#107 Notation view: chromatic insert mode

[Mark Edgington]

Currently, you permit inserting of notes either in "no
accidental", sharp, flat, ... modes. I am wondering if
you could have a mode which is chromatic, so that all
notes could be reached simply by dragging the new note
to the desired place. In other words, when in insert
mode, if I drag a new note up the scale, it will not
hit only non-accidental (or sharp, etc.) notes, but it
will hit every note.

[William]

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Are you referring to using the enharmonic cycle of
accidentals? I made a suggestion on rg-devel sometime in
June to use it for the Up/Down arrow semitone adjustments of
the pitch of a selected note or chord. It's logged as RFE
987951
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=987951&group_id=4932&atid=354932.
I think it would be a good idea to make it also work for
dragging the pitch up or down, e.g. if you drag a pitch up
or down while holding down a modifier key like Shift, the
drag becomes a "chromatic drag". Would this cover your
suggestion?

[Chris Cannam]

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See also #1038271: chromatic drag and/or mouse accidentals

https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=354932&aid=1038271&group_id=4932

[Mark Edgington]

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Just thought I'd write a little follow-up comment. It seems that this feature is still unimplemented. I understand that there may be other priorities, but I think that this is an important usability feature. If the original summary is not clear enough, I will re-state it: In the notation view, there is a toolbar with 7 different note-types on it ("no accidental", "follow previous accidental", "sharp", "flat", "natural", "double-sharp", and "double-flat"). Selecting one of these affects the kinds of notes which can be added by clicking and dragging on the staff. I would suggest adding one more "note-type" to the toolbar: "chromatic". This would make it so that there is no limit on the set of notes that can be "reached" when clicking/dragging on the staff. As you drag a note upwards, it could start, for example, at C, then move to D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, ... Perhaps by default, the accidentals which are 'reached' in this sequence of notes could be set to always be sharps or always be flats.

From a useability standpoint, this is important, because it is a lot of work when working on a score to have to constantly switch modes in order to change the set of notes one is able to add or change other notes to. Having a 'chromatic' mode will eliminate this mode-switching when one wants only to quickly change or create measures.