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Mac Magazin/MacEasy 51
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Mac Magazin and MacEasy Magazine CD - Issue 51.iso
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Melody Pilot ƒ
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Melody Pilot Help
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1998-09-01
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Melody Pilot Help
Introduction
Melody Pilot is a music composition program for creating melodies on
the Macintosh that can also be played on PalmPilots. Songs can be
saved into and loaded from songbooks. The same songbooks can be
played on PalmPilots with Tan Kok Mun's Music Box
(http://home.pacific.net.sg/~kokmun), which uses Ronald H. Nicholson Jr.'s
cbasPad (http://www.nicholson.com/rhn/pilot.html). Both of these excellent
programs are freeware.
Minimum requirements for running Melody Pilot:
System 7.1 or later,
5 Mb of hard drive space, and
4 Mb free memory (2 Mb without color).
Fields and Buttons
Songbook Arrow Buttons - In the top, left corner of the window are
four buttons for moving to the first, previous, next, and last songs in
the songbook.
Song Number - In the top right corner of the window are fields that
indicate the current song number and the total number of songs in the
songbook.
Songbook Name - The name of the file containing the current songbook
is displayed at the top of the screen below the song number indicators.
Title - Below the songbook name is the title of the song. Each song
must have a title. Melody Pilot will prompt you for a title when you
create a new song. You can also edit the title by clicking on it.
Score - The score isn't a real music score but a Music Box score. This
field contains the notes, rests, tempo, and style changes that make up
the song.
Keyboard - The main feature of Melody Pilot is a 75-key piano keyboard
at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on the keys will play the
appropriate notes, which can be saved into a music "score" in Music
Box format (see "Save Notes in Score" below). Note: the bottom 3 keys
play fine on the Mac but not on the PalmPilot (these keys are colored
gray and are marked with a black line).
Lock - Clicking on this button locks the song to prevent accidental
changes once you are happy with the way a song sounds. This
automatically turns off manual editing of the score and saving notes in
the score if those options are currently checked. Clicking on the button
again unlocks the song. The state of the lock is stored in the Music Box
score as the presence or absence of a space character at the end.
Edit Score Manually - If you are familiar with Music Box format (see
Tan Kok Mun's documentation for details) you can edit the score
directly by checking this button. While the score is being manually
edited, you cannot enter notes, rests, tempo changes, or style changes
using the buttons or shortcuts. To stop editing, uncheck the Edit Score
Manually button.
Save Notes in Score - If the "Save Notes in Score" checkbox is marked,
all keys that are played on the keyboard will also be saved in the Music
Box score with the duration specified by the duration, dot, and triplet
buttons. If the checkbox is not marked, then notes will sound but will
not be saved. This button applies to all songs in the songbook.
Note Durations - Above the middle of the keyboard are buttons to set
the note duration. From left to right these are whole note, half note,
quarter note, eighth note, sixteenth note, thirty-second note, and
sixty-fourth note. Changing the note duration effects subsequent
notes saved to the score.
Rests - Above the note duration buttons are the rest buttons. From left
to right these are whole rest, half rest, quarter rest, eighth rest,
sixteenth rest, thirty-second rest, and sixty-fourth rest. Clicking on
any of the rest buttons immediately inserts the appropriate rest into
the score. If the "Dot" button is highlighted (see below) then a dotted
rest will be inserted.
Dot - To the right of the note durations is a dot button. This button is a
toggle that specifies whether notes and rests should be dotted,
meaning that their durations should be multiplied by one and a half
(e.g. a dotted half note is equivalent to a half note plus a quarter note).
If the dot button is highlighted then notes and rests will be dotted.
Otherwise they will have their normal durations.
Triplet - To the right of the dot button is a triplet button. This button is
a toggle that specifies whether notes and rests should be triplets,
meaning that their durations are two thirds as long as usual (three
triplet notes will take the same amount of time as two normal notes.
A triplet quarter note is equivalent to a "sixth" note). Triplet whole
notes and sixty-fourth notes are not currently supported (Music Box
cannot understand them). If the triplet button is highlighted then
notes and rests will be triplets. Otherwise they will have their normal
durations.
Clear (eraser icon) - To the right of the rest durations (above the dot
and triplet buttons) is a clear button. Clicking on the eraser will delete
the last note, rest, style change, or tempo change from the score.
Tempo - Melody Pilot will ask you for a tempo when you create a new
song as Music Box requires it. The tempo is measured in beats per
minute (bpm), where a quarter note is equal to one beat. The minimum
tempo is 32 bpm and the maximum is 255 bpm (beware that faster
tempos may cause notes to slur together on slower Macs, although
they will play correctly in Music Box on the PalmPilot. Some
instruments, like the flute, play better at fast tempos than others).
The default tempo is 120 bpm.
You can change the tempo in three different ways: by dragging the
tempo slider (metronome icon), clicking on the decrease and increase
tempo arrow buttons, or clicking on the tempo itself.
Sound - The "Sound" button pops up a menu that allows you to choose
between the available sounds to use when playing songs in Melody
Pilot. The built in sounds are "flute", "Boing", and "Harpsichord". This
button applies to all songs in the songbook but has no effect on the
sound in Music Box on the PalmPilot. The default sound is "flute".
You can install other sounds ("snd " resources) into Melody Pilot, but
instructions are beyond the scope of this help screen (if you are
familiar with ResEdit or other resource editors, it's a simple copy and
paste after which they will show up automatically).
Play Song - The "Play Song" button (music notes icon) plays the current
song. It is first translated to HyperCard music format, ignoring the
unsupported Style instructions. You can interrupt play by clicking on
the same button, which will be labeled "Stop Music" during play
(actually, you can click anywhere in the window to stop play).
If the "Edit Score Manually" button is checked and you have highlighted
a section of the score with the mouse, your selection will be played
instead of the entire score (note: if the selection does not start at the
beginning of the score, the note durations, octave, and tempo may not
be played accurately).
If you hold the command () key while clicking on the "Play Song"
button, it will replay the last converted score or selection. This will
save a little time if you have not made any changes to the score (this
works only with registered copies of Melody Pilot).
Help Button - Above the keyboard on the left is a Help button (question
mark icon) that brings you to this screen.
Menus
The File menu contains items for creating, opening, and saving
songbooks, for creating, reverting, and deleting songs, and for exiting
Melody Pilot:
New Songbook - This closes the current songbook and starts a new one.
Open Songbook - This closes the current songbook and loads an
existing songbook from a file.
Save Songbook - This saves the current songbook back to the file it
was originally loaded from. This menu item will be disabled if this is a
new songbook. Note that the state of the current songbook is kept
between invocations of Melody Pilot, and changes will not be lost until
a new songbook is loaded or created. An empty songbook cannot be
saved.
Save Songbook As... - This brings up a dialog box to save the current
songbook to a new file. An empty songbook cannot be saved.
New Song - This inserts a new song after the current song. To insert a
song before the first song, invoke the New Song menu item from the
Help screen.
Revert Song... - This reverts the score of the current song, if it has
been modified, to the last saved version after asking for confirmation.
Delete Song... - This deletes the current song after asking for
confirmation.
Quit Melody Pilot - Exits Melody Pilot.
The Edit menu contains just the usual Macintosh editing commands. The
Undo command will undo the last change to the score. A second Undo
will redo whatever was just undone. When editing the score manually,
the Undo command applies to text editing commands.
The first menu after the standard File and Edit menus is the Melody
menu, which has three distinct sections. The first section has options to
copy the music score in two formats:
Copy Music Box Score - This copies the score in Music Box format to
the clipboard where it can be pasted into a memo in the Pilot Desktop
application or into a file.
Copy HyperCard Score - This copies the score in HyperCard format to
the clipboard where it can be pasted into another application,
HyperCard stack, etc.
In the second section of the Melody menu are items for transposing the
current song up or down by a half step, whole step, or octave (these
commands are enabled only in the registered version of Melody Pilot).
The transposition is not allowed if it would put make any notes too low or
high.
Transpose Half Step Up - This transposes the current score up by 1
half step. For example, a song in the key of C-major would be
transposed to the key of C#-major (a.k.a. D-flat major).
Transpose Half Step Down - This transposes the current score down
by 1 half step. For example, a song in the key of C-major would be
transposed to the key of B-major.
Transpose Whole Step Up - This transposes the current score up by a
whole step (2 half steps). For example, a song in the key of C-major
would be transposed to the key of D-major.
Transpose Whole Step Down - This transposes the current score down
by a whole step (2 half steps). For example, a song in the key of
C-major would be transposed to the key of A#-major (a.k.a. B-flat
major).
Transpose Octave Up - This transposes the current score up by an
octave (12 half steps).
Transpose Octave Down - This transposes the current score down by
an octave (12 half steps).
In the third section of the Melody menu are items for setting the music
style (applicable only when playing songs using Music Box on the
PalmPilot):
Legato (Music Box) - Sets the Music Box play style to legato (notes
flow smoothly into one another). This has no effect on how the music
is played on the Macintosh.
Normal (Music Box) - Sets the Music Box play style to normal. This
has no effect on how the music is played on the Macintosh.
Staccato (Music Box) - Sets the Music Box play style to staccato
(notes are detached from one another). This has no effect on how the
music is played on the Macintosh.
To the right of the Melody menu is the Songs menu, which contains a list
of all the songs in the current songbook. Selecting any of the songs in
this menu will bring you to that song.
Keyboard Shortcuts
The following keyboard shortcuts are available except when manually
editing a score.
<-N> New Songbook
<-O> Open Songbook
<-S> Save Songbook
<-M> New Song
<CTRL-N> New Song
<-?> Go to this help screen
<-Z> Undo last change
{A-G} Play respective white key in octave 3*
{a-g} Play respective black key in octave 3*
* The following modifier keys change the octave in which these keys
will be played:
<CTRL> Play key in octave 2
<OPTION> Play key in octave 4
<CTRL-OPT> Play key in octave 5
1 Set Duration to Whole Note
2 Set Duration to Half Note
3 Set Duration to Quarter Note
4 Set Duration to Eighth Note
5 Set Duration to Sixteenth Note
6 Set Duration to Thirty-Second Note
7 Set Duration to Sixty-Fourth Note
! (SHIFT-1) Insert Whole Rest
@ (SHIFT-2) Insert Half Rest
# (SHIFT-3) Insert Quarter Rest
$ (SHIFT-4) Insert Eighth Rest
% (SHIFT-5) Insert Sixteenth Rest
^ (SHIFT-6) Insert Thirty-Second Rest
& (SHIFT-7) Insert Sixty-Fourth Rest
n New Song
p Play Song
s Toggle "Save Notes in Score" button
t Toggle "Triplet" button
. Toggle "Dot" button
<Backspace> Clear last note, rest, style, or tempo mark from score
<Enter> Play Song
<Return> Play Song
Note: the <Home> key is equivalent to <CTRL-A>, and the <End> key is
equivalent to <CTRL-D>. Beware that if you are running a macro program
such as QuicKeys or KeyQuencer that some of the above key mappings
may be intercepted by the macro program first.
PalmPilot Download
Songbooks can be downloaded to your PalmPilot by importing them into
the Memo pad in the Pilot Desktop application. Run the Pilot Desktop
program, go to the Memo Pad, and set the category that you want to
use for your songs. Select the Import... option from the File menu.
Select the songbook you want to import, set the source character set to
Macintosh, and click the Okay button. Each of the songs in the
songbook should now appear as a separate memo entry.
Individual songs can be also be downloaded by copying them from
Melody Pilot score field using the Copy Music Box Score option of the
Melody menu and pasting them into a Memo in the Pilot Desktop
application.
Credits
Special thanks to the following people:
Frédéric Rinaldi - for the FullResList XCMD (version 2.1, 1992) that is
used to get the list of sound resources, the CapsLock XFCN (version
1.0, 1990) that is used to test if the Caps Lock key is down, and the
SetFInfo XCMD (version 1.0, 1992) that is used to set the file type and
creator of saved files. FullResList, CapsLock, and SetFInfo are
Copyright ©1989-1998 by F. Rinaldi.
R. Geisler - for the Balloon XCMD (version 1.0.1, 1992) that is used to
implement Balloon Help.
Ronald H. Nicholson Jr. - for the cbasPad BASIC interpreter.
Tan Kok Mun - for his excellent Music Box program.
The team at Apple - for HyperCard, which should have been the Mac
"killer app".
My parents - who are probably still wondering why they wasted all
their money on my piano lessons.
Registration and Contact Information
Melody Pilot
Version 1.0.0 (September 1, 1998)
Copyright ©1998 by Robert Jen (rjen@rjen.com)
$5 Shareware
Please register through Kagi Software (http://order.kagi.com/?L9G&S)
through the web or using the bundled Register Melody Pilot
application. You can also send checks to:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-L9G-M
Berkeley, CA 94079-1405
Once you have a registration code, click on the Register Now button that
appears when Melody Pilot first starts up. Enter your name and
registration code exactly as they appear on the registration email or
postcard. The registration screen will no longer appear on startup or
afterward, and you will no longer be preventing from using the
transposition option.
Bug reports, comments, and questions are welcome at rjen@rjen.com.
The latest version of Melody Pilot, several songbooks, and other
Macintosh and PalmPilot software and information can be found on
the web at http://www.rjen.com.