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I just viewed the Development pages. I have a simple suggestion based on what I saw on Page 3, Toolbars. You have a means to enter time signatures (key signatures and tempos too?) with starting and ending measure numbers. Why not add a “Next Section” action button that populates the next starting measure number with one measure greater that the current ending measure, And maybe does something with the ending measure number as well. And while we’re about it, provide an action button to put “Last Measure” in the ending number box, and an alarm warn user if he/she tries to put something greater there.
It seems that coding to add these capabilities, as well as action buttons for them, shouldn’t be a difficult task.
Ted David, Hyattsville MD
I just saw the change from “Coming this Winter” to “Coming this Summer” on the splash page. To an optimist like me, that’s great news. It means (to me at least) that Don can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanks, Mike. I am using Encore 5.07 on a Windows 11 PC with an M-Audio MIDISport 4×4 as my MIDI interface to a pair of XRDRs.
I have since figured out what happened: the X5DR did not map the edited drum sounds to the 8va stated on its display. For example, C3 actually played when I played C0 on my MIDI controller keyboard. So, simply had to play the notes three octaves lower than what I had intended for them to be.
So, you might ask, why do I still use these old synth modules? Two reasons: first, they have excellent sounding Latin percussion kits (I write a lot of Latin music) and instrument sounds in general and second, it’s an easy interface to set up with Encore, Sibelius, Finale and Sonar, which are in my tool bag.
In Encore 5, only a single drum map is allowed, named “drmap0.ini”, so, if you write for symphonic, big band, rock band, latin, and world ensemble – each using different drums – every time you need to switch to a new map, you have to rename the current drum map and rename the one you now need to “drmap0.ini”. Plus,the drum map editor dialog no longer allows you to change which line or space a drum appears on in Encore 5. In order to edit a drum map, you have to exit Encore, use a text editor, and know the coded for Stem, Position and Head. Plus you have to check the entire map to ensure that the drum you’ve just changed doesn’t conflict with another drum.
Why am I waiting for Encore 6? I have literally hundreds of Encore 5 and Encore 4 files. Among those are a set of original compositions, especially a musical revue, that the musicians in my band have been talking about recording piecemeal, with MIDI parts taking the place of as-yet-unrecorded tracks, but with better sounding sampled than we’re available with Encore 5. I would use a different notation program to proceed, but the .mid and .mxml files from Encore 5 are not readable by other programs. So my project is on hold, awaiting a new release of Encore. Hopefully it will read prior version files. And in general, if I could get better sounding playback of my original music, I could do things to market it more easily. All of this could be achieved by exporting it to a DAW or other program with more realistic samples.
Andre,
I stopped using it (ver 5) because it frequently crashed under Windows 10. Plus the drum map feature was key to my writing for Latin Percussion as well as standard drum set and orchestral percussion. Version 5 lost that ability and the work around – changing the name of some drmapN.ini to drmap0.ini and renaming the one I didn’t want to use – all before starting Encore. A pain in the butt.
The final straw came when I started teaching Music Theory in a local high school and my options were Sibelius and Finale: Encore wasn’t in the picture. So, reluctantly, I have started using these other programs.
TDinDC
