Note Properties - velocity display
In v1.3 a right-click on a note reveals Note Properties and shows the velocity setting of the note. In v2.0 a right-click shows Stave and Bar Properties but, curiously, not Note Properties. I eventually found note properties in the Inspector but the velocity setting is no longer displayed, only the offset. This seems a pity because if there are several changes of dynamics in a piece, some referring to staves and others parts, it’s useful to be able to check the velocity of individual notes without having to look back to the last dynamic symbol.
Also, in v1.3 the offset showed as a percentage whereas in v2.0 it’s a number, but in the v2.0 pianoroll editor it sometimes shows the % symbol and sometimes not – I can’t quite make sense of it. I preferred the three options as in v1.3: to see the current velocity setting; the user option to enter a velocity number; or a percentage offset.
Comments
It seems to me that while showing the offset might be less useful if you for some reason need to see the absolute MIDI velocity, I suspect that's not going to be nearly as common as just wanting to see which notes you've adjusted and whether you've made them louder or softer than the default. Or, actually making those adjustments in the first place - I always thought it was a huge pain in the butt to have to explicitly flip the dropdown to "Offset" in Note Properties every time I wanted to make an adjustment.
Still, seeing the absolutely velocity in addition to the offset wouldn't hurt.
In reply to It seems to me that while by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for the response. An absolute velocity confirmation would be good. It’s all too easy to put in ‘mp’ and then forget to change it back to ‘mf’ a few bars later, and when doing a crescendo it’s helpful to be able to check the absolute values set.
In reply to Thanks for the response. An by jonga
Hmm, two things seem odd here.
First, are you saying you would be using dynamics changes (from mp to mf) in the middle of a crescendo? Surely all notes within the scope of a given crescendo should have the same starting dynamic, meaning you really don't even need to see what it is - the offsets should be fine. And the great thing is, then if you change the starting dynamic from "mp" to, say, "pp", the crescendo will still sound correct relatively speaking. So I don't see why seeing the absolute dynamic is hepful, and *setting* the absolute velocity is definitely harmful. Now, maybe I'm misunderstanding and you aren't actually talking about changing dynamics within a crescendo. Still, I don't see how it's easier to check for a missing "mf" by looking at note velocities than by looking for the actual dynamic. What am I missing here?
Second, you shouldn't need to be fiddling with individual note velocities at all to make a crescendo happen - crescendos already playback automatically in 2.0 Nightly builds.
So I guess I'm still having trouble understanding the real world situations in which seeing or setting absolute velocities is particularly useful. Again, I'm not saying I'd be opposed to seeing it added, but I'm having trouble understanding how it is a problem to not have it.
In reply to Hmm, two things seem odd by Marc Sabatella
No, not using a dynamic change in a crescendo, except in v1.3 where the hairpin doesn’t do anything, but I suspect I haven’t actually been using the best workaround to achieve the effect.
For a simple example of where checking the absolute velocity would be useful, see Fur Elise by VIOLSECA2. There is an ‘mf’ at bar 10, but you can’t hear any change. In v1.3 you can quickly see that the velocities of the notes in bar 9 are 80, as they are in bar 10, and therefore that you’ve probably forgotten to place ‘mp’ in bar 1. It’s just better to be able to confirm it rather than puzzling over why you can’t hear the change, and it seems a backward step for v2.0 considering you can check it in v1.3.
In reply to No, not using a dynamic by jonga
You can gain access to actual velocity settings in the inspector by choosing the User option rather than the default Offset setting.
The only slight problem with this is that currently switching from Offset to User doesn't update the velocity display, so a Velocity offset of 0 becomes and actual Velocity of 0 when you switch to user.
Something that should be rectified at some point IMO :)
In reply to You can gain access to actual by ChurchOrganist
guess an issue should be filed on this one.
In reply to No, not using a dynamic by jonga
Still seems kind of an odd case to worry about. If you place an "mf" and can't hear a change, then of course that probably means the previous dynamic was also "mf". You shouldn't really need to look at the Inspector to figure that out. Seeing the "80" for the previous note wouldn't tell you anything you didn't already know. And it would still require you to figure out for yourself *where* the missing dynamic might belong, and what it should be.
Anyhow, I suspect one reaosn the Inspector doesn't show the absolute velocity is that unless you've set it manually, notes no longer *have* absolute velocities. They are calculated on the fly for the "note events" just before playback. This sort of separation was done for a number of reasons I don't totally understand, but among other things, it makes possible things like the playback of certain ornaments we have now in 2.0, and it also helped fix some bugs with velocities getting out of sync with the dynamics if you did things in the wrong order.
Which is also to say, it's probably not a bug that changing to User in the dropdown doens't grab the absolute note velocity - there is no absolute note velocity to grab. This is also related to why there is no more "ontime" and "offtime" in the Inspector - notes don't have that stuff hard-coded any more.