Virtual Composer is a virtual music editor, designed for complex polyphonic music. It can be used to enter a whole musical score (and then execute it) or to create professional looking scores for printout. It can be used by composers as a score testing tool, or by music beginners as a way to learn the various elements of music. Some examples of what the Virtual Composer Editor and compiler can do are included in the folder "Examples". Simply double click on one of the files, wait for Virtual Composer to load them, and then select "All" from the menu "Play". Enjoy.
System Needs
Virtual Composer requires (preferably) a fast color Macintosh (>100 Mhz), at least System 7.x, and 4 Megabytes free RAM minimum. Before running the program, make sure you drag the contents of the "Fonts" folder onto your System folder as the Font Petrucci is used by the program. You also need to have installed the extensions "QuickTime" and "QuickTime Musical Instruments" to play the music. If you don't have them, read the included file "QuickTime FAQ" by Phil Taylor on where to get them.
The Example files
All the included Virtual Composer files, are by Bach. The Minuet I is from a French Suite and the Fughetta from the book: "Klein Praludien und Fughetten". The three other fugues are from the "Well Tempered Clavier" and the Fantasie is from "Fantasien Praludien und Fugen". You can see which instruments are assigned to each voice, through the "QuickTime Instrument" menu item.
Converting Older Files
If you have already registered Virtual Composer, and you have created some files with version 2.4.x of Virtual Composer, please use the enclosed utility "Convert VCFile 2.4.x->2.5" to convert your files into the newer VC format. You don't need to convert the example files. Only your own files. The example files are already in the new format.
Registration
Virtual Composer is shareware. If you like it, please register it. The unregistered version is identical to the full version except that it cannot save files in its internal format, but can still save in the other supported formats, which are non-editable (AIFF, abc, MIDI). Otherwise the program is fully functional and you can edit and play to your heart╒s content. When you register, you will receive a serial number that activates the program's saving capabilities. The shareware price of Virtual Composer is $25. If you want to register Virtual Composer, send a check for $25 payable to me (Ioannis Galidakis), or the equivallent of $25 CASH in your local currency wrapped in Carbon paper inside a regular postal letter to my address:
Ioannis Galidakis
Agiou Alexandrou 40,
Palaio Faliro, 17561
Athens, Greece
email: jgal@ath.forthnet.gr
For site licensing information, contact me and we will work something out.
Credits
Thanks to Myriad Software for letting me use some of their excellent instrument samples. Read more about their programs at <www.myriad-online.com>.
Thanks to Thomas Kiffe for letting me use his excellent printing emulator MacGhostView. Read more about it at <www.kiffe.com>.
Thanks to the makers of Finale (Coda Music), for allowing me to use their Petrucci Font.
Many thanks to Phil Taylor for his valuable advice and help. Phil has created an excellent music program, BarFly. You can read more about it on <http://rbu01.ed-rbu.mrc.ac.uk/barflystuff/barflypage.html>. (BarFly, accepts the abc output of Virtual Composer).
Many thanks to the entire comp.sys.mac.programmer.help group and especially to Michael Kluev and Ian Ollmann for helping me fine tune the music synchronisation.
Many thanks go also to Gary Ewer and his excellent and precise musical theory pages. Read more about it on <http://www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca>.
Thanks to Ken Pledger for solving one of the most annoying problems in the program.
Many thanks go to my friend and coworker Paris Pamfilos, assistant professor in the department of Mathematics, here at the University of Crete. If Paris was not around, the program would be much slower and possibly very buggy. If you are doing any heavy duty geometry on the Mac, try Paris╒ incredible program ╥Isoptikon╙ at your usual Info-Mac archives.
Known bugs
There is a strange bug in there that sometimes (very rarely, perhaps once every 20-30 runs) will freeze the machine. I am investigating the cause of this, but it appears as though this is a Sound Manager problem, related to way QuickTime allocates memory for the music. (Late 2.6 note: It may be because of incorrect GrafPtr switching. Version 2.6 is totally paranoid of GrafPtr's so this problem may have been corrected. One of those bugs that were not reproducible.) In any case, if you find a bug, please send me an email, with as much info as possible about how it occured.
Occasional bar missalignments may happen. Hopefully the last version fixes this.
If you create a text field and then move it, the music selection range will not draw correctly.
Yes, you guessed it. If you use an odd number (like 17) for "Note Distance" in the "Preferences" dialog, the additional staff lines will not draw right if you scroll.
Version history
(I may be changing the version x on 2.6.x often, as I correct bugs and add small features. Always check Virtual Composer's page for the latest version:
3.0.0 (Coming up) Mathematical/Statistical analysis of scores and samples, with Fourier Transforms and other goodies.
2.6.1: Minor fix so that a note duration can never overflow. Added Sinfonia, and made Minuet a bit prettier, soundwise.
2.6.0: This is a major update. Virtual Piano keyboard is in, with associated options in the "Preferences" dialog. Repositioned "Save"/"Cancel" buttons in CustomPutFile, to look nicer. Recoded window and Alert handling, for better GrafPtr switching. Simplified window management. QuickTime music components now open and close alongside with the main window. Same goes for the Virtual Keyboard window. For details, check the additional ReadMe files.
2.5.d0: Added Staccato option for individual notes. Any note can be staccato, in the same way any note can have a separate volume setting. If you have created any files with previous versions, use the included utility "Convert VCFile 2.4.x->2.5" to port your files upwards.
2.4.1d2: Reduced epsilon to a more confortable value for reals comparison. Added fugue V.
2.4.1d1: Yikes! Compiler bug that would cause the program to crash, fixed.
2.4.1d0: Reordering of modules to a more readable format. Play AIFF/AIFC is now disabled when AIFF is executed, to avoid problems.
2.4d10: Changed copy buffers from Handles to Pointers. Removed some spurious local variables. Simplified AIFF comparison in Mix to Stereo. Added a bit of file error checking in "Mix Mono to Stereo".
2.4d9: Ahem...Cutting/Clearing/Pasting text now signals file not saved.
2.4d8: Minor correction to the SwapIn/out routines, incorporated into one. Correctly swaps in/out when clicking in zoom box or window grow.
2.4d7: Mix to AIFF now accepts only mono AIFF files.
2.4d6: QuickTime options Dialog now deactivates front window. Added feature to mix two mono AIFFs into one Stereo AIFF. (Coolio!) FSpDelete now does not annoy my DelProtect INIT.
2.4d5: Resource updates are a bit faster now.
2.4d4: Minor update for registration dialog centering.
2.4d3: Prettyfied the Help window scroll bar. It now starts below the "Section" area. Added Registration dialog, so I don't have to upload two different versions, and you don't have to download two versions. The saving commands activate after registration.
2.4d2: Minor update to remove some extra calculations for UpdateMenus and to calculate once only the needed progress colors.
2.4d1: Minor update to correct released cursor sicns.
2.4d0: This is a major update: Trying to track down an obscure nil handle error, I recoded all the data structures into a different format, so now it is more stable (hopefully). Major reworking on tuplets, to avoid non-sensical results. Simplified MenuUpdate to activate after a menu selection. Freed color selection constrains. Any range can now be colored. CalculateSymbolSelectionIndexes is called from MenuUpdate only. Added auto save feature to make life easier when you enter a score. Range selection calculation routine is now faster. Decreased allowed minimum note distance. Cursors Window can now be closed, however editing is not allowed if this window is closed. Menu states are now more consistent. Removed a Printing bug, that sometimes would missalign the editor pages. Removed excess calculations on page swap out. Files now open faster. Worked on text manager a bit and added some goodies, such as text rectangle constraints on the text edit view rectangles while dragging or resizing. Changed activation/deactivation routines and Filter functions. Hopefully, the activates now are correct. Playing the music is almost totally asynchronous. The menus are not disabled.
2.3d4: Spurious local removed from SetPagesAndChannels. Removed redundant CalculateSymbolSelectionIndexes from ParseQTMISelection.
2.3d3: More Help text typos. Stem Direction changes only when pageEdited is in View now.
2.3d2: Help text typos correction. (Damn!)
2.3d1: Menu updates while scrolling now only on pages swapped in and out. Eliminated uneeded calculations on InsertionLine and Selection range.
2.3d0: Redesigned Menu Manager to make it more efficient. Menu Updates are now more obvious and happen at specified times. Disabled all editing operations when edited page is out of view. Corrected nasty Undo bug when user scrolled or went to a different page just before an undo. Corrected page scroll value for pages, control calculation procedure now giving (hopefully) the correct page offset, so all pages get swapped out when they are physically out of view, and swapped in when they are physically in view. Program now checks its resources before loading the menu bar.
2.2d3: Eliminated special control for Music window. The max number of pages is now set to 400. Updated scroll on Music window to (hopefully) remove the bar missalignment problem. Corrected Confirm Alert to appear only if all other conditions are true.
2.2d2: Added a progress Dialog for some lengthy operations. Modified progress Dialogs a bit.
2.2d1: Removed spurious STR# resource and changed instruments on the pieces.
2.2d0: Redesigned File routines and file format for faster reading of files. Eliminated progress bar from some reading operations. Corrected page/channel number changes. Added warnings for nonsensical Metre changes. Changed all Dialogs to grey.
2.1d15: Corrected channel settings on menus, on low mem.
2.1d14: Corrected page/channel set on initialization.
2.1d13: Made page/channel number changes more safe. Now memory fails will not lose any channels or pages. Warning added for all cases where page/channel number changes are desired.
2.1d12: Made Memory management more robust. VC now does not crash if user sets a ridiculously low memory setting.
2.1d11: Removed not needed anymore resource messages. Corrected various things for low mem conditions.
2.1d10: Added internal info about Author, corrected some spurious Help text errors.
2.1d9: Moved Volume Selection Item to Selection Menu.
2.1d8: Corrected connection of quarters/eighths in 2/2 and 3/2.
2.1d7: Various small corrections.
2.1d6: Corrected HLock/HUnLock bug in color change.
2.1d5: Corrected selection bug with menus now responding ok.
2.1d4: Corrected color selection bug. Corrected conditional on Transpose.
2.1d3: Corrected nasty channel instrument menu item set bug.
2.1d2: Removed all selection related items from Edit menu to new menu. Added atonal transposition item. Removed TMPL resource.
2.1d1: Corrected "Stop" bug.
2.1d0: Playing through QuickTime Musical Instruments and associated menus and help changes. Spliting of prefs into two dialogs. Old file format obsolete. Corrected selection with only InvertRect now. Corrected selection range substitution with new notes. Eliminated uneeded minor updates. Updates now are global. Corrected editor bug with quarter dotted followed by an eighth.
2.0d10: Credits to Myriad Software. (Forgetting it so was such a stupid mistake!. My apologies to them)
2.0d9: Corrected typos in Help Section. Removed spurious PICT.
2.0d8: Corrected Save As.. bug on Quit. Corrected tuplet duration bug.
2.0d7: Moved Help item into Help Menu, removed spurious vars.
2.0d6: Corrected GoTo calculation bug.
2.0d5: Corrected ScrollBar validation bug.
2.0d4: Removed uneccessary Menu variables.
2.0d3: Changed Playing Speed to scroll bar in Preferences Dialog. Various small corrections in the Text Section.
2.0d2: Regrouped resource id numbers for better handling, changed dialog prompts when scanning pages and channels.
2.0d1: Minor changes of Help Section. Corrected little "Page SetUp" bug.
2.0d0: Major revamping of the Sound Manager engine. All music is now buffered into an AIFF temporary and thus we have perfect synchronization! (MAJOR pain in the ass, dudes!!) Sound conversion/resampling now using Sound Manager's 3.3 toolbox routines. Added progress dialogs for temp files and file recalculations/reads/writes. Added capability to save as in two other formats, rsrc and AIFF. All exported formats can be either 16 or 8 bit. Now, demo can save in all possible formats except internal. Corrected (hopefully) the chooser error, where the user launchs the program and no default printer is selected. Added capability to do custom mixing. Added support for 8 bit samples. Removed Color Picker requirement. All floating point ops are now done through SANE's specialized routines. Added "play AIFF" menu item to execute external AIFF files. Redesigned some dialogs to take less space. Added ornamentation capabilities. Various changes in Help section.
1.0d11: Added ability to export as abc, corrected time trimming errors on tuplets.
1.0d10: Minor Help text fixes, added one more item for the Cursors window.
1.0d9: Demo release 1. Sound Manager is in. Various bugs corrected, moved Sound Manager memory to play only, corrected group stem bug, added instrument samples, added instructions on how to add a sample, added time-hog dialogs on open and goto, changed Music menu item to Untitled, changed selection color to default appearance selection color, corrected selection bugs, added various sections and clarifications on help window contents, removed requirement for Color Picker. Changed name to avoid legal conflicts, added ornament execution, moved samples inside the app file, corrected selection/change channel add into selection bug.
1.0d8: "Shift Selection" corrected to shift any symbol.
1.0d7: Corrected "Shift Selection" bug. Added gestalt check for AppleEvents.
1.0d6: Removed "PageVisible" procedure.
1.0d5: Corrected ScrollBar value bug (Recalculation of PageWidths).
1.0d4: Code optimizations on "UpdateMusic" (avoided use of SetControlMax) that made editor updates faster, CheckNextPage4SwapIn/Out.
1.0d3: Corrected coloring range bug ,changed all occurances of "PreviousTime" with "SumTime". Corrected scrollBar bug (hopefully).
1.0d2: Corrected "Redo" bug on page missalighnment, added "Remove All Coloring" Edit menu item, corrected "Revert..." bug, changed "SwapOutAllPages" in "Goto".
