NOTE: Play any examples on a starbuck harp at tempo 120 unless stated otherwise
"Help! I tried 'Copy for Clanlord' in CLTH, and it told me my song is too long! What can I do?"
It's /Part to the rescue!!!
The following paragraph is an in-depth description of how /part works, a wild hypothesis on my part. It may be completely wrong. If you don't care about that, and just want to know how to use part, skip the next paragraph.
Most CL commands can only handle strings of 500 characters or less. i.e. If you try to say something longer than 500 characters (letters, spaces, numbers, etc.), it will get cut off not only in your speech bubble, but also in your text log. This is important because it means that any song which was longer than 500 characters would be unplayable, as it would get cut off. However, if you break your song up into small enough chunks you can get it to play.
"Yay, that's all lovely, but how can I use it?"
Well, there's a few steps:
1) Stick the whole song in CLTH and try 'Copy for Clanlord' in the edit menu. If it doesn't give you an error message, then great! Switch to a text editor, and hit 'paste.' Now all you need to do is copy that into the CL window when you want to play your song. But if you're reading this, you'll probably end up looking at a window that says "Sorry, this tune is too big. It wouldn't play properly in ClanLord. You need to remove [x] character(s) out of it. Comments don't count." The [x] is the important part, because it tells you by how many characters you're over. If it's less than about 480, you'll need to split your song in half. Paste your song into a text file (I use TextEdit or SimpleText), select a spot roughly in the middle, and add a few returns there, to divide the song into two obvious parts. If it's 480-980 you'll need 3 parts, so paste it into a text file and chop it into thirds. Etc., etc., etc. CLTH actually overestimates the number of notes you can 'safely' play, because /use counts /tempo number and any /with names into the 500 char limit. Over about 480-490, you're pushing it.
(Note: It really doesn't matter how you divide up the parts of your song. As long as the segments are short enough and the song still plays in CLTH, it should be fine.)
2) Now that you've divided up your song, do the following steps for each segment individually:
i) Copy the segment into an empty CLTH window. You can leave the tempo at 120. It's better to use @ to set your piece's tempo, anyway.
ii) Choose 'Copy for ClanLord' under the edit menu. If you get an error message, your part is probably too long. Divide your song up into (more) shorter parts.
iii) Switch back to the text editor, open a new window (to keep yourself organized) and hit 'paste.' The song segment should appear, preceeded by /use and, if you've set CLTH to a tempo other than 120 (naughty you!), /tempo.
iv) If this segment is NOT the last segment of the song, add "/part" to the command, between /use and the notes of the song. The important thing is that you add /part to the commands of all the segments except the last.
v) Once you've done all those steps for the first segment, do the same for the next segment, pasting it into the text document below the first one. Just remember to keep your /parts in order, otherwise your song will sound messed up. :)
For example, if your song is three parts long and is at tempo 160, your finished, /part-ed version will look something like this:
/use /part [1st part's notes]
/use /part [2nd part's notes]
/use [3rd part's notes]
It used to be the case rthat you had to format each song segment separately, but that's no longer the case.
If you have any questions about /part-ing a song, find me (or almost any other bard) in the lands, and I'll be happy to answer your questions.
And so, with the invention of Band Helper, everyone and their brother has now written a duet, right? Well, this is the command that lets you play in sync with another bard (or two!).
(Note: Before you actually play your duet or trio, have each player play a few notes on their instruments as a 'sound check.' This causes CL to load the instruments into memory beforehand (I think), which means that your listeners are more likely to all hear your song start at the same time. [NOTE: Recent developments may have rendered this unnecessary. Not sure.]. It's also useful to make sure that the audience can hear all the players. If a listener does not hear all three performers, they will hear nothing.)
If I were playing a trio with Maz and Sutai at tempo 160, I would give them their parts with the following command lines, unless I felt they were clever enough to add commands themselves. Which I do, of course. :) This is just an example.
Sutai, on Gitor, has 2 /parts.
/use /with Cori /with Maz /part [notes]
/use /with Cori /with Maz [notes]
Maz, on Violene, has only one /part.
/use /with sut /with Cori [notes]
Coriakin, on Torjo, has three /parts.
/use /with sut /with Maz /part [notes]
/use /with sut /with Maz /part [notes]
/use /with sut /with Maz [notes]
And we can have ourselves a swingin' hoe-down, with exiles square-dancin' left and right to the sounds of a guiar, fiddle, and banjo! Er, gitor, violene, and torjo. :)