Composer 5 freezes after closing Playback Position Arrows

[Tim Mariott]

Have just noticed this and not sure if it was doing so when I first installed Composer 5 a few days ago.

When I am editing a piece and I go to "View - Playback Position Arrows" and uncheck this feature ALL of the menu functions then freeze and are unavailable. The piece will still play but I cannot do anythng with it.

My only option is to use Task Manager to end Composer 5.

I have tried it with several different files and it happens with all of them. I attach just one example.

I then tried it with Composer 4 which I have thankfully not yet uninstalled and it behaves as I would expect: I can check and uncheck the Playback Position Arrows with no impact on other functions.

I am running Windows 10.

Not urgent as I can happily use Composer 4.

Tim

[dj]

Hi, Tim:

I can confirm this. Just made the mistake of trying to verify your observations. Now, I'm stuck too!

It doesn't appear to be related to the example file you attached to your post, as it happened with one of my own files.

There appears to be a warning or information dialog window that opens briefly when a menu is clicked but it flashes so fast, I have no idea of what it is.

Attempting to close the program freezes it completely, as you say. I used the Task Manager to close it.

Okay, I've restarted Composer and it appears to be functioning normally with Playback Arrows selected in the View menu. Have you tried that?

I, too, have Composer 4 still installed. Likewise 3 -- as far back as 2.0.4. Just for nostalgia's sake.

I should clean old software off my hard-drive once in while.

David

[Tim Mariott]

David

Comforting to have your confirmation that this was not just another "senior moment".

Yes, I have restarted Composer 5 several times, both with and without a complete restart of Windows to clear any funnies from memory. I even powered off completely and left it for a hard restart. Still the same.

As a final test, I have just started Composer 5, done nothing before creating a "new song" with 16 blank measures - and it still does the same.

Over to the boffins now.

Cheers
Tim

[Tim Mariott]

Any news on this please?
Just wondering if it would complicate my life if I uninstalled Composer 5 as I have to keep remembering to switch to Composer 4 if I want to print anything without including Playback Position Arrows.
Thanks
Tim

[Sherry C]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your report and sorry for the delayed response.

I can verify that the problem with turning off the View/Show playback position arrows. That is now task 3358.

You mentioned:

Just wondering if it would complicate my life if I uninstalled Composer 5 as I have to keep remembering to switch to Composer 4 if I want to print anything without including Playback Position Arrows.

I don't see a problem with any playback position arrows printing with the setting View/Show playback position arrows "on" in v5. I've just printed out a few different pieces ranging from single staff to multiple big band, and am not seeing the position arrows (neither staff nor playback position) printing out. This may explain why there have been no other reports of Composer freezing. We definitely want to fix the issue of the freezing, but it seems that to avoid that you just shouldn't turn off the View/Show playback position arrows setting.

Or perhaps there are some special circumstances that I don't yet understand?

ttfn,
Sherry

[Tim Mariott]

Sherry

Thanks for checking this over. I see what you mean, the Arrows don't show up in a print and I hadn't tried to print as I didn't want to waste paper ....
...
because if you go to "Print Preview" the dialog tells you that this is the same as "Page View" and the Arrows do show in Page View.

So my operational problem is not in fact an issue - but my logical confusion remains because "Print Preview" is not a true prevew of what will be printed!

Best wishes
Tim

[Sherry C]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the explanation.
I do see what you mean and how that could be confusing.

One nice test you can always do to see if an element actually prints out is to use the built-in "Microsoft print to PDF" as a printer option. This gives you a pdf version that uses the printer options to give a PDF that will show you the output without using paper.

Specifically for our software, there is a File/Export/PDF option that gives a high-resolution PDF that you can check as well.

Thanks again for the report and the clarification.

Happy music making
Sherry

[Reinhold H.]

Thanks for the report. This is a regression which came in during beta phase with the feature "remaining playback time" on 2023/09/15. Unfortunately, it was not caught within 9 months of beta testing. Sorry for any inconvenience. It is fixed and will come with the next update 5.0.2.

Reinhold