NtEd - 0.23.1 - a new musical score editor for Linux

I'd like to express my admiration for the developers of the Cairo library. Cairo can antialiasing, curves, deal with PostScript fonts, and fill in areas independend of whether these areas are concave or convex. Without any change of the drawing instructions you can bring Cairo to draw in a widget, create a PostScript, PDF, PNG, or SVG file image. And if you compare the output: It is always exactly the same image! And it is fast, very fast! This is important because the WYSIWYG user expects an answer to a mouse event during approximately 50 ms. The WYSIWYG behaviour of NtEd bases completely on the properties of the Cairo library.


Download source: nted-0.23.1.tgz (1565 K)
new Debian packages 0.23.1      Thanks to Gilles Filippini <gilles.filippini at free.fr>

New in 0.23.0/1Import MIDI: mididemo
French GUI translation french_flag Thanks to Pierre Morin <adrpmym at yahoo.fr>
Italien documenation translation ital_flag Thanks to Mariano Marini <mariano.marini at alice.it>

See How to translate for instructions to prepare a translation for your preferred language.


Properties

  • Real WYSIWYG, i.e. what you see on screen is exactly what you get on printer output
  • Distribution of the musical symbols on pages and systems
  • (up to) 4 voices per staff
  • N-tuplets 1 < N < 14
  • repeats (with/without alternatives)
  • up to 5 lyrics lines
  • drum notes
  • grace notes
  • slurs
  • trills, pralls, mordent, staccato, tenuto, sforzando, ...
  • dynamics, (de-) crescendo (hairpins)
  • va8, vb8, ma15, mb15 - lines
  • accelerato, ritardando
  • fermata, arpeggio
  • piano pedal marks
  • block instructions
  • context change (key, clef, time signature change)
  • Internationalization: German gerflag, Dutch dutch_flag, Spanish spain_flag Italian italflag Swedish swed_flag Hungarian hung_flag
  • arbitrary text (allegro molto con brio)
  • import MusicXML
  • import NoteEdit (implicit)
  • system layout (braces, brackets)
  • direct replay, whereby: Configurable music instruments per staff
  • muting staves
  • export midi
  • import midi
  • export PostScript
  • Library usage as little as possible (Cairo, Gtk, X11, ALSA)
  • Note! Some more packages are needed for immediate help (see: Installation from source)
  • Antialiasing
  • simple installation tested on many Linuxes, i.e.:
    ./configure
    make
    make install

    works on all tested Linuxes
  • GPL

Note: For smooth replay a PC > 2.0 GHz is recommended. This holds especially if a soft synthesizer like TiMidity is used.

Planned

Documentation

EnglishGerman (Deutsche Dokumentation)
Download: doc.tgz (882 K) OnLine documentation Download: gerdoc.tgz (884 K) OnLine documentation
Italian documentation
OnLine documentation Download: itdoc.tgz (885 K)

If you want to translate the documentation into your preferred language Don't translate the HTML pages!!!. Please send an e-mail to me (ja@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de)! I'll show you a way to make a reuseable translation, which can grow with the growing original documentation.

FAQ

The FAQ is part of the TAR archive and the documentation.

Das deutsche FAQ findet man in der deutschen Dokumentation.

First test

To hear my examples use the soundfont mentioned here: http://alsa.opensrc.org/8MBGMSFX.SF2
For more information about how to use the SF2 file read the appropriate question in FAQ or read about the configuration of the TiMidity server

        File --> Open ... --> datafiles/nted/examples/example1.ntd
or:
        File --> Open ... --> datafiles/nted/examples/example2.ntd
or:
...
or:
        File --> Open ... --> datafiles/nted/examples/example11.ntd new

Press the play button. You should see running red notes and you should hear the music. If you hear the music the program works :-))

If not then try to change the MIDI port ( Configure-->Configure MIDI select a port)

If nothing helps refer to the appropriate question in FAQ.

How to translate

A translation requires to build NtEd "by hand" as described in installation section. If you want to prepare a translation for your preferred language then make sure the gettext package was present during configuration step. If not then install gettext and repeat the configuration step.

If there wasn't any translation for your preferred language before then change to po directory:

        cd nted-x.y.z/po

and make a copy of nted.pot:

        cp nted.pot <my_language_abbrivation>.po

whereby <my_language_abbrivation> is the abbrivation for your preferred language (de, fr, it, ...). Have a look at http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/English_list.php for more information. To be able to test your translation search for a line:

LINGUAS = de es nl it sv hu fr

in nted-x.y.z/po/Makefile and append your language abbrivation (without .po!).

If there is already an existing translation then <my_language_abbrivation>.po file already exists. This way you can complete/correct an existing translation.

Start KDE program kbabel and please do not forget the project settings:

      Project --> New ... (or) Configure ... -->     fill in your name, your email and so on.

Load <my_language_abbrivation>.po into kbabel. In the lower textarea write down a translation of every phrase you see in the upper textarea and save the file. If you don't know the translation of a phrase leave it empty. This phrase will be shown in English.

Note! There is a phrase:      "Translation: <no translation>"
This shall be translated into the destination language translation of:      "<language_name> translation by Bert Smith <b.smith@boll.info>"
For instance (German):      Deutsche Übersetzung von J.Anders <ja@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de>

Type in nted-x.y.z/po as root:

        make install

After restart of NtEd you sould see your new translation. If all is OK and you want others to participate your translation then send <my_language_abbrivation>.po to ja@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de. Thank you!

LICENSE

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/) for more details.

J.Anders, ja@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de
TU-Chemnitz