Splitting Recording Scores To Appropriate Clefs & Music Software

[spcover]

I've got a CVP-205 and love it.

My neighbor loves it, too. :p She's writing a musical and has a piano player who has been helping her with the musical score and the arrangements. (She has her own piano - Phew!)

But now they're at the point where they want to move their musical score to a printed format. They came to me to see if I could help. Their piano player came over to my house and we tried recording one of their songs. Our intention was to see if we could get a song into a midi format that they could then import into another program to print out their score.

Maybe you can give me some tips.

One - When we recorded a song, the CVP tended to bunch up a lot of the playing on the wrong clef, regardless of what hand was playing it. Most everything seems to be bunched up on the treble clef even if it were lower than middle C and hardly anything targetted to the bass clef.

Is there some way you can dictate a split on the keyboard where right hand is recorded to the treble clef and the left hand is recorded to the treble clef?

Does it even matter? Because it will be recorded to a midi file and put on a diskette for further use on a PC.

Two - once we do get something recorded to a midi file, what kind of cheap music software do you recommend for a PC for rearranging and printing of musical scores?

Any help wouldbe greatly appreciated.

Thanks much.

Sean

[jjm542]

"Two - once we do get something recorded to a midi file, what kind of cheap music software do you recommend for a PC for rearranging and printing of musical scores?"

You're getting into deep water here. There are many packages ranging from free to very expensive. Not surprisingly, the big expensive ones do a lot more. If your neighbor is planning to get her musical staged and the score played by professional musicians, you'll need one of the expensive variety. The two top contenders are Sibelius and Finale. Both cost in the hundreds of dollars and have steep learning curves (Finale more so.)

At the low end of the spectrum, you can get Finale Notepad free from their web site. I don't think the free version reads midi files but there is a cheap upgrade ($10 or so) that will. Finale has a family of products that add more capability at higher prices. I think the next step up from Notepad is PrintMusic, which isn't a bad place to start.

A score-printing program I like for casual use is MidiNotate (all of these places have web sites, try Google.) Its biggest advantage is that it doesn't "over-notate", cluttering up the score with 1/32 rests and similar stuff. I think about $30 online. Like most programs in this range it will split the midi stream into staffs (with varying degrees of success) and extract parts.

One thing you will quickly learn about is "quantization" which means the precision which which your performance is recorded. Just playing it into the Clavinova will give an expressive performance but when you come to notate it it'll look bad unless the player is superhuman about tempo. Quantization "rounds" everything to a specified duration, which makes the score more readable but loses expressivity. Compromises, compromises.

If your neighbor plans to use midi to play her score with synthesized instruments (Clavinova or otherwise) you'll probably want a program called a sequencer, which allows extensive manipulation of the midi stream. The notation programs do elementary sequencing but that's not their primary purpose. There are many sequencers of different prices and capabilities. Cakewalk has multiple packages of different prices and capabilities, many people like their products.

Good luck - ask your neighbor if you can post part of the score here when she's done!

[fredsmith99]

I often record songs onto Midi files and print them out on my computer using notation software -- Finale in my case.

Regarding the split point, this is normally handled by the notation software. There should be a parameter you can set which splits the right hand from the left hand. If you are using Finale, let me know and I can tell you where it is. The problem is this doesn't work for any song where one or both hands cross the split point.

A better way is to record each clef separately. This will also allow you to layer the right hand. This is a common notation system where the melody notes are stems up, and the accompanying chord notes are stems down.

Here are the steps you need:
1. Select the grand piano (this avoids the Clavinova offsetting the octave, adding harmony, etc. which is does with other voices)
2. Display the channels (Channel button).
3. Start new song (Rec + Top)
4. Record channel 1 (Rec + 1) ['Rec' will be displayed under 1]
5. Select the part you want recorded -- Main (Clavinova-speak for the right hand) is the default, so you don't have to do anything.
6. Turn the metronome on -- this is optional, but helps you stay on time.
7. Play the right hand.
8. Stop recording (Start/Stop button) - the flashing light goes out.
9. Rewind to the beginning (Top button)
10. Record channel 2 (Rec + 2)
11. Select the part to be recorded -- now Left is default
12. Play the left hand -- the Clavinova will play the play any pre-recorded parts along with you (in this case the right hand).
13. Stop recording

Repeat from 9 for any other parts.

Hope this helps

[steve_d_howard]

It is possible to record 2 hands at the same time. but its a bit fidly to do and you need to set where the left and right hand split on the piano, set both the left and right hands to the same instrument, make sure the left is not shifted up an octave and press the left button. Now when you record each hand (as long as they don't stray across the split point) will be recorded on a seperate chanel.
sorry I'm not near my cvp at the moment so if you want more precise instructions let me know
steve

[spcover]

I could swear that's what we tried and that it did not have the desired effect. There must be more to it. I'm confused about the concept of channels, as well.

I will give it another shot.

Sean

[fredsmith99]

Sean,

I tried Steve's instructions and they did work. Both the Clavinova and my notation software (Finale) displayed the the treble and bass clefs properly.

Post back if you are still having problems.

[Tommynyc]

I too noticed that all the notes were bunched up on the same clef when playing a piano track. After a lot of fiddling with the settings, I discovered an easy fix. In the Score section of the display, there is a setting that allows you to assign channels to the right and left hand parts. The default for each is set to "auto." Change each setting to channel 1. Then, when you record on channel (track) 1, the left and right hand parts will be displayed properly on the score.

Tom

[christo]

Originally posted by steve_d_howard
make sure the left is not shifted up an octave

This is where I'm getting stuck - how do you set the octave shift of the left part? I spent ages last night looking around, and it's still an octave too high in the left. Moving the split point was easy...

(apologies for digging up an old thread - my model is the CVP 309)

christo

[steve_d_howard]

You should be able to do it in the mixing console undere the tune tab/octave, although I'm sure I did it somewhere else last time.. also thats on a 205 so things may now be different.
good luck
Steve

[Ian J. Evans]

spcover/Sean

Re your need to print out midi music.

If you have time take a look at www.pgmusic.com

They have a very inexpensive sequencer program called Power Tracks Pro Audio (don't be put off by the word Audio).

You can try a demo and see if it fills your needs at this time.

Let us know how things work out.

Ian