Category : Music and Digitized Voice
Archive   : COMPOSER.ZIP
Filename : COMPOSER.DOC

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A Single Voice Music Editor

Version 1.30


Oak Tree Software
P.O. Box 1163
Columbus, Indiana 47202-1163

Suggested Price: $20


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ORDER FORM
Name:__________________________________________

Address:_______________________________________

City:________________ State:____ Zip:_________

Telephone: (______) - _______ - _______________

COMPOSER..................................$20.00

(Indiana residents add 5% sales tax)......______

Total:....................................______

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Comments:









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User Information:

What type of computer do you have? PC___ PCjr___ Other________

How much memory does your computer have? 128k___ 256k____

384k____ 512k____

640K____ More____

Do you have a dot matirx printer ( y / n)

If so, what brand? (Espon, IBM, Brothers, Microline...)_____________

Where did you first see COMPOSER?___________________________________


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COMPOSER Version 1.30
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Contents

Files Included On This Disk 2
About COMPOSER 2
Using COMPOSER 2
Starting for the First Time 3
Entering Notes 3
Paging Through Your Music 3
Changing, Inserting and Deleting Notes 4
Block Editing 4
Using The Note Selection Mode 5
Dotted Notes 5
Tied and Slurred Notes 5
Staccato Notes 6
Accidentals 6
The Key Signiture 6
Printing Your Music 7
The Erase Option 8
Selecting a Time Signiture 8
Selecting a New Tempo 8
Playing Your Music 8
Reading or Writing Music From Diskette 8
Leaving COMPOSER 9
Using 3PART.BAS 9
More About 3PART.BAS 10
Problems With 3PART.BAS 10
Using PRINTSET 10
















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COMPOSER Version 1.30
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Files Included On This Disk

Before you start to use COMPOSER, check to see if you
have the following files:

COMPOSER.EXE - Single voice music editor
PRINTER - Printer initialization file
PRINTSET.EXE - Customizes COMPOSER for you printer
3PART.BAS - Plays 3-part sound, if you have a PCjr
compatible machine
COMPOSER.DOC - If you are reading this file, you have it

MAPLE1.MUS Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag
MAPLE2.MUS
MAPLE3.MUS

LUDWIG1.MUS Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony Number 5
LUDWIG2.MUS
LUDWIG3.MUS

MINUETG1.MUS Ludwig van Beethoven's Minuet in G
MINUETG2.MUS
MINUETG3.MUS

SOUSA1.MUS John Phillip Sousa's Stars and Stripes
SOUSA2.MUS Forever
SOUSA3.MUS



About COMPOSER

COMPOSER was written to take advantage of the PCjr's
three part sound capabilities without sacrificing
compatibility with single voice machines, such as the PC.
COMPOSER generates a text file of BASIC PLAY commands for
each voice written. Non-Junior compatible machines may
create, edit and play a single voice at a time. Junior
compatible machines may also create and edit a single voice
at a time, but by using a simple BASIC program, up to three
of these files may be played simultaneously.

Using COMPOSER

COMPOSER basically has two different modes of operation,
the note selection mode and the note entry mode.

In the note selection mode, a note's length and
attenuation are determined. Factors effecting the whole
piece of music, such as the time signature, key signature,
and tempo can be set. The note selection mode has the
options to get, save, play or erase a piece of music.



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COMPOSER Version 1.30
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After a note is "built up" in the note selection mode,
its place in the music and its pitch is determined. The note
is placed on a staff and moved up and down, right and left,
until the desired position is found. Editing of music also
takes place in the note entry mode. Notes can be changed,
inserted or deleted. Block inserts and deletes are
supported.

Starting for the First Time

Let us go step by step through a session with COMPOSER.
Start off by booting your system with your DOS diskette.
Insert your COMPOSER diskette and type COMPOSER. You will
then see the COMPOSER logo and be prompted to press a key to
continue. You will then be asked to specify which drive will
be used in the writing and reading of your music files.
Enter the appropriate letter. If you do not specify a drive
and only press , COMPOSER will search the current
drive for the music files.

The next message to appear on the screen should be
"Reading Directory." COMPOSER is now searching your music
diskette for all files with the extension of .MUS. After a
couple more flashes, the screen should clear and you should
see two connected music staffs being drawn. Across the
bottom of the screen are the symbols and icons used in the
note selection mode. In the upper left hand corner of the
screen is the page indicator. It should read "Page 1 of 1."
At the middle C position between the two staffs, there should
be a quarter note. You are now in the note entry mode.
Notice that the time signature reads 4 4 time and you are in
the key of C.
If you have trouble reading the screen on a monochrome
display or find the colors objectionable, try pressing the
fn1 key. Repeatedly pressing fn1 will cycle through a set of
sixteen colors. Choose the one that you find most pleasing.

Entering Notes

The note entry mode uses the up and down cursor keys to
determine the pitch of a note. Hold down the down arrow. As
you see, the quarter note will move down from its initial
position, through the bass cleff staff, and then wrap around
to the top of the treble cleff staff. The up arrow has the
opposite effect. Position the note back at middle C between
the staffs and press . The note will stay there and
your quarter-note cursor will move over one position. Push
three more times. A bar line should appear after the
forth note. As you can see, COMPOSER counts the lengths of
the notes as you enter them and draws a bar line after each
measure has been filled.

Paging Through Your Music



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COMPOSER Version 1.30
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COMPOSER can display up to sixteen notes on one screen
at a time. Try entering twelve more quarter notes. Your
cursor note should have wrapped around from the right side of
the screen to the left side again. If you can not see the
cursor note, it is probably overlapping one of the notes that
you have already entered. Move the cursor up or down until
you can see it again. Since the screen is full, it is time
to go onto the next page. This is done by pushing the PgDn
key. The staffs should be erased and a new set drawn. The
page indicator should read "Page 2 of 1." As soon as you
enter a note on this page, the indicator will be updated to
read "Page 2 of 2." Enter a couple notes on this page. To
go back to the beginning of the piece, press the Home key.
Pressing the End key will take you back to the end of your
composition, and PgUp will take you back one page.

Changing, Inserting and Deleting Notes

Assume that you accidentally enter a note as a C instead
of as a D. To change the note, just position your cursor
note at the desired position above or below the erroneous
note (in our example, the cursor would go one position above
the note) and press . The screen will be redrawn and
the note will be corrected. The wrong note will be replaced
with whatever the cursor happens to be. If the cursor is an
eighth note and you enter it on top of a quarter note, the
quarter note will become an eighth note.
Inserts can be done just as easily as changes. Place
the cursor note on top of the note that you want to insert
before and press the Ins key. Again, the screen will be
redrawn and the new note will be in place.

To delete a note, just place the cursor note on top of
the note you want to delete and press the Del key. The note
will no longer be there after the screen is redrawn.

Note: Sometimes when you are either changing, deleting,
or inserting notes, you may make it impossible for COMPOSER
to count your measures correctly. For example, suppose you
are in 4 4 time and entered a measure with four quarter
notes. You decide to go back and change one of the quarters
to a whole note. After reading the whole note, COMPOSER will
lose count and quit adding in bar lines or draw them in the
wrong place. If this should happen, just finish editing the
measure until it is of the correct length. COMPOSER will try
to recount each time you edit a note. If you think that you
are correct and that COMPOSER has miscounted, make COMPOSER
do a forced note recount. This is done by simply replacing a
note with an identical note. This will force COMPOSER to
refigure the measures from the beginning of the piece and
redraw the bar lines.

Block Editing



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COMPOSER Version 1.30
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If you want to change more than just a couple of notes,
individually changing each note can become tedious very
quickly. Instead, you will want to use the block editing
features COMPOSER offers. Block editing involves two steps,
marking a block and then either inserting it somewhere or
deleting it from the piece all together.

The beginning of a block is marked using the fn2 key and
the end is marked using the fn3 key. Move the cursor note on
top of the first note of the block you want to use. Press
fn2. A bracket should appear to the left of the note. When
fn3 is pressed to mark the end of a block, a bracket will
appear to the right of the note. To delete the block, simply
press the Del key. The screen will be redrawn and the block
will be gone. To copy the block to somewhere else in the
piece, move the note cursor on top of the note that you want
the block inserted before and press the Ins key.


We have now covered everything you need to know about
the note entry mode. Next, we will discuss the note
selection mode.

Using The Note Selection Mode

To enter the note selection mode from the note entry
mode, simply press Esc. Your note cursor will disappear and
a pointing hand will appear on the bottom of the screen. Try
moving the pointer back and forth using the right and left
arrow keys. The first five items are the different length
notes that you can select. Try pointing to one of these
notes and pressing . Your pointer will disappear and
you will be back in the note entry mode with a cursor note
set to the note that you selected. Press Esc and get back to
the note selection mode. Look at positions eight through
twelve. These are the different rests that you can select.
They are selected and used the same way that notes are.

Dotted Notes

At position six, you see a small dot. Move the hand
above this dot and press . All of the notes to the
left of this dot should now be dotted. This means that when
a note is selected, its length will be one-and-a-half times
that of normal. For example, a dotted quarter note will get
one and a half counts instead of just one count. The note
will stay dotted until you return again to the note selection
mode.

Tied and Slurred Notes

At position seven, you will see a arch or semi-circle.
Select this item with the hand. You should not notice any
change. Select a note, go to the note entry mode and enter
the note. After you enter the note, an arch will appear


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COMPOSER Version 1.30
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above the note. This arch means that the note that you just
entered will play right up to the note after it, with no
pause in between. In other words, if the next note you enter
is the same pitch as the one before, the two notes will be
tied. When played, they will sound like one continuous note.
But if the next note you enter is a different pitch than the
one before it, the two notes will be slurred. The pitch of
the first will "slide up" or "slide down" to the next one.

Like the dotted note option, the slurred and tied option
stays in effect until you return to the note selection mode.
All of the notes will be tied or slurred to each other until
you press Esc.

Staccato Notes

At position twenty is a quarter note with a dot over the
top of it. This is a staccato, or short, note. Staccato is
the opposite of legatto. The staccato option follows the
same format as the legatto option. When the staccato note is
selected, no change will be selected. Only when you are in
the note entry mode and have entered a note will you see a
dot drawn above the note that you have selected.

Accidentals

At positions thirteen through fifteen, you will see
single flat, sharp and natural signs. These are accidentals.
In order to select one of these, simply move the pointer hand
above one of the accidentals, say, the flat for example, and
press . All of the five notes to the left now have
flats in front of them. When one of these notes is selected,
it will be a flat note. As with the other options mentioned
so far, the accidentals stay in effect until the note entry
mode is left.

When you are in the note entry mode and are entering
notes with accidentals, COMPOSER will display all flat, sharp
and natural signs. For example, if you are in 4 4 time and
enter 4 B flat quarter notes in a row, each note will have a
flat sign before it. This repeating of the accidental signs
only happens when you are entering the notes. If you cause
COMPOSER to redraw the page by using PgUp, PgDn, Home, End,
or any of the other methods mentioned earlier, only the first
accidental will show up. In other words, the accidental
lasts throughout the whole measure and is not redrawn every
time it is repeated.

The Key Signature

At position nineteen, you will see three flat signs in a
group. This is the symbol for selecting the key signature.
Move the hand pointer above this symbol and press . A
window will appear in the upper left hand corner of the


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COMPOSER Version 1.30
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screen. You will see the options "Natural", "Flats" and
"Sharps". To select one of these options, move the highlight
bar up and down using the up and down arrows. Press enter
when you are on top of the one that you want. Natural will
reset the key signature to the key of C (default). The key
of C has no sharps and no flats. To select a key signature
with flats, pick the flats option. Another window will
appear with the letters "BEADGC" with an up arrow under them.

Note: As with all windows in COMPOSER, pressing Esc will
cancel the window and take you back to the note selection
mode.

The key signature will contain all the flats to the left of
the arrow and the one that it is pointing to currently. For
example, if the arrow is pointing to the B, you will be in
the key of F, which has one flat, B flat. If you point to
the A, you will be in the key of E flat, which has three
flats, B flat, E flat and A flat. Press when you are
pointing to the key that you want. The screen will be
now be redrawn and the new key signature will appear on the
staff.

A key signiture will automatically "flat" and "sharp"
the appropriate notes. Just like when the individual
accidentals were used, the sharp and flat signs will appear
when the notes are being entered. But when the page is
redrawn, the accidental signs will disappear if they are
already in the key signature.


Printing Your Music

At position twenty-one, you will see a piece of paper
with writing on it. This represents the print option. When
this option is selected, a window will appear prompting you
for the name, the starting and the ending page of the music
you want printed.
The name you enter is the title that will appear on the
printed music, not the eight character file name that you
used to store the music no disk. The title will be centered
on the top of every printed page.
Each printed page holds five screens of music as shown
on COMPOSER. So if you have typed in a piece of music that
is ten pages on COMPOSER, it will be printed out on two
pages. If you have an extremely long piece of music and do
nat want to print the whole thing, you can specify what page
you want to start and end on. Remember that the page numbers
refer to printed pages, which contain five COMPOSER pages.

NOTE: If you are not using an EPSON printer, you will have to
initialize COMPOSER for your particular printer, using
PRINTSET.EXE. For more information, read "Initializing Your
Printer" later on in this manual.


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COMPOSER Version 1.30
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The Erase Option

Postion sixteen has a box with an uppercase "E" on it.
This is an eraser. When this option is selected, a window
will be displayed asking you if you are sure that you want to
erase all music in COMPOSER's memory.


Selecting a Time Signature

Position seventeen has a 4 4 time signature. This
option is used to select a new time signature. COMPOSER lets
you select between either 2 4, 3 4, or 4 4 time signitures.
When a new time signature is selected, the screen will be
erased and the music will be redrawn with the new time
signature and the bar lines in the correct position.

Selecting a New Tempo

Position eighteen has a uppercase "T". The "T" is for
tempo. When this option is selected, a window is displayed
showing the old tempo and asking for a new one. Any number
in the range of 32-255 is legal. When COMPOSER is first
started, a tempo of 120 is used.

Playing Your Music

Position twenty-four shows a miniature pair of sixteenth
notes. This is the play option. When this option is
selected, a window will come up will the options "Graph" and
"Keyboard". The graph option shows the music in a graph like
form while it is being played. When the graph is being used,
repeated parts of the music and transitions to different
parts of the music can easily be seen.

The "Keyboard" option draws a piano keyboard across the
top of the screen. While the music is being played, an
asterisk will move over the keyboard, indicating which note
is being played.

In any of the play modes, the music will start on the
current page that is being displayed and will continue until
the end is reached. To play the last half of an eight page
piece, push PgDn until page 4 is reached and then play.

Reading Or Writing Music From Diskette

Position twenty-five shows a square with a circle in the
middle. This is a diskette which represents input/output
functions. When this option is selected, a window with the
options "Get Music" and "Save Music" is drawn.
If "Get Music" is selected, COMPOSER will draw another
window containing all of the music files in alphabetical


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COMPOSER Version 1.30
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order that are on the drive specified in the "Selecting
Drives" section. Move the highlight bar on top of the piece
that you want to load in and press . The window will
clear and you will see the first page of the music being
drawn on the screen.

NOTE: If you accidently select the "Get Music" or "Save
Music" option and wish to escape, just press the Esc key.

If the "Save Music" option is selected, another window
will appear prompting you for a title. If the piece of music
you are working on is already named, that name will be
displayed. Pressing will save the piece under the
indicated name. Otherwise, the title line will be blank.
You can enter a filename with up to eight charcters. If you
try to type more than eight charcters, a beep will sound.

Leaving COMPOSER

Position twenty-three shows your present active drive.
Selecting this option will quit COMPOSER and return you to
DOS.

Using 3PART.BAS

Now that you have learned how to enter music using
COMPOSER, you will no doubt want to hear the music in three
part sound. If you have a machine that, like the IBM PCjr,
has three part sound capabilities, 3PART.BAS will allow you
to hear up to three pieces of music made by COMPOSER played
at the same time. If you are not sure if your computer can
play three part sound, try to run 3PART.BAS anyway. If gives
you an error in the line which has the SOUND ON command, your
machine does not support three part sound and you will be
unable to use 3PART.BAS. You will have to be content with
writing music with COMPOSER and listening to a single voice.

Let's play one of the pieces of music that should be on
your COMPOSER disk already. Get into BASIC, load 3PART and
run it. The screen will clear and remain blank for a few
seconds while 3PART initializes itself. Next, a list of all
of the music files should appear on the screen. Three of the
files should be named MAPLE1, MAPLE2 and MAPLE3. These are
the first, second and third parts to Scott Joplin's "Maple
Leaf Rag." When 3PART prompts you for file names, enter
MAPLE1, MAPLE2 and MAPLE3.

After 3PART has read the files into memory, it will
display the number of measures and the current tempo of the
music. 3PART will also ask you where you want to begin, end,
and if you want to change the tempo. For now, do not worry
about these questions and just press . You will now
hear your computer play beautifully Scott Joplin's "Maple
Leaf Rag" in stunning three part sound, as only a Junior or


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COMPOSER Version 1.30
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compatible computer can. After it is finished, 3PART will
ask you if you want to play it again. If you reply with a
"No", 3PART will start over again and ask you for 3 more file
names.

More About 3PART.BAS

You do not need to enter three filenames every time. If
you have finished only two parts to a song and want to hear
how they sound, enter their titles, and when 3PART asks for
the third file, just press .
If you think that the music you are playing is being
played too fast or too slow, enter a new tempo when 3PART
prompts you. The previous tempo should be displayed after
3PART has read in the files. Any number between 0 and 255 is
a legal tempo.
If you want to hear a specific part of a piece of music
and not the whole thing, you can specify the beginning and
ending measure numbers when 3PART asks "Where do you want to
start?" and "Where do you want to end?"

Problems With 3PART.BAS

For reasons that we are unable to explain, 3PART does
not play some pieces of music correctly. Everything will
sound normal until a particular measure is reached and one of
the voices will drop out. The voice is silent until the
beginning of the next measure, where it resumes one measure
behind the other two voices. The problem does not occur when
only two voices are being used.

Most of the time, the problem can be solved by changing
the order in which the music files are read in. For example,
suppose you typed:

first part? maple1
second part? maple2
third part? maple3

and you noticed that somewhere in the middle of the piece,
one of the voices dropped out for a measure. You could try
this:

first part? maple3
second part? maple2
third part? maple1

or any other combination. This usually clears up any
problems.

Using PRINTSET

On your COMPOSER diskette, you should also have a file
called PRINTSET.EXE. This program will initialize printers


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COMPOSER Version 1.30
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other than EPSON printers. COMPOSER is set to use EPSON
printers as initially distributed.
Type PRINTSET from your DOS prompt. Some instructions
should appear on your screen telling you to enter your
printer codes as a series of 3-digit ascii values separated
by a single space. What this means is that if you have a
printer code that is ESC A, you would enter 027 065. 027 is
the ascii code for ESC and 065 is the ascii code for a
capital letter A.
You will have to consult your printer's instruction
manual for the correct codes for your specific printer. We
have included the codes for EPSON and IBM Proprinter
printers:

EPSON
960 bit image mode with 800 dot columns across:
027 076 032 003
Set line spacing to 8/72'' or 24/216'':
027 065 008

IBM Proprinter
960 bit image mode with 800 dot columns across:
027 076 032 003
Set line spacing to 8/72'' or 24/216'':
027 051 008

PRINTSET.EXE will ask you to set you printer to its 960
bit image mode. If you printer does not have such a mode,
but does have a higher density mode, such as a 1920 bit image
mode, you can use this mode instead. The music will be
smaller, hence harder to read, and it will not be centered on
the page, but it should print. Any printer mode that has a
density higher than or equal to 800 dots will work.























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