Ability to turn a track on/off for playback & recording and

choirguy

One of my primary uses for Symphony Pro will be to make rehearsal tracks for the students in my choirs. In addition to the need for lyrics, the ability to turn off tracks for playback and recording would be very beneficial for this use (mute Alto, Tenor, and Bass, leave Soprano & Piano, and export that audio setup).

On a related note, it would also be great to be able to set audio levels on tracks, such as setting piano at 50%, and leaving Soprano (or other vocal parts) at 100%...making a prevalent vocal part for a rehearsal track.

musicman_944

Have you tried GarageBand for iPad? It doesn't do notation or lyrics, but for creating rehearsal audio tracks, it has all of the features you described such as muting or setting different levels for individual parts. I have both and find each of them have advantages for different purposes. I think someone asked for the ability to share or import/export between the two apps. I'm not sure if the developers have decided to do that though it would be really nice to have.

Support

Thanks for the suggestions. You can already change the volume of individual tracks by tapping the Gear icon, tapping on the corresponding track button and moving the volume slider in the track that comes up.

We're thinking about adding an option to only playback the track that is currently displayed. We might also add a faster way to mute individual tracks. Right now track volumes aren't preserved when you export to formats other than Sym. So if you want to export your rehearsal recordings to mp3, you may want to use another program to do that for now.

Lyrics are definitely coming.

ebraatv

For rehearsal of choir voices, a quicker way of temporarily muting the other tracks wouldt be nice! With 4 to 10 track's (4 double voices plus acc), it's a lot of work to reduce the volume on each track separately. And, since we have the scores imported as xml, you'd have to do it again after rehearsing another song.

Ross

ebraatv wrote:

For rehearsal of choir voices, a quicker way of temporarily muting the other tracks wouldt be nice! With 4 to 10 track's (4 double voices plus acc), it's a lot of work to reduce the volume on each track separately. And, since we have the scores imported as xml, you'd have to do it again after rehearsing another song.

Yes, I think there could be a better way to mute individual tracks. One solution we've considered is to only play the active track (the visible one). Then there would also be a settings to turn this behavior on/off. Would this work for you?

Now, in order to not have to reset the volume of each track after opening a piece, import the MusicXML version of your file, change the volumes, then save using the floppy disk icon on the top. The next time you want to open this song, choose the Symphony version of the composition instead of the MusicXML version. (Symphony files are the only ones that don't have blue text on the side). Symphony files preserve everything much better than MusicXML files do, including track volues. You can swipe the MusicXML version's button to the left to reveal a delete button in case you want to delete it.

yeknod

Hi Symphony developers

Couldn't see how to start a new thread so just hijacked this one instead. I have a couple of suggestions from a classical musician's point of view after using the program for a couple of hours. Apologies if these have come up before, I did a quick search but couldn't see any reference to them.

1. Notation
I see it is possible to write dotted notes (extending the length of a note by half), but I can't see how to write double dotted notes (extending the length of the note by three quarters). This would be a useful addition if not already possible.

2. Dynamics: Ornamentation
Appoggiatura- these (generally between one and four notes) are usually written as quavers and are about half the size of regular notes. They are written immediately before the main note usually with a slur. They indicate the pitch but not the duration so the length of the main notes shouldn't be affected.

Acciaccatura- just one note like an appoggiatura but with a diagonal stroke through the middle of the stem (lower left to upper right).

Mordent- /// zigzag above the note (upper mordent, same symbol as a trill). Lower mordent /|// - same symbol but with a vertical line through the middle, a bit longer than that one.

Turn- S shape but horizontal above the note, sometimes with a dot in each half.

Thanks for a great program.

Support

Hi yeknod,

1. Double dotted notes are definitely coming in version 2.1-2.2. These updates will arrive in 1-2 months.
Here's the list of some of the planned features: http://forums.symphonypro.net/viewtopic.php?id=41

2. Appoggiatura and acciaccatura are coming soon as well, probably by 2.1-2.2 (grace notes are on the above list).

3. We'll add mordents to the list. We'll also work on playback support for trills & mordents, which is important.

yeknod

Thanks for the replies. That's a long list, a lot of people must be making good use of the program.

Regarding the dynamics, 'rit.', 'accel.' and 'a tempo' are written up high above the stave. It may be better to have them below where 'pp' etc are. The text tool is awesome though for fussy people.

Also, one may at times want an accent and staccato on the same note. At the moment these seem to be mutually exclusive.

Is there a way to remove the '3' from the triplets?

I look forward to the updates, and thanks again.

Support

We'll definitely consider all of these options for fine tuning notational output.

Another would be adjustable hairpins for crescendos/decrescendos.

Thanks for your input.