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I have to get a whole bunch of new BiaB songs written in a hurry. I have to write melodies for 40 of them. I was using the conventional notation window and the Piano roll notation windows a lot for this job. I found myself switching between windows a lot and losing my place a lot. As desperation approached, I decided to try the Staff Roll mode, which I had forgotten about a long time ago. It is not like any other program's notation editing tools. I discovered that it is a bit of genius all by itself.

Staff Roll combines the functions of the more familiar notation window mouse gestures with the visual functions for velocity and duration that are usually found in Piano Roll mode. It is fun and easy to use, but there is a learning curve:

# Only use the RIGHT mouse button ( the other one) for the Velocity and Duration gestures.

# start on the center of the notehead - not on the visual stripes - for velocity and duration.

# 1/4 notes and 1/8 notes lie right ON the vertical lines that look like barlines, not in the horizontal spaces between the lines.

This is such a great tool. I cant praise it highly enough. I think it might be wise for all BiaB users to practice a little bit and get familiar with how Staff Roll Notation works.

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I find that entering Melodies goes a LOT faster by using the MIDI Record function.

You don't even need to have a MIDI Controller keyboard or other MIDI instrument to do this, although I find them to be better at it, you can use the QWERTY Wizard to tap in the right note durations in realtime and then go to the Notation Editor and drag the notes to their proper pitches. Very fast.


--Mac

great idea mac!
and thanks for the reminder, Flatfoot!

(when you have smart friends, the advantage of THEIR smartness spills over into your own life...)

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>>>...I find that entering Melodies goes a LOT faster by using the MIDI Record function...>>>

Well, yeah. I create the basic melody and 2-3 minutes of solo/variations on my MIDI keyboard. Then I go back and correct glitches and make other small changes. That's when the Staff Roll comes into play - during the editing.

>>>...You don't even need to have a MIDI Controller keyboard or other MIDI instrument to do this, although I find them to be better at it, you can use the QWERTY Wizard to tap in the right note durations in realtime and then go to the Notation Editor and drag the notes to their proper pitches....>>>

Have heard of this method, but I never got good at it. My current setup has latency on the keyboard that I havent been able to remedy.