NoteEdit - a music score editor
http://noteedit.berlios.de
===============================

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
---------------------------------
Q 1.
I wrote a MUP file but NoteEdit cannot read it.

Q 2.
Can NoteEdit print the score?

Q 3.
I can't hear any sound! I see the running red notes, but there is no sound!
What's wrong?

Q 4.
Why doesn't "latex export.tex" work right, if I use MusiXTeX export filter?

Q 5.
During configure I get an error: Cannot find >= Qt-2.2.2.

Q 6.
I get an error concerning apps/noteedit/resources:
"Can't find apps/noteedit/resources. Check your installation and $KDEDIR if set"

Q 7.
During file load an error concerning klauncher occurs:
"... Could not read network connection list. Please check that the 'dcopserver'
program is running!"
and: "can't talk to klauncher".

Q 8.
I loaded a .not file made with a previous NoteEdit version. It seems the the
first tempo signature appears in last instead of first staff. What shall I do?

Q 9.
I wrote a score with leading graces. But I can't hear them!

Q 10.
Something is wrong with lyrics spacing. The words overlap or the spacing between
words is to large!

Q 11.
I loaded a .not file made with a previous NoteEdit version. But the staff and
lyrics distances are wrong.

Q 12.
The replay works but it hangs during page turn over. What can I do ?

Q 13.
I cannot hear the sound although Kmidi works without any problem! What's wrong?

Q 14.
NoteEdit crashes after the output TSE3 ALSA MIDI scheduler created.

Q 15.
My whole Linux hangs if I try to start NoteEdit. I have to restart the system.



Answers:
--------
Q 1.
I wrote a MUP file but NoteEdit cannot read it.

A 1.
NoteEdit uses a similar file format as MUP. Files produced by NoteEdit should be
readable by MUP. But the contrary way failes in most cases as MUP is in most
cases more complex than the NoteEdit ones.


Q 2.
Can NoteEdit print the score?

A 2.
Not directly. A score is exported to a music typesetting file format (like
LilyPond, ABC or MusiXTeX) and the external typesetting programs take care of
the score layout and printing then. For details, please read the Export file
section in NoteEdit's Handbook.

Furthermore the NoteEdit storage format is close to the MUP
(http://www.arkkra.com/) format. Thus, most NoteEdit files are directly
MUP-able.


Q 3.
I can't hear any sound! I see the running red notes, but there is no sound!
What's wrong?

A 3.
First of all, try to play a MIDI file with kmid (not kmidi!) or pmidi (for ALSA
users). As long as kmid or pmidi doesn't produce any sound, NoteEdit (and any
other MIDI device based software) will not produce any sound too! The reason is:
Either your soundcard has no hardware MIDI synthesizer or it has a hardware MIDI
synthesizer but it is not supported by Linux.

Note!
-----
Don't be confused if you are able to hear MIDI files on Microsoft Windows. If
your soundcard has no hardware MIDI synthesizer, Windows automatically starts a
software which converts the MIDI data into WAV (PCM) data in real time. Such
software exists in Linux world too (TiMidity, FluidSynth). However, the main
problem is the soundfont (MIDI orchestra), which usually isn't free, so it's not
included and configured in major Linux distros by default. For details about
setting up the TiMidity server, see README!


Q 4.
Why doesn't "latex export.tex" work right, if I use MusiXTeX export filter?

A 4.
NoteEdit doesn't export an ordanary Latex file! It exports MusiXTeX file.
Although there are even some examples on the web, how Latex somehow correctly
(eg. right margin is not there) chews a MusiXTeX file, please invoke "musixtex"
directly or "pmx" for producing a postscript/pdf using MusiXTeX.


Q 5.
During configure I get an error: Cannot find >= Qt-2.2.2.

A 5.
Debian users (and maybe some other distros) should include a
--with-qt-includes=<path_to_qt_includes> parameter when invoking the configure
script. Qt includes are normaly found in /usr/include/qt3/ for Qt3.

A 5.
Qt libraries compiled with g++-2.x are not compatible or linkable with an
application being compiled with g++-3.x or g++-4.x! If this is the case, you are
forced to recompile the Qt and KDE (takes a few days!) with the newer compiler.


Q 6.
I get an error concerning apps/noteedit/resources:
"Can't find apps/noteedit/resources. Check your installation and $KDEDIR if set"

A 6.
Please install NoteEdit (make install)! If you'd like to run a local version of
NoteEdit, there is a shell script that should place the files and links
correctly to the NoteEdit top directory:
 $ cd <path>/noteedit-2.8.1
 $ ./admin/locinst.sh

Then set the environment variable KDEDIRS to noteedit top directory by invoking:
 - using (t)csh: setenv KDEDIRS <path_to_noteedit-2.8.1_direcory>
 - using other shell: export KDEDIRS=<path_to_noteedit-2.8.1_direcory>

Now, you can run NoteEdit with:
 $ cd noteedit
 $ ./noteedit  [<file>.not]


Q 7.
During file load an error concerning klauncher occurs:
"... Could not read network connection list. Please check that the 'dcopserver'
program is running!"
and: "can't talk to klauncher".

A 7.
You use NoteEdit outside KDE and the KDE binaries are not in your PATH. Add the
KDE binaries to your PATH!
If this doesn't help, clean up some temporary DCOP files manually:
 $ rm /tmp/.ICE-unix/*
 $ rm $HOME/.DCOPserver_*


Q 8.
I loaded a .not file made with a previous NoteEdit version. It seems the the
first tempo signature appears in last instead of first staff. What shall I do?

A 8.
Yes, there is a slight version incompatibility concerning .not files
before <---> after 1.18.2. Please correct this and store the file. Now
the tempo signature should be at correct place. We apologize for the
inconvenience.


Q 9.
I wrote a score with leading graces. But I can't hear them!

A 9.
Please avoid leading graces! Leading graces have a negative start time, so
you'll never hear them. Try inserting an empty measure before them. This should
resolve the problem.


Q 10.
Something is wrong with lyrics spacing. The words overlap or the spacing between
words is to large!

A 10.
We don't know what's wrong! It has to do with font management of your X11
system. Try to change in
noteedit/chord.cpp near line 97:
#if QT_VERSION >= 300
#define LYRICSWIDTH_FAC(x) ((int) (1.5 * x))
#else
#define LYRICSWIDTH_FAC(x) (x)
#endif

with (if the spacing is to small):
#define LYRICSWIDTH_FAC(x) ((int) (1.5 * x))

or with (if the spacing is too large):
#define LYRICSWIDTH_FAC(x) (x)

Note that in the first case, you can increase a factor 1.5 if you still aren't
satisfied with the words spacing.


Q 11.
I loaded a .not file made with a previous NoteEdit version. But the staff and
lyrics distances are wrong.

A 11.
The meaning of the overlength, underlength and lyricsdist parameters has changed
in version 1.11.0. Please edit the ".not" files and multiply the distance values
by 3. Or load every ".not" file and correct the values using the staff
properties dialog.


Q 12.
The replay works but it hangs during page turn over. What can I do ?

A 12.
If you use a software midi synthesizer like TiMidity server, please start them
as root and increase its priority. This way the priority ot the TiMidity process
increases.

Use the following command in this case:
 # timidity --realtime-priority=100 -iA -B2,8 -Os1l -s 44100

Note!
-----
This can lead to operating system problems if your CPU is to slow! If so, then
try to decrease the priority and/or the frequency:
 # timidity --realtime-priority=60 -iA -B2,8 -Os1l -s 22050

Unfortunately, the context view is a very time consuming issue. If the above
doesn't help, turn off the context view (minimize the main window or switch to
another workspace).


Q 13.
I cannot hear the sound although Kmidi works without any problem! What's wrong?

A 13.
This is usually the case. It would have been more surprising, if Kmid worked and
NoteEdit wouldn't! Kmidi first converts the MIDI data into PCM (WAV) data. Then
it plays the sound via PCM (not MIDI) device. You can check this by playing the
sound with Kmidi and handle the volume of PCM channel and then the MIDI (if any)
channel in your sound mixer. The MIDI channel shouldn't effect on Kmidi playing
volume. You can find some more information in A 3 above.


Q 14.
NoteEdit crashes after the output TSE3 ALSA MIDI scheduler created.

A 14.
In most cases it has nothing to do with NoteEdit itself. It has to do with your
ALSA sound system or more precisely, with your ALSA module parameters in
/etc/modules.conf. To clarify this, try the TSE3 test program tse3play. First
determine the available ports:
 $ tse3play -list

Or if this doesn't work:
 $ tse3play -list <file>.mid

Then, on every available MIDI port try to play the MIDI file:
 $ tse3play -port <port file>.mid

, until you hear the music or it crashes. If it crashes it is clear that your
ALSA sound system is the reason why. Please contact ALSA
(http://www.alsa-project.org) development team and report your hardware
configuration and a possible solution to our mailing list
(noteedit-devel@berlios.de).

If nothing mentioned above helped, you can as an interim solution disable the
NoteEdit ALSA sequencer by running NoteEdit with --noalsa parameter.

Note!
-----
NoteEdit uses the so-called ALSA-OSS emulation when using OSS as the only sound
system (--noalsa parameter). The ALSA-OSS emulation doesn't support the read
direction from the MIDI device. Therefore, reading and recording from MIDI
keyboard isn't possible.

A 14.
Remove ALSA and use the pre-ALSA sound modules!

A 14.
You don't have any correctly configured sound device or NoteEdit is badly
compiled. This can easily be detected if that's the case:
 $ tse3play -list

Or it this doesn't work:
 $ tse3play -list <file>.mid

If this doesn't report any devices, a bad NoteEdit compilation could be the
reason. Try to re-compile NoteEdit and make sure the -fexecptions option is set
during compilation of midimapper.cpp and tse3handler.cpp (add it to MakeFile).


Q 15.
My whole Linux hangs if I try to start NoteEdit. I have to restart the system.

A 15.
It is impossible (except if there's a bug in ALSA driver) that a program which
runs in user space stops Linux (except the swap overflow, which has nothing to
do with this). Even if the program has tons of bugs, tt has to to with you ALSA
module and/or module parameters. Unfortunately, we can't help you in this case.
Please contact ALSA developers (http://www.alsa-project.org)! As an interim
solution you can start NoteEdit without creating an ALSA MIDI scheduler:
 $ noteedit --noalsa

Note!
-----
NoteEdit uses the so-called ALSA-OSS emulation when using OSS as the only sound
system (--noalsa parameter). The ALSA-OSS emulation doesn't support the read
direction from the MIDI device. Therefore, reading and recording from MIDI
keyboard isn't possible.

A 15.
Remove ALSA and use the pre-ALSA sound modules!

