Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?

Subject: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 05:14 AM

I went to transcribe a MIDI on Noteworthy Composer this evening, and the program was no longer on my computer. I downloaded a new copy and attempted to register it with the information I had saved when I purchased the program in 2012, but that wouldn't work. So, now I have a disabled copy of Noteworthy that won't save files.
Anybody know what's going on with Noteworthy?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 06:26 AM

All I want, is simple MIDI files I can post here. Are they any free packages that will do what I want?
Noteworthy can do layering and all sorts of things I don't need.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 06:56 AM

You could try Musescore Joe. It's what I use for scoring on my Linux maching (I have a copy of Finale on my virtual XP machine, but these days I only use that to export old Finale files to MusicXML to transfer them). It's a general scoring program and can export MIDI. Avaiable for Windows/Mac/Linux.

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 06:56 AM

Should have added - and it's free.

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 06:58 AM

There are plenty of free packages to produce MIDI files. "Bill D" used to be our expert for freeware, is he still around?

Please tell us how you would like to input your music. If you use any of the usual ABC editors, they can output ("export") MIDI files all right via abc2mid, though with some idiosyncrasies and bugs.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 07:00 AM

MuseScore is excellent and has many more of "all sorts of things I don't need" than NC, but takes some learning.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Stanron
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 07:12 AM

I second everything said by Mick Pearce (MCP) about Musescore. I primarily use it for music notation but it can import and export a range of file types. There is also a very good online handbook. Any questions I have had have been answered by that, and when you are first encountering a new piece of software that counts for a lot. Musescore and EasyAbc, both free, cover all my musical scoring needs. I too am a Linux user and have been for several years now. I've never had a piece of Linux software die, disappear or declare itself illegal. Just saying.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: G-Force
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 07:56 AM

I downloaded Musescore 3 a few weeks ago, and I really like it. It does practically everything I want (which isn't much, actually), it's free, and the online forum is even more active than Mudcat and extremely helpful.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 09:38 AM

When I had a pc I used the free 'finale notepad'
https://www.finalemusic.com/products/notepad/

I've never used anything else apart from abcnotation, can't comment on how it compares with Musescore.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 01:57 PM

Are you on a Windows computer, Joe? I find sometimes in Win10 things go missing.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Helen
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 02:15 PM

Hi Joe,

I had an issue with Noteworthy a few years ago. I have been using it for a long time and I'm happy with it. The people at Noteworthy were very helpful and friendly. One of the best after-market customer experiences I have had.

Try contacting them because they can probably work out what went wrong and how to fix it.

Helen

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 02:33 PM

Well, the Noteworthy person wasn't so helpful, but I went exploring. I had installed Noteworthy 2.75 demo, thinking I could use my registration to change it to a paid version. That was blocked and didn't work. But when I uninstalled, I found a regular Noteworthy 2.75 version was also there. When I uninstalled the demo, the other version worked. I'm mystified, but relieved.

I tried Musescore and it looked like it might be good - but it has a learning curve, and I'm lazy. All of the MIDI files I've posted at Mudcat over the years, have been done on Noteworthy - I can do Noteworthy in my sleep.

So, I'm glad to be back to Noteworthy, with no upgrade charge. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten up in the middle of the night to post a MIDI. I was up for four hours....

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 03:41 PM

Right you are, Joe; as long as the old software does everything you want, there is no need to learn a new system.

On the other hand, Mudcat lives on ABC, for various good reasons. How do you produce ABC code from NWC?

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: leeneia
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 03:55 PM

I'm glad your problem is solved, Joe.

Sound programs are powerful, and I wouldn't want to install a free program, which comes from who-knows-where on my beloved computer.

Granted, Musescore is well known, but that could mean it's especially tempting to a hacker. If so, where do you turn?

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 04:25 PM

Grishka, since Noteworthy produces a proprietary file, I always export to MIDI and post the resulting MIDI. I have been meaning to learn ABC and Spanish for the last twenty years. I have dabbled many times, but I have ultimately failed.

We fought Dick Greenhaus for years to try to convince him to drop his loyalty to SongWright because its output was proprietary.

So, in general, we have settled on MIDI and ABC as the two acceptable forms of notation at Mudcat - and both are non-proprietary files. The problem with MIDI, is that I have to do the posting and it's on my Website and not on Mudcat.

I think I've seen NWC-to-ABC and MIDI-to-ABC converters, but I've never fallen in love with converters. Thankfully, most software packages have some way to export to non-proprietary format.


-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 04:51 PM

Leeneia, you are absolutely entitled to your views, but to all others I assure that well-established software from reliable sources (!) are about as safe or unsafe as commercial ones. In case something goes wrong, helpful community forums exist for either species of software.

Joe, "blind" conversion from MIDI to ABC can well be performed by the recipients if they want it. The problem, beyond the question of hosting, lies in those many features of black-dot notation that are unsupported by the MIDI file format, starting with ordinary repeat signs and volta boxes, which abound in folk music! For all these reasons you may want to give nwc2abc another try. If it fails, you can try MidiZyx2Abc, which at least comes with a nice window, but takes some special preparation.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Mar 19 - 04:54 PM

That should read, of course:

... well-established free software products from reliable sources (!) are about as safe or unsafe as commercial ones.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Helen
Date: 19 Mar 19 - 02:34 PM

Problem solved. Middle of the night, up for four hours: this proves you can do it in your sleep. LOL

I like Noteworthy. It has some good features. One of my faves is the transposing gizmo.

As for MIDI to ABC - I don't know. Do the sites like Mandolin Tabs or Concertina.net do that? They are nifty and ABC to MIDI so maybe they can convert the other way around.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Mar 19 - 02:51 PM

Ya got me, Helen!

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Mar 19 - 03:14 PM

I don't think either site does, Helen. Mandolin tab does use programs in the abcmidi package but not the midi2abc one. It's not the best of conversions anyway for reasons mentioned above. Plus it would need a file upload rather than just pasting text into a box.

The mandolin tab one can go to from MusicXML though which is potentially handy for getting to and from other formats.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 19 Mar 19 - 06:18 PM

Virtually all music software can transpose (though not all notation programmes do it correctly in "chromatic" circumstances).

Modern software, including MuseScore, can export and import MusicXML, for which in turn excellent tools for conversion to and from ABC exist, robust and essentially lossless. This is the way to do it nowadays.

Users of NWC can and should try NWC2ABC if they want ABC code. If this does not work, or for users of other old software or recipients of naked MIDI files, conversion from the MIDI file format to ABC can be required. If you use mid2abc, you may have to do some tedious editing of the result. MidiZyx2Abc is a brave attempt to make this work easier; I used it to convert all my old stuff to ABC and then to MusicXML. Hard work, still, but worth it, because files in any proprietary format have time bombs attached. Imagine the thread title were literally true, your old software no longer working on your updated OS — disaster!

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 20 Mar 19 - 05:53 AM

May I ask who of our NWC owners has ever tried NWC2ABC? Which versions and with what result? It is included in some versions of EasyABC, in a very user-friendly manner. However, rumours go that it does not work with all versions of Noteworthy. It would be interesting to obtain more precise statements.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 20 Mar 19 - 06:14 AM

Here is a statement from Mudcatter "Stewart" concerning NWC2ABC as included in EasyABC; his method seems to work at least for single-voice tunes.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 20 Mar 19 - 06:23 AM

You don't want to ever try converting MIDI to ABC. Getting sane output (like, not writing every repeat out explicitly) takes more time than simply writing new ABC from scratch.

Just write ABC to start with. If you really want MIDI the conversion process that way is lossless.

Subject: RE: Tech: Noteworthy Composer Uninstalled Itself?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 20 Mar 19 - 09:11 AM

Jack, in principle I agree with you, though some of your wording is likely to be misunderstood by those newbies for whom you intended it.

Rewriting an existing large score in ABC, or in any other notation system, is very hard work, and error-prone. Anyone who claims to make no errors is either a liar or never tried the task. The makeshift I described above helped me greatly in terms of workload and quality. For NWC users, Stewart's method seems to be easier still.

"Lossless": not really, as you well know.

Also, ABC is not designed to exploit the full potential of MIDI. MusicXML does it to a higher percentage, so that those of us who want perfect notation and subtle MIDI output are best off with MuseScore etc.

Each format has its pros and cons. We all agree that ABC is a good idea for posting to Mudcat.