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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<drive letter>" 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.