Ways to move a note horizontally

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This Moment
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Post by This Moment » Sat Oct 23, 2010 3:38 pm

Hi,
how do I move a note, say, one 1/8 note to the right in Sibelius? Are there any simple key commands for this, or a way to do it with the mouse?
Thanks in advance.


Sebasian
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Post by Sebasian » Sun Oct 24, 2010 3:12 pm

This Moment wrote: Are there any simple key commands for this . . .
If you drag a note with the mouse or select a note and use Shift+Alt+Left (or right) the note will move. But all the notes around and above will move too.

If that's not what you want (i.e. you want to move just one note and none of the others) select the note and use the X offset in the General pane of the Properties Window to move the note.

This Moment
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Post by This Moment » Sun Oct 24, 2010 3:39 pm

Sebasian wrote:
This Moment wrote: Are there any simple key commands for this . . .
If you drag a note with the mouse or select a note and use Shift+Alt+Left (or right) the note will move. But all the notes around and above will move too.

If that's not what you want (i.e. you want to move just one note and none of the others) select the note and use the X offset in the General pane of the Properties Window to move the note.
Thanks - what I want is to alter the actual position of the note in the timeline - not only offset it's display.... Sorry for the confusion.

Sebasian
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Post by Sebasian » Mon Oct 25, 2010 10:36 am

This Moment wrote: . . . alter the actual position of the note in the timeline - not only offset it's display.... Sorry for the confusion.
There are some plug-ins on the Sibelius Downloads page which allow you to insert a note, or a rest, somewhere in a bar. Everything then moves along (and some notes may then fall off the end of the bar and disappear). In this respect it's a bit like the 'insert' mode found in some notation software (not Sibelius) and in things like wordprocessors.

Possibly some of the plug-ins here might be useful:
http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugin ... ategory=17

But the easiest way to place a note somewhere else is to middle-button copy or just cut-and-paste. Or even erase the bar and re-input.

If you've got a lot of identical changes to make, maybe the Find and Replace Rhythms plug-in might help:
http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugin ... html?id=23

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Post by This Moment » Mon Oct 25, 2010 10:40 am

Sebasian wrote:
This Moment wrote: . . . alter the actual position of the note in the timeline - not only offset it's display.... Sorry for the confusion.
There are some plug-ins on the Sibelius Downloads page which allow you to insert a note, or a rest, somewhere in a bar. Everything then moves along (and some notes may then fall off the end of the bar and disappear). In this respect it's a bit like the 'insert' mode found in some notation software (not Sibelius) and in things like wordprocessors.
Thanks again.

If all I want is to change the position of one note, to make a slight change to the rhythm of the melody? Do I have to erase the note and insert a new one for each change I want to try out?

Sebasian
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Post by Sebasian » Mon Oct 25, 2010 7:58 pm

This Moment wrote:If all I want is to change the position of one note, to make a slight change to the rhythm of the melody? Do I have to erase the note and insert a new one for each change I want to try out?
When Picasso wanted to shift someone's nose a few centimeters to the left, he had to erase what was there and paint in another nose, or just paint over the top. Sibelius is kind of like this (sometimes).

This Moment
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Post by This Moment » Wed Oct 27, 2010 6:12 am

Oh well. Too bad that Sibelius can't do things score programs on Atari could do 20 years ago, and missing out on something as essential as being able to grab and drag an object doesn't exactly invite demo testers like myself to dive deeper into the program - in spite of Sibelius, in terms of features, probably being the most complete score software out there at the moment.

andyg
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Post by andyg » Wed Oct 27, 2010 8:00 pm

Dare I say that you're looking at it the wrong way? Part of the point of getting a demo is finding out how it works, and how to use it. Bear with it and see just how good it really is.

Sebasian
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Post by Sebasian » Wed Oct 27, 2010 8:03 pm

This Moment wrote:. . . being able to grab and drag an object . . .
You can grab an object or a selection of objects and move them wherever you want. What you can't do is drag.

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Post by This Moment » Wed Oct 27, 2010 8:13 pm

No doubt Sibelius is a great program, I'm just surprised that stuff that I more or less take for granted isn't possible... another example is that there doesn't seem to be a way to move a note one half step up - not with the mouse, and not with a key command, if the target note is non-diatonic.

I'm used to Logic, which obviously is missing some of the really nice features in Sibelius, but I do have a hard time finding a good reason to not allow drag-and-drop change of note position (and certain pitches), because in general, the most user-friendly way of doing anything on a computer is often a solution that only requites one click (and no reading of manuals). At least, that's how I see it. So, I'm only asking to find out of there's something I have missed, like a special edit-mode that has to be enabled or something similar.

Thanks for the help.

Sebasian
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Post by Sebasian » Thu Oct 28, 2010 4:08 pm

This Moment wrote: there doesn't seem to be a way to move a note one half step up - not with the mouse, and not with a key command, if the target note is non-diatonic..
There is a downloadable plug-in which moves notes chromatically, and it can be given its own keyboard shortcut (so you can do it with a keypress).
http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugin ... ?plugin=89
This Moment also wrote: I do have a hard time finding a good reason to not allow drag-and-drop change of note position.
Just a personal opinion (Sibelius might have another explanation) —The real question is: what do you do with the other notes or rests? In Sibelius (and all metrical music) notes are identified by their place within the bar, and there is no way of knowing where you want them to go if you push something else in — move them along a bit, skip back to where the dragged note used to be, or delete (etc. etc.)?

So it's a process that takes several steps; the difference is that you put the notes where you know they are to go, rather than let Sibelius guess.

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Post by This Moment » Thu Oct 28, 2010 4:45 pm

The real question is: what do you do with the other notes or rests?
If I move a note, by dragging it to the left or right, sometimes I have to move the previous/following notes as well... is that what you're asking about? The same would be true if I would cut/paste the same note to a new, slightly earlier or later location: I do all the editing manually, the software isn't making and guesses.

Sometimes I use key commands (eg. Remove Overlaps, Fore Legato etc) to repair the situation, if needed.
there is no way of knowing where you want them to go if you push something else in — move them along a bit, skip back to where the dragged note used to be, or delete (etc. etc.)?
Not sure what you mean, but if you're thinking about chromatical moves, I don't want anything to happen automatically - just like with moves inthe timeline.


the difference is that you put the notes where you know they are to go, rather than let Sibelius guess.
There's no guessing involved in the way I work - I move the notes to where I want them to go, and edit the adjacent notes (including lengths) if needed. It can't be simpler than that... :-) The difference is that the actual moving of a note, in the timeline or chromatically, takes only one click.

Please let me know if I misunderstand your question.

javedjee80
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Post by javedjee80 » Sun Nov 28, 2010 4:07 am

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