Contents

Welcome to Musician's CD Player!

If you're a musician who likes to learn new songs and techniques by listening to the same piece of music over and over but wish that the music could be played a little slower, then you'll enjoy Musician's CD Player. You may repeat any section of the music at full speed or at a lower speed by stretching the length of the music, from 5% to 300%. Without changing the pitch!

This 32-bit program works with your CD-ROM drive to record temporary wave files at desired "slow down" rates. You may record the wave files at any of the standard sampling rates and frequencies and save them in converted or unconverted states.

Note: The unregistered version of Musician's CD Player has a 30 days trial limit.

The unregistered shareware version also is limited to 50 commands each session. When the limit is reached, the program quits. Restarting Musician's CD Player will reset the limit for another 50 commands. By registering, you will receive a password that converts the program to a non-limited version.

Please click here for how to order a registered version.

Context-sensitive on-line help.

This help file is available from within Musician's CD Player by pressing the [F1] key on the computer keyboard whenever a menu item is highlighted and by clicking the Help buttons in the dialog boxes.

At least read this

How does it work

Setting Up

Basics

The Menus

Key Commands

Some thoughts about transcribing

Common questions

How to order Musician's CD Player

Other products from Roni Music

Legal Stuff

(c) 	Copyright 1997-98 Roni Music - All Rights Reserved.


Transcribing
Some thoughts about transcribing

These are my personal thoughts and primarily based on my experiences as a teacher and working jazz musician. I do however think they apply for all kinds of musicians.

Why transcribe?

Musicians has forever been transcribing and listening to other musicians in order to learn. Listening and transcribing are absolutely the greatest way to learn a tradition that really is oral. No book in the world can describe how something sounds! You are practicing your ear, your instrumental skill, note writing, phrasing etc.

What should I transcribe? Is it dangerous to transcribe?

Depends on whom you're and what you're transcribing.

If you are a beginner, this is the greatest way to understand what the big guys are doing (they've all actually been doing the same).

Have you come a bit longer on the way, maybe you should be a bit careful about transcribing your idols. There is a risk that you will only becomes a copy. Rather transcribe musicians that you think are different to yourself. Transcribe other instruments. Check out the older musicians that are the roots of your idols.

Not only transcribe the notes, play along and try to copy the general feeling of the musician or the things he are playing.

Be careful if you are using headphones. It's very easy to increase the volume to be able to hear what the musicians are playing. You may damage your ears. Also, when playing in loud environments, always use earplugs of some kind. Tinnitus is becoming more and more common.

How to transcribe?

Begin with playing along to the tune. If you have any sheet music, learn the original version (melody and harmony).

Continue transcribing the harmonies to see if they are the same. If you know the harmonies, it's much easier to understand what the musician is doing.

Start transcribing at full speed, slow down the speed only when it's to fast for your ear to apprehend or when your instrumental technique is not enough.

As you go along, write it down. If your note writing skill is bad, do it anyway. This way you are improving this skill also. After a while, when you've forgot what you learned, it's very easy to actualize it with the help of the written notes. Besides, many of you will now or latter probably come in a teaching situation, here you have some great material.

How exact should I be?

Depends on.

Are you going to write a book or use it when teaching, then you should be as exact as possible.

Are you transcribing for your own personal pleasure, you don't have to be that exact. The point is to learn something new and improve your skills.

Switch between transcribing and practicing. Often a couple of notes or a phrase is enough to give you a lot of new ideas that you may yourself work on.


Common questions

Question:

I have a lot of music on vinyl lp's and cassette tapes that I want to slow down for study. I can input them into my computer through the line input of my sound card, but how can I slow them down with the Musician's CD Player program?

Answer:

Either record them with another software and import the wave file into the Musician's CD Player

or

Disconnect the CD section from the wave section (Wave Settings) and make sure the line in device in the windows mixer is activated. Just record as before (the CD player won't start) but you will now record from the line in source.

Question:

I'm trying to make a recording from the CD section but I can't hear the recording when playing it back. The CD section works fine.

Answer:

To be able to make a recording with Musician's CD Player you need to enable the CD input to the wave recording section of your sound card. You must also set the input and output levels to a correct level. This is done with the standard Windows 95 mixer.

The standard Windows 95 mixer icon should appear on your taskbar if you have ticked the "Show volume control on taskbar" box, which is located in the Multimedia properties window.

Activate the "CD-Audio" item in the recording section of the mixer.

Question:

How do I do to get the Musician's CD Player to start when inserting a CD in my CDROM drive?

Answer:

Follow the steps below:

Bring up Windows [Start] menu.

Click on [Run] and then [Browse] to the Windows directory and chose Regedit.exe

You will see something like: C:\Windows\Regedit.exe

Click [OK].

This starts the register editor.

Now chose the following:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

AUDIO_CD

Shell

Play

Command

You will now see something like: Standard "C:\Windows\Cdplayer.exe /play %1"

Change this to: Standard "C:\Muscdpl\Muscdpl.exe /play %1"

If you did not install Musician's CD Player in C:\Muscdpl, enter the current path and directory followed by Muscdpl.exe

Close the Register editor.

Question:

How do I turn off the "AutoPlay On Insertion" feature for my CDROM drive.

Answer:

Follow the steps below:

Bring up Windows [Start] menu.

Click on [Setting] and then [Control Panel]

From the [Control Panel] windows, double click the icon labeled as [System].

This will bring up [System Properties] window.

From the [System Properties] window, click [Device Manager].

Double click the icon labeled [CDROM].

If you have more than one CDROM drives, you will see a list of CDROM drive names.

Double click the appropriate one. This will bring up the particular CDROM properties window.

Click on [Settings], and uncheck the box that says [Auto insertion notification].

Click [OK] buttons on the way out.

That will prevent Windows from receiving "Auto Insertion Notification" message that causes the "AutoPlay On Insertion".

Possible problems

One possible problem is that there may be Wave Out devices that aren't connected to the speakers (i.e. a voice modem). These should have the "Do not map through this device" box checked in the control panel for the device. If they don't, the Wave player could select the device to play the sound but it won't be heard.

Another problem may be that the sound card does not support the requested wave data format, Wave Settings.


Important Information!

Please at least read the "Setting up" section before running Musician's CD Player!

To be able to use the "slow down" part of this software, you must make the sound from your CD Player available to the wave section of the software.

Click here for more info!


How does it work

Musician's CD Player consists of a CD audio player and a Wave audio player.

The CD player is used for playing CD's the usual way and also lets you repeat any section of the music.

The Wave player is used for recording a section of the music, lower the speed by time-stretching it, then play it back.

The sound card in your computer is converting the analogue signal from the CD player to a digital signal. The Wave player records this data, saves it as a temporary wave file. The Wave player is then used to play back this section.

This assumes that the system is setup correctly.

Now read this: Setting Up


Setting up

We assume that you have successfully installed Musician's CD Player on your computer. If not, refer to the readme.txt file for additional info.

To be able to make a recording with Musician's CD Player you need to enable the CD input to the wave recording section of your sound card. You must also set the input and output levels to a correct level. This is done with the standard Windows 95 mixer.

The standard Windows 95 mixer icon should appear on your taskbar if you have ticked the "Show volume control on taskbar" box, which is located in the Multimedia properties window.

Double click the icon. You should now see the Mixer window. If you do, click here.

If the standard Windows 95 mixer icon does not appear on your taskbar, do like this:

Click the "Start" button on the "Taskbar".

From the menu, select "Program", and then select "Accessories".

Now select the "Multimedia" item, then "Volume Control".

You will see something like this:

Click Menu item "Alternative" and chose "Properties".

Click "Recording".

Activate the CD-Audio item under "Show the following volume controls".

Click OK.

You will now see the dialog "Recording Control".

Activate the "CD-Audio" item.

Set the balance control to the center.

The volume control adjusts the level for recording wave data.

Musician's CD Player uses temporary wave data files for processing the music.

Set the volume as high as possible without getting distortion when recording.

You may need to do a couple of recordings to set the correct level.

If you don't use the other volume controls, de-activate them.

Note:

On some sound cards, you may to have different settings for the volume control depending on whether you record the music with 8 or 16 bit quality, Wave Settings.


Basics

The transport controls acts an ordinary tape recorder controls with the following exceptions:

The currently highlighted button may be controlled by pressing the spacebar on the computer keyboard. To cycle through the buttons, use the [Tab] or [Shift] + [Tab] keys.

This means you can control the program entirely with the computer keyboard and also  makes it easy to sit in front of the computer with your instrument in your hand without  having to use the mouse.

CD Player

This is how the different controls work:

If the pause button is used to stop the music, the time counter will not be reset. Clicking the play button after this will start the playback from the current position of the track.

If the stop button is used to stop the music, the time counter will be reset to zero. Clicking the play button after this will start the playback from the beginning of the track.

If you check the Cycle item, the current track will cycle between the time positions in the locators.

To enter a new position in a locator, you must enter the minute value followed by a one of the following [,] or [.] or [:] or [Space] and then the second value. If only digits are entered, they are interpreted as seconds. The new position is accepted when another control is activated or by pressing the return/enter key.

The marker buttons labeled "M" next to the cycle locator boxes, lets you select a section of audio while it is playing through.

To select a new song, just chose in the track list.

Above the transport controls, youll find a navigation slider for easy positioning of the music.

Keyboard shortcut: [+] and [-] on the numeric keypad. If the slider has input focus, [Left Arrow] and [Right Arrow] does the same.

Wave Player

To be able to listen to a section of the music at a reduced tempo, you must first make a recording of that section.

This is how the different controls work:

The transport controls acts an ordinary tape recorder controls with the following exceptions:

Clicking the Record button will start the recording from the beginning of the current track.

If Cycle mode in the CD player is activated, the recording will start from the CD player's left locator position and the recording will end at the CD player's right locator position.

Clicking the Drop button will start the recording from the current position of the current CD track.

When recording, both the Stop and the Drop button will end the recording. However, the Drop button will not rewind the CD player.

If you check the Cycle mode, the recorded wave file will cycle between the time positions of the Wave player locators.

To enter a new position in a locator, you must enter the minute value followed by a one of the following [,] or [.] or [:] or [Space] and then the second value. If only digits are entered, they are interpreted as seconds. The new position is accepted when another control is activated or by pressing the return/enter key.

The marker buttons labeled "M" next to the cycle locator boxes, lets you select a section of audio while it is playing through.

Above the transport controls, youll find a navigation slider for easy positioning of the music.

Keyboard shortcut: [Left Arrow] and [Right Arrow] if the slider has input focus.

Temporary wave files

The temporary wave files the program needs, are saved in the temp Windows directory e.g. C:\Windows\Temp.

If this does not exist, they are saved in the temp directory specified in the autoexec.bat file.

You may change the settings in the autoexec.bat file by typing e.g. SET TEMP=C:\TEMP

If neither of those exists, the temporary wave files are saved in the Musician's CD Player directory.

When leaving the program, the temporary wave files are automatically deleted.


The Menus

File Menu

Import Wave File

Export Unconverted Wave File

Export Converted Wave File

Exit

Options Menu

Button Settings

Wave Settings


Import Wave File

Imports a wave file into the Musician's CD Player. The file is processed according to the settings in the Wave Settings dialog. The software reads the Sample Frequency and Bits Per Sample settings from the file and uses the default setting for Chunk Size. The other settings found in the Wave settings dialog, must be set by the user.

By recording your old vinyl records or cassette tapes with the standard Windows sound recorder or another software capable of recording audio and saving it as a .wav file, you may then import the file into the Musician's CD Player.

Note 1: You don't have to record LP's or cassette tapes with some other application before importing them into Musician's CD Player. You can record them directly into Musician's CD Player provided it is running and Connect CD is unchecked. You must also enable the line in device in the recording section of the standard Windows Mixer.

Note 2: Only mono files are supported.


Export Unconverted Wave File

Saves the recorded wave file exactly as heard from the CD.

This command allow you to edit files in ways not catered for by Musician's CD Player.  For example, to crop a file, you can work out where to crop it using the marker buttons before exporting it. Then open it in Windows Sound Recorder, move the slider to the second

marker position, and from the Edit menu, choose Delete After Current Position. Then move the slider to the first marker position, and choose Delete Before Current Position.


Export Converted Wave File

Saves the recorded wave file according to the settings made in the Wave Settings dialog.

This command allow you to edit files in ways not catered for by Musician's CD Player.  For example, to crop a file, you can work out where to crop it using the marker buttons before exporting it. Then open it in Windows Sound Recorder, move the slider to the second

marker position, and from the Edit menu, choose Delete After Current Position. Then move the slider to the first marker position, and choose Delete Before Current Position.


Exit

Exits the program.


Button Settings

Here's where you make the settings for the behavior of some of the buttons.

These settings are valid for both the CD and the Wave section.

Play button changes focus to

Here you chose what button will receive the input focus when clicking the Play button.

The two choices are the Stop or the Pause button.

If you want to repeat a certain section over and over, chose the Stop button to receive the input focus whenever Play is pressed.

If you want to continue where the music stops, chose the Pause button to receive the input focus whenever Play is pressed.

Marker changes focus to next marker

Enabled this item if you want the input focus to move to the next cycle marker button when controlling the program with your computer keyboard.


Wave Settings

Here's where you make the settings for the Wave section of the program. The dialog box is divided in two sections, one for recording and one for processing.

Recording settings

Sample Frequency

The highest frequency a digital audio recording can reproduce is half the sampling frequency. This means, a higher setting will increase the audio quality of the recorded wave file but will also increase the time taken to process it.

Bits Per Sample

Every sample is represented by a number of digits. A higher setting will describe the value of the sample with more accuracy and thus increase the audio quality of the recorded wave file. This setting does not in any substantial way affect the time taken to process it.

Limit Disk Space

This sets the limit of disk space used for recording music. The default setting is 20 megabytes. This is a safety feature so you don't start a recording, leave you machine for a while and come back to find that your whole hard disk has been used up for the sound file.

Mode

You here have the option to select what output channels to record: both (mono), left or right.

Normally the recording made will be in mono. However, sometimes the instrument you are transcribing is more prominent on one of the channels. You may then select to record only the left or only the right channel.

If only one channel is recorded, this channel of the recording is sent to both the left and right channels of the sound card.

Note: Stereo recording is not currently supported since this would double the time taken to process the recording.

Connect CD

With this item checked, the CD player is connected to the Wave Section. This means the CD is started when you click Record and stopped when you click Stop. Uncheck this item when you want to record from another source than the CD, e.g. the line-in or microphone.

Remove Silence

Check this item to remove possible clicks and silence from the beginning of the recorded file.

Processing settings

Time Stretch

Here you choose by how many percent the recording will be stretched. The audio quality of the recording depends on the type of the music. The less complex the music is, the better the audio quality will be.

Pitch Change

You also have the option to raise or lower the pitch of a recording in half tone steps. This way you may change the music to a key that better suits you or your instrument. Raising the pitch an octave is sometimes useful when transcribing bass lines and low pitched instruments. You may apply Pitch Change and Time Stretch at the same time.

Auto Play

With this item checked, playing of the time-stretched audio starts immediately after processing.

Reprocess File

Lets you change the processing settings and redo the time-stretch without redoing the recording.

If Autoplay is enabled, the dialog box is closed and playback is started immediately.

Advanced Settings

This buttons opens a second dialog for possible fine tuning of the music.

Note: The Sample Frequency, Bits Per Sample and Chunk Size are automatically set by the software when importing a wave file.

Advanced settings

These settings are default values which may not be necessary to change.

Chunk Size

The slow down process uses something called Fast Fourier Transform. This setting depends on the type of music but also on the Sample Frequency setting. Higher Sample Frequency typically need a larger Chunk Size setting. Lower settings will make the processing faster but the sound may be grainier. This value is automatically set when changing sample frequency but may also be set manually.

Spacing Factor

Spacing of the Chunk Size. Lower settings will make the processing faster but the sound may be grainier.

Bandpass Factor

Another setting to fine-tune the sound. Lower settings will make the processing faster but the sound level may fluctuate.

Suggest Settings

Suggests settings for a good ratio between audio quality and processing time of the temporary wave file.


Key Commands

[B] [W] [ + ] / [ - ] (Num) [Ctrl] + [O] [Ctrl] + [S] [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [O]	Open Button Settings Dialog Open Wave Settings Dialog Increase/Decrease CD position Import Wave file Export Converted Wave file Export Unconverted Wave file


Registration - Order Form
How to order

To get the registered version of Musician's CD Player, use the order form below.

Name:

Street:

City:

Country:

Email:

Musician's CD Player (registered version)	($30 US)	$ ________

Delivered by e-mail	(No extra)	$ 0.00____

Postage (normal postal service)	($5 US)	$ ________

Cash Payment	(No extra)	$ 0.00_____

Cheque payment, international money order, etc.	($15 US)	$ ________

Total: $ ________

The order should be sent to:

Roni Music

Pysslinggatan 6

S-212 38 Malmoe

Sweden

Because of the small amount of money involved, we advice you to send the payment as cash. It saves you the money for buying the check. No personal checks, please.

Roni Music homepage is located at URL:  http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-11396

e-mail: roni@mbox317.swipnet.se

New!

On-line registration is now possible from Roni Music homepage!

http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-11396/register.htm

Note: There is an additional cost of $4.00 US when registering on-line.

© Copyright 1997-98 Roni Music - All Rights Reserved.


Other products from Roni Music

Sweet MIDI Player

Sweet Sixteen MIDI Sequencer

Sweet MIDI Arpeggiator

Sweet MIDI Harmonizer

Sweet Little Piano

For more info, please check Roni Music homepage at:

http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-11396


Sweet MIDI Player

Sweet MIDI Player is a MIDI player for not only auditioning all types of MIDI files, but for modifying the MIDI files themselves. Use its mixer-like interface to easily edit the control messages, transpose the music, change the tempo, mute desired MIDI channels, and save the end results to disk. It also includes a Jukebox function which allows you to create playlists with up to 99 songs.

Sweet MIDI Player features 192 ticks per quarter note resolution, and thanks to multitasking capability, you can use every command while it's running.


Sweet Sixteen MIDI Sequencer

Sweet Sixteen is a comprehensive and powerful MIDI sequencer for PC/Windows and Atari ST/STE range of computers. Sweet Sixteen offers Piano Roll, List and Transform edit pages as well as a dedicated Mixer page you can use for your favorite synth.

Capable of playback on 24 + 24 tracks, Sweet Sixteen is ideal for the absolute beginner but powerful enough to satisfy experienced "power" users.

The use of MIDI controllers is fully supported to allow control of all the subtle nuances of expression and dynamics demanded by the discerning MIDI programmer.

Powerful, yet user friendly, Sweet Sixteen offers features far in advance of its more well-known competitors.

Main features

Pattern based MIDI sequencer 16+1 patterns (one of few pattern based sequencers)

24 + 24 Tracks (48 tracks when running two patterns in parallel)

High note resolution (192 PPQN)

GM-mixer

Multitasking (do anything you like while playing)

Real time processing (all track-parameters are reversible)

Handles all MIDI events (including System Exclusive Events)

Interpolation MIDI Sync (Retains 192 PPQN in external sync)

Programmable Tempo/Time Signature Track

Real-time scrolling editors (List and Piano Roll)

Supports SMF (MIDI Files, Type 0 and 1)

Undo function (regret any action)

Logical Editor

Step Input - Cycle Mode

On-line help

Printed manual

...and much, much more

What does the press say?

Atari ST User - Dec. 93

"Sweet Sixteen is well specified for the price and well worth your consideration if you're looking at the budget end of the sequencer market."

Sound On Sound - Feb. 94

"Could something this good be this cheap?"

"The only way you'll get a much cheaper sequencer is on the Public Domain, but as Sweet Sixteen is a surprisingly competent sequencer at a very attractive price, why bother?"

"Stability-wise, Sweet Sixteen seems to be rock solid. In spite of trying, I found it impossible to crash.

The MIX - May 95

"Sweet Sixteen is an absolute breeze, once you get the idea of how it works (which doesn't take long).

"... make Sweet Sixteen the easiest way of getting into sequencing."


Sweet MIDI Arpeggiator

Older synthesizers had arpeggiators, and now new synths can have them too with Sweet MIDI Arpeggiator. This 'virtual arpeggiator' program contains four arpeggio objects that will arpeggiate all MIDI notes that pass through it.

With this program, you can change the arpeggio direction, number of octaves, and length of the arpeggiated notes. You can also modify the rhythm values of the arpeggiated notes and add another arpeggio object by choosing the same MIDI channel for the object.

The arpeggiators can run from the program's internal tempo engine or synchronize to other software that sends MIDI Clock messages. Settings can be saved for later loading.

Sweet MIDI Arpeggiator features a clean-looking interface that shouldn't take too long to figure out.

Sweet MIDI Arpeggiator will work with all Windows programs that use standard Windows MIDI drivers.


Sweet MIDI Harmonizer

Enhance the sound of notes played on your MIDI keyboard with Sweet MIDI Harmonizer.

This 16-bit software-based version of an intelligent harmonizer gives you three objects

which will harmonize any MIDI notes that plays through it, according to desired settings.

These settings may be saved and later loaded back into the program.

Select a desired scale type, derivation of the selected scale, and key; decide what to

do with the non-harmonic notes; and pick how many steps from the original note the first added note will be, and if desired, change the velocity for the new note.

Sweet MIDI Harmonizer features an easy-to-figure out interface, and

work with any Windows program that uses a standard Windows MIDI driver for input.


Sweet Little Piano

Sweet Little Piano for Windows allows the computer keyboard to act as, either a piano or an accordion keyboard. Pressing a computer key will generate a MIDI note and send it to the device selected (a sound card or any other MIDI device).

Different aspects of the MIDI message generated may be changed with different menu commands, keyboard commands and the control bars.

Sweet Little Piano will work with all Windows programs that use standard Windows MIDI drivers for input.


Legal Stuff

No warrantee is expressed or implied. The author of this program is not responsible for any damage or loss of data due to the use of this program. This document and Musician's CD Player are Copyright © 1997- 98 Roni Music.