MIDI Recorder is part of Evolution Composition Tools software. MIDI Recorder is a shareware portion of ECT, allowing you to pass along this player with scores you save as MIDI format 0 files so that your friends can enjoy your work. If you have purchased Evolution Composition Tools, no shareware fee is required, you are automatically registered as an owner. Otherwise:
This software is shareware - $5 ("too reasonable").
Please remit to:
Francis X. Mahoney, Jr.
302 Lessard Street
Donaldsonville, La. 70346
Technical Support (504) 473-9378 4 p.m. - 11 p.m. central
I really apologize for the first upload of this software. I did not realize what shape it was in. I was experimenting with various things before Hurricane Andrew came to visit. I had forgotten what I was trying to do AND that I was actually messing around with various things (I was tied up with preparations/hurricane/cleanup for nearly a month).
If it weren't for the hurricane in general, I wouldn't have needed to upload this software in the first place. Please consider this in your decision to make your shareware contribution.
I believe that I've fixed the problems with the Tempo selector. I had trouble dealing with multiple changes in a row. Turns out, I over-programmed the problem (you'd be surprised how easy that is to do). *Details below in the documentation.
I also removed that STOOOOPID error when you select Record from the menu. That was an experiment with System 7 High Level Events, and not wanting to create a whole new menu item, I just temporarily bumped the Record command. (I can actually control MIDI Recorder from another program I wrote--but that was just for grins--I may incorporate those features in Evolution #9 and Music Box later **See MacWorld Music & Sound Bible by Christopher Yavelow, pp. 841-845 for a description of Evolution #9 and Music Box).
Save ALL your music scores as MIDI format 0 (recommended by the International MIDI Association for inter-software transmition; format 1 is mostly used by sequencers for track separation which is not necessary for - and actually quite inconvenient for - software which loads and plays midi scores on the fly).
This software REQUIRES Apple's MIDI Manager software.
If you are using OMS-don't use it with this software.
MIDI Recorder is compatible with Mac Plus/512Ke or newer and System 6.xx or newer. It is required that you have at least MIDI Manager 2.00 and it is highly recommended that you have at least MIDI Manager 2.01 (this software makes use of features not found in version 1.xx). If you have other commercial applications compatible with MIDI Manager, you probably already have a copy (but check the version), otherwise, you can obtain a copy from APDA (for about $35). I am not licensed to pass along MIDI Manager software with this program.
When MIDI Recorder starts up, it automatically connects to PatchBay, if it is present (otherwise the program quits). If you are using System 7 (which is recommended) put the PatchBay Application (provided by Apple with MIDI Manager) in your Apple Menu Items folder. If you are lazy, MIDI Recorder will find the PatchBay Application anywhere on your hard disk. If you are using System 6.xx, make sure the PatchBay DA is installed in the Apple Menu (I recommend the use of Suitcase for installing DAs and Fonts).
If you already have other programs connected to MIDI Manager in PatchBay, you will probably get a Too Many Connections error. This is not a real problem--just dismiss the Alert and go into PatchBay to make the appropriate connections.
MIDI Recorder was designed primarily to record real time MIDI streams (performances) in order to save them to disk in MIDI format 0 files so that transportation to other software (notation/sequencer) for editting could be facilitated. I didn't have a sequencer so I wrote this module.
The resolution of the midi information is 960 ticks per quarternote. This is twice the resolution of most sequencers and ten times the resolution of some other notation programs. Whether or not this really means anything is arguable. One major drawback to its transportability is the inability to select Time Signatures for recording (maybe later-depends on support).
What MIDI Recorder works really well at is the playback function. It works so well that in many cases (but not all) it will run quite happily in the background - you can listen to your midi files while you work on other things (accessing menus and using controls like slide bars can cause noticeable interuptions though) or just sit back and watch your screen savers (some screen savers are time intensive and will also hinder MIDI Recorder). In certain situations, you can "Record" a performance from other software through PatchBay in the background. However, not all sequencer/notation programs provide the proper timing information at the time ports - so this feature is currently very limited and I've only been able to test this feature with software I've written. If you are writing software, keep this feature in mind, it could be useful for you (use stdPacketFlags and have an active timeBase and timePort).
MIDI Recorder's interface is very much like a tape deck or CD player.
The down button on the far left is to "select a song". This is the same as selecting Open from the file menu.
The up button is from reSave-ing a file. If you are going to start up MIDI Recorder with a number of files for playback, you will need to Save files you opened from other programs as a MIDI Recorder file (the file will appear on the desktop with a Reel-to-Reel tape deck Icon--this is still a MIDI format 0 file but double clicking on the icon from the Finder will launch MIDI Recorder and play your selection(s) automatically **See Other Features below). If you find you prefer a song played at a different tempo, the new tempo information is saved with the file. **NOTE** if you have Override checked in the Tempo Dialog, only the first tempo in the song is saved, all subsequent tempi are stripped when saving. Otherwise, all new tempo information are saved with the difference between the original tempo settings and the difference detected when you changed a tempo added/subtracted to all tempi.
The rest of the buttons on the front panel works exactly like you would expect them to. The one with the dot in it is the record button-it does not require the play button to be simultaneously down. The square is for Stop. The single triangle right is Play. The double triangle left is Rewind. The double triangle right is Fast Forward.
As you pass the cursor over each of these buttons, it will change to indicate "LOAD", "SAVE", "REW", "REC", "STOP", "PLAY", "FF" just to make it unmistakable which button the cursor is over.
**NOTE** the counter (on the far right, over the Tempo) now shows the amount of time elapsed. The length in time of a piece changes with new Tempo settings. When you select a new Tempo from the original, the length of time a piece takes to play is recalculated so that fast forward will work properly. There may be a slight discrepency in the actual length of performance and the time shown when the piece finished Play-ing, because midi information is actually sent to MIDI Manager for playing in the future and the animation is going on in real time. Therefore the piece "ends" a few milliseconds before the animation. It should all be accurate for most of the piece with respect to positioning with fast forward and rewind. The end is usually accurate to within a half a second (more like a quarter of a second).
//---------------------Changing Tempi
Tempi can be changed in either of two ways:
You can select Tempo from the MIDI menu. The current Tempo will be shown in the edit box. You can either type in a new tempo or click on the number and drag up or down to the new tempo you desire. In this dialog, there is a checkbox to "Override Playback Tempi". If this is checked, then playback will be restricted to a single tempo (based on the first valid tempo found in the file and the difference of the tempo you selected and the tempo shown when you opened the dialog). If you save this file with the Override option checked, subsequent Tempo changes will effectively be stripped ( they are actually saved as the first tempo). This is the only way to invoke the Override.
You can change the Tempo from the front panel by clicking on the Tempo value and dragging up or down to the new setting (the cursor will change to an up arrow or down arrow). **NOTE** Doing so automatically cancels the Override feature--this program assumes that, in most cases, you do not want to override tempo variations in a piece. Just clicking on the Tempo should turn override off.
//---------------------Mapping Channels
You are able to port channels found in the MIDI file to new channels output to MIDI. This is convenient if you have a multi-timbral setup and don't want to keep changing your performance settings to accomodate orchestration.
You can map channels in either of two ways:
You can select Map Channels from the MIDI menu. You will be presented with a dialog box analogous to PatchBay. Just click on the triangle of the channel on the From Channel side and drag to the channel triangle on the To Channel side and release. The Reset button will restore the default settings.
From the front panel, you can map channels by clicking on one of the numbers and dragging up or down to the new setting. Channels that are found in the MIDI file will be hilited by the "LED" over the channel guide. The channel guide is in left to right format with the far left being Channel 1 and the far right being Channel 16. The number in the corresponding rectangle is the channel OUT that the file information will be ported to.
Changes made either way will be reflected in both.
//---------------------Other Features
The Reset Button on the front panel is like an instant rewind button.
When you get to the end of a piece (by play or fastforward), you do not need to reset or rewind to replay. Just hit Play again (or type command-G for go). The program will automatically reset and start play again. **NOTE** this is not posible if you are replaying the start up files (see below).
You can start MIDI Recorder and play a list of files from the Finder. Just select all the files you want to play without interruption (except for loading time) and select Open from the File menu (or command-o). MIDI Recorder will launch and begin playing the files you selected in a chain. You will not be able to individually control options in this mode. Clicking anywhere in the main part of the control panel (i.e. not the title bar) the selection will Stop, and the next selection will load and play. The last selection will remain in memory until you "Load" another. You can Replay this list anytime by selection Replay Startup List from the File menu (or typing command-f).
If you are running in System 7, you can edit the above mentioned startup list with Edit Startup Files in the File menu. You can add (up to 50) or delete files to the original list (even if you did not launch MIDI Recorder with a play file). You can even have duplications so you can play a song several times in one session (however, it will load each time as if it were never opened before--this is because files are opened and loaded into memory, then converted from MIDI format to a private format and closed). This feature is disabled with System 6.xx because the new file manager in System 7 makes it much easier to accomplish this and there is probably no point in programming in backward compatibility at this point (System 6 should be obsolete soon).
Also, if you are running in System 7, Help Balloons are available to facilitate learning MIDI Recorder. However, as of this notice, the balloon concerning the counter is no longer valid -- the counter is no longer scaled to the tempo; it keeps track of elapsed time. If you are running in System 6.xx, then this menu item will be disabled.
A metronome is provided for recording purposes. You have an option of five different sounds, from relatively soft to quite obnoxious. You can also set the volume level from this dialog. Your original volume setting will be reset upon exiting this program.
You can open PatchBay from within this application (from the MIDI menu or by typing command-p). If you are using System 6.xx then PatchBay DA will have to be installed. If you are using System 7, then the PatchBay Application can be found by MIDI Recorder anywhere on your hard disk. If you don't have a hard disk, install the DA (you don't have System 7).
I think that's pretty much everything. It should have been easy enough to figure out without all this documentation nonsense.
