Version 2.5.2 Bug Fixes

Recording

• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5.1): Recording in many circumstances failed in version 2.5.1 (but not in prior versions).
• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5.1): Step-time recording did not work.

Playback and Practice Loops

• Fix (introduced in version 2.5.1): An attempt to start playback somewhere after a start/end repeat section started the playback at the wrong location. This problem also happened if you attempted to jump to that location while playback was in progress.
• Fix: If a start/end repeat section was followed by a note in the next measure which as-performed attacked occurs actually at the end of the previous measure, then that note would be incorrectly performed and held during the repeat of the section.

Tempo

• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5.1): In some cases, editing of tempo via the Tempo dialog box did not work. To get to the Tempo dialog box, click the tempo indicator in the main toolbar.

Repeats

• Fix: If the end of the song had an end-repeat mark, and you added more measures, then the barline for that end-repeat mark incorrectly became a thin barline.

Piano Roll Editing

• Fix: The Piano Roll palette button for as-performed attack/duration editing did not work.

Easy Notes

• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5.1): The Easy Note letters (e.g., "C", "D", etc.") were not printed, although shown on the screen.

Version 2.5.1 Bug Fixes

Notes

• Fix: If the duration of a note near the end of the song were changed so that it ends exactly at the end of the song, the program would crash.
• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5): The status bar did not show the pitch of selected or to-be-added notes.
• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5): Sometimes an unwanted secondary beam was drawn to the right towards a rest.

Measures, Repeats, and Playback

• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5): After adding measures at the end of the song, playback incorrectly stopped at the old end of the song.
• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5): The range of measures between a start- and end-repeat were incorrectly played three times rather than two times.
• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5): Using the Undo command after the Measures / Repeat Instructions command sometimes resulted in a crash.
• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5): During playback, it didn't work to click the mouse at another location if there were repeats in the song.
• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5): If there were repeats in the song, and many MIDI events (such as controller events), then playback would be choppy.
• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5): If a track includes instrument sound changes (MIDI patch changes), then they would sometimes not be "chased" if you started playback in the middle of the song, or jumped to another song location during playback.

Clipboard

• Fix: The Edit / Paste Special / Insert New Measures command failed to show the newly inserted measures if the last measure was pre-selected as the insertion location.

Staves

• Fix (bug introduced in version 2.5): In the Staff menu / Staff Setup dialog, adding a checkmark to Drum Instrument resulted in a program hang.

Printing

• Fix: No colors should be printed; and no temporarily layout symbols, such as "keep measure with previous" locks, should be printed.

 

Version 2.5 Enhancements and Bug Fixes

Adding and Editing Notes, and Triplets

• Enhancement: In Add Mode, if you have selected, say, an 8th note duration, and you move the mouse over an area where there are 8th note triplet members, the value of the 8th note that you add will be assumed to be a triplet 8th note rather than regular 8th note.
• Enhancement: There is now more flexibility in where triplets and quintuplets can span, rather than at just "strong" beats.
• Fix: In Add Mode, the red to-be-added note sometimes would leave some trail of red on the displayed score.
• Enhancement: A triplet divided into two equal dotted notes is now better supported.
• Enhancement: Better support for adding subdivided members of triplets, such as a 16th in an 8th note triplet pattern.
• Fix: Do not allow a triplet member to be added that would cross barline.
• Fix: Problem adding a first quintuplet member immediate after a triplet.

Grace Notes and Ornaments

• Enhancement: It is now possible to select a short note, switch to the Grace Note Palette, and immediately convert that short note to a grace note by clicking one of the two grace note buttons (for "grace note borrowing duration from left" or "grace note borrowing duration from right").
• Fix: Sometimes a newly added grace note was not correctly located where the mouse was clicked but instead was inserted before another note.
• Enhancement: When a new grace note is added, it is now automatically selected, so that further editing can be done on it.
• Fix: In transcribing MIDI files or recordings, a grace note that borrows time from the right was not recognized as a grace note (whereas grace notes borrowing time from the left were correctly recognized).

Transposing

• Enhancement: In the Transcription dialog box, the direction of the transcription-- up or down-- is now determined by what would be the least number of half steps. For example, the transcription of C major to Bb major is by default assumed to be two half steps down rather than ten half steps up.
• Enhancement: The Transpose Instrument Key command now automatically recommends an octave transposition for guitar and bass guitar.
• Enhancement: The Transpose Instrument Key command now automatically displays transposed pitches rather than concert pitches in all parts (parts, as defined by Notation Composer).

Beams

• Fix: Remove some undesirable secondary beams in certain unusual cases.
• Fix: Sometimes the "add beam" command did not work, such as for a pair of 16th notes after a half rest.

Ties

• Enhancement: It is now possible to add a tie across a barline where the note on the left has an accidental, while the note on the right side of the barline does not. In this case, it is assumed that the tied note on the right side of the barline will inherit the accidental.
• Fix: A tie crossing a barline could not be selected by clicking the portion on the right side of the barline.
• Fix: Sometimes the Collapse Tie command did not work, such as in a 3/4 meter, where ties cross quarter note boundaries.

Lyrics

• Important Enhancement: Notation Composer now offers you complete control over which verse of lyrics is displayed during which of several possible repeats of some measures (bars).
• Enhancement: When you add a lyric, Notation Composer now finds the most nearby note and adds the lyric below it, rather than below a rest.
• Fix: It was not possible to add a lyric where there was a mixture of upper and lower voice notes.
• Fix: Copying lyrics to the clipboard only worked where a range was selected, but not when lyrics themselves were selected.
• Fix: During playback, sometimes lyrics were displayed at incorrect locations in the score, especially in the context of page turns.
• Fix: If you were adding a lyric and did exit its editing, and instead switched to the Chord Name tool or Free Text tool, the edit box where you were editing the lyric remained incorrectly displayed.

Chord Names

• Fix bug: Select a chord name, and then hit Shift + LeftArrow, resulted in a crash.
• Fix bug: The Chord Name Transcription dialog box incorrectly displayed C7 in two rows, where it should have been displayed as Cdim7 in the second row.

Dynamic Marks

• Enhancement: A new keyboard shortcut method is available to cycle through different levels of piano and forte. Type the "P" key to go from p to pp, and the "P" again to go from pp to ppp; etc.

Measures and Barlines

• Enhancement: When new measures are added, the Hide Resting Staves option is now automatically switched to Show Resting Staves, so that you can see all of the staves and start adding notes to them.
• Fix: Dotted barlines disrupted the count of measure numbers displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the window.

Repeats

• Important Enhancement: Notation Composer now offers you complete control over which verse of lyrics is displayed during which of several possible repeats of some measures (bars).

Meter

• Important Enhancement: A new Scale Meter command lets you double or halve all of the note durations, or change 6:8 to 2:4 of triplet 8th notes, as well as other scaling examples.

Playback and Playlists

• Fix: Lyrics and chords names highlighted during playback were left with slightly inflated font sizes and red edges.
• Fix: Sometimes the score was left with some partial erasure of notation during the advance of playback.
• Fix: Sometimes the second song of a playlist would not play.
• Fix: The metronome button was missing mouse tips.

Recording

• Fix: The timing of a new recording was incorrect if the recording was done on top of a section of a song that had tempo changes.

New Song Wizard

• Enhancement: The New Song Wizard now coordinates better with your default page setup.

File Handling

• Fix: The Export MIDI File command Write Out Repeats did not work in some cases.
• Enhancement: A failed attempt to open a zero-length file is now better reported as such.
• Fix: If you opened a MIDI file, and clicked the [x] at the top right corner of the window to close the file, and you said 'yes' to 'Do you wish to save?", the file was saved as a corrupted MIDI file rather than as a Notation .not file.

Transcription

• Fix: Previously saved Setup / Transcription options were not correctly recalled.
• Fix: A grace note that borrows time from the right was not identified as such during transcription and so was displayed as a written-out short note instead.
• Fix: Trills with accidentals were incorrectly displayed without indication of the accidental, and, worse, the pitch of the trill notes were incorrectly changed to remove the accidental.

Parts

• Fix: The Chord Chart command now correctly reflects arbitrarily complex repeats and verses entered via the Repeat Instructions command.
• Fix: The Piano Reduction command incorrectly removed staves from the conductor's score.
• Enhancement: The Piano Reduction command now automatically mutes the staves that were reduced into a piano part.
• Fix: Exiting the Define Part dialog box by clicking the [x] at the top right corner of the window was incorrectly interpreted as a Save and Exit command.
• Enhancement: The Add Part command in the Define Parts dialog box now automatically selects the part name field ("New Song") for added convenience.
• Fix: The Easy Notes part was missing natural signs in front of notes.

Page Setup and Spacing

• Fix: Page Setup was sometimes confused about English versus metric units of measurement.
• Fix: Sometimes the selection of a different part resulted in temporarily disruption of horizontal spacing in the score.

General User Interface

• Enhancement: When an error message is displayed in the status bar, it is now temporarily displayed with a red background to attract your attention. But after a few seconds that background faces into normal background color.
• Enhancement: When an error message is displayed, you can hit the Esc key to dismiss it.
• Fix: A lot of the keyboard short "q" commands have been removed because they were very rarely used and tended to clutter the menus.

Miscellaneous

• Fix: When Notation Composer is started, it sometimes would be stuck in the Windows taskbar at the bottom of the screen and would not be displayed in a window.

Version 2.4.2 Bug Fixes

• Playback. Fix bug: After many starts and stops of playback, and jumps via mouse clicks to other locations in the score during playback, Composer might crash.
• Split Hands and Split Voices commands. Fix bug: If after using the Split Hands or Split Voices, you then use the Undo command, then other attempts to use the Split Hands and Split Voices commands and some other global staff editing commands might result in a crash.

Version 2.4.1 Bug Fixes

• Saving a MIDI File. Fix bug (introduced in version 2.4): The File / Export as MIDI File command and Export as Karaoke File command did not correctly write out lyrics, repeats, and endings.

Version 2.4 Enhancements and Bug Fixes

• Saving a MIDI File. After opening either a MIDI file or a Notation .not file, if you wish to save the song as a MIDI (or Karaoke) file, then use the new Export as MIDI File command (or Export as Karaoke File) command in the File menu. The File / Save As command no longer has an option for saving a MIDI or Karaoke file. Instead use the Export command. This change is intended to help users understand that a MIDI or Karaoke file is "foreign", and so must be "exported" rather than "saved". In exporting a MIDI or Karaoke file, notation symbols (such as dynamic marks, accent marks, and phrase marks) and page formatting information will be lost. You should use the File / Save command to save the song in the Notation .not file format, if you wish to preserve notation symbols and page formatting information.
  
• Staff Setup. Enhancement: It is now possible to dynamically change the instrument sound for a staff during playback. Fix bug: Deleting a drum staff sometimes resulted in a crash.
• Note editing. Fix bug: When the Accent or Beam Palette was active, and a note was selected, and then the Notes and Rest tab was selected, Composer unexpectedly unselected the note and switched to Add Note Mode.
• Clipboard. Fix bugs: (1) The Edit / Paste Special / Insert New Measures command failed if the destination region started at the first measure. (2) The Edit / Paste Special / Insert New Measures command failed on the second attempt to insert measures at the end of the score.
• Mouse behavior. Fix bug: Sometimes the mouse cursor disappeared.
• Computer (CPU) time. Fix bug: While Composer was apparently doing nothing, sometimes it was unnecessarily consuming omputer (CPU) time.
• Playback. Fix bug: As the blue vertical playback cursor line advances during playback, sometimes it left some of the notes, lyrics, and chord names partially displayed in red. Also, the green playback position arrow was sometimes repeatedly drawn.
• Transpose. Fix bug: The Help button in the Staff / Transpose wizard did not work.
• Parts. Fix bug: The Help button in the Prepare Part Wizard did not work.
• Chord names. Fix bugs: Setting the style for diminished chord from Cdim to Co did not work. Also, the "o" in the Co diminished chord name was displayed too small.
• Chord chart. Fix bug: The chord chart did not show chords or lyrics unless there were repeats in the song. This bug was introduced in version 2.3.3.
• Rhythm notation. Fix bug: When the first member of a triplet was tied to the left, and the rest of the triplet was empty, then the rhythm was poorly displayed.
• Note ties. Fix bugs: (1) Adding a tie between two notes of the same pitch was sometimes awkward when the note had an accidental. (2) In Select Mode, clicking a note incorrectly switched to the Note Palette rather than remain at the Tie Palette.
• Ornaments. Improve usability: When the Ornament Palette is active In Select Mode, clicking the note under an ornament now selects the note rather than ornament. Fix bugs: (1) Deleting the note under a mordent incorrectly left all of that ornament's performance notes in the score except the first deleted note, rather than deleting both the note and the entire ornament (mordent). (2) Deleting the top note of a downward arpeggio left unwanted noteheads displayed.

Version 2.3.3 Bug Fixes

• Note Editing Using Palette. Fix bug: In version 2.3.2, if you edit a note by using a button in the Note Palette, and leave the mouse on the button for more than a second, then Composer abnormally terminates.
• Text Editing. Fix bug: In version 2.3.2, if you select text, and choose the Def(ault) button in the Text Palette, and choose Select All Parts in the dialog box, then Composer abnormally terminates when you exit the dialog box.
• Repeats. Fix bug: In some cases, Composer did not correctly prepare repeats for playback, chord charts, or Save As MIDI File using the "write out repeats" option.

Version 2.3.2 Bug Fixes

• Closing Song Window. Fix bug: When you close the window of a song, if it is the last song window open, then Composer in some cases would abnormally terminate.
• Note Loudness (Velocity Vectors). Fix bug: When the Note Loudness (velocity vectors) are shown, the cursor in the window correctly showed the velocity of a note when the cursor hovers over a note; however, when the cursor moved off the note, the cursor completely disappeared.
• Importing MIDI File. Fix bug: One of the special options for importing MIDI files sometimes resulted in a failure to import the MIDI file under unusual conditions of rhythms in the MIDI file; the special option is the one that changes multiple-note chords to sequences of notes for instruments automatically identified, and then confirmed by the user, as being single melody note instruments, such as woodwind and brass.

Version 2.3.1 Bug Fixes

• Starting Composer. In certain cases, when you start Composer, its window would not be displayed; instead, Composer would be displayed only as an icon in the Windows taskbar at the bottom of the screen.
• "Unexpected File Format". Under certain condiitions, after a file was saved with version 2.3, it could not be reopened. You will now be able to reopen such files with version 2.3.1.
• Opening Files. When you double-click a MIDI or Notation .not file name in Windows Explore, Composer is automatically launched, and that file is opened. However, if Composer was already running, then double-clicking a file name did not open it as a second song in Composer.
• Undo Command. If the Undo command is used after adding an note or other symbol, then sometimes Composer's user interface would be disrupted, or an error message would be displayed, or sometimes Composer would even abort.
  

Version 2.3 Enhancements and Bug Fixes

• Chord Chart. Guitarists use chord charts to play chords as they sing lyrics, or accompany the singing of a vocalist in the group. You can quickly prepare a chord chart, such as the one illustrated below, using the new Prepare Chord Chart command in the Part menu:
  
  
  
• Note Editing. New feature: In Add Mode, the pitch of the to-be-added note is now reported in the status bar at the bottom of the window. New Behavior: The velocity for newly added notes is now 96 by default, rather than 64. Fix bugs: In Add Mode, the Right and Left Arrow keys incorrectly moved the to-be-added note pitch up a half-step while advancing to the next beat. The Split Melody and Accompaniment command failed if the staff had a pair of upper- and lower-voice notes sharing the same pitch and location.
• General User Interface. Fix bug: Restarting the program incorrectly left the window as minimized if it had been minimized when last exited.
• File Saving. Fix bugs: If a MIDI file was opened, the File Save command incorrectly resaved the file as a MIDI file rather than, by default, as a Notation .not file. The File Save As MIDI command incorrectly wrote out repeats and lyrics in the case where there was only one verse bounded by start and end repeat barlines. Under Windows Vista, the Setup / Associate command did not correctly associate or unassociate Composer as the program to automatically open MIDI .mid or Karaoke .kar files. Under Windows Vista, the File Open and Save commands did not correctly default to opening the Public directory, under which the Notation\Songs and Templates directories are kept.
• Lyrics and Karaoke. New features: A new option in the Lyric menu and palette automatically adds Karaoke line breaks where there are punctuation marks, such as period (.) and comma (,). The Measure / Edit Repetition Instructions command now automatically counts lyric verses to determine how many times a repeat section should be repeated.
• Meter. The meter dialog has been simplified.
• Tempo. Fix bug: The option to adjust the tempo by a percentage did not work correctly for a region that did not start or end exactly at the location of an existing tempo change.
• Playlist. Fix bug: The playlist incorrectly repeated playback of the last song in the list under certain circumstances.
• Setup. Fix bug: If a different installation directory that the default was chosen by the user, the setup program incorrectly still installed some files and subdirectories under the default directory (\Program Files\Notation\Composer).
• Chord Names. Fix bug: The Chord Name Display Styles command did not correctly save the user-specified default chord name display styles (such as Cmin versus Cm for minor chord).

Version 2.2 Enhancements and Bug Fixes

• New Options tab. In previous versions of Notation Composer, the vertically oriented tab at the left side of the window displayed a list of all of the currently opened songs. In version 2.2, an additional Options tab is now displayed. The Options tab takes you back to Notation Composer's opening window, with the familiar options for Create New Song, Search the Internet for MIDI Files, and Open MIDI or Notation File on My Computer.
• Region Select Mode. To the left of the Select Mode and Add Mode buttons in the main toolbar, there is now a new Region Select Mode button. When it is selected, you can then drag your mouse (hold down the left button key while moving the mouse) to select a region. Before version 2.2, it was necessary to hold down the CTRL key while dragging the mouse to select a region. Instead of clicking this new Region Selection Mode button, you can also double click the right mouse button anywhere in the score. (A single click of the right mouse button toggles between simple Select Mode and Add Mode.)
• Add Note Mode. An annoyance has been fixed, where in Add Note Mode, the red to-be-added note got stuck in the score when one attempted to move the mouse outside of the score, such as to the staff control buttons on the left.
• Prepare Fake Book and Sing-Along commands. These two commands now ignore any empty staves (with no notes) as candidates for the melody staff.

Version 2.1.2 Enhancements and Bug Fixes

• "Visual C++ Library runtime error" message. Fix bug. On some some systems, the Notation Composer reported this error message and aborted upon initial, or sometimes reported later during the session. This was related to unnecessary, frequent rewriting of the MidiDev.cfg file.
• Performance. Fix bug: When Notation Composer was supposed to be inactive, it sometimes showed disk activity due to its unnecessarily rewriting the MidiDev.cfg (MIDI device configuration) file.
• General user interface. Fix bug: A vertical scrollbar was unnecessarily displayed for a score displayed in Window View.
• Page layout. Fix bugs: The Fixed Number of Bars Per Line option did not work. The Page Break option did not work. The Page Layout command in the Format menu was incorrectly disabled.
• Online help. Fix bug: Options in the Help menu incorrectly invoked the Internet browser to display the online documentation, even when it was available in the help (.chm) file on your computer.
• Practice feature. The minimum practice speed has been reduced from 25% of normal speed to 10%.
• Slurs. Fix bugs: Slurs sometimes were incorrectly deleted when the Delete Measure command was used in other measures. In a region copy/paste operation, slurs from one measure past the end of the 'from' measures were incorrectly pasted to one measure past the end of the 'to' measures.

Version 2.1.1 Bug Fixes

•  Fix unwanted warnings when running Notation Composer on Windows Vista, that there is an invalid path for the MidiDev.cfg or MidiDev.cfg.tmp file.