Edit Expression

The two most important elements which give expression to music, once the notes and rhythms are composed, are changes in dynamics and tempo. 

This screen displays the melody in a staff at the top, a map of tempo changes below this, and a map of dynamics changes below that.  The bars are aligned across all three panels, so you may see exactly where to insert tempo or dynamics changes. You may control the number of bars displayed across the screen by clicking the + or - magnifying glass icons at top left of the screen.

There is a PlayBar at the foot of the screen, to control starting and stopping the tune. To start the tune, click the Play button on the bottom left, or use the F2 shortcut key.  To stop the tune, use the stop button in the playbar, or else click F3 shortcut key. To load a new tune, click the New Tune button in the playbar, or else hit F4 shortcut key.

Tempo changes may be inserted by clicking the mouse inside the tempo panel, at the horizontal position corresponding to the bar and beat at which you wish the tempo to alter, and at the vertical position corresponding to the desired new tempo, as calibrated on the left-hand axis.  Note that this is calibrated logarithmically from 16 to 512 crotchets per minute, because an increase of 10 crotchets per minute, on a tempo of 400, is hardly noticeable, whereas it would have an enormous effect on a tempo of 20 crotchets per minute! A vertical red line will be drawn to map the tempo value, with a  horizontal  purple line extending right till the next tempo change.

To remove a tempo change, simply right-click on a blue line and it will be deleted.  Naturally, tempo changes affect the entire tune, they are not specific to any track. You may remove all tempo changes by clicking the orange button at the top of the screen Clear Tempo Changes.

It is possible to over-load Musical Discovery if you insert too many tempo changes close to each other, especially if your computer has a relatively slow CPU speed. This could result in the tune not playing properly. So please try to keep the density of tempo changes low.

Dynamics changes are specific to the track selected in the drop-down Track Selector at the top of the screen, unless you click the All tracks option button to the right of the Track Selector, in which case they are applied to all tracks.

To enter a change in the volume (or loudness or dynamic), click in the dynamics panel in a similar manner to that used in the tempo panel. Vertical blue lines show the dynamics change, with horizontal black lines extending right across till the next dynamic change. Delete a dynamics line with a right-mouse-click. To remove all dynamics changes for the current track, click the yellow button at the top of the screen Clear Dynamics Changes.

The relative  loudness and softness of all the notes is preserved when you add dynamics changes. The effective loudness of any note is determined by the combination of the volume of the individual note, and the current dynamic expression setting for the track at this bar and beat. Dynamics changes are implemented in Musical Discovery by inserting MIDI Expression Controller events.

Don't forget to save the tune after you have entered all the tempo or dynamics changes, or else they will not be written onto the database on your hard-disk! Use the menu - File - Save Musical Discovery File to Disk.


EditExpression.htm     Sunday, 29 October 2006 09:18                     MENU  Edit -> Expression