The Mixer (SHIFT+M) option opens Compose’s mixer interface. This can be used to independently adjust each staff’s level (in dBs) and pan. Each channel also has a solo and mute option as well.
The Volume fader to the far right is the main volume channel. This controls the overall volume output of your score. There is one Effect channel, as well that contains a reverb effect. The drop-down menu in this channel allows you to select the type of reverb sound you want and the fader controls the amount of reverb.
Please note that, except pan, all of the mixer settings will affect playback in the Practice app for assignments and shared documents.
The Playback options menu contains options to customize the playback of certain aspects of your document.
Expressive playback
Expressive playback is a feature that interprets the musical notation in your document and applies effects such as tempo changes, dynamics, and articulations to create a more lifelike and natural sound. It aims to capture the nuances of a real musical performance.
Click the Select preset button to open the Expressive Playback presets dialog box. This contains seven different playback presets based on musical styles that use a set of effects that accommodate playback of that style. A general description of the preset style and its effects settings can be found in the app. Also, in the dialog box you will find options to Remove current preset (only active when a preset has already been applied), and Apply/Reapply Preset.
Click Apply/Reapply preset, and Expressive Playback will analyze the notation for articulations, tempo markings and changes, slurs, and other performance techniques. Based on this, it will load an optimized set of Smart Instruments with proper samples, and also set tempo modifications, dynamics, and phrasing for the score. The dialog will close after this has completed.
Be aware that Expressive Playback interprets the music as it is written at the time it is applied, and making changes in the notation after this may require redoing the process.
Manual playback options
- Swing: This defines the swing value used for the start of the score and provides options for swing amount and duration. Note that swing can be turned off or its parameters adjusted, by way of a text expression, at any point in the score.
- Dynamics: The dynamics compression curve can be used to easily extend the range of dynamics (you can drag the two values up and down). The default value should suffice in most cases, but you can “boost” the dynamics for instance by setting the full range from 0% to 100%, or attenuate it for instance with 40 to 60%.
The default values of all dynamics are also defined here in terms of % of the full range of loudness. They apply to the whole score. The default intensity is also defined (in case of a score that has no nuances at all). Further down, the accents, hairpins and sforzando playback values are defined.
Dynamic playback values can be edited for each individual symbol placed in the score, through the property panel that appears once a symbol is selected. - Glissando, bend, and pitch symbols: Clicking the Enable all pitch effects option will turn on the playback effects for glissando Lines and Symbols that affect pitch, like bends, scoops, doits, and falloffs. Alternatively, clicking Disable all pitch effects will turn off all playback effects for these symbols and lines.
- Garritan sampler quality: These options specify how the Garritan sound library will be used. You can specify how many samples are loaded per octave, and if all velocity layers will be used. As samples need to be downloaded, increasing the quality may impact the loading time, specifically for scores with several instruments. The Enable range extension checkbox is used to enable notes that are normally outside the range of the instrument samples. These “extended” notes are played by pitch shifting of the closest existing sample for that instrument. The Load all samples button will update the loading of any missing sound sample after you modify the quality options.
- Rebuild playback: Click this button to re-initiate Compose’s audio engine to update any changes that were made with the playback settings.
The Sound Library menu allows you to access all the sounds available in Compose.
These are separated into two libraries: The Default instrument bank and Smart instruments. The default instrument bank is used when a staff is first created and Smart instruments are used by Expressive Playback. This library’s sounds contain more sample options for articulations and other playback techniques.
Custom Lanes
The Custom Lanes are a set of tools that display musical information with a visual representation much like a digital audio workstation (DAW) software would. These allow for controlling the playback parameters of the notation in specific ways based on the custom lane’s purpose.
To open the Custom Lanes, click the icon in the upper right corner. This will display the same icon at the beginning of each staff of your document. Clicking on the staff’s icon will open the Custom Lane selection menu and open the selected Custom Lane for that staff.
The available Custom Lanes are:
- Instruments – Allows for changing the staff’s instrument playback sound at specific locations. This works with drag-and-drop from the Sound Libraries panel. Click Playback, Sound Selection, then expand the libraries to a specific instrument and drag this to the lane. Playback of that sound will begin at that point in the music.
- Tempo - Shows a visual representation of the tempo that can be shaped with lines and curves between specific timeline segments.
- Playback, mute, solo, and scrubbing – this provides granular playback controls within each measure.
- Dynamics – Allows for controlling the dynamics percentage of the staff.
- Piano Roll – Displays the MIDI piano representation of the notes on the staff.
- Note Duration – Allows for adjusting the playback percentage of the relative note duration.
- Pitch Bend – Controls the amount of pitch bend (+ or - ) for a particular note.
- Track Volume – Automated mixer volume control for a staff’s playback.
- Track Pan - Automated mixer pan controls for a staff’s playback.
- Swing – The amount of swing playback applied to a particular section.
- Note time shift – Control the offset of a particular note relative to its beat position on the staff.
- Ornament note duration – Control the length of a particular note’s ornament playback.
- Transposition – Allows for transposing a particular note on the staff by half step increments.
- Note shape – This will show note shaping when it is created using the Expressive playback feature.
Depending on which lane you are using, the controls can vary for the lane's specific needs. Many lanes use the same tools for the same purpose.
- X – closes the current lane.
- Opens/Closes that lane for other instruments on the same system.
- Opens/Closes that lane on all systems for that instrument.
- Gear – opens the context menu for that lane. This can vary depending on the Custom lane that is open
- Pencil – will insert a point on the lane’s graph.
- Segment – a single click creates two points on the graph to create a slope or relative positioning of two points. They can then be moved independently.
- Bezier point – creates a point between two points of a segment to add a curve between those points.
- Delete – when selected clicking a point will delete it.
Playing the score
The Play icon starts the playback of the score. You can also start and stop playback with the spacebar.
The start measure of playback depends upon the context. Here are the rules:
- If the entry cursor is blinking, the playback starts in the measure that contains the cursor
- If a single note or rest is selected, the playback starts in that measure
- If a full measure (or more) is selected, the playback starts there
- If there is one or more objects selected, the playback starts there
- If none of the above conditions is present, the playback will start at measure 1 in page view, or at the first fully visible measure in scroll view.
The Pause icon pauses playback. The same icon, or the play icon, will resume playback.
The Stop icon stops playback.
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