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Composer's Workbench release 1.35
Copyright (c) 1991 1992 by Dennis McNamara, all rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 1987 1989 by Music Quest, Inc.
Distributed as a share-ware demo with limited playback capability.
With the shareware distribution, you can play existing MIDI files of
any length, but files that you create or modify will only play back
the first two pages, up to 20 bars of music depending on the time
signature.
For a full-use license giving you unlimited playback, please send $50
( fifty dollars U.S. ) to
Dennis McNamara
268 9th Avenue
San Francisco, Ca. 94118
or call (415) 752-2073, or email dmcnamar@netcom.com. VISA accepted.
Included with the license are two small, fast utilities to convert
MIDI files from format zero ( all voices on one track) to format one (
voices on separate tracks), and from format one to format zero. For a
limited time, your license will include unlimited lifetime update
privileges for new features of Composer's WorkBench.
Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION ...............................................Page 3.
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS .........................Page 4.
INSTALLATION ...............................................Page 4.
AUTHOR'S NOTE ..............................................Page 4.
USING Composer's WorkBench .................................Page 4.
PLAYING EXISTING MUSIC .....................................Page 5.
CREATING NEW MUSIC .........................................Page 6.
MODIFYING EXISTING MUSIC ...................................Page 8.
THE STAFF MENU: MOVE CURSOR ................................Page 9.
ENTERING NEW MUSIC .........................................Page 9.
TRIPLETS, DUPLETS, AND GRACE NOTES .........................Page 10.
CORRECTING MISTAKES by entering 'u' ........................Page 10.
CORRECTING MAJOR MISTAKES by entering 'ctl-u'...............Page 11.
MOVING AROUND YOUR SCORE ...................................Page 11.
GOING TO ANOTHER VOICE AND DOWN THE STAFF...................Page 12.
CUTTING AND PASTING ........................................Page 12.
ACCIDENTALS ................................................Page 12.
TRANSPOSING ................................................Page 12.
CHANGING OVERLAP ...........................................Page 13.
TIES .......................................................Page 13.
ATTACK DELTA AND "SWING" ...................................Page 13.
RETURN TO THE STAFF MENU AND CHANGE DYNAMICS ...............Page 13.
SAVE .......................................................Page 14.
EXIT .......................................................Page 14.
PLAY PART OR ALL ...........................................Page 14.
PRINTING YOUR MUSIC ........................................Page 15.
LICENSING ..................................................Page 16.
APPENDIX 1: Creating the VOICES.DB and MIDI.DB databases. ..Page 16.
APPENDIX 2: Reporting Bugs. ................................Page 17.
APPENDIX 3: Useful Utilities. ..............................Page 17.
APPENDIX 4: Summary of Key Stroke Commands .................Page 18.
Page 3.
INTRODUCTION
------------
MusicWare Composer's WorkBench is an integrated notator/sequencer
program for the I.B.M. PC line of computers, driving a Roland MPU-401
or compatible MIDI interface.
MusicWare Composer's WorkBench features:
- full staff and musical notation with automatic barlines;
- enter music in up to ten bars by 8 staves per page for the Hercules
Graphics Adapter and high resolution color.
- enter music in seven bars by 5 staves for Color Graphics Adapter (
CGA).
- context sensitive help at each prompt.
- see the music as it plays;
- staffs scroll on screen during playback;
- requires no piano playing skills;
- easy, rational entry of notes on a staff: enter note and time
values from the computer keyboard, enter note values from the MIDI
keyboard and time values from the computer keyboard, or record both
note and time values from the MIDI keyboard;
- when entering from the computer keyboard, the hands stay in home
typing position.
- the length of the music you enter is limited only by how much
random access memory (RAM) you have. CWB itself is very small; it
dynamically allocates from the rest of available memory as you enter
music. For example, a 256 bar Irish Reel in three voices and a lot of
notes takes about 40K of random access memory above the memory
required by CWB itself.
- read and write standard MIDI format one ( multi-track);
- up to sixteen voices on sixteen staves;
- easy "undo" to change a note or notes on a staff;
- easily cut music from one staff and paste it onto the end of the
same staff, or onto another staff, transposing as desired;
- enter dynamics from ppp through fff, crescendos and diminuendos;
-musical form functions: define the time signature, key signature and
your favorite instrumentation for, say, a jig, and save it to disk;
recall all that information easily.
- librarian functions: create a data base of preset MIDI voices and
their corresponding program numbers, refer to the English name, and
the program substitutes the MIDI program number.
- MIDI database functions: create a data base documenting the
interrupt and data port you are using, if non-standard, and what you
use for a drum machine channel.
- optimized for Celtic music, with true grace notes and a bagpipe
type drone.
- "swing" capability: enter the time value the note sounds before and
after the beat.
- CWB in its shareware version is not copy protected. You can make
backup copies of your licensing diskette with the DOS utility
DISKCOPY.
- your Copyright Notice is protected against change with a password
you enter and which is kept in your MIDI file in encrypted form. No
one can change your Copyright Notice without your proper password.
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
----------------------------------
Composer's WorkBench has been tested on IBM 80286 and 80386 computers.
It requires a minimum of 256 kilobytes of RAM and one double sided
Page 4.
double density ( 360K) floppy drive. CWB tests for the graphics
adapter installed and adjusts accordingly. It has been thoroughly
tested with the Hercules (tm) Graphics Adapter, the CGA and VGA
graphics adapters.
CWB was tested under MSDOS 3.3 . It is not implemented for Windows,
nor for Mouse support. CWB has not been tested with any Terminate and
Stay Resident ( TSR) program, like Borland's Sidekick(tm).
Of course it requires a Roland MPU401 or compatible MIDI card, and a
MIDI capable electronic music keyboard or synthesizer.
INSTALLATION
------------
The software does all this in a file called CWB.EXE, for Composer's
Work Bench. Use the MS-DOS copy function to put CWB.EXE onto the disk
and directory you wish to work from, then move to that directory.
Assuming CWB.EXE is on a floppy diskette in drive A, at the > prompt,
type:
A:> MKDIR C:MUSIC
A:> COPY CWB.EXE C:MUSIC
A:> CD C:MUSIC to make the directory MUSIC on your hard disk, then
copy to it.
The program will look for a file containing MIDI voice information
called VOICES.DB. You can create this file with any text processor
(see Appendix 1. ). The file VOICES.EG is an example of this file.
CWB also looks for a file called MIDI.DB, containing information for
your MIDI setup. The file MIDI.EG is an example of this.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
-------------
The primary design consideration in writing Composer's WorkBench was
to put as much music processing power in as small an executable file
as possible, so that the software loads into memory and operates as
fast as possible. Because of this, many of the gimmicks that some
consider commercially standard are not supported. There is not now nor
ever will be a Graphics User Interface with cute icons, nor support
for a mouse, for the simple reason that both take far too much
computing power, and you can enter that much less music much slower.
Composer's WorkBench allows you to enter all music notation from the
standard typing home position. As explained below, you do not have to
move back and forth from the arrow keys to the letter keys.
If there is enough interest, a future release will support your
choosing which keys move the cursor up and down, to the left and
right, and which keys you press to enter the time value. I chose the
present keys to make CWB as much like vi, the editor that comes with
UNIX, as possible.
USING Composer's WorkBench
--------------------------
PLEASE NOTE: commands to CWB are case sensitive, it recognizes the
difference between 'n' and 'N'. So the first thing to do is to TURN
OFF THE CAPS LOCK by pressing the CapsLock key.
Page 5.
At the prompt, type:
C>: cwb music to play an existing MIDI file, either format 0 or
format 1 called music, or
C>: cwb to play an existing file, modify an existing file,
or create new music.
Note you do not need to enter the extension if you want to work with a
for standard MIDI file ), enter both the file name and extension (
music.smf).
First the copyright screen comes up, so press the any key.
CWB then reports:
enter 1 to play existing music
2 to modify existing music
3 to create new music
4 to exit back to DOS
Enter the number of what you want to do.
At any point where CWB is expecting something back from you, you can
get help by pressing '?'. CWB reads from a text file called CWB.HLP to
explain what it expects now. You can modify this text file as you wish
for additional notes.
Entries in CWB.HLP are keyed to a prompt with "+*n" as the initial
entry on a line, where 'n' is any number. This starts the multi-line
help that will appear. You will see there are two types, one in which
"press any key" is the last text on a line, and others in which it is
not. The "press any key" prompt is for help when you are in screen
graphics mode, and the help appears in the prompt window at the bottom
of the screen.
If you choose "Play existing music", CWB expects a file with .mid (for
MIDI data) at the end, e.g. symph1m2.mid, to be in this directory,
unless you specify a file with a different extension, e.g.
symph1m2.smf.
PLAYING EXISTING MUSIC
----------------------
If you choose "Play existing music" of "Modify existing music", CWB
will prompt
"what input file? " You can enter the name of an existing file in
either the current directory or another directory, or you can list the
contents of a directory by entering "?" .
If you enter "?", CWB prompts
"display what path and what files? " You can specify a different
directory than the current one by entering, for example, "\xmas" for a
path. You can use wildcards for the filenames, *.mid for all the files
with a ".mid" extension. So the entry for all files with a .mid
extension in the current directory is "*.mid", and for all .mid files
in the xmas directory, "\xmas\*.mid" .
CREATING NEW MUSIC
------------------
When You Create New Music, CWB will ask the following questions:
Page 6.
what output file? newmusic
Enter the name of the file you want to make, e.g.
newmusic.smf for the file with a smf extension. If
you enter simply newmusic, CWB will create
newmusic.mid.
What musical form? <Ent> for new form
Here you can enter 'jig' or 'reel', if you have
the files jig.frm or reel.frm on your disk. For
this example, I pressed <Enter>.
how many voices 3
Enter a number between 1 and 16, the number of
separate musical lines you want. You can change
this later. Bagpipe chanter and drones take up
just one voice, but take two channels ( more on
this later).
what time signature? ( e.g. 3/4) 6/8
Enter the time signature, in the form TOP over
BOTTOM, for example 3/4. CWB recognizes two
through 12 as valid for TOP, and 2, 4, and 8 as
valid for BOTTOM. Note that for 3/8, 6/8, 9/8, and
12/8, CWB takes a dotted quarter as the one beat
you will specify as how many beats per minute, an
eighth note gets one third of a beat.
what key signature:
0 for C, 1 for G ( 1 sharp), -1 for F ( 1 flat ) etc. 1
Enter the number of sharps or flats in the key
signature. This also is Standard MIDI File
practice. If you are not sure of what key
signature you want, check out the included
auxiliary file KEYSIGS.HLP, described in Appendix
3.
alternating treble and bass clefs on each staff? n
SATB format? n
what clef for voice 1? treble
what clef for voice 2? treble
what clef for voice 3? treble
If you answer y for yes to the alternating clefs
question, staff 1 will be treble, staff 2 bass,
staff 3 treble, staff 4 bass, etc. If you answer
n for no, CWB will ask "SATB format? " This stands
for Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass format, the way
vocal music is usually written. It will give you
treble clef on the top two staffs and bass clefs
on the bottom two. If you answer n, CWB asks what
clef for each staff. Respond with "treble" for a
treble clef, or "bass" for a bass clef.
how many beats per minute? 120
Enter the metronome value, for example enter 120
for 120 beats per minute, one beat takes one half
second. For 3/8, 6/8, etc., this onebeat is a
dotted quarter. If you truly want an eighth note
to take one beat, enter one third of this value,
Page 7.
for example enter 40 to have 120 eighth notes per
minute.
each voice assigned to corresponding channel? n
voice 1 assigned to what channel? 1
voice 2 assigned to what channel? 2
voice 3 assigned to what channel? 16
If you answer y for yes, voice one is assigned to
channel 1, voice 2 to channel 2, etc. If you
answer n, you can assign each voice to a specific
channel, e.g. for a drum machine.
enter MIDI program assignments or 'dm' for drum machine
If you have created the VOICES.DB file, you can
simply enter the name of the voice, for example
enter "violin" or "bagpipe". This feature makes it
easier to go from one synthesizer to another.
Otherwise, you will have to enter the MIDI
program number for that voice.
voice 1 assigned to what MIDI program? bagpipe
is voice style legato, marcato, or staccato? l/m/s
l
This has to do with how long a note is on, and
either how much silence between notes or how it
overlaps with the note following. Take as an
example, three quarter notes, C, D, and E from
middle C and with 192 pulses per beat.
Overlap is a value you will enter next.
An acoustic bagpipe has a continuous flow of
notes, with no off between notes. So if you enter
l for legato, and specify an overlap of zero, the
three notes will be:
C on, wait for 192
D on, wait for zero time (overlap)
C off, wait for 192
E on, wait for zero time (overlap)
D off, wait for 192
If these were the last three notes of a
composition, CWB would also generate E off, wait
for 0.
A harp ( or trumpet, or violin) will have some
silence between notes, so if you enter m for
marcato, with an overlap of 6, the three notes
will be:
C on, wait for 186 ( 192 - overlap)
C off, wait for 6 (overlap)
D on, wait for 186 ( 192 - overlap)
D off, wait for 6 (overlap)
E on, wait for 186 ( 192 - overlap)
E off, wait for 6 (overlap)
Drum machines have a short note on, followed by
silence to fill out the time value. So if you
enter s for staccato, with an overlap of 1, the
three notes will be:
C on, wait for 1 (overlap)
C off, wait for 191 ( 192 - overlap)
D on, wait for 1 (overlap)
Page 8.
D off, wait for 191 ( 192 - overlap)
E on, wait for 1 (overlap)
E off, wait for 191 ( 192 - overlap)
enter number of drones 2
( This and the next two questions apply only to a
bagpipe. ) CWB will accept zero, one, two, or
three
on what note? d
an acoustic bagpipe has three drones on D octaves
starting at D above middle C and octaves below.
on what channel? 3
As mentioned earlier, the chanter and drones are
both on a single track, but should have separate
MIDI channels. Enter a free channel number; if you
enter a number that is already assigned, CWB will
note that and ask for another.
what overlap? 0
For a legato style instrument, use a small overlap
value, zero to four.
For a marcato style instrument, please make sure
the overlap is less than the smallest note value
you plan to use; for thirty- second notes and 192
pulses per beat, overlap should be less than 24.
In practice, an overlap of 6 gives good note
separation without being excessively staccato.
For a staccato style instrument, use an overlap
value of zero or one.
The value you enter becomes the Standard Overlap
for all notes you enter for this voice. You can
change the overlap later for a single note or
groups of notes.
voice 2 assigned to what MIDI program? harp
is voice style legato, marcato, or staccato? l/m/s
m
what overlap? 6
voice 3 assigned to what MIDI program? dm
what overlap? 0
After you have specified for each voice, CWB asks
Save this form?
If this is a form that you will use often, that is the time signature,
key and voicing, you can save it so you will not have to enter all
that again. If you answer 'y' for yes, CWB prompts:
Under what name?
Enter the name you want without extension, for example "jigfwd" for a
jig with fiddle, whistle, and drum, or "sonata", and CWB will save it
with a ".frm" extension.
MODIFYING EXISTING MUSIC
------------------------
If you choose 2 from the menu, to modify existing music, CWB first
asks:
Page 9.
What input file? Enter the name of the file you want to work with,
without an extension if it is a . mid file. CWB then reports
Reading MIDI file: please wait...
The number of voices currently is N Change? y/n where N is some
number between 1 and 16. Press 'y' to change the number of voices, or
'n' to not change. If you add a voice or voices, you are prompted for
their characteristics like when you create new music.
THE STAFF MENU: MOVE CURSOR
---------------------------
Next the screen clears and CWB draws staves with the proper clefs. In
the upper left hand corner of the screen is "v1 p1 s1", which stands
for voice 1, page 1, staff 1. These change as you move around the
score, to remind you of where you are.
In the menu area at the bottom of the screen is the current menu.
Move the cursor to the right with the space bar, to the left with the
backspace key, and press Enter when you have the cursor over what you
want to do.
ENTERING NEW MUSIC
------------------
When you choose "MOVE CURSOR" and you are creating new music, CWB
places the cursor on the third space of the first staff, corresponding
to C above middle C for the treble clef, and E below middle C for
bass.
There is a help menu, to remind you of how to invoke the following
functions. Simply enter a question mark ( ? ), then the space bar to
see the following lines.
You put music notation on the staff by first positioning the cursor,
then entering the notation.
To move: press:
down on the staff, the enter key.
up on the staff, the minus key ("-").
to the right, the space bar.
to the left, the backspace key (which
is also control h: hold down
the Control key and press h ).
To enter notes on the staff, first position the cursor for the note
value you want on the staff, then
press to place on the staff
w a whole note
h a half note
q a quarter note
e an eighth note
s a sixteenth note
g a grace note
rw a whole rest
rh a half rest
rq a quarter rest
re an eighth rest
rs a sixteenth rest
rNN rest NN bars ( 1 <= NN <= 256 )
for example r16 to rest 16 bars.
Page 10.
Note that when you first press the key, nothing appears on the screen.
CWB is waiting to see if you want to enter a '.' to make a dotted
value, a minus or enter to move the cursor up or down the staff for
the next note, or simply a space. After you make the second key
stroke, the note appears and the cursor automatically moves to the
right the proper spacing.
CWB recognizes dotted sixteenth, eighth, quarter, and half notes or
rests.
TRIPLETS, DUPLETS, AND GRACE NOTES
--------------------
You can indicate triplet values by first entering '3' before the first
of the three triplets. For example, in 2/4 time to enter 3 triplet
eighths on the 2nd line of the staff, first move the cursor to the
FIRST line of the staff, press '3', then press '-' twice to move to
the second line of the staff, then press 'e' three times. In 2/4, 4/4,
etc. CWB recognizes triplet sixteenth, eighth, and quarter notes and
rests. Of course, three triplet sixteenths equals one eighth, three
triplet eighths equals one quarter, and three triplet quarters equal
one half.
6/8 time is a special case, since it is by nature a triplet time.
Three eighths equal a dotted quarter, equals one beat. Yet a sixteenth
is one half of an eighth. CWB recognizes triplet sixteenths in 6/8,
three of which equal one eighth. Again, press '3' before you enter the
first of the three sixteenths.
There is no special duplet entry for 6/8 analogous to triplets. But
note that a dotted eighth ( an eighth tied to a sixteenth) is exactly
half of a dotted quarter ( a quarter tied to an eighth). So in N/8
time, enter duple eighths ( that split the beat into two equal parts)
as two dotted eighths. Similarly, four dotted sixteenths split the
beat into four equal parts.
Grace notes can be used for any instrument, but are especially useful
for bagpipe envelope types. Two C notes in a row, for example, first
turns on the second C, then immediately turns off the first C. So
separate them with a grace note: a quarter note C, a grace note D,
then a quarter note C. This will show as a true grace note, not as a
double dotted eighth C and a thirtysecond D.
CORRECTING MISTAKES
-------------------
Correcting Mistakes is easy. Press "p" (for previous note) or "n" (for
next note ) to put the cursor over the start of the mistake. Then
press "u" for undo.
The message area at the bottom of the screen will say "undo more with
'n', <esc> to end". So, if you want to correct more than one thing,
notes, sharps, flats, etc., press the 'n' key until all the mistakes
are deleted. When you are finished, press the Esc (escape ) key. The
cursor will move back to the first note deleted. Now enter note values
as you did before until all corrections are made.
Until you have entered as many notes to make up the time value of the
Page 11.
notes you undid, all the cursor movement keys are disabled, except for
the '-' key to go up the staff and the 'Ent' key to go down the staff.
If you undid a half and a quarter in 4/4 time, you must enter three
beats of time, another half and quarter, 3 quarters, 6 eighths,
whatever, before you can move to another part of the music.
Note that rests are carried inside CWB as a wait time from the
previous note off; a C quarter note followed by a quarter rest
followed by a D quarter appears as a C on, wait for a quarter note
time, C off, wait for a quarter note time, D on, etc. So if you undo a
quarter C followed by a quarter rest, you really delete both the
quarter C and the quarter rest , and you must enter two beats of
music.
The same logic applies to correcting a grace note followed by another
note; the time value of the grace note is subtracted from the time
value of the note following. So, even if the grace is correctly placed
and you want to change the note following, you must undo both the
grace and the note following.
CORRECTING MAJOR MISTAKES
-------------------------
Correcting Major mistakes is easier still. If you want to delete many
notes over several pages, first position the cursor over the first
note you want to delete, then press 'ctl-u' (hold down the Control key
and press 'u'). The message area at the bottom of the screen will say
"undo all for sure? y/n". Enter 'n' for no if you have second
thoughts, or 'y' for yes to delete from there to the end.
MOVING AROUND YOUR SCORE
------------------------
Depending on the time signature and video adapter, you have up to ten
bars per page. To go to the next page, press 'N' for next page, or
'ctl-f' to go forward. To go back a page press 'P' for previous page,
or 'ctl-b' to go back a page.
If you are navigating around a large piece of music, press 'ctl-p' to
go to a specific previous page. CWB will ask what page now in the
command space. Enter a number, press the Enter key, and you will be on
that page.
The same applies to 'ctl-n' to go to a specific page forward in the
music.
To go to a specific bar in the music, press 'f' for find. First, CWB
notifies you that the
"current bar is nn, what bar: nn, or +nn, or -nn, or $ ".
Press any number key(s) and "enter" to go to a specific bar number,
for example enter "32" to go to the 32nd bar of the music. Press "+'
and any number to go forward that number of bars, for example "+16" to
go forward 16 bars. Press "-" and any number to go backward that
number of bars. Enter "$" to go to the end of the music for this
voice.
Page 12.
GOING TO ANOTHER VOICE AND DOWN THE STAFF
-----------------------------------------
To enter notation for the next voice, press 'v' for voice. The message
area will prompt "what voice now?". Press the key for the number of
the voice you want now. If you enter 2 or more, the cursor goes
immediately to the staff assigned to that voice. If you enter '1', CWB
waits for another keystroke to see if you want voices 10 through 16.
If you want to go back to voice one, simply strike the enter key now.
CWB will display five staves on a page for the Color Graphics Adapter
(CGA), and eight for the Hercules, EGA, or VGA adapters. If you
specify more voices than will fit on a page, press 'D' for down to go
down the score on the same page, and 'U' for up to go up the score.
CUTTING AND PASTING
-------------------
Cutting and Pasting music from one voice to another (or the same
voice) is straightforward. First position the cursor to where you want
to start the cut, using 'N', 'P', 'n', and 'p'. Then press 'c' for
cut.
If you had a previous cut, CWB will ask "repeat previous cut?". If you
answer yes, CWB will repeat the previous cut from start to finish. If
you answer no, CWB asks you to place the cursor over the last note or
bar line of the cut, using 'N' and 'n', and press the Esc (escape)
key, to indicate the end of the cut.
The message area will say
use all cursor keys to show paste point
that is use 'v', 'D', 'U', 'N', 'P', control-n, control-p, 'f', 'n',
or 'p' to place the cursor over the point to which you want the music
duplicated. Then press Esc ( the escape key).
Next the message area will ask "transpose on paste?". If you answer
yes, you can use the minus key or enter key to move up or down the
staff to place the cursor on the proper place for transposition
(especially if the voice you are cutting from is a different clef than
the voice you are pasting to). When everything is in place, press the
Esc (escape ) key again. The music will appear.
ACCIDENTALS
-----------
Enter accidentals within a bar by pressing '#' or 'b' before the note
you want to sharpen or flatten. That note will remain sharpened or
flatted within that bar. CWB follows standard musical usage in
resetting these accidentals when it draws a barline.
TRANSPOSING
-----------
Transpose music up by pressing "+nn" before the first note you want to
transpose. "nn" can range from 2 through 15, corresponding to a second
interval through two octaves. Transpose up a 5th would be "+5", an
octave "+8", an octave and a fifth would be +12, and two octaves
"+15".
Page 13.
Transpose music down with "_nn", that is "underbar nn" where underbar
is shift minus keys. Again, nn is in the range 2 through 15.
After you transpose up or down, all the notes you enter will be
transposed until you press "+0", to take the true note value without
transposition.
CHANGING OVERLAP
----------------
To change the overlap value for existing notes, press "o" for overlap
change. CWB will report:
current overlap is (some number), enter new overlap:
Enter the numeric value you want, and press Enter. CWB then asks
modify this note or all notes to end? t/a
Press "t" if you want to change just the note under the cursor, or
press "a" to change all notes from the current to the end.
TIES
----
You can tie two notes together with the '^' key, ( shift 6 on the IBM
PC keyboard). For example, say you have entered in 2/4 time an eighth
C, a quarter D, and an eighth E. This fills out a bar, and CWB draws
the barline. If you want to enter notes that take twice those time
values, enter a quarter C followed by a quarter D. CWB again generates
the bar line. Press the '^' key, then quarter D again, then the
quarter E. The D will have a two beat time value.
The same logic applies to tied notes as to rests; if you undo the tied
D in the example, you must enter two beats of music.
ATTACK DELTA AND "SWING"
------------------------
You can add swing to the music by altering the "attack delta", the
small amount of time that the note sounds before or after the beat. To
alter just the note under the cursor, press 'a' for attack delta. CWB
will prompt:
"enter attack delta: "
Enter a negative number, e.g. -3, to start the note three ticks BEFORE
the beat, or a positive number, e.g. 3, to start AFTER the beat.
To add swing for many notes, press 'S' ( upper case S) for swing. CWB
will prompt:
enter attack delta: -3
what decay delta? 3
A negative attack delta starts the first beat of each measure slightly
before the beat, and subsequent notes in the measure alternate between
slightly after and slightly before the beat.
RETURN TO THE MENU AND CHANGE DYNAMICS
--------------------------------------
To return to the menu press 'ctl-x', hold down the Control key and
press 'x'.
To change dynamic values, that is the volume level from pp through ff
Page 14.
or diminuendo or crescendo, first position the cursor where you want
the change to be, then press 'ctl-x' to get back to the menu bar,
space over to "enter dynamics", and press Enter. Now only the '-' and
'Enter' keys are active, to move the cursor up or down the staff.
The default dynamic value is mf. To change this value, enter: "ppp",
"pp<Enter>", "p<Enter>" (for piano), "mp<Enter>", "mf<Enter>",
"f<Enter>" (for forte), or "ff<Enter>".
SAVE
----
You can and should save what you have entered to disk at any time. On
the menu, place the cursor over "save" and press 'Enter'. You will
return to the menu.
EXIT
----
If you have made major mistakes and just want to abandon the current
effort without modifying an existing file, position the cursor over
"EXIT" and press enter. CWB will pause as it clears internal tables,
then prompt
Press Enter to continue
You will be back at the main menu.
PLAY PART OR ALL
----------------
You can "play part" of what you have entered, or "play-all" from the
start to the finish for all voices.
If you choose "play-part", CWB will ask you where to start the
playback and where to end it. You only have to show these points on
one staff. Then CWB asks which voices to play back.
When you choose either play-part or play-all, CWB asks if you want
"display during playback", that is do you want to see the notation as
it plays. If you press 'n<Enter>', CWB goes on to play the music. If
you press 'y<Enter>', CWB says "use cursor movement keys to find page,
ctl-x to return". Use the 'N' or 'P' keys ( for Next page or Previous
page) to find the first page you want to display, then hold down the
control key and press 'x'.
CWB then goes to the next consecutive page of music, and asks "display
another". Again, respond 'y<Enter>' or 'n<Enter> and proceed. Press
'y<Enter>' to display another page. You do not have to specify
consecutive pages: if you are having trouble with bar 3 on page 1 and
bar 15 on page 3, simply press 'N' to go to page 3 and press ctl-x.
Note: The IBM PC family does graphics, but reluctantly. Because of
overhead, there is a limit of 12 pages you can see during playback.
Next CWB tells you what metronome value it knows, and asks if you want
to change it.
Then CWB shows the Program Change instrument assignments for each
voice and asks if you want to change any.
Now, enjoy your music.
Page 15.
PRINTING YOUR MUSIC
-------------------
You can print your music on a dot matrix printer by pressing <ctl p>.
The sample data base included, SAMPMIDI.DB, is set up for the Epson
model FX-86e. If you have another brand or model it may or may not
work. Rename SAMPMIDI.DB to MIDI.DB and try it.
To set up for another brand or model, you need to make three entries
in the file called MIDI.DB . The first is to tell CWB how to set the
printer for a line feed of 7/72 inch. Look in your printer's manual
for the "escape sequence" of how to do this; it will be an <esc>
character ( hex 1B or octal 23), followed by one or more characters.
This should appear in the data base as the keyword grlfs ( for
GRaphics Line Feed String), followed by one or more blanks or tabs,
followed by the escape sequence, followed by a new line. For example:
grlfs <esc>3<ctl u>
The escape sequence will be the hex digits 1b 33 15, representing for
the Epson line spacing of 15 hex or 21 decimal / 216 inch, or 7/72
inch.
Getting this in text is easy with vi, the VIsual Editor that comes
with Unix. For the <esc>, hold down control and type 'v', then hold
down control and press '['. It will appear on the screen as ^[, and
you can verify with od -xc MIDI.DB that it really is a hex 1b.
Similarly, enter <ctl u> by first pressing <ctl v>, then <ctl u>.
The second keyword CWB needs if grhdr for GRaphics HeaDeR, the escape
sequence to put your printer into 120 dots per inch graphics mode.
grhdr <esc>L
The last keyword is grrst for GRaphics ReSTore, the escape sequence to
put your printer back into text mode:
grrst <esc>@
When you press <ctl p>, CWB prints the current page, so first position
to the first page you want to print. If it is the first page of the
composition, CWB prints your Title and Copyright Notice, then proceeds
to print the page.
At the end of the printing, CWB has positioned the printer to do the
next page, so if there is a next, press N for next, then <ctl p>
again, and on until you've printed the whole file.
An after word: We hope to keep the price of The Composer's WorkBench
as low as possible, to make it accessible to everyone. A large part of
this effort is advertising. We hope you like our product enough to
give us good word of mouth. Talk up CWB to your friends, at MIDI
meetings, and on the MIDI computer BBS's.
Page 16.
If you find something you don't like, or that doesn't work as it
should, please contact us. Write to:
Dennis McNamara
268 9th Ave.
San Francisco, Ca. 94118
or call (415) 752-2073.
Thank you.
LICENSING
The Composer's Work Bench is distributed as Shareware with a limited
playback ability. With this version, you can choose to Play Existing
Music from the main menu and play back MIDI sequences of any length.
But if you choose to Modify Existing Music or Create New Music, you
are limited to playing back only the two pages, which depending on the
time signature and display adapter will give you 16 to 20 bars.
You can obtain the fully licensed version with which you can Modify or
Create MIDI files of any length by sending $50 (fifty dollars U.S.)
to:
Dennis McNamara
268 9th Ave.
San Francisco, Ca. 94118
Please tell us the 8 character password you want to use and your full
copyright name.
APPENDIX 1: Creating the VOICES.DB and MIDI.DB databases.
VOICES.DB is a "straight ASCII" file, there are no special characters
involved, so it is easy to create with any word or text processor.
The entry for each MIDI voice consists of:
the name of the MIDI voice;
followed by one or more spaces or tabs
followed by the MIDI program number for that voice
followed by one or more spaces, tabs, or the enter key.
So a typical entry might be (with b/ indicating a blank or space:
accordionb/b/10b/b/
If you use something other than the standard Interrupt Request or port
for your Roland MPU401 or compatible MIDI card, or if you must use a
specific MIDI channel for a drum machine, you should create the file
MIDI.DB . It is also a straight ascii file, and is keyword driven, one
keyword per line. To specify a non-standard port, enter
port 0xhhh
where hhh is the hexadecimal number for the port, for example 0x330.
To specify a non-standard interrupt, enter
irq n
where n is the interrupt request number, for example irq 2 .
To specify a certain MIDI channel for a drum machine enter
dm n
where dm stands for drum machine, and n is the MIDI channel, from 1
through 16.
Page 17.
APPENDIX 2: Reporting Bugs.
We have tested CWB by actually using all of its features to create a
large body of music. But no software is perfect, there probably still
are bugs in the system.
If you have a problem, please describe it as completely as possible,
note down the version of DOS you are using, and what graphics adapter
you have. Send by land mail to the above address, along with your
name, address, and phone number. Or send email to dmcnamar@netcom.com.
We will get back with a fix as soon as possible.
APPENDIX 3: Useful Utilities.
Two programs are included you may find useful. XD.EXE gives you a
hexadecimal dump of a file. Type
xd music.mid
to get a dump of the file music.mid one page at a time. At the end of
each page, press Enter to see the next page, or SPACE Enter to see the
next line.
To dump the file continuously without paging, use the -p option. So if
you want to print the file, type
xd -p file > PRN
that is, dump the file without pausing at a page and redirect the
output from the monitor to the system printer (PRN).
KEYSIGS.HLP is a useful file. The "root" in the heading means the note
the music ends on (usually, some folk music ends on the fifth note of
the scale). Maj and min mean the conventional Major and Minor keys.
The Major is for example the white keys on the piano from C to C
octave. The Minor key has the third, sixth, and seventh notes of the
scale lowered 1/2 step corresponding to the scale on the white keys
for A to A octave.
On 2nd means the scale built on the second note of the scale in that
key, for example the scale from D to D octave in the key of C, no
sharps or flats. Music Theorists call this the Dorian Mode. It has
the third and seventh notes of the scale lowered 1/2 step, but the
sixth note is the same as in Major key.
The scale built on the fourth note of the scale is, for example, from
F to F octave in the key of C. It raises the fourth note of the scale
1/2 step, providing a 2nd leading tone, and is used frequently in
jazz.
The scale built on the fifth note of the scale features a lowered
seventh note of the scale, and is popular in Irish traditional music.
The number associated with each key is the number of sharps or flats,
a '+' number means that many sharps, a '-' that many flats. One sharp,
key of G Major, has F sharped.
Major Key Notes Sharped
G F#
D F#, C#
A F#, C#, G#
E F#, C#, G#, D#
B F#, C#, G#, D#, A#
F# F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#
C# F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#
Page 18.
The flatted Major keys are: F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb,
corresponding to these notes flatted: Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb Fb
cumulatively, that is key of Bb Major has both B and E flatted.
There is unusual gold to be mined by taking familiar music and putting
it into another mode. For example, a traditional Irish tune, Planxty
O'Kelly, originally in Major, becomes completely different and quite
powerful when put into Dorian Mode, built on the second note of the
scale.
APPENDIX 4: Summary of Key Stroke Commands
Cursor Movement:
Enter key down one space or line
minus key up one space or line
space key to the right one column
backspace to the left one column
n next note
p previous note
N next page
P previous page
D down to next set of staves
on this page
U up to next set of staves
on this page
f find a specific bar or end.
Note Entry:
(all values except 'g' and 'd' may be
followed by a '.' to give the dotted value)
s sixteenth note
e eight note
q quarter note
h half note
w whole note
g grace note
rs sixteenth rest
re eighth rest
rq quarter rest
rh half rest
rw whole rest
r8 8 bar rest (up to 256 bars)
Corrections:
u undo one or more notes on this page
ctl-u undo all notes from this note to
the end of the music.
Cut and Paste
c start a cut where the cursor is
<Esc> end a cut where the cursor is
<Esc> the second Escape, start a paste
(insert the cut music) where the
cursor is.
(Note that <Esc> is the same as holding down the Control key and pressing
the '[' key. )
Exit Edit Mode
ctl-x