Distinguishable notes for 'selected' and 'follow score'

[aupfred]

Yes, it could be a useful feature to add. It would be a lot easier if it were only for consecutive notes in a single voice. And colouring of notes needs to be considered: 'selected' and 'follow score' notes should preferably be distinguishable. (At the moment 'follow score' does not work when playing a selection.)

Originally posted by @revad in #103

[aupfred]

@revad Just upload an implementation proposal for this aspect.
If you want a try I can provide with a diff file on top of what is already present in c9e24a4

I'll review the changes mainly against what I did also for #103

Let me know if you have any issue

[revad]

So that provides for 2 colours:

1. notes selected (either directly on the score via a single click on a note or by drawing a rectangle round multiple notes) or on the ABC editor by swiping across the ABC.
2. follow score notes

Perhaps the colours should have greater contrast? (Personally I think I'd use white for (2) so that the notes blink off, but that's a user's choice.)

The main advantage of that will be seen if we get follow-score to work when playing a selection, when both colours appear and interact. You can see the effect by drawing a rectangle round just 2 notes and clicking play: 2 notes is not enough to play as a selection. (I wondered why not in #90, but whatever the reason I don't think it's a problem. )

[aupfred]

Hi @revad ,
Isn't follow score working for you with the changes?
At least here it worked.

Just for now the first note highlighted, when playback is started, is the wrong one.

[revad]

Follow score, with the new colour, works for me when playing the whole tune, but not when playing a selection.
I have versions of easy_abc.py, music_score_panel.py, and svrenderer.py from the jwdj repo with changes for python13, and your changes for #99 #100 #103 #109 Maybe I have missed a necessary change.

I don't think follow-score when playing a selection has ever worked for me, but I'm not sure. I mentioned it at the top of #77 .

midi2abc version 3.58 December 09 2022

[revad]

I don't think follow-score when playing a selection has ever worked for me, but I'm not sure. I mentioned it at the top of #77 .

I should have qualified that. I couldn't tell whether follow score worked, of course, because the colours were the same. Anyway, the second colour doesn't show now when playing a selection.

[aupfred]

Hi revad,

Can you please confirm the OS you are testing and also the File settings. Typically if you set something in the MIDI player then follow score is disabled.
For information, I've done some test here in a Debian installation in virtualbox and it is working.

[revad]

This is OpenSuSE Tumbleweed and xfce and I'm running EasyABC under Python 3.13.
I just did a cold restart, so all settings are default.
Nothing in MIDI player and it's using fluidsynth and pulseaudio:

david@localhost:~/projects/easyabc/easyabc_20250111> python3.13 easy_abc.py
fluidsynth: Using PulseAudio driver
fluidsynth: warning: Failed to set thread to high priority

(easy_abc.py:5853): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:27:18.025: Failed to fetch network locations: The specified location is not mounted

Here are the settings as displayed by EasyABC:

abc2abc_path => /usr/bin/abc2abc
abc2midi_path => /usr/bin/abc2midi
abcm2ps_botmargin => 1.00
abcm2ps_clean => False
abcm2ps_defaults => True
abcm2ps_ignore_ends => False
abcm2ps_leftmargin => 1.78
abcm2ps_no_lyrics => False
abcm2ps_number_bars => False
abcm2ps_pageheight => 27.94
abcm2ps_pagewidth => 21.59
abcm2ps_path => /usr/bin/abcm2ps
abcm2ps_refnumbers => False
abcm2ps_rightmargin => 1.78
abcm2ps_scale => 0.75
abcm2ps_topmargin => 1.00
author => 
auto_refresh => True
barfly => True
bassvol => 96
bpmtempo => 120
can_draw_sharps_and_flats => True
chordvol => 96
follow_score => True
gchord => default
gs_path => /usr/bin/gs
is_maximized => True
melodyvol => 96
midi2abc_path => /usr/bin/midi2abc
midi_chord_program => 24
midi_intro => 0
midi_program => 0
midi_program_ch1 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch10 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch11 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch12 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch13 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch14 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch15 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch16 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch2 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch3 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch4 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch5 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch6 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch7 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch8 => [0, 96, 64]
midi_program_ch9 => [0, 96, 64]
midiplayer_parameters => 
midiplayer_path => 
nodynamics => False
nofermatas => False
nograce => False
perspective => layout2|name=tb2;caption=Toolbar2;state=67379904;dir=1;layer=10;row=0;pos=0;prop=100000;bestw=1334;besth=38;minw=-1;minh=-1;maxw=-1;maxh=-1;floatx=-1;floaty=-1;floatw=-1;floath=-1;notebookid=-1;transparent=255|name=tune preview;caption=Musical score;state=402655164;dir=1;layer=0;row=0;pos=0;prop=100000;bestw=200;besth=280;minw=-1;minh=-1;maxw=-1;maxh=-1;floatx=-1;floaty=-1;floatw=-1;floath=-1;notebookid=-1;transparent=255|name=tune list;caption=Tune list;state=268437376;dir=4;layer=1;row=0;pos=0;prop=100000;bestw=265;besth=80;minw=-1;minh=-1;maxw=-1;maxh=-1;floatx=-1;floaty=-1;floatw=-1;floath=-1;notebookid=-1;transparent=255|name=abc editor;caption=ABC code;state=134219648;dir=5;layer=0;row=0;pos=0;prop=100000;bestw=200;besth=100;minw=40;minh=40;maxw=-1;maxh=-1;floatx=-1;floaty=-1;floatw=-1;floath=-1;notebookid=-1;transparent=255|name=abcassist;caption=ABC assist;state=67110844;dir=4;layer=1;row=0;pos=1;prop=100000;bestw=300;besth=600;minw=-1;minh=-1;maxw=-1;maxh=-1;floatx=-1;floaty=-1;floatw=-1;floath=-1;notebookid=-1;transparent=255|dock_size(1,10,0)=40|dock_size(1,0,0)=289|dock_size(4,1,0)=297|dock_size(5,0,0)=202|
recentfiles => /home/david/Documents/concertina/abc/easyABC_files/parting-glass.abc|
record_bpm => 70
record_metre => 3/4
reduced_margins => True
score_zoom => 1000
searchfolder => /home/david/.EasyABC
show_abc_assist => True
tempo => 100
transposition => 0
tune_col_widths => [37, 258]
tuning => 440
typing_assistance_active => True
typing_assistance_add_bar => False
typing_assistance_add_bar_auto => True
typing_assistance_add_note_durations => False
typing_assistance_add_right => True
typing_assistance_auto_case => False
typing_assistance_do_re_mi => False
version => 1.3.8.7
window_height => 999
window_width => 1280
window_x => 0
window_y => 0
xml_b => 0
xml_c => 0
xml_d => 0
xml_n => 0
xml_p => 
xml_u => 0
xml_v => 0
xmlcompressed => False
xmlmidi => False
xmlunfold => False
zoom => 0

Binaries - these are from the only ABCmidi package for OpenSuSE TW that I can find. I don't think OpenSuSE is a common distro for music stuff. This may be the problem if it works with later versions.

abc2abc version 2.18 June 14 2022 abc2abc
abc2midi version 4.80 December 30 2022 abc2midi
abcm2ps-8.14.15 (2024-01-08)
midi2abc version 3.58 December 09 2022

Using this tune for a change:

X:1
T:The Parting Glass
M: C
%%MIDI program 22
K:Em
"Em"(BA)| G2 E2 E2 (DE)|G2 G2 "D"A2 (GA)|B2"Em"B2 (BA) (GA)|B2 D2"D"D2 (BA)|\
G2 E2"Em"E2 (DE)|G2 G2 "D"A2 (GA)|B2"Em"e2 "D"(dB) (AB)|"Em"G2 E2 E2 B2|
"G"(dB) (de) d2 B2|(dB) (de) d2 B2|"Am"c2 B2 (BA) (GA)|"G"B2 D2 D2 (BA)|\
"Em"G2 E2 E2 (DE)| G2 G2 "D"A2 (GA)| "Em"B2 e2 "D"(dB) (AB)|"Em"G2 E2 E2 |>|

It will play the whole tune and follow the score in the second (red) colour.
I can highlight a selection (orange) but it does not follow in red.

[aupfred]

OK, need to redo tests.
Maybe the differences comes from the fact, I'm testing with a version slighltly different than yours because of the work I'm doing on other issues.
Will retest.

Just in case, can you try to:

• Take a tune that does not fit in the score view
• select a part
• Move the score view so that part is not completely in the view
• Start the play

To verify whether it is only related to highlighting or more global.

[revad]

If the selected part is not in view in the score pane, it plays but does not scroll it into view.

Playing the full tune does scroll it into view - and follow.

[aupfred]

I haven't tested opensuse for now. I'll see to build a virtual machine and verify it.
I'll start from the Network ISO and then will try. Given feedback from others I'm currently installing Linux Mint 22.1 (was before only testing on Debian on top of macOS)

[aupfred]

For now able to have it working on mac (Python 3.13.1), Debian (python 3.11) and LinuxMint (Python 3.12).
At least I had the follow score with the additional color working also when playing a selection

[revad]

I reapplied the changes in c9e24a4 to the updated snapshot, now also including the changes for #103. No difference - it will not follow when playing a selection.

I tried it on Win11, default settings. The same. FWIW the versions of the binaries I have on Windows 11 are:
abc2abc version 2.21 Feb 19 2024 abc2abc
abc2midi version 4.91 March 02 2024 abc2midi
abcm2ps-8.14.13 (2022-01-29)
midi2abc version 3.59 February 08 2023 midi2abc

Are the versions of any of these too old? I could probably find updated versions somewhere which is not so easy for SuSE. (I don't have development packages on this SuSE TW machine, and I don't have up to date Python on my SuSE Leap development machine.)

What else could be different?