Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/040a/mts2.zip/HELP1.TXT

Text File | 1991-01-03 | 16KB | 358 lines

               WELCOME TO THE MUSIC TRANSCRIPTION SYSTEM II


   The Music Transcription System II is a high-quality, beginning-level music
editor designed for folk songs, church hymns, children's songs, popular
songs, or just about any vocal music.  With it, you can enter your favorite
melodies and have your computer play them for you, or create your own melodies
and lyrics, store them on disk, and print them out in sheet music form!

   The program is designed for entertainment, music education, and
beginning-level music publishing.  It features extremely fast graphics that
let you follow along in a song as it plays.  A unique "bouncing ball" type
cursor points to each word in the song as the corresponding note sounds, and
the program's paging score display lets you read the music as easily as you
would from a book or piece of sheet music.  The Music Transcription System II
supports songs up to 550 notes long with lyrics, guitar chord notation, and
basic harmony in any of 15 different key signatures, 12 different time
signatures, and 5 different clefs.

   Easy-to-use menus and setup screens make entering and editing music a
snap.  You can create original melodies just by playing on your computer
keyboard like a piano.  As you hit the keys, the program plays the notes and
places them on the musical staff in standard music notation.  Changing pitch
of individual notes, or even transposing an entire song between different key
signatures or clefs is as easy as hitting an up or down arrow key!  There's
even a collection of prerecorded songs on disk.  Pick a song, load it into
memory, and sing along!

   And there's more...  With many late model Tandy computers or with the
addition of a "Sound Blaster" board to an 80286 or faster IBM PC compatible,
the Music Transcription System II provides vocal training and music
transcription features not found in any other software.

   With its advanced sound input capabilities, the Music Transcription System
II is the ideal tool for learning to sing - or for testing and improving on
your current skills.  You can sing along as your computer plays a song, and
the program's advanced Digital Signal Processing algorithms will compute the
pitch of your voice 18 times every second!  Real-time "pitch-graphs" let you
see what you're singing, while you're singing it.  Beginning level singers,
and self-professed "non-singers" can benefit dramatically from this instant
feedback showing when notes are sharp, flat, or on-key!  More advanced
singers can try the sight-singing or harmony exercises included on the disk.

   And if you're a songwriter, or would like to be, the Music Transcription
System II's unique sound input features can help turn your ideas into printed
musical scores quickly and easily - even if you can't read music.  The
program lets you create original songs just by tapping on the spacebar while
you sing.  The software computes the pitch of your voice and places the
corresponding notes onto the musical staff in standard music notation.  Using
the program's easy-to-use music editor you can add lyrics, harmony, or
guitar chord notation, and print your creation for everyone to see.

   No matter what your background, interest, or computer hardware, the Music
Transcription System II can help you enjoy the world of music in exciting new
ways.  We hope the program provides you many hours of entertainment,
education, and music publishing fun.



BASIC REQUIREMENTS


   The Music Transcription System II can be used on virtually any IBM PC
compatible computer.  To run the program you will need at least 256K of
memory, DOS 2.0 or above, and a CGA, EGA, VGA, or Hercules compatible graphics
display.  Nearly any late-model computer will satisfy these requirements.

   To print musical scores, you will need a dot matrix printer which supports
IBM/Epson compatible graphics, or an HP LaserJet II compatible laser printer.
A special "Quick Print" feature in the program can be used with any printer,
but prints using standard typewriter characters only.



VOCAL INPUT REQUIREMENTS

   You can use the additional vocal training and singing transcription
features of the program if you have a Tandy 1000 SL/TL series computer, a
Tandy 2500 XL, or a later model Radio Shack computer with Tandy's advanced
sound capabilities.

   With this latest release of the program, you can also use the vocal
training and singing transcription features on 80286, 80386, 80386SX, or
faster IBM PC compatibles with the addition of a "Sound Blaster" board from
Creative Labs Inc.  A clock speed of at least 10 MHz is required on these
machines.

   With either of these setups you will also need a good quality electret
condensor microphone.  We recommend the Radio Shack model 33-1060 because of
its excellent performance and relatively low cost. Dynamic type microphones
may not work properly with the program because of their relatively low output
level and more limited low frequency response.

   The audio input sensitivity on both the Tandy computers and the Sound
Blaster is quite low.  Therefore, a microphone preamplifier with adjustable
gain is also recommended, but not required.  A suitable preamp will allow you
to sing as quietly as you like and/or hold the microphone further from your
mouth as you sing.  If you do not have a preamp, you should hold the
microphone close to your mouth (less than one inch) as you sing.  A preamp
will also allow the program to be used with good quality dynamic microphones
if they have a low frequency response that extends to 50 Hz or below.


                       SOUND BLASTER DISCLAIMER

   Every effort has been made to assure that the Music Transcription System
II program works reliably with the Sound Blaster board on 10 MHz and faster
286/386/386SX PC compatibles.  However, since the hardware and software
interface protocols are under the control of Creative Labs Inc. and not
Questar Products Ltd., Questar Products makes no warranty that the Music
Transcription System II will work in all configurations or with future
enhanced versions of the Sound Blaster.



MIDI REQUIREMENTS

   You can use the Music Transcription System II with a MIDI keyboard if
you have a MIDI interface card that is compatible with the Roland MPU401
standard.  The program supports MIDI input and output of melody lines in Omni
mode.



STARTING THE PROGRAM


   To start the program from DOS simply type MTS and hit the Enter key.
(See the additional instructions below for starting the program if you wish
to use the Sound Blaster board, MIDI, or a LaserJet printer.)

   If you use the program on a hard disk, you should start the program from
the directory that contains the program and associated files.  Otherwise, the
program will not be able to find the help files or the song files.

   If you have a Tandy computer and wish to start the program from Deskmate,
insert the disk containing the Music Transcription System II into your disk
drive and select the Run command from Deskmate's File menu.  Enter MTS in the
"Program name:" box and leave the "Data File:" box blank.  Verify that the
"CPU Clock Speed" is set to Fast and then select OK.



OPERATING THE PROGRAM


   To help you begin using the program as quickly and easily as possible,
on-screen messages and prompts are displayed which tell you what keys to use.
Most functions of the program can be operated with the "Keypad" keys ( Up,
Down, Left, Right arrow keys, Enter, Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn ) and with the
function keys F1 - F10.  In addition, the SPACEBAR and = keys are used to
play songs.

   The Esc key is especially important since it allows you to exit any
function you select.  In addition, you should make sure the CAPS LOCK and NUM
LOCK functions on your keyboard are off when using the program.  Otherwise,
the arrow keys and other keys may not work as you expect.

   The program also contains an extensive set of help files that can be
accessed through the HELP function on the main menu.  If this is your first
time using the program you may wish to make a printed copy of the help
files.  To do so, print the files help1.txt through help9.txt.



COMMAND LINE OPTIONS


   The Music Transcription System II is designed to automatically determine
what type of computer you are using and what type of display you have.  The
automatic configuration feature has been tested on a wide range of computers
and has been found to be very reliable. However, if you should experience
problems, you can force the program to operate in particular modes using a
command-line option.  For example, when starting the program from DOS,

        MTS /IBM /CGA

will force the program to assume it is running on a standard IBM PC/XT/AT or
compatible computer in CGA graphics mode.  This is the most common
configuration and should work with CGA, EGA, and VGA displays.  For Hercules
compatible displays, use /HERCULES in place of /CGA.

   Command line options are also used to setup the program to work in special
modes, such as for using LaserJet printers, or using a MIDI interface card.
These special options are explained in detail below.

A list of all available options can be displayed by typing:

        MTS ?

   Deskmate users can enter the ? or the desired options in the "Data File:"
box when starting the program.

   As with DOS commands, any number of options can be used together.  For
example, if you wish to use the program with the Sound Blaster board and
a MIDI board at the same time and print on a LaserJet compatible laser
printer, simply issue the options as shown below:

        MTS /SB 220 7 /MIDI 330 2 /LASERJET


                         *****  WARNING:  *****

   Selecting certain inappropriate options (such as using /TANDYSL on a
regular PC compatible) may cause the computer to lock up, and force you to
reboot. Be sure to choose only appropriate options.



USING THE SOUND BLASTER BOARD


   If you have a Sound Blaster board and an 80286, 80386, 80386SX, or faster
computer, you can use the Music Transcription System's advanced sound input
features by starting the program with the following command:

        MTS  /SB <port> <interrupt>

where <port> and <interrupt> are the hex IO port and interrupt vector
locations at which the Sound Blaster is installed.  If you have not changed
these settings from the Sound Blaster's factory configuration you can
type the following command to start the program from the DOS prompt:

        MTS  /SB 220 7

   If you have problems with the program when using a Sound Blaster board,
please check the jumper positions on the board.  The IO port and interrupt
vectors used are determined by reading the numbers on the board next to the
jumpers.  Also make sure that the DMA jumper is installed.  Note the
warning below if you are using Microsoft Windows.


                   **** MICROSOFT WINDOWS USERS ****

   If you are using Microsoft Windows with the Sound Blaster board, you may
have to exit windows and start the Music Transcription System from DOS to
make the program work properly.  Some programs (including Microsoft's own
Flight Simulator) do not work correctly when started from Windows in some
modes (such as Windows 386 Enhanced Mode).



USING MIDI


   If you have an MPU401 compatible MIDI interface card, you can use the
Music Transcription System's MIDI features by starting the program with the
following command:

            MTS /MIDI <port> <interrupt>

where <port> is the hex IO port address at which the MIDI card is installed,
and <interrupt> is the hardware interrupt number used by the card.  The
stardard configuration for the Roland MPU401 interface card is port 330,
interrupt number 2.  Thus, you would type:

           MTS /MIDI 330 2

to start the program using the standard MPU401 settings.

   If you wish to start the program from Deskmate, you should enter the
/MIDI and appropriate port and interrupt numbers in the "Data File:" box.


                         *****  WARNING:  *****

   The standard interrupt number used by MPU401 interface cards (interrupt
number 2) conflicts with the interrupt used by hard disks on some Tandy 1000
computers.  On Tandy 1000 computers with hard disks, your MIDI card should be
configured to use a different interrupt, and you should specify the
appropriate interrupt when starting the program.  The program will warn you
if you attempt to use interrupt 2 on a Tandy 1000 machine.


USING LASERJET PRINTERS

   If you wish to use an HP LaserJet II compatible laser printer for printing
scores, you must supply the /LASERJET command line option when starting the
program.

            MTS /LASERJET


USING BATCH STARTUP FILES

   If you wish to use any of the command line options described above, you
may wish to use a DOS "batch" file to start the program.  A number of batch
files are included on the Music Transcription System II program disk:

        MTSSB.BAT       Use Sound Blaster at standard settings
        MTSMIDI.BAT     Use MIDI interface at standard settings
        MTSLJ.BAT       Use LaserJet II compatible printer

   For example, if you have a LaserJet printer, you can start the program
without explicitly issuing the /LASERJET command line option by simply
typing:

        MTSLJ

at the DOS prompt.  Similarly, if you wish to use the program with a Sound
Blaster configured at the factory port and interrupt settings, you can type:

        MTSSB

at the DOS prompt.

   If you wish to use a Sound Blaster or MIDI board configured at
non-standard settings, or if you wish to use some combination of options not
handled by these files, you will need to modify the appropriate batch file or
create one of your own.  Refer to your DOS manual for more information on
modifying or creating batch files.


REGISTRATION


   This is a user supported (shareware) product.  It is not public domain,
and it is not free software.  You are granted a limited license to use the
program on a trial basis and to distribute copies to others for trial use
provided that no fee is accepted.

   If you like the program and intend to use it beyond a reasonable trial
period, you are encouraged to show your support for the author and for the
shareware concept by registering.  In return you will receive the bonuses
listed below, together with our sincere thanks!  Your support helps pay for
the thousands of hours of development time invested in this product.


   Basic Registration:  $15.95

        Includes disk with latest version of program,
        additional songs and vocal exercises,
        and user support.


   Full Registration:   $24.95

        Includes disk with latest version of program,
        additional songs and vocal exercises,
        User Manual with illustrated tutorial,
        and user support.


   To register, please send a check or money order payable to Questar
Products Ltd. to the address shown below.


                          Questar Products Ltd.
                          1252 Westover Trace
                          Acworth, GA 30101


Please specify your disk format (5 1/4 or 3 1/2 inch) when registering.


                       THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!