Why does it take four taps to enter a third interval?
There is one reason why entering scores has been slower for me in SP4 and SP5 compared to earlier versions: it takes four finger taps instead of one to enter a chord tone a third above or below the previously entered note, which is a very common operation. For example, tap on C in the staff to enter a C note (it will be highlighted in blue to show it's the current selected note). Then tap on E above that note to try to create a third interval; instead of adding an E note to the chord, Symphony Pro for some reason assumes you actually meant to tap the highlighted C note so it shows a context menu to edit/delete/change pitch. Tap E a second time and it shows the Note Adjust menu for changing the length of the C note. Tap E a third time and it un-highlights the C note. Tap E a fourth time and finally it adds an E note!
This behavior is extremely frustrating - it can take 13 careful taps to enter a simple seventh chord. It would be trivial to fix: simply change SP to only show context menus on the highlighted note if you tap within one note (B, C, or D in the example) instead of within two notes (A, B, C, D, E). If the user has any difficulty in hitting a three-note window around the highlighted note, they're unlikely to find touch entry useful in the first place and are probably going to use keyboard/MIDI entry instead.
Changing the context menu window from five to three notes would solve the problem of entering a third interval with one tap instead of four. What about entering a second interval? I'd suggest changing SP so that if you tap anywhere in the bottom menu area after entering a note, you're probably no longer interested in changing that note via context menus, so un-highlight it. That would enable you to then enter a second interval (B or D in this case) without showing context menus on the previous note. I seem to remember that that this useful trick worked in earlier versions, but might have been removed recently?
One final suggestion would be to also combine the edit/delete/change pitch and Note Adjust menus to remove one tap from the cycle.
This behavior is extremely frustrating - it can take 13 careful taps to enter a simple seventh chord. It would be trivial to fix: simply change SP to only show context menus on the highlighted note if you tap within one note (B, C, or D in the example) instead of within two notes (A, B, C, D, E). If the user has any difficulty in hitting a three-note window around the highlighted note, they're unlikely to find touch entry useful in the first place and are probably going to use keyboard/MIDI entry instead.
Changing the context menu window from five to three notes would solve the problem of entering a third interval with one tap instead of four. What about entering a second interval? I'd suggest changing SP so that if you tap anywhere in the bottom menu area after entering a note, you're probably no longer interested in changing that note via context menus, so un-highlight it. That would enable you to then enter a second interval (B or D in this case) without showing context menus on the previous note. I seem to remember that that this useful trick worked in earlier versions, but might have been removed recently?
One final suggestion would be to also combine the edit/delete/change pitch and Note Adjust menus to remove one tap from the cycle.
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@Redwave the above write up was very helpful in getting your suggestions across, and knowing where the issues fit into the larger picture – thanks again.We can confirm it's the case that adding a note to an existing chord at close intervals (i.e. third or less) became difficult in v5. The above issue, along with the automatic deselect behavior you mentioned are small but important regressions that will get fixed in the next update, at least. Please expect it in a few days, and we hope you'll report back!0
