Re: tie and slur shapes

[Mats Bengtsson]

Richard Lyons wrote:
> This is quite a learning curve!  I have to use two voices in some bars, 
> so I end up needing to carry the two voices to wherever phrasing slurs 
> lead.  Sometimes I have to put the same note in both voices and make 
> one stem transparent, so as to include all ties and slurs.  Fiddly, but 
> manageable.

If you use << { ... } \\ {...} >> to create the two voices,
LilyPond will automatically set the direction of stems, slurs, ties
and so on to point upwards and downwards, respectively, in the two
voices, corresponding to the macros \voiceOne and \voiceTwo.
When you only have one voice (and maybe an additional voice with
invisible notes to keep a slur alive), you probably want to say
\oneVoice, which resets direction settings and uses the default
directions. If you do that in both the voices and have the same note
in both voices, the stems will coincide, so you don't have to make
one of the invisible.

> But :
>  - some ties just refuse to appear - no error message, just silently
>    dropped.  And 

Please send an example.

>  - I cannot find any way to affect the shape of slurs.  I've tried
>    beautiful and de-uglify, but the parameters I've entered have no
>    effect at all.  

Have you looked at the example files at
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.0/input/test/out-www/collated-files.html
and
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.0/input/regression/out-www/collated-files.html

See also the mailing list archives, for example
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2003-05/msg00270.html

However, the slur layout is tricky (in order to produce beautiful
results by default) so it's hard to understand the exact effect of
the different parameters.

>  - Ties insist on selecting their vertical curvature according to the 
>    voice.  If I have to use the top voice, the tie curves up, even 
>    when the notes are right at the bottom of the stave and there is 
>    also a slur below.  This looks wrong.  But '\tieDown' does nothing,
>    '\property Voice.TieColumn \override #'direction = #-1' has no
>    effect.  What am I doing wrong?

Again, please send a small example file to the mailing list and
I'm sure someone can help.


   /Mats