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Nightingale Changes
New features in v.5.2
* A Combine Parts command (in the score menu) puts separate parts adjacent to each other into one part encompassing all the staves. This is useful for combining two staves into a grand staff for a piano reduction, for example, or for extracting several parts together.
* Tempo marks are now exported to MIDI files.
* Tempo marks are now imported from MIDI files.
* In the palette, there is a new icon which allows for a patch change mid-file within a part. This is useful if your cello part has both bowed (patch 43) and pizzed (patch 46) notes, among other examples, and you want to hear the different sounds played back.
* The MIDI Map command allows you to assign different MIDI notes for playback, overriding what might be indicated by the notation.
* A Midi controller for pan is now available; values can be be inserted in multiple places in multiple parts for stereo output to extreme left or right or anywhere in between.
* The pedal up/down marks are now active Midi Controllers.
* Command keys added for Save As, Page Setup, Save PostScript, Page Numbers, Set Whole/Multibar Rests, Transpose Key, Add Modifiers, Break Beam Before, and Show Invisibles.
* Fixed a bug wherein repeat bars extended past the staff when part of grand staff had been hidden.
* Version 5.2.2 fixed a bug in v.5.2.1 which caused invisible staves when the page setup scale was set below 30.
* Version 5.2.3 was withdrawn.
* Version 5.2.4 fixed a cursor display bug in v.5.2.2.
* Version 5.2.5 fixed a 5.2.4 bug which led to corrupt PostScript files. This was manifested in printing
and PostScript saves, and was worse in smaller staff sizes. It also eliminated excessive time lags and
occasional launch failures seen in some systems in v.5.2.2. In addition, the 'Double Selection' command key equivalent
was changed to Command-Shift-D.
[Note: do not use PostScript files generated in version 5.2.4 (or 5.2.3.)
Open your score files and generate PostScript files in v.5.2.5.]
Changes in Nightingale X, version 5.1:
* August 2005: Command keys added for help, add and delete redundant accidentals, and break beam before. Mouse Shaking Threshold now defaults to 0.
* January 2005: The DLS synthesizer is automatically selected in new score files. A bug which squared the number of printed copies has been fixed. CNFG default changes: prettier slurs, page turns during playback on.
* August 2004: External Midi instruments are now functional in OS 10.3 (Panther.) The 'Open NoteScan Files' command is active again.
* June 2004: A bug relating to endings has been fixed, as was a launch problem introduced in OS 10.3.4.
* Midi setup for external Synthesizers in Nightingale X uses Apple's AudioMIDI setup utility, which can be
found in your Applications/Utilities folder. Setup is simpler than it used to be in previous (classic) versions
of Nightingale as the OMS and FreeMIDI drivers are no longer required.
* Playback through the Mac's internal speakers uses OS X's built-in DLS synthesizer and is superior to QuickTime
Playback in terms of timing and sound quality.
* A new Nightingale Midi feature is the ability to set the device of all parts with one click rather than having to do this
for each part individually.
* Thomas Williams has graciously donated his BlueNotz font to the Nightingale community and it is thus no longer shareware.
* The following CNFG resource settings have been made the default: music font is set to Francis X. Mahoney's Briard (#1980);
allow early music clefs is on;
Graphics attached to suitable objects are extracted to all parts.
* Note that there has been a file format change in v.5.1: files saved with this version cannot be opened in previous versions.
Files from previous versions are openable, however, and are converted to the new format.
Changes to Nightingale from version 4.5 through 4.5.2:
* Changes in Open Notelist (play duration defaults, deletion of redundant accidents, error handling).
* The 'Export MIDI file' command now saves the initial tempo. A bug which caused an inability
to recognize initial timesigs other than 4/4 in 'Export MIDI' (introduced in 4.5.1) has been corrected.
* The skewing of hairpins when the staff size is changed (a bug introduced in v.4.5) has been corrected.
Changes to Nightingale from version 4.0 through 4.5:
NEW FEATURES
* Double and halve durations options have been added to the 'Set Durations' command.
* A 'Staff and Ledger Lines' command in 'Master Page' allows any staff to have from 0 through 6 staff lines,
and allows ledger lines to be hidden.
* The left and right margins for individual systems can now be dragged in the 'Work on Page Format' screen.
* Support for MOTU's FreeMIDI driver has been implemented.
* The extensive new Briard font by Francis X. Mahoney is included in both PostScript and TrueType versions.
* The music font is now selectable for each score file in the 'File/Preferences' dialog.
* Changes in how Nightingale sets up fonts will allow support for more fonts in the future.
* The 'Page Numbers' command has been replaced by a new 'Page Numbers/Header/Footers' command.
* The position of page numbers (and/or headers and footers) can now be set within the 'Page Numbers/Header/Footers'
command dialog.
* Text dialogs now allow multiple lines of text.
* 9 text styles (increased from 5) are now available in the 'Define Text Styles' dialog. In addition,
all changes made to several text style settings can now be saved in one save action.
* Modifiers can now be simultaneously added to any selected notes via an 'Add Modifiers' command.
* Automatic positioning for modifiers as they're inserted has been improved.
* An editable 'MIDI Modifier Effects' table improves the quality of MIDI playback by allowing the user
to adjust the duration and velocity of any notes with six common modifiers.
* You can now specify a bass note for a chord symbol via slash-bass notation (e.g., "Bb7/F").
* You can now specify whether to show parentheses around extensions for each chord symbol.
* Spacing within chord symbols for PostScript printing has been improved.
* You can now make selected clefs, keysigs or timesigs invisible in QuickChange.
* You can now set the horizontal positions of selected text, lyrics, chord symbols, or tempo marks in QuickChange.
* Hairpins are now tiltable by dragging the handles in a vertical direction.
* Increased the maximum length of the user comment in the Score Info dialog from 35 to 255 characters.
* Increased the maximum number of font families usable in one score from 10 to 20.
* The comment in 'Score Info' now says whether the score originated from a MIDI or Notelist file, respectively.
* 'Open Notelist' now lets tall scores fit on the page.
* Note that there has been a file format change in v.4.5: files saved with this version cannot be opened in previous versions.
Files from previous versions are openable, however, and are converted to the new format.
BUG FIXES
* Hairpins now respond better to respacing.
* Fixed bug in the 'QuickChange' dialog: when using up or down arrow keys with only one enabled left-most menu item,
Nightingale would hang, and the Mac would sometimes freeze.
* Eliminated mysterious beeps when using the duration, dynamic and modifier popup menus.
* Formerly, on 'Open Notelist', if the Notelist file asked for more staves than Nightingale could handle,
it would crash without warning; now it gives an error message (and doesn't crash).
* Fixed bug: Dragging a dynamic on a system with font anti-aliasing would leave gray streaks behind.
Changes
to Nightingale from version 3.5 through 4.0:
NEW FEATURES
* Clickable editing of timesigs, keysigs, modifiers and dynamics.
* Nightingale is (finally) PPC native.
* Parts can now be deleted (in master page) even if they are not empty.
* There is now a "Distribute Staves Evenly" command in Master Page.
* Undo now works on the move measures/systems up/down, paste system and
fill empty measures commands.
* Extracting parts now allows for a selection of parts to be extracted
and is no longer a one or all proposition.
* Nightingale now displays elapsed time since the beginning of the score
(in ticks) in the Get Info dialog for notes/rests.
* In Score Info, check for and report duration problems unless the shift
key is down (checking can take a few seconds with a long score, so expert
users might want to skip it).
* In Pianoroll view, made the lengths of bars (which are proportional
to play duration) scalable via a user-settable resource, with a setting
to always draw just round blobs, and a default that gives shorter bars
than previously.
* Added a Close All command to the File menu.
* Add control of spacing between hyphens in Flow-In Text to the user-settable
CNFG resource.
* Removed support of Built in Midi-Driver; Open Midi Systems (OMS) required for now.
* Doubled the limit on note/rests from 32767 to 65435, which affects
super large scores only.
BUG FIXES
* Removed inappropriate restriction on Double: formerly Ngale refused
to Double if *any* staff contained cross-staff beams, slurs or tuplets,
even if those staves were not in either the source or destination parts.
Now it refuses only if the cross-staff objects are in the relevant parts.
* Fixed bug: Several operations--extracting parts and Clipboard operations
among them--can produce corrupted object lists, potentially leading
to unopenable files.
* Fixed bug: Centering of whole-measure rests now takes into account
keysigs and timesigs in the measure; Also, multi-bar rests are centered.
* Fixed bug: If you Move Up a measure containing a note tied back to
the end of the previous system and if there is a 'bad' slur, deleting
that note gives an error message, sometimes followed by crash or freeze.
* Fixed bug: Adding an octave sign to a series of beamed chords or dyads
often caused serious problems. (The triggering condition was when the
interval between the outer notes of the chord was the same as the default
stem length, normally an octave.)
* Fixed bug: Nightingale was using MIDI channel 1 under OMS, regardless
of the part's setting, if the score had been saved when not using OMS,
or if the device saved with the score is not present in the current
OMS studio configuration. This affected playback and the Instrument
MIDI Settings and Master Page Instrument dialogs.
* Fixed bug: If a cleared/cut selection contained a clef or keysig change,
then undoing would not restore subsequent clefs and keysigs affected
by the change.
* Fixed bug: Fixed various Move Measures Down bugs that could bite when
the terminating barline of the upper system was selected before invoking
the command.
* Fixed bug: If Beam-by-beat needed to unbeam first, undoing the autobeaming
didn't restore the previous beams.
Changes to Nightingale from version 3.0 through 3.5:
* There's now an 'Open Notelist' command (the inverse of Save Selection
Notelist).
* There's now an 'Add Redundant Accidentals' command (the inverse of
Delete Redundant Accidentals).
* Nightingale now knows about chord frames (for guitar and similar instruments):
there's a tool in the palette to insert them from a chord-frame font,
and the font and size can be selected with NightCustomizer. NB: the
only chord-frame font we know of is Coda's Seville.
* The QuickChange command has a new option for barlines, to set their
type (single, double, repeat-to-left, etc.).
* In very long time signatures--4/2 and longer--you can now tell Nightingale
(via NightCustomizer) whether you want a breve rest or a standard whole
rest.
* For endings, the label can now be a string of characters (for example,"1.2.")
instead of just a number.
* The 'Open Finale ETF File' command now handles ETF files through Finale
version 3.5.
* To facilitate making beams sit/straddle/hang, when a beam handle is
dragged, Nightingale now optionally "snaps" the beam's endpoint to the
nearest position on a grid. Also, the command key reverses the effect
of the setting. This option is set with NightCustomizer.
* On leaving Master Page, if the changes result in either systems dangling
off the page or contents dangling off the systems, Nightingale now gives
you a choice of keeping the changes without reformatting.
* On Extract Part, after reformatting, Nightingale now deletes redundant
time signatures that are the same on all staves: these often result
from anticipatory time signatures at ends of systems.
* It's now possible to set measure-number positions individually, via
Get Info, on the barline they're attached to.
* In Master Page>Group Parts, Nightingale now gives you the choice of
a (square) bracket or a (curly) brace to connect the group.
* There's now an "on Save, make a backup copy" option, with a checkbox
in the Preferences dialog to turn it on and off.
* On a click to insert a double bar or repeat bar, Nightingale now asks
the user if they want it to be a barline or not (replacing the little-noticed
checkbox in Preferences).
* For Import MIDI File, Nightingale can now handle much larger files
than earlier versions, and the more RAM that's available, the larger
the file it can handle.
* There's now an option, set via NightCustomizer, to draw a slash on
the stem of the 1st grace note of every beamed group, as well as on
unbeamed gracenotes.
* Notelist files now include tuplets and clefs.
* The Reformat dialog now has a box for entering the extra margin for
the top of the first page: this works the same way as the similar Preference
setting. (If you want to change the top margin but don't want reformatting
in the normal sense, be sure to uncheck "Change system breaks".)
This page
last updated 29 November, 2006.
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