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Atari Mega Archive 1
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Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso
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music.zoo
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read_me.txt
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1990-09-23
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A SIMPLE WAY OF WRITING AND PLAYING MUSIC ON THE ATARI ST
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MAKE MUSIC! Is a program for the Atari ST. There are two versions
on the disc: one, "MUSIC.COL", for use with a colour monitor in
Medium Resolution: The second, "MUSIC.MON" in High Resolution
monochrome. With it you can write a piece of music, using an on-
screen keyboard: every note, or chord, you enter is played back
to you directly and displayed on a musical stave. You can select
the length of each note, as well as the tempo of the whole piece.
You can change, add, or delete a note, or chord. At any time, you
can play back the whole piece, or the current page by itself.
You can write your own harmony, or, by choosing "Auto-Chord", you
can let the Computer provide the harmony.
MAKE MUSIC! uses the Atari GEM interface to the full; every move
is controlled by the Mouse and pictorial images illustrate your
various options. A range of drop-down Menus allow you to make
the major program choices.
Finally, your compositions can be Saved to disc and, later re-
Loaded for Playback or Editing.
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HANDS-ON LEARNING...
The program is very simple to use, even if you don't knopw
much about music. Boot your computer, with the disc in place
and choose whether you want the colour, or the high
resolution display. Using the "Show Info..." option in the
Atari File Menu, change the extension of the version you
choose from ".COL", or ".MON" to ".PRG". Then double-click
on "MUSIC.PRG" and the program will Load using the
appropriate resource file. When Loaded, you will see a
display with a Menu line at the top; a musical stave, with
the usual five lines, across centre screen and a two-octave
keyboard, at the bottom. On the right hand side of the
keyboard, there is an extra note (green on a colour display)
with a kind of squiggle in it. If you read music, you will
recognise this as one of the signs for a "rest": this lets
you enter a pause, instead of a note.
As a start, grab the Mouse, and move the arrow over the
keyboard. As soon as it enters the keyboard area, the arrow
changes to an ikon of a hand, with finger poised over the
keyboard. (The hand, based on extensive research, is
modelled on that of Rachmaninov).
STRIKE A NEW NOTE...
Move the finger over a note and click on the left-hand
button. Simultaneously the note you have chosen will sound
and a Dialogue Box appear in centre screen, showing a choice
of five note lengths. If you don't like the sound of the
note you have chosen, you can get rid of it by clicking on
the CANCEL box, otherwise click on one of the note lengths,
which get shorter as you move from left to right. But before
you do that, look at the other little box, with a dot in it.
If you click on that, before you click on the note, you will
get a note which is half as long again, as the one you
choose. Musicians call this a "dotted note".
TUNE IN...
You clicked on your note? The note stops sounding and
appears on the stave, on screen, in the correct position and
with the legth you have chosen. Try another one. Be a
devil, try three or four: you have written a tune!
Depending on the values of the notes you have entered, after
a certain number, a vertical line appears across the stave.
This is a "Bar Line". A bar of music always contains a fixed
number of "beats", or note intervals, depending on the "Time
Signature" of the piece (more about that later). MAKE MUSIC!
writes in the bar lines for you. If the length of the note
you have chosen would carry you over the bar line, the
program splits the note in two, to carry it over into the
next bar. To show that the two notes are actually played as
one, a "tie" - a sort of loop - is drawn in to connect the
two.
CALLED TO THE BAR...
Full scale music can have a great many different "Time
Signatures", indicating a variety of beats to the bar; they
are usually written as two numbers, one over the other, like
"2/4", or "5/8". MAKE MUSIC! limits the choice to two:"4/4",
a straightforward march beat and "3/4", which is waltz time.
You can choose between them by clicking on either of the
values shown in the Style Menu.
There is nothing to stop you changing the time signature of a
piece of music even after you have written it. It doesn't
make any difference to the way it is played, but it can
produce a pretty odd looking score.
PLAY TIME...
To play back your music, move the Mouse over the Program
Menu, and select "Play". You will hear what you have written
on the stave. It probably sounds a bit thin, with just
single notes sounding, so move the Mouse over the Style menu
and select "Auto-chord". (if you look at the Menu again, you
will find that the selection is now ticked). Now, if you
"Play" again you will find that the Computer has suopplied
some simple harmony; each note is accompanied by its Natural
chord. You can stop "Auto-chord" operating, by clicking on
the menu again.
IN HARMONY...
Perhaps you think the harmony is too loud. Move the Mouse
back to the Style Menu and click on "Harmony". Straight away
you will hear a chord and see another Dialogue Box, showing a
kind of Loudness symbol, with a slider below it. Move your
Mouse arrow over the slider and hold down the left button;
you will find you can move the slider back and forth and the
strength of the chord will vary as it moves. When you have
got it as you like it, click on the Tick-box and you will go
back to the main display; now, when you play your tune, the
harmony will be be set to the volume you chose.
DON'T LOSE YOUR TEMPO...
What about the speed at which your tune is played? Would it
sound better faster? - or slower? Easy: click on "Tempo",
in the Style Menu and you get another picture, this time of a
kind of Obelisk, which is meant to be a Metronome, the little
clockwork machine, with a wagging stick, which Musicians use
(or used to use) for keeping time. The program doesn't show
the stick wagging, but you can hear it, and by dragging the
weight up, or down the stick (much as you did with the
harmony slider) you can change the speed of the clicks.
Again the Tickbox will get you back to the main display and,
when next you play your tune, it will be played at your
chosen speed.
SAVING TIME...
When you have had enough, you can Save your composition to
disc, by going to the Program Menu and selecting "Save".
This will bring up a standard File selector, with which
you can Save the tune, using a suitable GEMDOS name. As a
rule, the extension should be ".MUS", as this will be
recognised immediately by the program, when you choose the
"Load" option (also on the Program Menu), so that you can
play your tune again, or modify it by Editing.
If you would like to give your piece a more descriptive name
before Saving it, one which will be displayed at the top of
the screen when the music is Loaded, choose the option
"title", from the Program Menu, which will bring up a
Dialogue Box in which you can write a name up to 21
characters long.
So much for a breathless canter thro