Version 2.75 Released

Version 2.75 CDAfter over 15 months of development, NoteWorthy Composer Version 2.75 has been released. A summary of the additions in this release can be seen on NoteWorthy Composer’s history page.

Current users of any licensed, older NoteWorthy Composer 2.* edition can update to version 2.75 by completing these three steps:

  1. From inside the program, select the Access NoteworthySoftware.com command in the Help menu.  You will automatically be directed to the 2.75 upgrade page.
  2. Download and install the latest NWC User Tool Starter Kit.
  3. Download and install the NWC 2.75 Viewer.

After these steps are completed, your NoteWorthy Composer 2 system environment will now be running with the newest release. There are several sources for additional documentation on this release:

  1. NoteWorthy Composer User Guides
  2. NoteWorthy Composer Help

If you are new to NoteWorthy Composer, you can try out a demo of the program, as well as utilize our free Viewer to open files created by other users.

Windows 10: Configuring Play in Version 2.51a (and older)

After upgrading to Windows 10, you might encounter the following error when using NoteWorthy Composer Version 2.51a or earlier:w10-midiprob1This error is caused by a Windows 10 change to the MIDI device subsystem. In Windows 10, it is not possible for NWC to release the default MIDI device, and then reattach to it. This process fails, causing the problem shown.

We have included a full resolution to this issue in version 2.75. In the mean time, you can use the following work around while in the Tools, Options, Midi tab:

work around

Suggested settings

  1. Set Port Usage to Always
    This will reduce the number of times that the program releases and then reclaims the MIDI play device.
  2. Empty the Devices used by play box
    This will make it possible for you to navigate out of the Midi options tab. The default MIDI device will still get used automatically when you start play back.
  3. Restart NoteWorthy Composer
  4. Repeat step 2 and 3 as necessary
    Since the program cannot successfully release/claim the MIDI port on Windows 10, you will have to repeat steps 2 and 3 each time you visit Tools, Options, Midi.

 Update:  It appears as though Microsoft finally got around to fixing the Windows 10 GS Wavetable Synth problems in build 10586.

Installing on Mac OS X

There are numerous ways to install and use NoteWorthy Composer on a Mac. One of the easiest methods is via the Crossover for Mac product:

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover-mac/

Once you have Crossover on your Mac, you can double click any NWC setup program and install it into a new bottle. When you double click the setup program, the Crossover Software Installer box should open to allow you to configure how it should be installed. There are also CrossTie files available:

Here is an example configuration for installing our latest NWC Viewer beta preview:

Crossover Mac Install Window

At this point, simply click the Install button to complete the process. The NWC Viewer program will appear in the Crossover Programs menu, as well as in the Finder via your personal Applications, Crossover folder. Here it is running in OS X Mavericks:

NWC Viewer with Crossover

If you have other Windows software and want full Windows compatibility, then you may want to use a virtualization solution with one of these programs (in alphabetical order):

This solution requires the purchase of a Windows license, but has the benefit of offering full compatibility with the larger Windows app catalog.

Create Rhythm Tracks for NWC

Rhythm Tracks for NWCWe have created a new web application that can be used to create rhythm tracks for use in NoteWorthy Composer. This application utilizes the features introduced by the working draft of the Web MIDI API. At the time of this writing (May 2014), the MIDI features are only available in the latest version of the Google Chrome browser, and require some manual tweaking to get things fully enabled in the browser. Once your browser MIDI setup is working, you can use the new app to create new rhythm patterns, export them to NoteWorthy Composer, and share them with others via a simple web link.

Continue reading

Version 2.51a Released

Access UpgradeAn update to NoteWorthy Composer Version 2.51 has been released as version 2.51a. You can upgrade your currently installed copy of NoteWorthy Composer 2 by opening it, then select the Access NoteworthySoftware.com command in the Help menu. You will automatically be directed to the page where you can download and install the NoteWorthy Composer 2.51a upgrade.

Continue reading

New Lua Scripting Engine

Lua BookAnyone using NWC version 2.51 or later now has a built-in user tool scripting engine, with no extra download/install sequence required. Version 2.51 introduces a built-in Lua scripting engine that integrates a basic API for handling user tool input and output processing. Every copy of NoteWorthy Composer 2.51 includes two new user tools, found in the new .Automatic section of the User Tools command::

  1. Show Note Names.lua
    This returns a list of note names for the current selection. This is primarily intended as a demonstration of the Lua scripting engine.
  2. Retrograde.lua
    Like the PHP based user tool kit before it, this was the first Lua based user tool while version 2.51 was in development. It will reverse the notes in a selection, which can sometimes be inspiring when working with a composition.

There are several online resources that can help with getting started with your own Lua scripts:

  • The new API available from within a Lua based user tool is currently documented online at: lua.noteworthycomposer.com.
  • Much of the NWC Lua API is actually written in Lua. It can be explored from our gist on github.

Broken Toolbar Icons After Upgrade

MissingToolbarCommand

After upgrading NoteWorthy Composer to version 2.51, you may encounter several images that depict a question mark with the text ERR, as shown here. These icons depict old commands from version 2.50 that no longer exist. The old Insert toolbar contained a series of items that could quickly be added to the current staff simply by clicking the button from the Insert toolbar. These hard coded buttons have been replaced by user customizable selectors that can contain a single item, or a large collection of items.

If your see something like this after upgrading, there are several alternatives to remove the now missing tools from your toolbar setup.

  1. If you want to maintain your custom changes to the toolbars, then you need to revisit your toolbar customizations and delete the commands that are no longer available. This is done by starting at View, Toolbars, then click the Customize button. The missing tools are probably on the Insert toolbar, which needs to be selected from the Toolbar dropdown box. The Active tools list will show all of the commands in the selected toolbar. You can select any commands that are labelled as ##Unknown## and press the button that shows as <–. This will remove the missing tool from that toolbar. You can also just double click them.
  2. If you have only made modest changes to the default toolbar setup in the prior 2.5 version, you might just want to reset your toolbars to the defaults. This is done by starting at View, Toolbars, then click the Customize button. The Restore Defaults button will reset your toolbars to the new version 2.51 defaults.

Version 2.51 Released

NWC 2.51 CDNoteWorthy Composer Version 2.51 has been released. After nearly a full year of development, we started delivering this new release to customers about a week ago. We will be describing some of the new capabilities in version 2.51 in later posts. In the mean time, a summary of the additions in this release can be seen on NoteWorthy Composer’s history page.

Current users of NoteWorthy Composer 2.5 can update all of the relevant programs to version 2.51 by completing these three steps:

  1. You can upgrade your currently installed copy of NoteWorthy Composer 2.5 by opening it, then from within NoteWorthy Composer 2.5, select the Access NoteworthySoftware.com command in the Help menu.  You will automatically be directed to the page where you can download and install the NoteWorthy Composer 2.51 upgrade.
  2. Download and install the latest NWC User Tool Starter Kit.
  3. Download and install the NWC 2.51 Viewer.

After these steps are completed, your NoteWorthy Composer 2 system environment will now be running with the newest release. There are several sources for additional documentation on this release. Two places to start are:

  1. NoteWorthy Composer User Guides
  2. NoteWorthy Composer Help

If you are new to NoteWorthy Composer, you can try out a demo of the program, as well as utilize our free Viewer to open files created by other users.