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ACCU Music Printer by Kevin Fischer Version 1.2 June 16, 1990 ACCU Music Printer 6-16-90 Page 1 INTRODUCTION: Are you an aspiring musician? If so, maybe ACCU Music Printer is the program for you. It is specifically designed for those music writers who can't write. What that means is that you type in the music and ACCU Music Printer will print out the sheet music. Entering the music is very easy and can be done with any text editor or word processor. Then you just run ACCU Music Printer. It will automatically take your music and print it out to your printer quickly and easily. Since this is one of the first versions of this program, it is slightly limited in fea- tures. Future versions will be much improved with more advanced and interesting features. SYSTEM REQUIRED: The following equipment is necessary for running ACCU Music Printer: o IBM or compatible computer (XT, AT, doesn't matter which) o Disk drive or hard drive o Monitor with CGA or better graphics (hasn't been tested with Hercules graphics card) o Printer which supports graphics A text editor or word processor is also recommended for using ACCU Music Printer. NEW IN THIS VERSION: o HP Laser printer support o Dynamics in music o Extended measure rests o Bug fixed in printing routine SETTING UP THE PROGRAM: First of all, you need to copy the files that come with ACCU Music Printer onto a floppy disk or a directory of your hard disk. After you have it set up on a disk or in a directory, you are ready to set it up for your printer. Printer drivers for the program have an extension of '.PRT'. At this point in time, only four printer drivers come with the program: PAN1091I.PRT - Designed for the Panasonic 1091i printer. Should work with the Pansonic 1080, 1091, and 1092 printers also. EPSNRX80.PRT - Designed for the Epson RX-80 printer. GEMINI10.PRT - Designed for the Gemini 10 printer. Should work with the Gemini 15 printer also. ACCU Music Printer 6-16-90 Page 2 HPLASER.PRT - Designed for any Hewlett-Packard Laser Printer. Tested with the HP IID printer. Since there are such a few number of printer drivers, I have also included a program to create your own printer driver for use with ACCU Music Printer. This program is called 'MUSCNFIG.EXE'. If you have a printer which has a printer driver already made for it, follow these steps: 1. Type the command: 'COPY filename.PRT MUSIC.PRT' at the DOS prompt (don't type the apostrophes!). [Replace the word 'filename' with the name of the printer driver. For example, if you wanted to use the printer driver 'GEMINI10.PRT', the line would read: "COPY GEMINI10.PRT MUSIC.PRT" ] This will create a copy of your printer driver under the name 'MUSIC.PRT'. 2. That's it! Your printer driver is all set up. If your printer driver is not included with ACCU Music Printer, you must use the 'MUSCNFIG.EXE' program. The following description explains how to use it. USING 'MUSCNFIG.EXE' TO CREATE PRINTER DRIVERS: NOTE: If you have a laser printer not Hewlett Packard compatible, special printer routines need to be written for it. I would be glad to do this for you. Please send me a letter telling me your printer name and hopefully we can work something out. Do not use 'MUSCNFIG.EXE' for laser printers! NOTE: Any laser printer drivers cannot be loaded up with 'MUSCNFIG.EXE'. Any attempt to do so will result in unpredictable problems! Load up 'MUSCNFIG.EXE' from DOS. It will give you a menu that looks like the following: 1. Define Printer Name 2. Set up printer strings 3. Save printer configuration 4. Load printer configuration 5. Clear printer configuration 6. Quit program Begin by giving your printer driver a name. Select option 1 and enter the name of your printer. If you make a mistake, select option 1 again and retype the printer name. ACCU Music Printer 6-16-90 Page 3 Next, select option 2 to create the printer strings. GET OUT YOUR PRINTER MANUAL!! You will now enter the decimal code numbers for each printer function. You need to enter 3 digits for each code number. That means for the number 27, enter 027. For the number 0, enter 000. After entering these 3 digits, press RETURN. It will advance to the next code number entry. When you are done entering code numbers for that printer func- tion, press RETURN at an entry number prompt without typing anything. This might seem a little confusing so the following is an example: Lets assume you want to enter the numbers 27, 87, 102, and 1 for a function. You would type: '027<RETURN>087<RETURN>102<RETURN>001<RETURN><RETURN>' Don't type the apostrophes and press RETURN where it says '<RETURN>'. You need to enter code numbers for the following printer functions: o Setting linefeed to 1/6 inch spacing [Make sure this is for setting all linefeeds to 1/6 inch, not just a one time 1/6 inch linefeed.] o Setting linefeed to 8/72 inch spacing [Make sure this is for setting all linefeeds to 8/72 inch, not just a one time 8/72 inch linefeed.] o Setting Graphics mode to 960 dots per line [Make sure this is for 8 pin mode, not 9 pin.] o Turning on double wide print mode o Turning off double wide print mode o Turning on enhanced or NLQ printing o Turning off enhanced or NLQ printing If you make a mistake while entering these, finish with the rest of the code numbers for the other printer functions. Then select the 2 option from the main menu again. This time, just press RETURN at the prompt for each printer function you entered correctly. This will skip entering the data for that function, but will retain the data you entered previously. When you come to a function which you entered incorrectly, just type in the correct code numbers. They will overwrite the old ones. After you have finished entering all of the code numbers for each printer function and have defined the name of the printer, select the 3 option (save printer configuration) from the main menu. It will prompt you for a save filename. I recommend a filename which will give you some idea of what kind of printer it is. Make sure it has the extension '.PRT', and be sure that it is not called 'MUSIC.PRT'. You are now done creating a printer driver. You can always use the 4 option (load printer configura- tion) to load up the printer driver and make changes if you need to. [NOTE: Don't forget the '.PRT' extension when load up the printer driver!] Once you have created a printer driver, there is one last step in order for it to work with ACCU Music Printer. That is ACCU Music Printer 6-16-90 Page 4 the same step as if you had already had a printer driver ready for your printer. Just follow these directions: 1. Type the command: 'COPY filename.PRT MUSIC.PRT' at the DOS prompt (don't type the apostrophes!). [Replace the word 'filename' with the name of the printer driver. For example, if your printer driver was named 'JOHNDOE.PRT', the line would read: "COPY JOHNDOE.PRT MUSIC.PRT" ] This will create a copy of your printer driver under the name 'MUSIC.PRT'. 2. That's it! Your printer driver is all set up. That explains how to get a printer driver set up for your printer. RUNNING MUSIC.EXE: Run 'MUSIC.EXE' from the DOS prompt. Upon doing this, you will be presented with the title of the program, the name of your current printer, and a prompt for your music filename. If you forgot to set up a printer driver, you will get an error message. Please refer to the section "SETTING UP THE PROGRAM" which is listed above. If you didn't get an error message, enter the name of your music filename here. See below for information about creating your own music file. Next, the program will ask you whether your music should be printed out in bass clef or treble clef. Press B or T depending on your choice. Then it will ask you whether the key signature has sharps or flats. If it has neither (nothing in the key signature), pick either one. Then it will prompt you for how many sharps or flats, depending on which one you picked. If there is neither in the key signature, just enter 0. Next it will ask you for the time signature of the music. Enter as '44' or '24'. Do not put a dash or slash between the two numbers. Last of all, you will be prompted for the song title and the author. These are both optional. Assuming you entered everything correctly and the music file exists, it will begin loading and printing the file on the printer. Be sure that you have the correct disk in and the printer is turned on before you finish answering the author prompt. When it is done printing, the program will return you to DOS. PRINTING SOME SAMPLE MUSIC: Included with Version 1.0 of ACCU Music Printer is the file 'STARBANN.ACC'. This is the music for the Star Spangled Banner. To print it out, make sure you have correctly set up your printer driver. Then, load up MUSIC.EXE. At the filename prompt, enter ACCU Music Printer 6-16-90 Page 5 'STARBANN.ACC' plus any appropriate drive and directory specific- ations. Next, when it asks you which clef, enter T for Treble clef. After that, enter F for Flats and then 0 since there are no flats or sharps in the music. Next, enter '34' as the time signature. Finally, enter 'The Star-Spangled Banner' as the title and 'SOUSA' as the author. He is the arranger of this particular version. Be sure the correct disk is in the drive and the printer is turned on and correctly aligned before pressing RETURN after the author's name. The program should print out the music to the Star Spangled Banner then. CREATING YOUR OWN MUSIC: You may be thinking by now, "This is great, but how do I print out my own music?" Well, here comes that information. The first step is to load up your word processor or any good text editor (something as simple as EDLIN will work too). You will be entering information specifically for the printout by ACCU Music Printer. That means that anything you type will appear in the sheet music. The format for each command is as follows: [Note Letter][Accidental][Octave Number][Note Length][Dot][Tie][Dynamic] A description of each part follows: Note letter - This is the musical letter of the note. Valid note letters are: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, R. The R is for rest. Use it if you want a rest instead of a regular note. Accidental - This is the accidental of the note. Some valid accidentals are: N (natural), S (sharp), F (flat), *. Only use an accidental if you want it to appear on the music. For example, if all of the notes in a song are natural, do not put an N for all of their accidentals. Use an *. That means that ACCU Music Printer will just print the note with no accidental. For rests, be sure to use an *. Octave Number - This is the octave number of the note. It ranges from 1 to 8. If the note is a rest, use an * instead of an octave number. Each octave goes from lower C to the B above it. Octave 8 only contains lower C. The following diagram gives you an idea where on the staff each octave is: G ---------------------------F -------------------------- E ---------------------------D -------------------------- Treble C - Start of octave 5 ---------------------------B -------------------------- Clef A ACCU Music Printer 6-16-90 Page 6 ---------------------------G -------------------------- F ---------------------------E -------------------------- D C - Start of octave 4 B ---------------------------A -------------------------- G ---------------------------F -------------------------- Bass E ---------------------------D -------------------------- Clef C - Start of octave 3 ---------------------------B -------------------------- A ---------------------------G -------------------------- F E Note Length - This is how long the note is. Valid note lengths are W (whole note), H (half note), Q (quarter note), E (eighth note), and S (sixteenth note). Rests must have a note length. Dot - This is whether the note is dotted. If it is, there is a period immediately following the note length. If not, there is NO period following the note length. Tie - This is whether the note it tied. If it is, there is a T following the last character. If it is not, there is nothing following the last character. [NOTE: Ties do not work in this version of ACCU Music Printer. Include them in your music so that in future versions you won't have to modify your music.] Dynamic - This is the dynamic of the note. It is optional. Dynamics can be "fff", "ff", "f", "mf", "mp", "p", "pp", "ppp", etc. After the last character of the note command, put a slash ('/') and then the dynamic (in lower case). For a "mf" note, you would add "/mf" to the end of the note command. See examples for a better illustration. Do not add dynamics to rests! Only changes in the dynamics will be printed on the music, so if you want to put dynamics, do it on EVERY note! The following are some examples: C*4E - This is a C note, with no accidental, in the 4th octave and is an eighth note. FS5Q. - This is a F note, with a sharp accidental, in the 5th octave, a quarter note, and is dotted. B*3ST - This is a B note, with no accidental, in the 3rd octave, sixteenth note, and is tied. R**Q - This is a quarter rest. GN6H.T - This is a G note, with a natural accidental, in the 6th octave, half note, dotted, and is tied. ACCU Music Printer 6-16-90 Page 7 BN4Q/mf - This is a B note, with a natural accidental, in the 4th octave, quarter note, "mf" dynamic. G*5H.T/fff - This is a G note, with no accidental, in the 5th octave, half note, dotted, tied, and is "fff" dynamic. In addition to the usual whole measure rest "R**W", I have added a new type of rests common to musicians. It is the multi- ple measure rest. It shows up on the music as 1.5 inch line with the number of whole measure rests written above it. The command is "Xn" where 'n' is the number of whole measure rests. Do not use it for only 1 whole measure rest. Anything 2 or greater is okay. Some examples are: X2 - Two measures of whole rests. X12 - Twelve measures of whole rests. X6 - Six measures of whole rests. There are a few other things that you must know in order to enter music for ACCU Music Printer. The first is that you need to divide your music into measure bars. If you don't you'll run into major problems. To put a measure bar in your music, use 'M***' as the note. Do not put a measure bar at the beginning or end of your music. At the end of your music use 'Q***' as the note. This tells ACCU Music Printer that this is the end of your music. The following is a sample scale divided into measures: C*4Q D*4Q E*4Q F*4Q M*** G*4Q A*4Q B*4Q C*5Q M*** D*5Q C*5Q B*4Q A*4Q M*** G*4Q F*4Q E*4Q D*4Q M*** C*4Q R**H R**Q Q*** That explains everything necessary to make your own music. If you do decide to use a word processor to create your music, be ACCU Music Printer 6-16-90 Page 8 sure to convert the file to ASCII text when done using the word processor. FUTURE REVISIONS: Assuming I receive some support or acknowledgement that this program is any good, I will continue making enhancements. Future enhancements include the following: Added o Support for Hewlett-Packard Laser Printers. o More already written music files ready to print with ACCU Music Printer. Coming o A Transposer which will convert music from one Soon instrument to another. (So you can play a piano piece on a guitar or trumpet for example.) o Enhanced printer output. This means that several consecutive eighth notes and sixteenth notes will be connected together instead of separate. Also, the addition of thirty-second notes would be nice. The addition of ties will be coming in the future. Another enhancement would be compacting several measures of rests into one symbolization. Dynamics o The ability to change time signature or key signature added in the middle of a song. Also, some dynamics and crescendos and decrescendos could be added. o A Scorer which would take several ACCU Music Printer files and print them out like a director's score or something like you would find in a music book. ACCU MUSIC PRINTER SUPPORT: ACCU Music Printer is being distributed as ShareWare. If you find it useful or use it every so often, please register your program. Two registration plans are available: o Plan 1: Fill out the registration form and mail it with $5.00. You will receive the next version of ACCU Music Printer on disk with printed documenta- tion. You will ONLY receive the next version. o Plan 2: Fill out the registration form and mail it with $12.00. You will receive the next three ver- sions of ACCU Music Printer on disk with printed documentation. .... one more plan .... o Plan 3: Send anything over $20.00 and I will supply you with a version of ACCU Music Printer each time I make a new one. That means you will get a version until I stop making them. ACCU Music Printer 6-16-90 Page 9 You may be wondering, "How come he doesn't give unlimited versions at $12.00?" I have to worry about expenses. Disks cost around a $1.00 (assuming equal 3.5 and 5.25 inch disk usage) a piece. Mailing costs at least $.50 (probably more with the Post Office raising rates). And then I'd like to make some kind of profit. I would really appreciate any comments, questions, ideas, etc. Anything I can get from the users will certainly help me make ACCU Music Printer a better program. If you have any problems, BE SURE TO WRITE ME!! Just send me a note or write me a letter. Be sure to include your return address in case I need to write you back. There is a comment form near the end of this documentation. Send all correspondence to: Kevin Fischer 13234 Vinter Way Poway, CA 92064-1216 See registration form on the next page if you feel like registering your ACCU Music Printer. DISCLAIMER: I do not accept any responsibility for any damages caused by ACCU Music Printer. You are using this program at your own risk. There are no warranties or guarantees that come with this program. SHAREWARE: This program is distributed as SHAREWARE. No fee may be charged for it except by me. It may only be distributed on disk or archive by itself, not with any other program. If you decide to continue using this program, please consider registering it. REVISIONS: Version 1.2 ----------- Fixed bug in printing which skipped certain staff lines. Bug corrected. Added laser printer support. Added dynamic support. Added extended number of rests. Version 1.1 ----------- Fixed bug in music formatting routine which caused measures in music to be skipped. Bug corrected and music formatting routine works correctly. Added version # and date of version to MUSIC.EXE program. ACCU Music Printer 6-16-90 Page 10 Version 1.0 ----------- Initial release of ACCU Music Printer. Any problems concerning ACCU Music Printer should be sent to: Kevin Fischer 13234 Vinter Way Poway, CA 92064-1216 ACCU Music Printer 6-16-90 Page 11 VERSION 1.2, COMMENT FORM: Name: -------------------------------------------------------- Street Address: -------------------------------------------------------- City, State and ZIP: -------------------------------------------------------- Ratings: (1 to 10, 10 being the best) Documentation Quality 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Program Quality 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Program Value 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Comments and Questions: -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- Use this form for sending comments, questions, etc. to me con- cerning ACCU Music Printer. Please do this even if you decide not to register your program. Your suggestions may make this a program worth registering. Mail to: Kevin Fischer 13234 Vinter Way Poway, CA 92064-1216 VERSION 1.2, REGISTRATION FORM: Name: -------------------------------------------------------- Street Address: -------------------------------------------------------- City, State and ZIP: -------------------------------------------------------- Home phone number: -------------------------------------------------------- Type of computer system (type of computer, monitor, video card, disk drive, hard drive, printer, modem, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- Where did you get ACCU Music Printer? -------------------------------------------------------- Comments about the program: -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- Amount of money enclosed, registration plan number: -------------------------------------------------------- Type of disks you use (3.5 inch or 5.25 inch, 360k or 720k): -------------------------------------------------------- Thank you very much for registering your ACCU Music Printer program. You will be receiving the latest version of the program as soon as it becomes available. Mail this form with your money to: Kevin Fischer 13234 Vinter Way Poway, CA 92064-1216