Composition tools - The conductor view |
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Watch also the following videos:- Your music desktop - Scores and instruments (10'19) - Flash - Quicktime
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The conductor view [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
The conductor view has been designed to be your music
composition desktop. As you may have several scores in a music
document (Pizzicato Professional only), there must be a tool to
organize and manage them and to play them easily and in many
combinations. This tool is the conductor view.
To work with the conductor view and so that the lessons happen
as they should, we strongly advise you to switch on the menu
option found in Windows, Windows management, Based
on the conductor view. This mode is oriented around the
conductor view and the examples and applications of the following
lessons will behave the way they should. The other two modes have
a different way to handle the windows behaviour.
- Start Pizzicato or close any open
document and choose File, New.
Pizzicato opens the conductor view. If you did not modify
the windows management option as explained here above,
you may open the conductor view by using the Windows,
Conductor... menu. The following window appears:

This window is divided in two parts:
- The left part is the document manager and its
configurations. You can get a full explanation in the
lesson about the document
manager. Its various configuration contain
items representing instruments, music libraries and
virtual keyboards as well as other musical objects
that may be used to compose music. Each one of them
will help you to compose and will be the subject of a
specific lesson.
- In the main part of the window, you have a time
scaled view of all the scores present in the
document. This area is where you will add, remove,
play and manipulate music scores. Its predecessor was
the main view (still available). However, the
conductor view has much more features to make your
work more easy and it adds the time dimension of the
scores.
This view has some particularities compared to other views :
- There is only one conductor view for each open document.
- When you open several conductor views (from different
documents), they will resize themselves automatically to
cover your screen so that you have an overall view of the
open documents and their content.
The rest of this lesson will explain how to use the main area
of the conductor view.
- The large orange rectangle represents one score named Score
1. Double-click inside this rectangle. The score
appears above the conductor view. You will notice that a
view that is called from the conductor view will always
stay on top of it. As the conductor view covers the full
screen, if it was not so the score view would go behind
the conductor view whenever you would use the conductor
view again. Close this score view now.
- With the right mouse, click on the orange rectangle. A
context menu appears with several items:

- The first 8 items may be used to open a view of the
score from which you call this menu. The first one
calls the score view, which has the same effect as a
double-click.
- The Play options... item calls the play
options dialog box associated with the score. It is
the same dialog that is called from the score view
with the "..." button. You may change the
tempo, the measures to play, the metronome,...
- The Change name... item lets you change the
name of the score, which is here Score 1.
The name of a score is displayed just on top of the
orange rectangle.
- The next item lets you duplicate a score inside the
document. You get a new independent score which is an
exact copy of the original. You may then modify it as
you want without affecting the original score.
- With the next item, you can create an alias of the
score. An alias of a score looks like a copy of the
score, but it has in fact the same content. It
appears to be an independent score in the conductor
view because you can move its rectangle without
moving the original one. If you double-click it, you
open in fact the original score. A score may have as
many aliases as you want. The use of aliases will
become more clear in the lesson on musical libraries.
Basically, you will be able to organize a music
composition by combining several scores and playing
them together in the conductor view. If a score
represents a percussion rhythmic pattern, you may
need to use this score several times in your
composition. If you duplicate the original score
several times, the copies will be independent. If you
decide to change the pattern, you will need to change
them in each instance of the score. The other
solution is to create one pattern and then make
several aliases of it. The change in the original
score will then be effective in each instance of its
aliases. An alias score may be recognized by its name
written in italic.
- The next menu item is used to delete the score. If
the score is an alias, the alias disappear without
confirmation, but if you delete an original score,
Pizzicato ask for confirmation before deleting the
score (this may not be undone).
- The next 4 items gives you a fast
way to add measures to a score without opening it.
The measures are added to the end of the score.
- The last menu item is used to add an audio track to
the score. See the lesson on audio tracks later in
the manual.
The five icons that you notice on the upper left border of
the orange rectangle are in fact shortcuts to the most useful
of the above menu items. With a simple click on these icons,
you can:
- Icon 1 (little note): open the score view
- Icon 2 (sliders): open the instruments window with
the sliders to control volume, reverberation,...
- Icon 3 ("+" on white background): create a
duplicate of the score
- Icon 4 ("+" on yellow background): create
an alias of the score
- Icon 5 ("x"): delete the score with a
confirmation. If you also hold down the CTRL key, the
score is deleted without the need of a confirmation.
Some of the above options can also be reached in the document
manager. You can use both of them indifferently.
Let us apply this with some examples.
Using the conductor view [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
In the conductor view, a score is represented by a colored
rectangle. The numbers in the upper part of the main area show
the measure numbers of the score. Vertical lines separate the
measures through the main area of the conductor view.
- Set the mouse position as follows:

- Click with the right button and select the New score
menu item. A new score appears:

It is called Score 2 and its name is written in
black. The active score title is displayed in red. Up to now,
there was only one score and by default it was the active
score.
- Click on the Score 2 rectangle:

- Its name becomes red, meaning that it is now the current
score. The other score name is now in black. There may be
only one score active in the conductor view. To set the
active score, just click on it. You will also notice that
the upper scale has moved. It is now displaying the
measure numbers of Score 2. The new score has
only one measure, but the scale continues after the last
measure.
- By clicking on a score and moving the mouse while holding
down the mouse button, the score may be moved inside the
conductor view. In this way, you may dispose them to
organize your music document as you wish.

- Close this window. Use the recorder displayed in the
conductor view to play this score. A black triangle
follows the position of the playing in the conductor
view:

When you use the recorder of the conductor view, it is the
active score (with name in red) that is played.
- The H- and H+ buttons located to the
left of the recorder may be used to horizontally zoom in
and out. The main area shows more or less measures and
lets you work more precisely or with an overall view of
many measures.
Playing and grouping scores [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
The conductor view lets you play a score by selecting it and
using the recorder. But you may also group different scores and
play them together. Here is a simple example to show you how this
view will help you compose and create music like a construction
set game.
- Close the previous document and open the Ex082
example. You can find it in the document manager,
configuration 2, in the examples folder. Open
the conductor view by double-clicking the green icon of
the example, which contains 3 scores:

- Listen to each one of them, one after the other. Also
double-click and close them one after the other to see
the score they contain. Each one has a different color.
In the lesson on instruments, we will see that each
instrument has a color code used to classify them more
easily. We will now assemble the scores so that they may
combine to create a little piece of music.
- A little bit below the first score, click the desktop
background with the right mouse button. Select the menu
item entitled New group of scores. In the next
dialog, enter the name My composition and click
on OK:

This new block is a group of scores. It may have four
coloured squares in its top part. We will explain them
further in this lesson. The group is now empty and we will
drag scores into it.
- With the mouse, drag the Acoustic bass score
into My composition and release the mouse button
when the conductor view displays the following:

- Resize the group vertically by dragging its bottom right
corner so as to have:

- With the mouse, drag the Rock - Rhythm score to
have:

- Do the same with the last score, so that the group will
become:

- Notice that the group has been resized horizontally so
that it can contain the last score. The title of the
group is displayed in red to show that it is the active
group. Click on the START button of the recorder. The
full score group plays, showing the progression of the
group and of the individual scores with moving triangles:

- You may ask a group to play in an infinite loop. Click
the group (not in a score, but in the blue part of it)
with the right mouse button and select the Play in
loop menu. If you display the menu again, you will
see that this menu item is now checked:

- Start playing the group again. At the end of it,
Pizzicato goes back to the beginning. To stop it, use the
STOP button of the recorder or the space bar of the
keyboard.
- We would like to use the Arpeggio 2 score two
times. With the right mouse button, click on it and
select the Play options... menu. The lower part
of the dialog displays parameters that influence the
playing of the score inside a group (Special play
parameters) :

- In the third text box, enter "2" so that this
score will be used two times. Close this dialog. The
group now displays:

The group has been resized automatically. You can see that
the Arpeggio 2 score now displays 4 measures. But
there is in fact only 2 measures in the score (if you
double-click it, the score view only shows 2 measures). The
real measures are displayed in the original color and the
additionnal measures are displayed in a lighter color to show
the full duration of the score, taking into account the
number of loops of the score.
Notice that if you drag the bottom right corner of the
group while holding down the SHIFT key, any score that was
reaching the right border of the group will be automatically
multiplied to fit the new size of the group.
- You may also graphically determine how much times a score
will be played. Click and drag to the right the bottom
right corner of the Acoustic bass score, up to
the moment it fills the entire group:

- Play the group. If you now want to use the Rock -
Rhythm score in the last measure, without filling
measures 2 and 3, we can not just extend the score. There
are two ways to do this. You may duplicate the score if
you want to modify it in any way. The duplicated score
will be completely independent of the original score. Or
you may create an alias of the score, in which case any
change made to the original score will be automatically
applied to the alias. Let us create an alias of this
score, by clicking the score with the right mouse button
and selecting Create an alias or by clicking on
the "+" icon on yellow background. The group
becomes:

- You can now move this alias to position it at the fourth
measure. The vertical position is not important, except
for the presentation of the group. The alias is shown in
the same color, but its name is written in italic:

- You may notice that the score automatically adjust itself
to the closest half beat, so that there will be no errors
in positionning it. You may cancel this automatic grid by
holding down the CTRL key while you drag the score (but
the first click should be done without the CTRL key,
because this has another meaning that will be explained
in another lesson). Play the group again. In the playing
parameters dialog box, there is also the time
multiplication and division factors. Scores inside a
group automatically play with the same tempo, but if the
time factors are modified for one score, this score will
then play using those factors. Call the dialog on the
original Rock - Rhythm score and set the
multiplication factor to "3" and the division
factor to "2". Close the dialog. The group is
now:

- The original score has been scaled to show its real
duration with regard to the other scores. Play the group.
You will hear that the measure rhythm is stretched in a
3/2 ratio. In this case, the effect is not especially
wonderful. But it could be used to fit a free piano solo
into a specific duration. You may also adjust this time
factor manually by dragging the bottom right part of the
score while holding down the SHIFT key. Stretch this
score to cover two and a half measure. Notice that here
also a grid adjusts the length of the score to the
closest half beat. You may avoid this by holding down the
CTRL key while moving. The group becomes:

- In the play options dialog, a menu lets you select how
versions of the measures will be played (the measures
need to have more than one version for this). A group may
be moved on the desktop, exactly as you move a score. The
scores contained in it will move with it. When the group
is active or when one of its scores is active, the upper
scale displays the measure numbers of this group. They
are based on the measures visible on the highest score of
the group. When a group or one of its score is active,
you can see a green arrow showing the beginning of it in
the upper scale. This arrow has a vertical line attached
to it. It shows the location at which the playing of the
group will start. You can set this green arrow by
clicking with the left mouse button inside the scale
area. Click for instance at the beginning of measure 4,
inside the white band showing the measure numbers. The
conductor view displays:

- Play the group. It will start at that point and will then
loop again to that point when it reaches the end. The end
point is by default the end of the group, but you may set
a red arrow to determine another end point. Click with
the right mouse button inside the measure number area, on
the third beat of the fourth measure. Play the group and
you will see that the loop is played between the green
and red arrows:

You may change the position of the arrows while the group
is playing. To remove the stop arrow, click it outside the
group limits.
- The upper left border of the blue area may contain up to
4 coloured squares. The first and third are reserved for
the real time arranger. We will come back to it in a
specific lesson. The second square is active in red by
default. It maintains the score group active all the
time, even if you manipulate scores inside it. In such a
way, by using the shortcut to play (space bar) it is
always the full group that will play and not just the
last selected score. By disabling this box (by clicking
on it), it becomes gray and then by clicking on one of
the score, it becomes red and active so that you can play
just that score without the rest of the group. The green
box is used to create a single full score that contains
every individual score of the group. It is then quite
useful to finalize the full arrangement. To use it, just
click on the green box and drag to a free area of the
music desktop and a new socre will be create at that
place. You get for instance:

We have explained here how to use the conductor view to
arrange and dispose a music composition. Even if the example is
very simple, it shows the mechanics of it. In the next lessons,
we will explain the use of instruments, of the music generators
and other music objects and also the use of music libraries in
combination with what we have seen here. Be sure you understand
this lesson before continuing to the next one.