PsL Monthly 1994 January/PSL Monthly Shareware CD-ROM (Public Software Library) (January 1994).iso/reviews/mu_03

Text File | 1993-11-09 | 21KB | 599 lines

MU-03:  PC Speaker Music & Sounds


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#0094 Music Utilities         Small Programs Disk
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Beater 1.8
   McElwee, Jared
   $10
turns your computer into a highly-accurate metronome. It can be set from 30 to
250 beats per minute. (Not on this disk. Ask for disk #8909.)

Guitar 1.4 (GTR-JPC)
   Canannes, Jean-Pierre
   $0
aids in tuning a guitar to standard (Spanish) or D or G tunings. It can also
transpose up to five half-tones up or down. This program comes to us from France
and contains instructions in both English and French; it can play a short folk
melody from either country.

Jplay
   Jewl Tronics
   $?
plays five different tunes through your PC's speaker, and shows a graphic
representation of the notes on an EGA/VGA monitor. The different songs are
accessed via the escape key. Comes complete with Pascal source code.

MrOrgan
   Lutton, Mark
   $?
is a Memory Resident ORGAN - a keyboard music program that lets you play while
you work.

ModPlay 2.0
   Cox, Mark J.
   $0
allows you to play Amiga soundtracker/noisetracker files (or 4 channel
Startrekker files) on a PC's speaker. (Not on this disk. Ask for disk #8749.)

Musical Utilities 4.0 (MUSUTIL)
   Armada Software
   $20
is a collection of several useful musical programs. The main feature is the
Frequency-Note converter, which will convert either a frequency to the nearest
musical note, or if you input a frequency it will determine the closest note and
octave. It also features a table of musical instrument ranges and a key
transposition calculator. The last feature is a staff paper printing routine,
which will printout music staff paper with 9, 10, 12, or 18 sets of lines per
page.

Piano
   Abramson, R.
   $?
turns the PC keyboard into a keyboard instrument. Flats, normal notes and
sharps follow one another on the keyboard, which is not conducive to serious
playing. There is no documentation, but all instructions appear on-screen.

Play
   Mefford, Michael
   $0
   works like BASICA's PLAY command, or you can store PLAY commands in a text
file to be played. For a sample, at the DOS prompt, enter PLAY STRING/F (the
"/F" tells PLAY to look for a data file).

Songedit (SNGEDIT)
   Campbell, George
   $10
is a music composition editor.  You can even let your PC compose its own music.

VMusic
   Holden, Ted
   $?
was the first true polyphonic (multi-tone) shareware music playing program for
the PC. This is the best music you can get on a PC without special equipment.

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END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #0094
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#2848 Music Programs           Small Programs Disk
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Anthems
   Moran, Nancy
   $1
is a set of five musical selections that have been used or suggested as
alternate national anthems of the United States.  Also included is "Stars and
Strips Forever" by John Philip Sousa.  Nancy Moran has become the leading
virtuoso of music transcribed with Pianoman.  These are not simple melodies,
they are major compositions.

Alleluia (ALLELUI)
   is a text file containing the words to popular Christmas carols for
sing-alongs. Needs to be printed at 12 characters-per-inch.

BachEd
   Poschman, Warren
   $5
is a set of songs that can be played with Polyphonic Music 1.20 (on disk
#1845). The songs include: "Concerto for Two Violins" by J. S. Bach, "German
Dance" by K. D. von Dittersdorf, and "Edelweiss".

Dances
   Leman, Wayne
   $0
is a collection of 31 folkloric and classical dance tunes. Music plays through
the computer's speaker.

Familiar Waltzes (WALTZES)
   Leman, Wayne
   $5
is a collection of 46 popular waltzes. Music plays through the PC's speaker.
(Not on this disk. Ask for disk #8911.)

Hail
   Sander, Louis F.
   $0
plays "Hail to the Chief" on your PC's speaker - just in time for the
Presidential elections. This version was taken from the original 1812 sheet
music for the song.

PCKeys 1.0
   Jarrett, Eric
   $8
displays an on-screen piano keyboard which can be played with a mouse.
You can also record and edit your compositions. (Not on this disk. Ask
for disk #8985.)

Polkas
   Leman, Wayne
   $5
is a collection of 27 polka tunes. Music plays through the PC's speaker. All of
the tunes in this package are stand-alone programs created with PianoMan. (Not
on this disk. Ask for disk #8911.)

Popular Old Songs (POPULAR)
   Leman, Wayne
   $10
is a collection of 24 old popular songs, such as Auld Lang Syne, My Old Kentucky
Home, Yellow Rose of Texas and many more. Music is played through the PC's
speaker.

Rousing Songs (ROUSER)
   Sander, Louis F.
   $12
includes 35 songs and melodies, from Alouette to Yankee Doodle, played on the
PC's speaker. These seem awfully weak in this age of sound cards for the PC, but
the military bugle calls may be of interest to some. QB 4.5 source code
included.

Tunes
   De Palma, John R.
   $0
is a collection of songs that do not require a sound card. Included are Here
Comes the Sun, Star Spangled Banner, Mountain King, Happy Birthday, Toccata &
Fugue in D.

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END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #2848
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-----------------------------
#3967 Sound Effects/Utilities          Small Programs Disk
-----------------------------

Bugle Calls
   Sander, Louis F.
   $0
lets you play any of 20 well-known bugle calls from a menu or the DOS command
line. What better way to let people in your office know that the mail has
arrived or that a conference has been called?

DigPak
   The Audio Solution
   $40-70
is a set of drivers that lets you play digitized sounds on any sound board, as
well as the PC's speaker. It offers enhanced support for many games, such as
Ultimate Baseball, Chessmaster 3000 and others. (See section MU-01 for many
disks of sound files.)

DPlayVoc 1.1 (DPLAYVO)
   Montelo Consulting
   $10
plays VOC files on the Disney Sound Source.

IfWait 1.1 (IFWT11) (12-93 CD)
   Tessler, Gary S.
   $19
controls a speaker or parallel port device such as the TNT IFBUZZ buzzer
to allow sending audible feedback to users.

PC-Studio 1.0 (PCSTUDI)
   Anabicis
   $15
is a digitized sound file player that does not require a sound card. The sounds
are very good and clear on our test PC's speaker. A full-screen version lets you
adjust volume, speed and other elements. A command line version lets you play
sound files from within batch files.

For example, after doing a CHKDSK, you could play the included HAL sound file
that says: "I'm completely operational, and all my circuits are functioning
perfectly." For more sound files, see section MU-01.

Tommie Talley, Ardmore, OK: "I get a divide overflow error message when trying
to run the program."

PsL: When we retested the program on one machine, we also received a divide
overflow, but after rebooting, it ran fine. On another machine, it ran the first
time. All we can suggest is rebooting with no TSRs or drivers in memory.

Sounds for Quattro Pro 3. (QPROSND)
   BC Design
   $0
is a sampler of sound files which can be played under Quattro Pro 3.+

Sampler #2 (SAMP-02)
   BC Design
   $12 per disk
is a sampler of sound files which have been converted to play under Borland's
Quattro Pro. Sounds included are "Charge!", "I'll be back", and "Hallelujah".

TSR-FX
   Smith, Dave & Cravener, Bill
   $0
is a 1k TSR that lets you hit various hot keys to generate different sounds,
such as birds, laser blasts, etc. Also included are small TSR's to speed up the
keyboard and to add key click sounds.

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END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #3967
--------------------------------


ACCU Music System 3.4
   Fischer, Kevin ASP
   $23
   #4897
lets you create music on your PC. AMS has many features which Ad Lib's
Visual Composer does not, with some pro's and con's to them. In AMS, you
can only see/edit/print one voice (series of notes) at a time, so to
enter a chord, for example, you have to bring up the window for each
voice (note) in the chord. Also, unlike VB, you cannot hear the notes as
you enter them. This combo makes AMS less suitable for use in composing
music.

For transcribing from sheet music to the computer, you should find AMS
easier to use. You enter notes in a window in text format (eg: CN is C
natural) and they appear on the staff above the window. Other features
AMS has over VB are the ability to print, to transcribe, and to play
through the PC's speaker if you do not have a sound card, although you
can only play one voice through the speaker and up to 11 at once through
a sound card. AMS can convert between Ad Lib ROL files and its own
format.


Christmas Concert
   Moran, Nancy
   $0
   #1500
is a set of 23 different Christmas carols that can be played in concert or one
at a time. The music was produced using PIANOMAN (disk #108). The music is
well above average complexity and sophistication and songs vary from two to
five parts.


Christmas International
   Moran, Nancy
   $0
   #2016
is a set of 15 Christmas carols from around the world plus two musical works
by J.S. Bach and Handel. Lyrics for at least one verse appear onscreen and
complete lyrics are in an accompanying text file for printing out. This is a
very interesting (and well done) break from the usual Christmas carols.


CompTalk
   Forben Software Engineering
   $25-$30
   #2279
uses digitized spoken words stored in individual files to create speech.
Approximately 100 different words are on the disk; they are generally suited for
use in batch files to give computer usage instructions. Does not work with
DESQview.


Gospel Songs
   Leman, Wayne
   $0
   #3533
is a collection of 204 Old Time Gospel songs created with Pianoman. There is a
four-part harmony for each song. Words for songs appear on the screen while
music plays through the computer's speaker. While this is a wonderful collection
of songs, we feel we must warn users that music on the PC's speakers cannot
compare to music from an Ad Lib compatible sound card.


Guitar Teacher 1.5 [GTDOS150]
   Fenemore, Michael
   $15
   #4098 (12-93 CD)
displays chord structure for all the major, minor, seventh, major seventh, minor
seventh, suspended fourth, and seventh suspended fourth. It will display in
left- or right-handed mode and show alternative fingerings. It also aids in
tuning a guitar. The program is very well designed and is fast and easy to use.


Harmony
   Devoe, Leonard N.
   $0
   #1876
includes 16 four-voice musical compositions that were made with Pianoman.  The
majority of the songs are works known to many people, Chopin, Joplin, Anderson,
Brahms and Beethoven.


Hymns of Resurrection
   Wayne Leman
   $0
   #27587/3846
is a collection of religious hymns. Most songs have a four-part harmony. Words
to the songs appear on screen while music plays through the computer's speaker.

Also by the same author is disk #27587/3847 "Old Hymns of Praise", a collection
of 47+ old hymns of worship.


JR Music Machine
   #105
is an outstanding music program for the PCjr.


Melody Master
   Efros, Alexei A. ASP
   $10-$50
   #2886
is a one-voice music editor that lets you enter notes on a staff and output
the finished song in a format that can be played through the PC's speaker or
translated to formats usable by Pascal, C, or BASIC. A large collection of
music files is included. You can configure your own tempos, note-lengths,
foreground and background colors, and you can save a tempo with a melody. The
usable range is almost eight octaves, and an extensive help system is
available.


Music Transcription System II
   Kuhn, William B.
   $16-$25
   #2492
is a graphics-based music editor that lets you enter the melody for songs by
"playing" the computer keyboard or by placing notes on a staff. It will
semi-automatically enter the harmony. It will also let you enter the words to
songs and when you play the song, a "bouncing ball" will point to the words as
the corresponding note plays.

It has special support for MIDI and for Tandy 1000 and PC 1000 computers. It
will print musical scores on Epson compatible printers. The program supports
songs of up to 550 notes long with lyrics, guitar chords, and basic harmony in
any of 15 different key signatures, 12 different time signatures, and 5
different clefs, but only one clef at a time.

William explained to us that the reasons for not allowing both bass and treble
clefs on the screen at the same time is that this program was written for
vocalists, not for instrumentalists. This leads to design considerations that
make showing the Grand Staff difficult. That is a shame, because the ease with
which music can be entered and printed would appeal to all musicians.
(The author is no longer in business and does not support this program.)


Musician's Organizer
   Sound Solutions
   $20
   #3076
allows you to quickly and easily organize song lists, set sheets, job
schedules, and contracts. It is easily customized, with a variety of printing
options. Several useful tools are provided, including a Key Reference Chart,
Chord Builder, Scale Builder, Metronome, and an Instrument Tuner. This is an
excellent package for any performing musician or DJ. 512K is required and a
hard drive is recommended.


Muzak
   Priven, Aaron
   $?
   #581
This program does an admirable job of tying together a lot of music playing
files, many of which can be found on our MUSIC disk (1-GA-094). MUZAK lets you
select a category of music and then select songs from that category. The words
are displayed for some of the songs.


PC-Musician & Music2
   #107
are two programs that will allow you to compose one-voice music on the screen
with graphics. Fun just to play with.


PC-Orc
   Busby, Richard T.
   $25
   #2589
is a system of four programs which functionally reproduces Orchestra-85/90/CC
and Piano-85/90 with an IBM Music Feature Card installed. These four programs
include the following: PCOrc, the "executive" program which manages the system,
provides services to and loads the other programs as needed; PCOrcMEd, a text
editor which is provided as a means for entering or changing Orc music
compositions; PCOrcVEd, an advanced feature in which Orc music can fully exploit
the remarkable sound creation capabilities available with a MIDI synthesizer;
PCOrcMCp, the music compiler. Requires 384K and the IBM Music Feature card.


PC-Talk
   Creative Software Sounds Inc.
   $30
   #3659
lets you reproduce digitized human speech through the PC speaker. It comes with
a library of over 100 words and phrases suitable for business and personal
applications. The voice command can easily be added to any batch file or menu
program.

A PCX display utility is also included, for creating talking slide shows. 512K
is required, and a hard drive is recommended. EGA/VGA is required for the slide
show capabilities.


Psychic Piano
   Infoscape
   $15
   #3848
is a database of over 650 songs in 30 categories including Broadway musicals,
American and folk, Geographic, Names, Movies, Christmas and more. You can search
songs by notes (with auto-transposition), title, and category, or you can play
the Title-That-Tune game that is included to test your musical knowledge.

You can also browse through the database in alphabetical order and play the
first few bars from each of the songs through the PC's speaker.


Sound Effects 6.1
   Smith, David and Cravener, William
   $15
   #20224 [2 disks]  (10-93 CD)
is a collection of 75+ sounds for batch files or fun. It includes phasers,
stunguns, jets, fires, phones, speech, programmer's library, and ability to
replace the speaker's beep.


Sound Effects 7
   Smith, David
   $10
   #20064 [4 disks] & #20065 [3 disks]
is a collection of over 80 EXE's that play sound effects and voice clips
through the PC's speaker. These are ideal for use in batch files for an
audible system response. Also included are a pop-up TSR sound effects
and a replacement for the system beep. This is a two-MegaDisk set.


SW-Talk
   Creative Software Sounds Inc.
   $30
   #3666
lets you reproduce digitized human speech through the PC speaker. This package
is akin to PC-Talk (disk #3659, above), but contains spoken phrases of
particular interest to shareware authors.


PianoMan
   Rubenking, Neil J. ASP
   $25
   #108
turns your PC keyboard into a piano keyboard.  It lets you compose and record
music and play it back within the program or create self-playing EXE files,
combining up to four different "voices" into one.  The Pianoman disk contains
the data files for a large number of music program.  We also have a disk of
music programs created with Pianoman, for those who want the music but don't
want to do the work.


-----------------------------
#0579 Pianoman Music Programs          Small Programs Disk
-----------------------------

contains many excellent music files.

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END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #0579
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PianoMan Does Beethoven!
   Moran, Nancy
   $0
   #1660
contains five keyboard works by Ludwig von Beethoven:  Minuet in G-major, Theme
and Six Variations on an Aria from the Opera La Molinara, Theme and Seven
Variations on the National Song ("God Save the King"), Adagio cantabile from
Sonata Pathtique and Adagio sostenuto from the Moonlight Sonata.


1-2-3 Bach!
   Moran, Nancy
   $0
   #1565
contains twelve musical selections by Johann Sebastian Bach.


Pianoman Goes Baroque!
   Moran, Nancy
   $?
   #1661
contains ten keyboard works by four popular but now lesser-known composers of
the Baroque period:  Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), Georg Philipp Telemann
(1681-1767), Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777), and Karl Philipp Emanuel
Bach (1714-1788).  This Baroque music holds up better to the vibrato that
Pianoman uses to simulate chords.  It cannot actually play two tones at the same
time, so it creates "chords" by quickly alternating between the notes of the
chords.


Polyphonic Music
   GrigaSoft Productions
   $20
   #1845
lets you play music on the PC in three-"voice" arrangements, similar to Ted
Holden's VMUSIC. Like Vmusic, PM has no keyboard-playing method of entering
the notes. Instead, the notes must be written into a text file which is then
compiled and played by PM.

PM is much the same as Vmusic, with the added abilities to play music in a
batch file or in C programs (for which C code is included) while awaiting a
keypress. Also on the same disk is the following:


Music Editor
   Morgan, Bill
   $?
   #1845
is basically a text editor which plays music. Like PM, music is transcribed as
text rather than by "playing" the notes on the keyboard as in Pianoman. An
option allows you to covert the text into BASIC commands for adding to BASIC
programs. A sample text file has several different music files to try.
Although this is not a polyphonic program, the sample programs are well done
for single-voice compositions.


REmac
   Zobell, Richard E.
   $0
   #2887
will play Macintosh sound files (see MU-7081) on your PC's speaker. A 286 or
faster required.


SoundShow
   BC Design
   $0
   #3938
is a tutorial on how to create professional looking slide presentations using
Quattro Pro's sound and slide transition effects. It includes 10 sound files, an
example slide show, and detailed explanations. Quattro Pro 3+ required.


Traditional Spirituals
   Leman, Wayne
   $0
   #3661
is a collection of 26 traditional spiritual songs.. Songs were transcribed with
Pianoman and are played through the PC's speaker. Words for songs appear on the
screen while the music plays.


Tune Trivia CD Audio Player
   It's All Relative Software
   $?
   #4270
is a music CD player for use with a PC CD-ROM drive. This DOS-based program has
a very attractive EGA/VGA interface, including a large banner showing the name
of the current song.

There are numerous options for playing the song tracks, including random tracks,
selected tracks, and all. You can start a CD playing and exit the program with
the CD still playing as you run other programs. Requires a CD-ROM with
appropriate drivers.


Zebra Research Sound Kit
   Zebra Research
   $0
   #4271
contains a sound player, editor and other utilities that will work with SND,
Amiga, Tandy 1000 and other sound file formats. It works with the PC's internal
speaker.

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