Principal Notes offset when inserting grace notes
I'm running version 0.9.6.3, revision 3507 with Windows 7, and I'm having some issues with the grace notes.
The Acciaccatura grace note has an interesting effect on the timing of the principal notes. It appears that the grace note actually offsets the placement of the principal note. This is very obvious if the velocity of the grace note is set very low.
I put togther two pieces to demonstrate the effect. They are written in snare drum, and consist of repeating note patterns. The first one labelled "stutters" shows the stuttering effect caused by the Acciaccatura. Is there an explaination for this effect, and can it be corrected in future versions?
The second one, called flams, is a two-part piece that attempts to demonstrate a more correct interpration of the Acciaccatura grace notes (at least for drummers playing flams). If this type of interpratation is not consistent with grace notes for other instruments in general, perhaps a separate grace note for drummers could be installed?
Thanks!
Mike S.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Stutters_0.zip | 310.09 KB |
Comments
I think the problem is that grace notes on piano are not played the same than flams on drums.
See http://musescore.org/en/node/4879 and Wikipedia
In reply to I think the problem is that by [DELETED] 5
Lasconic,
I followed-up with the Wikipedia article. As with all things music, there is interpretation there. I can see why the acciaccatura is programmed as it is, although the drummers treat it as the described "theoretically subtracting no time at all".
For me, that leaves me two options when writing percussion music:
1. Develop a snippet that places the acciatura type grace note in a 64th note position ahead of the principal note... I can certainly to that.
2. Alter the on/off note settings on the acciaccatura and the principal note to more closely match my desired interpretation. That is my preferred means, but I don't know what the on/off values represent: are they 64th notes, milliseconds, or something else. Also what is the on/off value set in relation to? The position of the principal note, previous/next note? If you could explain that or point me in the right direction that would be helpful.
Sincerely,
Mike S.
In reply to I think the problem is that by [DELETED] 5
The explanation in the Wikipedia article is specific to "Baroque/Western Classical" music (and by classical, they mean the limited period between baroque and romantic).
Outside of this era of music a grace note with a slash is usually before the beat and a grace note without a slash is usually on the beat. This is confirmed in Roger Evans, How to Read Music (London: Elm Tree Books, 1978), 77.
Is this the same as drums? My main instruments of study are trumpet and piano.
In reply to The explanation in the by David Bolton
David
The interpretation described by Evans is correct, and that appears to be what the program is actually doing. That interpretation of the grace note with the slash is consistent with how drummers typically play the note. Again, much of it depends on style, but the "modern" school of marching drumming is as quiet as possible, and as close as possible before the principal note. Studies of various other style will lead to many different interpretations, so I'm certain there is no one good fix for this.
Anyhow, I sat down and spent 4 hours yesterday experimenting with different combinations of grace notes... multiple staff, multiple voice, on/off note timing etc. A great way to spend the evening. If you have never spent four hours on grace notes, then I definitely recommend it.
What appears to be happening with the stuttering effect is NOT that the principal note is delayed... its that the note decay is cut off by the presence of the grace note. So, when the grace note is set for a 0 velocity, then that leaves a gap in the sound that makes the rhythm sound off.
In my 1/16th note pattern, I compensated for this by putting the grace note "on" at -30 (1/64th note) ahead of the beat, and the note PREVIOUS to the grace note off at 119 (1/16th note, minus 1 unit so the principal notes do not overlap). The seems to give the best result, although it is still not perfect. I'd love to know how the sythesizer interprets these commands. From my experimentation, it seems like the program does not want the same audio samples to overlap on the same staff (even when written in different voices). I don't think this is an issue with most of the other instruments (for example, I did some experimentation with clarinet, and no problems). It may be specific to the drum staff and the drum samples. When I tried this by splitting the 1/16th notes and the grace notes on their own staff, then there was no problem. Apparently there is not a conflict between the audio samples when they are placed on their own staff.
Gosh, I'm hoping some of this makes sense. I know the grace notes on the drum staff are probably the least significant conceiveable issue in the program right now, but if it gets on the radar for future versions then that would make a lot of people smile!
Sincerely,
Mike S.