Notation Composer - Lead Sheet from Midi with 2 Melody Tracks (Duet)??

[Scooter]

Hey there!

Im trying to make a Lead Sheet from a midi where the melody (voice) track is not one track, but
on two tracks (staves, I think you call them). I suppose this is common for "duet" songs, such as
ones sung by McCartney & Jackson, Cocker & Warnes, Mathis & Williams - and so on.

I don't seem to ba able to find any information as to how to include BOTH tracks into the lead
sheet. At the moment I can produce a lead sheet with either voices - and blank bars when the other
track is playing - but not with both voices in the one lead sheet.

I wonder how people manage if there's a "Boyband" with many voices involved...?

Thanks for any help

Cheers

Scooter

[herbert]

Hi Scooter,

Why not a standard score with two staves? Alternatively a “Boyband” or even a “Girlband” or any choir can use a system with four staves called SATB, meaning Soprano, Alto(Contralto), Tenor, Bass. Composer works with any system structure.

Herbert

[Scooter]

Why not? Well, it wouldn't then be a Lead Sheet - which is what I'd prefer.
I don't really need or want a SATB sheet, thanks all the same.

Naturally, I'm interested to know IF and HOW it's possible to mark which tracks are melody tracks - in some way - for a lead sheet.

If it's NOT possible, then at least I'd know.

Cheers

Scooter

[herbert]

Hi Scooter,

If you wish to use one staff only, simply notate two voices on the same staff.

As for the text, you could write the text for voice 1 as verse 1 and the text for the voice 2 as the second verse below it. If there are several verses, you could apply formatting to the text in various ways.

Herbert

[Scooter]

Eh? Do what? Writing verses? Texts?

I'm using the built-in function to produce (transcribe) a lead sheet from a midi - there aren't any words in the midi, neither do I want to produce any words.

All I'd like to know is - does the built-in function have the possibility of assigning 2 (or more) tracks to enable a continuous and unbroken lead sheet single melody staff line - or not. If so, how to use the function.

I'm NOT interested in other possibilities of "adding" things that I have no need of - please try to answer the question that was asked and not come with suggestions or interpretations that have no relevance to the context of the original question.

Cheers

Scooter

[Sherry C]

Hi Scooter,

Herbert is a long-time user of Notation Composer, and therefore knows a lot of things that may not be obvious to a new user, and which a new user may find helpful. I do that myself Notation Composer is quite feature-rich, but with a fairly clean interface, so it's not all out there overwhelming you with all the goodness under the hood, so to speak.

To get a single staff for creating a Fakebook Lead Sheet, you can:

1. Use the Staff/Merge command and merge the two staves that have the notes you want for the lead sheet.

2. (Optional if you want to differentiate the two singers/voices). After you've merged the two staves to get all the notes on one staff, then go through and select the notes (you can click-drag across multiple notes at a time), and then choose one of the vocalists to be "Upper voice" and the other one to be "Lower voice". You'll find those buttons to the far right on the Notes and Rests/Notes tool palette.
At this stage you can add lyrics (typical for a Fakebook Lead Sheet) if you want.

3. Now you can run Part/Prepare Fakebook Lead Sheet, and select the merged staff you created above as the Melody staff.

Enjoy!
Sherry

[Sherry C]

Another thought...

You can also use the Part/Display or Define a Part to create your own Fakebook-With-Two-Staves if you want to.
Just click the "Add a part", give it a name, select the two (or more) staves you want in the part, and you're set.

If you want chord names, you'll need to use Text/Chord names/Analyze chord names yourself - that's usually done automatically in the Part/Prepare wizard.

ttfn,
Sherry

[Scooter]

Thanks Sherry C for your replies!

I will, of course, try out your suggestions to see if I can solve my little "problem". I'll read your replies a few time to digest them better, but the "Staff/Merge" command idea looks very promising!

Well, certainly no offence meant to Herbert - - and I DO understand that sometimes people are only trying to help, but tend to end up confusing the issue - at least for me. And as you say, I'm definitely a new-beginner and know very little about Notation Composer - and this is why I'm trying to keep things relatively easy, so that I can understand a) what I'm actually asking about - and b) what reply I'm getting. Naturally, I'm very impressed with what Herbert - and others - know about the many different features - and someday (in about 2 centuries!) I'll be an expert, too!

Until then, hopefully I'll be able to draw on Herbert's experience, should I need some further assistance.

Thanks Sherry C and Herbert - for your interest.

Cheers, Guys

Scooter

[Sherry C]

Hi Scooter,

I do hope the suggestions help.

And you're learning the best way possible - just dive in and start playing around with it

You may find the Users Guide to be helpful as well - we really tried to write it with the goal of actually helping people get things done, rather than just say "This is the Copy command". The Index feature is pretty helpful. But that said, we do have a good and helpful community here that is always available (except when we're outside weeding the garden or out playing music somewhere ).

ttfn,
Sherry

[Scooter]

Hi Again, Guys!

Yes, don't I just know about weeding and gardening! It's rained almost non stop here for the past 3 months, so the weeds have just exploded all over the place! A never-ending job....

Anyway, I finally got the spare time to try out your suggestion - the "Staff/Merge" command worked perfectly and I got what I was after. Next time, I'll try to choose a midi with just one melody track/staff!

Many thanks for the help - now to check out the actual chords and notation....

Cheers

Scooter