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1995-02-04
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Some information about Philip's Music Scribe
--------------------------------------------
Philip's Music Scribe (PMS) is a computer program for typesetting high quality
music. It runs on any Acorn computer running the RISC OS operating system;
these include the Archimedes series, and newer models such as the A5000, the
portable A4, and the Risc PC.
PMS operates by reading an input file which contains an encoded description of
the music; such a file can be constructed using any text editor or word
processor, for example, the !Edit application which comes with every RISC OS
system. The music encoding is very straightforward and compact, and quick to
enter.
Although such an input method may not be considered as `user-friendly' as
pointing and dragging on the screen, it is generally acknowledged to be a much
faster way of inputting music, once the format of the input files has been
learned. In addition, the usual facilities of a word processor, such as
cutting and pasting, can be used to speed up entry, and PMS is able to provide
text-based features such as macros and included files.
PMS displays pages of music for checking in a screen window which can be
scrolled and magnified in the usual way. It is not possible to modify the music
by direct pointing and dragging on the screen, because there is no way that
such changes can be fed back into the input file.
However, it is possible to have individual pages of music made into RISC OS
`draw files' which can be loaded into the !Draw application for modification if
required. Such files can also be included as illustrations in pages that are
produced by desktop publishing software.
PMS comes with a RISC OS outline font which contains all the musical shapes
(notes, rests, accidentals, bar lines, clefs, etc.) that it requires.
Output is printed via standard RISC OS printer drivers; it is therefore
possible to print on any printer for which a suitable driver is available. In
addition, for PostScript printers, a PostScript version of the music font is
provided, together with a version of PMS which generates its own
special-purpose PostScript.
For very high quality for publication purposes, PostScript output is
recommended, because it can be printed by commercial phototypesetters at 1200
dots per inch or more, on bromide paper.
The PMS input encoding is designed to be easy for a musician to remember. It
makes use of as many familiar musical notations as possible within the
limitations of the computer's character set. Normally it will be input by a
human using any available word processor or text editor. There is no reason,
however, why PMS input should not form the output of some other computer
program that captures (or generates) music in another fashion.
PMS has many features which enable it to print a wide variety of music using
standard notation. A number of these are listed below. PMS is supplied on a 3.5
inch RISC OS disc with a 250-page manual and some sample music files. To use
it, the following are required:
. An Acorn computer running the RISC OS operating system. The latest version
of PMS requires RISC OS 3, but an older version that runs under RISC OS 2
is still available.
. Any word processor or text editing software.
. A printer which can be driven by a RISC OS printer driver (many makes and
models are available), or access to a PostScript printer (either a direct
connection or via a network or other means).
For serious use, it is recommended that PMS be run on a system with a hard
disc, at least two megabytes of store, and a monitor that has a resolution of
at least 640 x 480 (VGA). Though these are not strictly necessary, using the
program on lesser systems is slower and more time-consuming; on the
old-fashioned Acorn monitors with 640 x 256 resolution, the music has to be
magnified quite considerably, thereby making it possible to see only a small
part of a page at a time.
Prices
------
Philip's Music Scribe is available from the author for use under licence.
There are two prices, depending on whether the program is to be used
commercially (i.e. for profit) or not. The non-commercial version does not
include the additional PostScript support.
. The non-commercial price is 175 pounds.
. The commercial price is 500 pounds.
In each case, the price is for a single copy of the program. These prices are
subject to revision without notice.
For further information, contact:
---------------------------------
Philip Hazel
33 Metcalfe Road
Cambridge CB4 2DB
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 1223 365518
Some features of Philip's Music Scribe
--------------------------------------
Easily learned input coding; bar lengths are checked by the program.
The program automatically lays out the bars, splits the sequence of bars up
into systems, and allocates the systems to pages. For special cases, space can
be forced into a bar at any point; line breaks and page breaks can be forced
after any bar.
Conditional if-then-else facilities in the input, thus allowing several
different versions of a piece to be output from the same basic source.
Output on any printer supported by RISC OS, or on any PostScript printer or
phototypesetter.
Proofing output on computer screen, exactly as the music will appear on the
printed page.
Music can be played through the computer's sound system, up to eight notes at a
time, to help with proof reading.
Music can also be played via a MIDI card, if one is installed in the machine.
In this case, the maximum number of simultaneous notes is a function of the
connected MIDI instrument.
Magnification or reduction; music can be printed at any size. Some staves can
be printed smaller or larger than the others.
Page length and width can be specified as required.
Any number of title lines; page heading and footing lines; footnotes; centring
and right-justifying facilities; spacing, type size and type font can be
specified for each heading and footing line.
Up to 63 simultaneous staves.
Staves can be `suspended' (i.e. not printed) for parts of the piece where they
have a long sequence of rest bars; resumption of printing is automatic.
Any combination of staves selectable for printing (thus allowing the extraction
of individual parts or groups of parts).
Spacing between staves and betwen systems individually controllable, and can be
varied within the piece.
Staves can be overprinted, allowing two independent parts to share a stave in
full score; stem and tie directions can be forced.
Bar lines solid through each system (set of staves), or broken after each
stave, or broken as specified by the user.
Chords are handled automatically, including printing some noteheads on the
`wrong' side of the stem and the positioning of accidentals.
Horizontal space after each note type can be specified at the start and altered
in the middle of the piece if necessary.
Treble, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, deep bass, soprano, and mezzo-soprano
clefs; the treble and bass clefs can have `8' above or below them; music
entered in one clef can be printed in another. Clef-less music can be printed
and the percussion H-clef is also supported.
Breves, semibreves, minims, crotchets, quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers
and hemidemisemiquavers.
Round, diamond and cross-shaped note heads; also stemless notes and stems
without note heads are available.
Beaming of quavers, semiquavers, etc., with sloping beams (the slope can be
specified if necessary); whether to beam or not is controlled by the user;
part-broken beams (all but the primary beam broken) are available. Beams with
notes on either side of them can be printed. Beaming over rests is supported.
Double sharps and double flats supported; accidentals can be in round or square
brackets, or printed above notes if so specified.
Automatic centring of full bar rests.
Support for many bars rest; automatically collapsed into a single long-rest bar
when printing parts.
Tied notes and glissando markings automatically processed when they cross bar
lines and line ends.
Automatic cautionary time and key signatures printed at the end of a line when
the change happens at the start of the next line. This can be suppressed if
not required.
Triplets, duplets and other non-standard rhythms correctly positioned.
Repeat signs at bar ends or in the middle of bars.
Grace notes, independently beamed if necessary.
Many expression marks -- accents, mordants, turns, tremolo (on single notes and
between notes), arpeggio and spread signs on chords, etc.
First, second and nth time bars.
Text at the start of each stave; separate text available for the first stave
and for subsequent staves; can be changed during the piece; can be printed
vertically.
Rehearsal letters and bar numbers, either at line starts or every so many bars.
With or without enclosing boxes or circles.
Transposition of whole piece or individual parts, with some options for
handling pieces where the tonality is different to the key signature.
Crescendo and decrescendo marks.
Text in the music: p f mf ff etc. and arbitrary words; roman, italic,
bold, bold-italic and other typefaces; any available font can be used at any
arbitrary size; musical characters available in text.
Vocal underlay, overlay, and figured bass markings at arbitrary sizes; vocal
underlay and overlay has support for extender lines and automatically drawn
rows of hyphens. No limit on the number of verses.
Phrasing marks and long slurs; user control over the end points and the degree
of curvature where necessary. No limit on the number of simultaneous slurs.
Dashed slurs, and `wiggly' (S-shaped) slurs are available.
Cue bars can be printed in small notes in parts; if-then-else facilities allow
them to be omitted in the score.
Indenting of initial bracket allows for the printing of incipits.
Multiple movements in a single input file.
And much more!
Philip Hazel
February 1995