Fritz: All Fritz/All Fritz.zip/All Fritz/FILES/MUSIUSIC/LYRDEM.LZH/LYRADEMO.DOC

Text File | 1990-10-16 | 21KB | 426 lines

                      Lyra Demo Documentation (version 1.40)


        Thanks for obtaining the demo version of Lyra for the IBM PC!
        Lyra is a music composition program that is designed to be
        affordable, easy to use, and powerful. In addition, large ready-
        to-use libraries of music files are available from several
        sources.

        Lyra will work with any IBM PC (AT recommended!) compatible that
        has a Hercules or CGA (or EGA, VGA) display. A Microsoft mouse,
        while not necessary, is highly recommended. If you wish to play
        music, you must have an MPU-401 and a MIDI synthesizer connected,
        or a Sound Blaster card. This version also supports the Covox
        line of sound boards, including the Speech Thing, Voice Master,
        and Sound Master.

        If you are using a Sound Blaster card, just make sure that the
        'LCONFIG.DAT' file is in the current directory; this configures
        Lyra so music can be played on the Sound Blaster.

        If instead you are using a MPU-401 compatible MIDI interface,
        erase the 'LCONFIG.DAT' file. Lyra defaults to the MPU-401 when
        the 'LCONFIG.DAT' file is not present.

        All of the files on the disk can be copied to a hard disk; just
        make sure that everything is in the same directory. (Note: the
        commercial version is not copy protected.)

        Load the program by typing

                                     lyrademo

        and pressing the return key. The screen will change to a 640x200
        2 color graphics mode and a box in the center of the screen will
        give you a brief introduction. Press any key to continue.

        Move your mouse about and you will see a cursor shaped like an
        arrow or diamond moving around the screen. Using Lyra is
        basically knowing what you can do with the arrow.


        ENTERING NOTES

        The cursor keys at the right hand side of the keyboard can be
        used to move the note on the screen, or you can use the mouse, or
        a combination of the two. By moving the note up or down on the
        musical staff, you select a pitch. This pitch is displayed just
        below the bass clef. When you have the right pitch, press the
        left mouse button or "return" (or "enter") key. The note will be
        entered into the score.


        CHANGING NOTE PITCHES

        Once you have entered several notes, you can experiment with
        changing notes to different pitches. This is done by simply
        positioning the cursor (the movable note) directly above or below
        the note you wish to change and pressing the left mouse button
        or "return" key.


        ENTERING SHARPS AND FLATS

        A note that should have a sharp or flat in front of it can by
        entered by positioning the cursor and pressing the "S" or "F"
        key. A natural (used only when the key signature is being used)
        is entered with the "N" key.


        INSERTING NOTES

        You can just as easily insert notes. Position the cursor just
        before a note and press the "return" key or click the left mouse
        button.


        DELETING NOTES

        Deleting a note is done by putting the cursor directly above or
        below the errant note and pressing the "Del" key (on the right
        hand side of the keyboard) or the "D" key. The right mouse button
        or ESC key also deletes a note.


        CHANGING VOICES

        Lyra is capable of 8 simultaneous notes (or 8 note chords). When
        you start the program, all notes are automatically entered into
        voice 1. You can change this to one of the 7 other voices by
        pressing the ALT key (left hand side of the keyboard) with a
        number key. ALT+2 selects voice 2, ALT+8 selects voice 8, and so
        on. You can also select a voice by moving the cursor to the upper
        right hand corner of the screen with the mouse. When it is over
        the box with the voice number you wish to select, click the left
        mouse button. The voice you want to use must have its box
        displayed as a solid white (or whatever is the same color as the
        box border). Only one voice can be selected at a time.

        You'll notice that repeatedly selecting the same voice will cause
        the box to change from white to gray to black (or the background
        color). When it is black, that voice will not be displayed on the
        music staff. When the voice box is gray then the corresponding
        voice is displayed in "halftone". This makes it easy to pick out
        a voice when the display gets crowded.


        MAKING CHORDS

        Lyra "thinks" in terms of eight independent voices instead of
        multi-note chords. Writing for Lyra is similar to writing music
        for a choir. At first this might seem to be a limitation when
        writing music for an instrument like a piano. The piano does not
        care how many notes you play at once. On the other hand, a singer
        protests violently if told to sing a three note chord.

        Each voice in Lyra can have only one note at a time. To make
        chords, you have to put notes in several voices. To do this,
        enter the top note in voice 1. Select voice 2 and enter the next
        note down. Continue with as many voices as you need to fill the
        chord.

        If a particular voice has not been filled with rests or notes
        before the chord, Lyra will fill it with rests so that the new
        note will be positioned correctly.


        SELECTING NOTE LENGTHS

        Note lengths are selected by pressing one of the number keys (1
        through 7) or moving the mouse to the row of notes and rests at
        the bottom of the screen and clicking on the desired note or
        rest. You can select a rest by pressing the SHIFT key with the
        number key. When you do, the selected rest will change colors.
        You can also select a note or rest with the mouse; move the
        cursor over the desired item and press the left button. The
        selected note or rest will be highlighted.


        TRIPLETS, DOTTING AND TIEING NOTES

        All notes can be modified by making them triplet, dotted, or tied
        to the previous notes. Just position the cursor directly over the
        note you wish to change and press the "," (triplet), "." (dot),
        or "T" (tie) key. Please note that the tie is NOT the same thing
        as a slur!


        MOVING THE DISPLAY

        The cursor can be quickly moved up or down an octave with the "Pg
        Up" or "Pg Dn" keys. The "Home" and "End" keys move the cursor to
        the left or right ends of the score. When the cursor it at either
        side of the score, it changes shape into an arrow pointing to the
        side. If you press the left mouse button or the left or right
        cursor keys, the whole display will move in that direction. You
        can move to an approximate point in the score by moving the
        cursor over the area directly above the notes and rests at the
        bottom of the screen. Click in the box and the bar positioned at
        the extreme left will move to where you clicked, and the display
        will change. If you click in the middle of the box, the display
        will start at about the middle of the score. If you click at the
        point one-third from the left side of the box, the score will
        display at about one-third from the beginning. And so on. You can
        also use the "Goto bar" command under the Edit menu.


        A NOTE ON DIALOG BOXES

        Many of the commands accessed through the menus request
        information from you through a box displayed on the center of the
        screen. If there is more than one line to enter, you can move
        about using the up and down arrow keys to move from line to line.
        You can use the right and left arrow and HOME and END keys to
        move from one letter to another. The INS and DEL keys can be used
        to insert spaces or delete letters from a line.

        When you are finished entering everything, press the ENTER key.
        If you want to abort, press the ESC key.

        Pressing the left button of the mouse is the same as the ENTER
        key and the right button as the ESC key.

        Some dialog boxes display a list of items with a large inverted
        color selector cursor. Just move the cursor about with arrow keys
        or mouse until the item you want is selected, and press ENTER (or
        the left mouse button).


        USING THE MENUS

        At the top of the screen is a list of the various menus that have
        different commands. You can access a menu by pressing the "Alt"
        key plus the first letter of the menu. For example, to access the
        "File" menu, press ALT+F. Or move move the cursor to the top of
        the screen directly under the menu you wish to access.

        Select a command by moving the highlight down either with the
        arrow key or mouse and pressing "return" or the left mouse
        button. Pressing the key corresponding to the first letter of the
        menu item will immediately execute the command. You can move to a
        different menu by pressing the right or left arrow keys or moving
        the mouse in the desired direction. You can abort by pressing the
        "Esc" key, or moving the highlight bar to beyond the bottom of
        the menu.

        When an item is displayed in half-tone, it is not available. This
        is due to the fact that you must perform some other command first
        (as with the block commands).

        Most of the menu commands are fairly self-explanatory. Of those
        that may cause you trouble, here's a brief explanation.


        THE CONFIGURE COMMAND

        The configure command is accessed through the EDIT menu. While
        there are a number of parameters that can be modified with this
        command, the only one we are interested is the "MIDI Device",
        "Address", and "Interrupt". If you are using Lyra with an MPU-401
        compatible MIDI interface, then you should set "MIDI Device" to
        "MPU-401". If you are using a Sound Blaster card then set it to
        "SBLASTER-S"; if you have the MIDI connection box for the Sound
        Blaster, you can have MIDI by setting it to "SBLASTER-M". The
        Covox Speech Thing has a device name of "SPTHING", the Sound
        Master "SMASTER", the Voice Master "VMASTER", and MIDI Maestro
        "MMAESTRO". You can type in either upper or lower case.

        The "Address" and "Interrupt" lines should be set to the correct
        numbers, depending on how your particular card is configured. The
        numbers should be entered in decimal or hex. If you use hex, then
        make sure that the last number is followed by an "H". The
        interrupt number is important only for step time or system
        exclusive MIDI recording.


        THE OPTION COMMANDS

        The purpose of these commands is to let you enter musical or MIDI
        information that is not a note. Select the desired option; the
        cursor changes to a box. Move the box to where you wish to put
        the option and press the "return" key or the left mouse button.

        The instrument option transmits MIDI program changes. You can set
        up the names of the instruments and their associated program
        numbers in the Instrument command under the MIDI menu.

        "Tempo" is used to enter a "local" tempo change. The actual tempo
        is a combination of the Master Tempo (which is set under the Play
        menu) and the local tempo. When the Master Tempo is set to 1.00,
        then the local tempo is the beats per minute (not exact in this
        version). Setting the Master Tempo to 2.00 will double the
        overall tempo, and setting it to 0.50 will halve it.

        "Byte" instructs Lyra to send the specified hex byte (you must
        enter two hex digits) unaltered to your synthesizer. By stringing
        several together you can send almost any type of MIDI
        information.

        "Octave" is used to either raise or lower the pitch of a voice by
        one octave. If the marker is placed above the staff, then it
        raises the pitch; if placed below the staff, it lowers the pitch.

        "Loco" cancels the effect of a previous Octave command.

        "Volume" lets you change the volume of music. You can customize
        the exact MIDI volume by using the Set Volumes command under the
        MIDI menu.

        "Events" is used to send larger amounts of MIDI data than can be
        conveniently sent with the MIDI byte option. In fact, you can
        send a whole file of MIDI data such as a system exclusive dump.
        The actual data in the event is set up through the MIDI menu.


        THE BLOCK COMMANDS

        These commands let you work with blocks of music. You first must
        mark a block by positioning the cursor over the starting and
        ending points and pressing the "M" key each time. The music
        within a block is displayed in inverted colors. A block may be
        cleared by selecting the Reset command under the Block menu.
        Always make sure that the start of a block is at a point in music
        in which all voices have a note starting at that point. Lyra will
        warn you if this is not the case.

        If you select the Copy command, the music in the block will be
        copied to a special area of memory and held until you make use of
        it with the Paste command.

        The Cut command copies the block of music to the holding area in
        memory and also deletes that music from the score.

        The Paste command takes the music in the holding area of memory
        and puts it back into the score at a spot you designate. When you
        select the command, the cursor changes shape. Move it to where
        you want the pasting to occur and press the "return" key or the
        left mouse button.

        The Transpose command lets you transpose a block by a given
        number of steps (use negative numbers to lower pitches). You can
        specify either a "harmonic" transposition which will move the
        notes to a new key, or "modal" which keeps the notes in the
        current key signature.

        The block commands work only with music that is currently
        displayed. You can selectively work with different voices by
        turning off the undesired voices first.

        Take care with these commands. They all assume that when you
        paste, all music at the paste point aligns at that point. If one
        or more voices are empty or are in the middle of a long note,
        then the new music for that voice will be out of alignment with
        the other voices.


        PLAYING MUSIC

        In order to play music, you must have an MPU-401 (or compatible)
        properly connected, and a MIDI synthesizer hooked up to the MPU-
        401. Or, if you have corrected set up the Configure command (see
        above), you can used a Sound Blaster card. If you have everything
        connected up correctly, then you might check the channel
        assignments under the MIDI menu to make sure your synthesizer is
        "listening" on the right channels.

        With a Sound Blaster or MIDI synthesizer, you can set different
        voices to different channels and make each channel play a
        different sound. This makes it possible to make music that sounds
        like a small band playing!

        The Filter command under the Play menu is used to filter out
        certain types of data. Putting any letter on a line will make
        Lyra ignore that type of MIDI data. For example, putting a letter
        on the "Byte" line will make Lyra ignore all byte option markers.
        If you want to filter the channel, you should enter a number 1-16
        on that line to indicate which channel you want all notes to be
        transmitted on. This command is very useful for playing music
        that has not been correctly set up for your synthesizer.

        The Play command will play only the music that is displayed on
        the screen. If you wish to mute a voice, turn its display off.


        PRINTING MUSIC

        Lyra will print your music; the result is very similar to the
        screen display. If you want to produce a professional score
        printing, you should convert the music to a MIDI file and read it
        into one of the available printing programs.

        Before you start printing, you must make some changes in the
        Configure command (in the Edit menu). The last two lines are to
        describe your printer. The first, "Printer Number", is the ID
        number of your printer. 25 is for Epson compatibles, 39 for HP
        LaserJet series II, 44 for IBM PC Graphics Printer, and 45 for
        IBM Proprinter. The last line, "Printer Port", should be set to
        "LPT1", "COM1", or whatever printer port your printer is
        connected to.

        Load in the music file you wish to print. Position the music so
        that the first notes you want printed are at the beginning of the
        staff. If you wish to print only certain voices, turn off the
        undesired voices. All voices that are in solid white or gray will
        print.

        Now you are ready to print. Select the Print command from the
        File menu. The display will change so that only the music staff
        is shown and printing will begin. If you press the Escape (ESC)
        key, Lyra will stop printing after the current staff is finished.


        MIDI NOTE INPUT

        If you have a MIDI keyboard hooked up, then you can input notes
        directly into PC-Lyra from the MIDI keyboard. Select the NOTE
        INPUT command (under the MIDI menu). The cursor will change to a
        '+' in the middle of the staff. Whenever you hit a key on the
        MIDI keyboard, a note will appear on the staff. The pitch is
        controlled by the MIDI keyboard, and the length by the selected
        note or rest at the bottom of the display. You can change the
        note length by pressing keys '1' through '7' (or SHIFT plus the
        number to make a rest). Having one hand on the MIDI keyboard and
        another on the computer keyboard lets you input music very
        quickly and accurately. When you are done, press the ESCAPE key.


        WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE PROGRAM?

        Obviously, there is a lot more that Lyra can do than we've
        covered here. Feel free to experiment! The only commands that
        have been disabled are those that display the message "Not
        Available: Demo Version". These are the disk save commands. If
        you have questions about what certain functions can do, feel free
        to write or call for more information.


        ABOUT THE COMMERCIAL VERSION

        Version 1.00 was released January, 1990. As of this writing
        (October 16, 1990), the version is 1.40. As you can see, the
        program is in a constant state of evolution and improvement.
        Purchasing a copy puts you in touch with the latest changes and
        makes you elegible for inexpensive updates. The price is $49.95,
        (plus $2.00 shipping) which includes a printed 50+ page manual
        and a disk full of music. As with all MusicWare products, your
        purchase includes a 30 day money back guarantee of satisfaction,
        free bug fixes, and free telephone help (when purchase directly
        from MusicWare). Payment may be made with a personal check, Visa,
        MasterCard, or money order. The phone number is [phone];
        ask for Lester Hands.

                MusicWare
                Hamlet Route Box 1261
                Seaside, OR 97138

        Your comments and suggestions are appreciated.


        Lyra is a trademark of MusicWare.

        Copyright (C) 1989 by Lester Hands. You are permitted to
        distribute copies of the demo program disk for non-commercial
        purposes, provided that no changes are made in any of the files.