Microsoft Musical Instruments version 1.0a README file Microsoft Corporation September 28, 1992 ================================================================= This file contains information about Musical Instruments that was unavailable when the User's Guide was printed. To read this file on-screen, use the Page Down and Page Up keys. You can also print the file by choosing the Print command from the File menu in any Windows word-processing program. If you open this file in Windows Write, Microsoft Word, or another word-processor, it will be easier to read if you select the entire document and format the text in 10-point Courier. This README file contains important information on the following topics: Section Description ------- ------------------------------------------------------- 1 DEMONSTRATION MODE How to make Musical Instruments automatically and randomly demonstrate all its musical instruments. 2 RUNNING IN LOW MEMORY OR RUNNING SLOWLY How to make Musical Instruments run on low-memory machines. 3 CD-ROM PROBLEMS Hints on solving problems accessing CD-ROM drives. 4 PRINTING AND COPYING How to print and copy Musical Instruments screens. 5 SCREEN MODES AND VIDEO CARDS How Musical Instruments works in different modes. 6 AUDIO PROBLEMS Some common problems getting sounds to play and how to fix them, including working with Media Vision cards. 7 MSINSTR.INI AND COMMAND LINE OPTIONS What the MSINSTR.INI file contains; options that control the way Musical Instruments runs. ================================================================= 1. DEMONSTRATION MODE ================================================================= Musical Instruments has a demonstration mode which begins an automatic random "slide show" of the musical instruments if you haven't used the program for a specified number of minutes. You can select demonstration mode by pressing CTRL+ALT+R when running Musical Instruments. This will display a dialog box in which you can turn on the "Start random automatically" check box and specify the number of minutes to wait before starting the slide show. After demonstration mode has been selected, Musical Instruments will remain in that mode until you press CTRL+ALT+R again to display the dialog box and turn off the check box. ================================================================= 2. RUNNING IN LOW MEMORY OR RUNNING SLOWLY ================================================================= Musical Instruments uses your computer's system memory to display pictures. If you find that Musical Instruments runs slowly or if you encounter out-of-memory errors, Musical Instruments probably doesn't have enough memory. Consider doing the following to improve your computer's performance: * Close all unnecessary applications. * Determine how much memory your computer has available by typing "mem" and pressing ENTER at the DOS prompt. You need a minimum of 2MB (2,000,000 bytes) of total memory to use Musical Instruments. If you do not have at least 2MB of memory, you will not be able to run Musical Instruments until you add more extended memory. * If you are running Windows in Enhanced mode, set up a permanent Windows swap file on your hard disk. See your Windows documentation for more information. Windows usually creates a temporary swap file, but if your disk is full or fragmented, this temporary file can become unavailable. Make the size of the permanent swap file at least 2048K. * If your computer runs at 20MHz or slower and you have only 2MB of RAM, it is advisable to use a 16-color driver for your display, even if you have a 256-color graphics card. You can change the display driver by running the Microsoft Windows Setup program from DOS or from Windows. See your Windows documentation for more information. * Defragment ("clean up") your hard disk by running a defragmentation program. ================================================================= 3. CD-ROM PROBLEMS ================================================================= NOTE - Do not remove the Musical Instruments compact disc from your CD-ROM drive while Musical Instruments is in the process of playing a sound or displaying a new picture, or is running in Random mode. If the Musical Instruments program cannot find the data files that it needs from the Musical Instruments compact disc, you'll see a message that asks you to select the drive containing the files. To find the source of the problem, do the following: * Make sure the Musical Instruments compact disc is correctly inserted into the CD-ROM drive. * Make sure that the Musical Instruments program is looking for the compact disc on the correct drive. Check to see if the drive letter for your CD-ROM drive has changed. You can use the Windows File Manager to determine which drive letter is assigned to the CD-ROM drive. The Select Drive command in the Disk menu will say "CD-ROM" next to the CD-ROM drive letter. * If you have an external CD-ROM drive, make sure that the drive is connected to your computer, plugged in, and turned on. If you still see the error message after checking the points above, check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive or contact the company that supplied the drive. * Make sure that your CD-ROM drive is MPC-compatible. An MPC-compatible drive "has an average seek time of less than one second and can transfer data from the compact disc at 150K per second while using less than 40% of the CPU bandwidth." Check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive to make sure it meets these requirements. An incompatible CD-ROM drive will slow down the performance of Musical Instruments. ================================================================= 4. PRINTING AND COPYING ================================================================= All screens in Musical Instruments are large color pictures. Depending on the type of printer you have, printing a picture of the screen may take several minutes. Also, screen resolution and printer resolution are often not the same, so the resulting printout will probably not match the quality you see on the screen. You should be able to print grayscale images from Musical Instruments. If your laser printer prints in black and white only you might need to upgrade your printer driver; call the dealer from whom you bought the printer or the printer manufacturer. It is also possible to print Musical Instruments screens in color on a color printer. Because the pictures can be quite large, you may have difficulty copying or printing in low-memory conditions. In this case, close all other running applications and try again. ================================================================= 5. SCREEN MODES AND VIDEO CARDS ================================================================= Musical Instruments will run in 16-color or 256-color screen mode. The program will automatically detect whether you are running in 16 or 256-color and display pictures accordingly. If your computer is running in 16-color mode, and the video card will support 256 colors in 640x480 resolution, you can run Windows Setup to change the screen driver to see Musical Instruments at its highest image quality. ================================================================= 6. AUDIO PROBLEMS ================================================================= Audio problems can have many causes. Other applications that play sounds may interrupt sounds in Musical Instruments, because your computer cannot play two sounds simultaneously. This is generally a temporary clash that will resolve itself. However, a few applications that play sounds, such as some screen savers, may remove audio capability from all other Windows applications. If you suspect you have such an application, deactivate it or do not run it while running Musical Instruments. ------------------------------ SOUND PLAYS, BUT NOT VERY WELL ------------------------------ Sounds that are distorted or "fuzzy" have several possible causes. The most likely one is simply that your speakers are not of high quality. Low-frequency instruments, such as the Gong Ageng, may not reproduce well on some equipment. It is also possible that the software settings on your sound board are causing distortion. For example, if the sound card volume or "WAVE file input" is set to near its maximum, it will produce amplification distortion, just as it would on a stereo system. To find out how to change your sound board settings, check the documentation that came with your sound board. Your CD-ROM drive should be MPC-compatible. An MPC-compatible drive "has an average seek time of less than one second and can transfer data from the compact disc at 150K per second while using less than 40% of the CPU bandwidth." Check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive to make sure it meets these requirements. An incompatible CD-ROM drive may work but give lower-quality sound or cause the sound to be interrupted while playing. ------------------------- SOUND DOESN'T PLAY AT ALL ------------------------- If you don't hear any sounds, make sure that the volume for your speakers is set to an audible level. If the volume is set to an audible level and you still hear no sounds at all, something may be wrong with your sound board setup. Check to see that the driver is installed correctly and, if necessary, reinstall it. Please note that Musical Instruments requires an MPC-compatible sound board to be installed and is not intended to run with drivers which use the PC internal speaker, such as the unsupported "PC Speaker" driver. Such a driver will in most cases not play any sounds, and if the driver setup option "Enable Interrupts" is not checked, the system may crash. If you have both a sound board and the PC Speaker driver installed, it is preferable to un-install the PC Speaker driver. ------------------ MEDIA VISION CARDS ------------------ A small number of Media Vision sound card drivers (Pro Audio Spectrum cards) may cause problems. If you have a Media Vision card and don't hear sounds, try upgrading your driver. You can find the latest versions of the Media Vision drivers in the \XFILES\DRIVERS\MVPAS directory on your Musical Instruments compact disc. The following text (between the asterisks) are installation instructions from Media Vision. If you have any problems, call the Media Vision Technical Support telephone number listed below. ******************************************************* NOTE from MEDIA VISION: "Before adding and/or updating Media Vision device control software for Windows 3.1, it is important to first remove any Media Vision drivers that are currently installed. After removing all drivers - there typically are four installed: 1. Pro Audio/CDPC Wave/Midi/Aux 2. Pro Audio/CDPC Mixer 3. Voyetra/Media Vision OPL# Stereo FM and 4. Media Vision Mixer Control Restart Windows and load the new drivers using the Control Panel. This additional step is necessary since the Media Vision drivers share the services of a dynamic link library that can only be unloaded by restarting Windows. Media Vision's device control software for Windows 3.1 supports the following audio adaptors: * Pro AudioSpectrum 16 * Pro AudioSpectrum Plus * CDPC and CDPC XL To load the driver for one of the products listed above, from the Drivers applet in the Control Panel select the 'Media Vision Pro Audio/CDPC Wave/MIDI/Aux' driver. However, if you have an original Pro AudioSpectrum, from the Control Panel select the 'Media Vision Pro Audio (Orig.) Wave/MIDI/Aux' driver. If you experience any difficulty loading and/or using any of the Media Vision drivers, contact Media Vision technical support at (800) 638-2807" ******************************************************* Please note that these driver programs are not part of the Microsoft Musical Instruments product. Microsoft makes no warranties or claims regarding the quality, stability or performance characteristics of driver programs, which are included AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. The included driver programs are the latest releases available to Microsoft, and are included for your convenience only. Should you experience any difficulties with the driver programs, please contact the manufacturer. ================================================================= 7. MSINSTR.INI AND COMMAND LINE OPTIONS ================================================================= The MSINSTR.INI file is installed by Musical Instruments on your hard drive. This file contains information on the default screen position for the Musical Instruments window (where you last left it), the default drive letter for the Musical Instruments compact disc, and the default network connection if you are running Musical Instruments from a network server. If you add "-d" to the command line, Musical Instruments will look for its data files on that drive rather than on the drive specified in the MSINSTR.INI file. For example, if you add "-de", Musical Instruments will look for its data files on drive E. ================================================================= MICROSOFT PRODUCT SUPPORT SERVICES ================================================================= If you still have a problem running Musical Instruments, contact Microsoft Product Support Services. Outside the United States, contact Microsoft Product Support Services at the Microsoft subsidiary office that serves your area. Be prepared to give the following information: * The version number of this product * The type of hardware you are using * Exact wording of any messages that appeared on your screen * What you were doing when the problem occurred * What you did to try to solve the problem You can reach Microsoft Product Support Services in the United States between 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Pacific time, Monday through Friday. Dial (206) 454-2030.