize beam options
It's unusual that you saw beaming options under this menu enabled after purchasing the Complete Bundle, but disabled otherwise. This is because we haven't placed any restrictions on existing features in the update (nor do we ever plan to).
Another possibility is that you created a note selection that wasn't beamable in your earlier attempts; in either case, we'd appreciate examples if you continue to experience difficulties with applying these options (i.e. Beam/Unbeam/Cross Staff Up/Cross Staff Down).
2. When creating a new beam group
Since it looks like you relied solely on the Edit Notes menu to define a new beam group, you should keep in mind a new option that provides much easier access that prevents you from having to open any new dialog boxes. They appear directly within the selected notes menu items as Beam or Unbeam, as illustrated:
Note that these easier-access options are context-sensitive, such that they will only appear for a single, consecutive sequence of notes.
3. Regarding automatic beaming, however: You should be aware that a new version (4.1.1) just became available earlier today, which addresses the incorrect rhythmic grouping you described. Reusing your dotted-quarter note + eighth note sequence example below, the following notation should be automatically generated, but let us know if you still encounter issues here after updating to the latest version.
Best,
Phil
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Hi Phil,
Thank you for the detailed and helpful reply. Just a couple of comments...
1. It was the Cross up/Cross Down feature that became available after purchase. I had a friend here with me when we were working on it...we did not imagine it. :-)
2. I played with this some more. The new beaming shortcut(and the other shortcuts too) is indeed very nice. Upon working with this some more, I think the big difference to get used to from before to the upgrade is that more than one note needs to be selected in order for the beaming options to be made available. That was not the case previously. I think the way it is now will be better overall, but right now I just have to unlearn old habits. :-)
3. Thank you. It works now as it did.0 -
Ok, more on this.... I just ran into the problem again of a note not being able to have the Cross Up customization selected for it. I checked other surrounding notes and many WERE able to have this customization feature applied. I noticed that the 1/8th notes were ok at any time but the 1/4 notes were not able to have the feature applied. Is this a bug? Let me know if my description is unclear and I will try to post a screen shot with Cross Up/Down greyed out while the note is selected.
By the way, I got around the problem by converting my note in question to an 1/8th, crossing it up, and then converting it back to a 1/4.0
