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Thread: Colored notes in TablEdit

  1. #1
    Orrig Onion HonketyHank's Avatar
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    Default Colored notes in TablEdit

    I have a tef file downloaded from mandozine.com that has a lot of red colored notes in the onscreen display. I have no idea what the significance of those colored notes is, nor have I any idea how to make them black.

    The file options say that duration errors are to be colored red, but these are not duration errors. The options also do not include a checkmark in the box for "Print colored notes".

    So my questions are:
    1: What is the significance in this particular file of red-colored notes?
    2: How to make some notes colored and some not colored as per whatever my preference might be?

    Here is the file:
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pS...jl1eUa1k-5ZzPH
    (the Shartel version of Redhaired Boy)

    The link points to my google drive. It looks like mandozine.com is down again. Luckily, I downloaded the TablEdit library a few months ago.
    New to mando? Click this link -->Newbies to join us at the Newbies Social Group.

    Just send an email to rob.meldrum@gmail.com with "mandolin setup" in the subject line and he will email you a copy of his ebook for free (free to all mandolincafe members).

    My website and blog: honketyhank.com

  2. #2
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Colored notes in TablEdit

    It’s not notes, lower than the G, that are too low to be played on the mandolin fretboard?
    You can get those to re appear by highlighting (just them) and upping the pitch by one octave?

  3. #3
    Registered User sblock's Avatar
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    Default Re: Colored notes in TablEdit

    TablEdit colors notes red as a warning when the measure they're in contains one or more DURATION ERRORs. For example, if you have a measure of 4/4 filled with exactly 8 eighth notes, and you decide to tell TablEdit place a dot on one of those eighth notes, then the note will turn red. That's because the total time for playing that measure is now too long: you've added the equivalent of a 1/16th note to the measure. If your tab has lots of red notes displayed, then the person who wrote that tab almost certainly did some things wrong, because the measures are formed improperly!

    Sometimes, however, folks will use the TablEdit instruction to let a note "ring" (an 'R' with bars above and below it). Applying this effect may also cause the note to turn red, since (strictly speaking) it might ring beyond the measure it's in, or beyond the next note to be performed. In such cases, just ignore the red.

    You can easily turn duration error warnings off by selecting File|Options|Screen|Duration Errors -- just uncheck the red box. I don't recommend doing that, though, since duration errors (except for the use of ringing notes) are genuine musical errors that require correction. They can be fixed by adding rests, correctly selecting note values, changing time signatures, and so on.

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  5. #4
    Registered User sblock's Avatar
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    Default Re: Colored notes in TablEdit

    Here you are, HonketyHank! I fixed a number of errors in the tab you referenced above. The person (Shartel?) who first transcribed it didn't use repeats for some reason (don't know why) for the A and B parts, which each get repeated, as usual in a fiddle tune. I fixed that redundancy using TableEdit's "Reading List" capability. This makes the tab a whole lot shorter! All the red notes that you saw before (all duration errors) have been expunged, too. No duration errors flagged. Also, the original transcription used a guitar capoed on the 12th fret, rather than a mandolin module, to get the right GDAE notes. Now fixed. Finally, "Red-Haired Boy" is a modal tune in the key of A, so it has only two sharps, and not three (the F note is natural). So I fixed that, too, in the tab & notation. I also fixed one or two small remaining duration errors. Otherwise, it's all the same notes as the original tab. Enjoy!!

    Click on this to download the TEF file:

    RedHairedBoy2-A-Trad-fixed.tef
    Last edited by sblock; Nov-06-2019 at 7:17pm.

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  7. #5
    Orrig Onion HonketyHank's Avatar
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    Default Re: Colored notes in TablEdit

    OK. So I tried to follow exactly the procedure you outlined. I end up with the attached. Note that all the red colored notes are still there. And I do not see a single 'duration error' in any of them. What am I missing?
    RedHairedBoy2-A-HHS.tef
    New to mando? Click this link -->Newbies to join us at the Newbies Social Group.

    Just send an email to rob.meldrum@gmail.com with "mandolin setup" in the subject line and he will email you a copy of his ebook for free (free to all mandolincafe members).

    My website and blog: honketyhank.com

  8. #6
    Orrig Onion HonketyHank's Avatar
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    Default Re: Colored notes in TablEdit

    Oh, man. I found a way to get the red notes back to black -
    1. put the cursor on a red note.
    2. make sure the duration value button for the default note duration is set to the duration value of the note where the cursor is.
    3. hit the delete key to replace it with a rest.
    4. put the note back by hitting the enter key if you are in the music staff or by entering the fret number if you are in the tab staff.
    5. the note is now black.

    sblock, I still don't understand how those notes got to be red to begin with because I can't find any duration errors in original file. But deleting them and then putting them back seems to work. And I don't know how you got most of the red notes to turn black without deleting them and re-entering.

    Anyway, I can live with red notes one way or the other. I think this is just another one of those quirks with TablEdit. Which may answer my first question. And I think the answer to my second question is that you can't just arbitrarily make any given note pink or orange or red or whatever.
    New to mando? Click this link -->Newbies to join us at the Newbies Social Group.

    Just send an email to rob.meldrum@gmail.com with "mandolin setup" in the subject line and he will email you a copy of his ebook for free (free to all mandolincafe members).

    My website and blog: honketyhank.com

  9. #7
    Registered User sblock's Avatar
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    Default Re: Colored notes in TablEdit

    I'm not sure quite what to make of your last two messages. I guess I don't understand your issue. I already fixed all the red notes (duration errors) for you in the file I that attached for you in post #4. Did you load my file into TablEdit and look at it? You shouldn't have seen any red notes! Your post #5 still has lots and lots of red notes, and so I don't know what you based it on -- nor what you might have done wrong. Why don't you just use the file I corrected for you, I wonder, instead of persisting with the flawed one?

    FWIW, TablEdit will often attempt connect quarter notes with beams (in 4/4), even if the note values are WRONG to start with, because you placed those quarter notes at the eighth-note positions within the measure. TablEdit uses the note spacing and placement in each measure for its timing information, so you can't place quarter notes just anywhere you like. And when there's a conflict between the selected note value (place your cursor on it and see what's highlighted in the Note Palette) and the position within the measure, TablEdit will flag a duration error and color the note red. That is probably what's happening. It looks like the file you've based this on is from an old version of TablEdit (back before they even had mandolin modules), so who knows what problems/issues it might have? Just delete all the bad notes and move on, I say! Or get another, better tab to work from. Some of those Mandozine tabs are, unfortunately, rife with errors.

    It's no real surprise that deleting all the bad notes and replacing them with a good ones will fix the problem. :-)

    Now, on to your other question:

    Actually, I have also discovered that you CAN make the notes adopt certain particular colors onscreen, although I never do this myself. And you can print ranges of notes in specific colors (but who wants this feature, I wonder?). Select File|Options|Advanced and then check the box marked "Print Colored notes..." and then OK. You can also adjust the color palette used for this color-note printing. If the palette has only one color, then ALL notes will assume that color. You may have to save the file and restart TablEdit to see the coloring onscreen. You can also use the Print Preview mode to see the colors before printing, if you like.

    P.S. I just tried this, making all colors in the color pallette be purple. Sure enough, I managed to get all notes onscreen to appear in purple. It works.
    Last edited by sblock; Nov-06-2019 at 10:17pm.

  10. #8
    Orrig Onion HonketyHank's Avatar
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    Default Re: Colored notes in TablEdit

    sblock, I do appreciate the work that you did to correct the original. To rephrase what my original questions were:

    In the original file, I didn't and still don't understand why those notes were red, because they most obviously were not duration errors. I assumed that their color indicated something, but it couldn't be duration errors, so what did they indicate? Heck, they might just be the ghosts of old bugs from TablEdit past, in which case they may not represent anything meaningful at all. On the other hand, if the original transcriber purposely decided to make those particular notes red, then hey that's neat, I didn't know you could do that so I followed up with question #2, ie, how did he/she do it?

    And if it the whole thing is just another one of those interesting "features" of TablEdit, well, I am happy to just smile, shake my head, an just say Hank, you silly old fool, why do red notes bug just because they are red? Get over it, Hank. They're red because they're red. And you know how to make them black now if you really can't stand red.

    So thanks for your help.
    New to mando? Click this link -->Newbies to join us at the Newbies Social Group.

    Just send an email to rob.meldrum@gmail.com with "mandolin setup" in the subject line and he will email you a copy of his ebook for free (free to all mandolincafe members).

    My website and blog: honketyhank.com

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