Dear all,
In my last project I learned that sometimes you have to tweak a lot of Slurs, Ties, etc. to get a satisfying result.
Of course, in many cases the \shape #'() Slur function helps a lot.
My problem with this function is the dependency on Lilyponds automatic output.
If I want to change the paper-size or the staffsize, for example, the calculation of the curves in the automatic output changes
and many of my tweaks are useless.
You can always use tags to differentiate between various paper settings, but nevertheless you have to find the correct values again and again.
Additionally you have to engrave first to get an impression of the standard output, so that you can guess your \shape values.
Because of this points I wondered if you could just use a function relative to the "musical" anchor points of a curve (in most cases the NoteHead, i would guess).
\override control-points is relative to the center Staff-Line, but in many cases the center line is too far away from the curve position, which makes guessing a bit difficult.
So, basically you need two things to get a good looking curve without needing graphical feedback:
- offset relative to its anchor for start and end points
- offset relative to the straight line between start and end point for the two middle points
(that means you could ignore the rotation of a curve, which is already given by start and end point)
-> you have to convert these "rotated" offsets to standard x/y coordinates relative to start and end point (I'm currently working on a formula - should be no problem)
I think that this way tweaks to curves could be much more stable and the needed input values could be more easily guessed, so you wouldn't need that much trial & error...
Is there a way to set the anchor points for curves?
I thought of something like: (reference point; offset)
Maybe it could be useful for the middle points to switch between "offset relative to straight line" and standard x/y coordinates relative to start/end point
\override Slur.control-points = #'(NoteHead 0 . 0)(StartPoint rotated 0 . 0)(EndPoint standard 0 . 0)(Stem 0 . 0))
Probably I need some help with the scheme code for this function....
What do you think of this idea?
Yours,
musicus
shape curves middle control points.JPG