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MUSICAL INSTRUMENT TUNER 1.01 INSTRUCTION MANUAL Instruction Manual Version 1.1 Copyright (c) 1994 Jeff O'Dair SoundByte Software (TM) CREDITS Programmer: Jeff O'Dair Inspirational Consultant: Debra O'Dair Musical Consultant: Amy O'Dair Youth Coordinator: Katie O'Dair Legal Consultant: James O'Dair, Jr. (206)742-4906 Hi to: Bill, Bruce, Amy, John, Doug, Mike, etc. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY Users of Musical Instrument Tuner (M.I.T.) must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "M.I.T. is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of M.I.T.." Musical Instrument Tuner (M.I.T.) is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you find this program useful and find that you are using M.I.T. and continue to use M.I.T. after a reasonable trial period, you must make a reg- istration payment of $10 to SoundByte Software. The $10 registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. Commercial users of Musical Instrument Tuner (M.I.T.) must register and pay for their copies of M.I.T. within 30 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. Site-License arrangements may be made by contacting SoundByte Software. Anyone distributing Musical Instrument Tuner (M.I.T.) for any kind of remuneration must first contact SoundByte Software at the address below for authorization. This authorization will be automati- cally granted to distributors recognized by the (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering M.I.T. immediately (However SoundByte Software must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version of M.I.T.). You are encouraged to pass a copy of Musical Instrument Tuner (M.I.T.) along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY(Continued) M.I.T., if a newer version exists at the time of registration. SoundByte Software 5907 Mendenhall Road Indianapolis, IN 46221 (317)856-3860 *IBM-PC is a trademark of International Business Machines* *Microsoft & MS-DOS are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation* *Sound Blaster is a trademark of Creative Labs* *M.I.T. Plus is in no way connected to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology* Table of Contents 1. Introduction............................................ 1 2. Getting Started......................................... 1 2.1 System Requirements................................ 1 2.2 File List.......................................... 1 2.3 Staring the Program................................ 2 2.4 Main Menu.......................................... 2 2.5 Sound Blaster Option............................... 2 2.6 Quitting the Program............................... 2 3. String Instruments...................................... 3 3.1 Selection.......................................... 3 3.2 Basic Operation.................................... 3 4. Scales.................................................. 4 4.1 Selection.......................................... 4 4.2 Basic Operation.................................... 4 5. Text Viewer/Printer..................................... 5 5.1 Selection.......................................... 5 5.2 Operation.......................................... 5 5.3 Order/Registration form............................ 5 6. Troubleshooting/Technical Support....................... 6 6.1 Troubleshooting..................................... 6 6.2 Technical Support................................... 7 6.3 Specifications...................................... 7 7. Shareware............................................... 7 7.1 Definition.......................................... 7 7.2 Ombudsman Statement................................. 8 Credits............................................. front Disclaimer of Warranty.............................. front 1. INTRODUCTION Musical Instrument Tuner is a powerful yet easy to use program that is designed to make your musical life easier and more fun by offering a variety of different tuners. This program can also be used as an educational tool for introducing someone to music and as a reference for the major scales. Most aspects of the program are readily explained on screen. However, you may find this manual helpful in further explaining various features of this program. Hopefully, you will find this a useful and enjoyable program to use. Your comments and ideas for future revisions are always welcome. 2. GETTING STARTED 2.1 System Requirements The hardware requirements to run Musical Instrument Tuner include the following: *IBM or IBM compatible computer with at least 512K of RAM* *CGA or other color graphics board* *MS-DOS 3.2 or higher* *At least one floppy or hard drive* Optional Equipment: *Sound Blaster board* *Printer* 2.2 File List This is a list of files included with Musical Instrument Tuner 1.0. All of these files should be included in the same directory for the program to operate properly. MIT.EXE ............. Main Program V1.MIT ............. Sound File ORDER.FRM ............ Order/Registration Form MANUAL.DOC ........... Instruction Manual STARTME.BAT .......... Startup File FILE.LST ............. List of Program Files VENDOR.DOC ........... Program description Page 1 2. GETTING STARTED(Continued) 2.3 Starting the Program This program can be started two ways. You can either type "STARTME" or "MIT". The program will first show a title screen and then the main menu. If your program will not properly start up refer to section 6.1 on troubleshooting. 2.4 Main Menu The main menu allows you to select various instruments, scales, a metronome and other options. This is performed by pressing the highlighted key listed on the menu. For example, to select the six-string guitar, press "S" on your keyboard. To select the scales menu, press "C". The letters do not have to be capitalized as it will work either way. If you wish to return to the main menu from another menu, simply press the ESCAPE key. This key may have to be pressed more than once to reach the main menu. This depends on where you are in the program. 2.5 Sound Blaster Option If you have a Sound Blaster board in your computer it will greatly enhance the use of this program. The quality of sound is vastly improved and the program becomes more versatile. The Sound Blaster board is automatically detected by this program. In the area of the main menu labeled "OTHER STUFF" there will appear an option listed as "SOUNDBLASTER ON". If you don't have a Sound Blaster it will not appear. To turn the Sound Blaster off, press "O". This will turn the audio control over to the PC speaker. Pressing this key a second time will turn it back on. 2.6 Quitting the Program In order to exit the program to DOS, you must be in the main menu. Press the ESCAPE key if necessary to move back to there if necessary. At this point, you simply have to press "Q" to quit. The program then asks if you are sure. If you answer no, you will simply return to the program and if you answer yes it will exit to DOS. Page 2 3. STRING INSTRUMENTS 3.1 Selection The options for the string instrument tuners are six- string guitar, twelve-string guitar, bass guitar, five- string banjo, mandolin and violin. To select an instrument simply press the highlighted letter. For example, the letter "S" selects the six-string guitar. Once an instrument has been selected, you may return to the main menu by pressing the ESCAPE key. 3.2 Basic Operation When you first view one of the string instruments you will notice that one of the strings is highlighted a different color from the other strings. This is the string that is currently selected. When an instrument is first viewed the string on the right is the one initially selected. In order to select other strings, press the left or right arrow keys. You will notice that other strings become highlighted. If the left or right end is reached the string selection will wrap around to the lowest or highest pitch strings. The name of that note is displayed in a box to the right. To listen to a string press the ENTER key and the highlighted string will become audible. If you then use the arrow keys you will hear the pitch change from string to string. In order to stop the sound you must press the SPACE BAR. However, pressing the ESCAPE key will also stop the audio and return you to the main menu at the same time. The sounds that were designed for each instrument were not selected to be totally realistic for that instrument. Instead, they were designed to give you the feel of the instrument and also hold the note so that you can tune an instrument to it. Therefore, where a guitar would normally decay quickly after picking the note, the sound here decays initially then holds at a lower volume until the space bar is pressed. Page 3 4. SCALES 4.1 Selection The scales feature is meant to be a catch all for those instruments not covered in the rest of the program. It can also be used as an educational tool to demonstrate the construction of the major and chromatic scales. The scales menu can be selected by pressing "C". You can return back to the main menu by pressing the ESCAPE key. Once you are in the scales menu you will notice the all the major scales are listed along with the chromatic scale(the chromatic scale contains all the notes with the sharps and flats). The top left C scale will initially be highlighted a different color. That is the selected scale. To change the selected scale simply use the arrow keys. The left/right keys change the column and the up/down keys change the vertical selection. When the top or bottom is reached the selection will wrap around. Once you have highlighted the scale you wish to use, press the ENTER key to activate the scale. The ESCAPE key will return you at any time back to the scales menu. 4.2 Basic Operation The basic scale operation is the same for the major scales as it is for the chromatic scale. Both the major and chromatic scales have a range of six octaves. Once a scale has been selected you will see a screen listing the note names for that scale. Below one of the note names will be a small note icon. This indicates which note has been selected. By using the left and right arrow keys you can select other notes. When one end is reached the note icon wraps around to the other end. In order to turn on a note, simply press the ENTER key. To stop the musical tone, press the SPACE BAR. You will also notice a box labeled "OCTAVE". This indicates what octave is currently selected. The initial selection is set for octave four. By using the up and down arrow keys the octave can be changed. You can exit to the main menu by pressing the ESCAPE key. This will also turn off any notes that are currently active. Page 4 5. TEXT VIEWER/PRINTER 5.1 Selection The text viewer and printer are used to view and print the instruction manual and the order and registration form. The registration/order form can be selected from the main menu by pressing "R". The instruction manual can be selected from the main menu by pressing "I". You can later return to the main menu by pressing the ESCAPE key. 5.2 Operation The basic operation of the text viewer is the same for both the order form and instruction manual sections. When you first view either screen there are a set of instructions and some options. These options allow you view the document on screen, send the document to a printer or return to the main menu. By pressing "S" you can go to the text viewer. If you would rather print the information, press "P". After it is finished printing you will automatically return to the main menu. If you decide to leave this area press the ESCAPE key to return to the main menu. Once you have the text viewer on screen you will see another set of options with a text area above it. The text area may appear blank depending on where the document printing has started. In this case, simply page down to the beginning of the document. You can move the page up or down by pressing the PAGEUP or PAGEDOWN keys. When you are finished, simply press the ESCAPE key to return to the main menu. 5.3 Order/Registration Form The order form is included for two reasons. You may wish to register your shareware copy of Musical Instrument Tuner or you may want to order a copy of Musical Instrument Tuner Plus. It costs $10 to register your program. You can refer to section 7.1 for the definition of shareware. The advantages of registering your shareware are explained on the order/registration form. Information about Musical Instrument Tuner plus is also provided on this form. Please remember that registration helps both you and SoundByte Software. Page 5 6. TROUBLESHOOTING/TECHNICAL SUPPORT 6.1 Troubleshooting This section is set up in a question and answer format to try and anticipate problems you might encounter while using this program. I hope you will find it useful. Q: I can't get the program to start up. What's wrong? A: Be sure that you are typing either "STARTME" or "MIT" to load the program. If you still have problems, make sure that you are trying to load from the proper disk drive. If all else fails, you may have a bad diskette and will require a replacement. Q: When I try to start the scales section, I get an error that states "V1.MIT WON'T OPEN". What's going on?! A: This type of message indicate that you have some files missing. The message indicates a particular file name, in this case "V1.MIT". First, check to make sure all your files are in the same directory. If this appears to be true, then check the file list to make sure you have all the files. The file list can be found either in a file named FILE.LST or in section 2.2 of this manual. Q: I have a sound card in my computer, yet the program does not come up with the Sound Blaster option. My sound card checks out as being OK, why won't the darn thing work?! A: The program has only been tested with a Sound Blaster card at this point in time and we can't warrant its usage with any other brand. However, we would be interested to hear of problems with other sound cards as we would like to make this program compatible with as many of these sound cards as possible in future versions. Q: The string instruments don't decay like a normal instrument would do. Are you nuts or what? A: Yes we are, but that has nothing to do with the decay characteristics of the string instruments. We found that sustaining the tone of the note made it easier to tune the instrument. Page 6 6. TROUBLESHOOTING/TECHNICAL SUPPORT(Continued) 6.2 Technical Support SoundByte Software will be happy to help you with any problems that you may encounter using this program. You can contact us at the following address: SoundByte Software 5907 Mendenhall Road Indianapolis, IN 46221 (317)856-3860 6.3 Specifications String Instruments: Six-string guitar Twelve-string guitar Bass guitar Mandolin Five-string banjo Violin Scales: Major scales....... 6 octaves Chromatic scale.... 6 octaves 7. SHAREWARE 7.1 Definition Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs differ on details, some request registration while others require it, and some specify a maximum trial period. With registration, you get anything from the simple right to continue using the software to an updated program with printed manual. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution. The author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors require written permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware. Page 7 7. SHAREWARE(Continued) 7.1 Definition(Continued) Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. 7.2 Ombudsman Statement SoundByte Software is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Page 8