Hi Everyone,

We released some great updates last month, and we would like to share the main ones today with you:

Music Notations & Engraving

Bends

We added the Bends notation on Flat for your tablatures. This one is available as 3 new icons (Bend, Pre-Bend, Bend Release) in a brand new toolbar for Tabs:

Here is an example of a simple Tab made with Flat that takes advantage of these new notations:

Bends on Flat

We also improved the display of the tied notes on the Tab in our editor: they are now greyed out (see screenshot above).

Learn how to use Bends on Flat

Measure Repeat

The Measure Repeat tool is available in the Measure toolbar. Click on this one to add a measure repeat sign to the current measure (the previous measure will be repeated).

Using Measure Repeat on Flat

Learn more about the Measure Repeat

Configure pages numbers

You can now configure the pages numbers in your scores: the first-page number to use and forcing the display of the pages numbers when there is only one page in your document. These options are available in the layout settings.

We also updated the default behavior of the pages numbers to hide them when there is a single page in your document.

Custom pages Numbers

Discover how to customize my pages numbers

More elements for the Copy/Paste

Our Copy/Paste feature now includes more notations available in our editor, making easier to copy the content of your scores. Here are the ones we added last month to our Copy feature:

Enharmonic improvement

We improved our automatic enharmonic rules across our platform to choose better default choices for you. We now use the key signature of your score and notes previously added to your document.

This update is available for the visual/touch piano keyboard and MIDI Input on our Web and iOS apps.

We also made available our quick enharmonic switch button for everyone. This one is especially useful for Touch Chromebooks that use our desktop interface.

MusicXML 3.1

All the files exported by Flat are now in MusicXML 3.1. Uncompressed XML files now use the extension .musicxml (Compressed files will still use the .mxl extension).

Flat remains compatible with older MusicXML versions, we also regularly update our import feature to improve the compatibility with files exported by other software.

History: Copy and Export older versions

When using our advanced history, you can now quickly make a copy of the displayed version, and export it to a MusicXML or MIDI file. This feature is available for Flat Power and Flat for Education customers and works with every single modification you made to your documents.

Advanced Actions

Learn more about Flat's Advanced History

Playback updates

Mixer: Quickly save & Restore volume

When editing a score, you usually use the volume mixer to adjust the volume for your current session.

You now have two new buttons to manage the volume settings:

  • One to persist the volume settings into your score.
  • One to restore your saved volume settings.
Learn more about the Audio Settings on Flat

Swing and Playback speed

We updated two of our premium features in the Playback:

  • The swing feature now interprets dotted quarter and other dotted notes as swingable.
  • The playback speed is now applied to the playback immediately after you changed it. This update paves the way to better handling of edition while playing back the score, and to a future loop mode on Flat.

Drum Rolls and Buzz rolls

Drum rolls and Buzz rolls are now fully supported following the strict percussion rules described below :

New Instruments: Wind Chimes & Kazoo

Among all the requested instruments, Chimes have always been in the top of the list. We just released them for our Flat Power and Flat for Education customers, this one is available in our Premium Instruments category.

We integrated 6 different glissandos for this instrument, 3 going up and 3 going down with 2 short and one long duration for each. You can find below a picture explaining each element of this new set.

Also, a quick reminder about Orchestral Chimes (the pitched chimes): They already exist under the name "Tubular Bells", we updated the name so it becomes clearer for everyone.

We also updated our Kazoo instrument so it now sounds like a world-class kazoo.

Embed: New Updates and Offers

We launched new updates for this product last month, including the support for MIDI Output and a new preview page mode. We also added some dedicated plans with enhanced our free offer. Check out our dedicated blog post to learn more about these updates.

New Embed Updates and Offer

Thank you

Thanks again for all your feedback, we always love to hear from you! If you have any comments or suggestions, please drop us a line at hello@flat.io.

Cheers,

Vincent & The Flat Team