Black "Ghost" When Sweeping

[George]

For the first time with the new KHP I encountered the old black ghost that was quite common in prior versions when trying to sweep a fast pace song. Today I was working with a rather peppy polka and was fraught with ghosts at one point in the song. By re-arranging word placement was able to get it down to one persistant ghost that would not go away no matter what. I was using 26 point Arial font. It occured to me that if I reduced the font size one notch to 24 (still a very respectable size) then perhaps the program would have that much less area to draw, and guess what? Worked like a charm, and worked on another even faster polka I was having a problem with. Not a bad trade off to have a clean song.

Thought this worth passing along. Hope it helps somebody. (with my luck it's already in the manual somewhere

Take care,

George

[jahern]

When you arrange the words so that the first line tends to be short and the last line tends to be long, keep in mind that length in musical time in the last line is more important than length in words (sometimes they go hand in hand)

Try to end a musical phrase in the middle of the last line and start a new one in the same line.

Generally with the new program I have had success by just making sure that I keep the lines pretty even. I had the "Ghost" problem once but the lines were totally skewed the wrong way, so it was a quick and easy fix.

And once again, don't hesitate to use a spreadsheet to plan each line of the page, if it gets that rough. But really, I've had good success with some pretty fast songs.

[kjzone]

Would like for you to explain in more detail how you use a
spreadsheet to plan out your Lyrics.....
1. How you set it up
2. What you are trying to achieve
3. How the spreadsheet solves the problem

I THANK YOU IN ADVANCE

[jahern]

I am using the most recent update of KHP and don't have the problem. But here is what has happened to me in older versions. Let's say you have four lines on your page. The sweep goes through lines 1-3 but the top lines don't start going away, making room for a new page until line 4 starts to sweep. If line 4 is not long enough, then the new page starts, even though it's not really ready, and black ghosty words appear.

So, generally you want the first lines of a page to be shorter and the last line of the page to be longer (longer in time is the important thing, not necessarily longer in words). I was knocking myself out trying to remember which lines were the first lines, second lines, third lines, etc. on any given page. Once I started using a spreadsheet I could keep better track.

You first need to get your text into a word processing program and arrange your words into non-scrolling lines. That is, you need to pre-determine a workable size line by separating the words with the enter key.

eg.
Start spreadin' the news (enter) I'm leavin' today
becomes...

Start spreadin' the news
I'm leavin' today

If you copy and paste those lines into a spreadsheet they will each go to consecutive cells, one on top of the other.

Create a column on your spreadsheet with your lines per page like this..
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
and paste the lines into the next column. You can determine that this portion of the song will be lines one and two, or three and four or whatever

1 New York, New York
2 >>>>>>>>>>
3 Start spreadin' the news
4 I'm leavin today
1 I want to
2 be a part of it
3
4
1
2
3
4

Now you can say. Hmmmm, line 4 is too short. I'm going to take the words "the news" from line 3 and put them in line 4.

That would give your page a better chance of scrolling properly without the "Black Ghost" words.

You need to know how to cut and paste portions of cells in a spreadsheet. If your aren't careful you will put all of one cell into the other or other disasters.

After you arrange each "page" on your spreadsheet, you copy and paste the whole thing into KHP and everything proceeds as if it came from a word processor.

I haven't found this process necessary with the new update. I just get each line to be about the same size and that is good enough. Feel free to ask for further info. I hope this will be useful.


Good Luck

[kjzone]

THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXPLAINATION, I ALSO HAVE THE NEW
VERSION AND SO FAR ON 12 SONGS IS FLAWLESS, EXCEPT FOR
THE INCIDENT WITH A MONO WAVE FILE. MONO WAVE FILES
WON'T EVER SINK IN.

I THINK I WILL USE YOUR SPREADSHEET SUGGESTION, NOT FOR
ANY PROBLEM I'M HAVING NOW, BUT BELIEVE IT WILL MAKE
THE LYRICS MORE EVEN AND IMPROVE THE APPEARANCE OF
THE SONG.

IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER GREAT IDEAS, PLEASE POST THEM.