Shareware Overload Trio 2

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Shareware Overload Trio 2 / Shareware Overload Trio Volume 2 (Chestnut CD-ROM).ISO / dir31 / mmv30.zip / MELODY.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-12-12 | 126KB | 2,655 lines

. · ∙ .·∙ · ▐█▄ . ..·∙│ ▐█ ▀▄ ░∙ . █▌ ▄▄·. │ █▌▀▄▀▄ ░░░ . ▐█▀▄▄· ▐█ · . ∙. ▐▌ ▀▄▄ ──┼── ▐█ ▀▄ ░▒▒▒░ . █▄▄ ▀▀▄▄▄ . █▄ █▌. · . ·.. ·█ │ ▄████▌ ░▒▓▓▓▒░. ▐█ ·▀▀▄▄ █ ▐█ █ ∙ . . · ▐▌ .│ █████▌ ░░░░ ░▒▓▓██▓▒░. █▌ ▀█▌ . ▐▌ ▌░░░░░░ █▌ ∙ ▀▀▀░░░▒▒▒▒░░ ░▒▓█▐█▓▒▄████▌. █▌ . ∙ ▐▌· ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░ ▄████ ░░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▒▒░░▒▓█▐█▓▒█████ ▐█· ∙ . ▄███▌. ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▒░. ██████ ▄ ░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓████▓▓▒░▒▓█▐█▓▒▒▀▀▀▒░ ░░▄▄▄█▌ . ▐████ ██████▓▓▒░ .█████▀░░░ ░▒▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▓██▀▀▀▀▀▀█▓▒▓██ ▐▓▒▓██▓▒░░▒▀████▌.░░░░░░▀▀▀ · █▀▀▀▀▀██▓▒░░░ ▀▀▀▒▒▒▒▒░░▒▓█████▓▓██ █▓██▌ ▐█▓██▀█▓▒▒▓█▄▄▄▀▒░▒▒▒▒▒▒░ . ▄ ██▓▒▒▒░▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▓██ ▀███▌ ▐███ ██▓█▌ ▐█▓▓██████▓▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▒░░░░░ ▌ ▐█▓▓▓▓▒▓███████▓▓▓███▄ ▀███▄ ▄██▀ ▐█████ ███▀ ▀█▓██████▓▒▒▒▒▒ ██████▓██▀ ▀██████▄ ▀▀▀ ▀▀ ▄██████▌ ▐█▌ ▐█▀ ▀█▓▓▓▓▓ ▄▄▄█▀ ▀██▌ ▀ ▀▀ ▐▄▄ ▄█████ ▀▀ ▌▄▄ ██ ▐█▀▀ ▀▌ ██▄ ▄ ▄ ▐██▀▀ ▀▀██▀▀ ▀▀ ▐▀▀▌ ▄▄ ▄▄ █▄ ▐▀ ▀ ▀ ▐▄▄██▀ ▌ ▀▀ ▀ ▄▀ ▀ ▐ ▌ ▀▀ ▀ ││ · M E L O D Y M A K E R v 3 . 0 ─┼┼── . Written & Programmed By John Dailey and Cathy Nicoloff ──┼┼─ · · (c) 1992, 93 by Datagen Software Designs ∙ .││ ∙ . . · · . · │ WARRANTY and DISCLAIMER ─────────────────────── This software is provided AS IS without any expressed or implied warranties whatsoever. No warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is offered. The author of this software cannot be held responsible for DIRECT, INDIRECT INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, or ANY OTHER damages due to your ability or inability to use this software, even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages. The user assumes full responsibility for the use of this software. Melody Maker may be distributed freely in it's original archived form. Any reverse engineering or alteration of the files included in this package is strictly prohibited and punishable by law. No charge may be made for Melody Maker or it's distribution except for a small fee for distribution cost such as disks, mailing envelopes, postage, etc. Table Of Contents Files Included In This Package. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 What Is It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Getting A Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Before You Begin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Music In General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 What Is ANSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 What Is ANSI Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Music Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Sharps And Flats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Pauses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Tempos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Octaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Note And Pause Lengths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Extending Notes And Pauses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 System Requirements For Melody Maker v3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Features Of Melody Maker v3.0 And What's New. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Configuring Melody Maker v3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Running Melody Maker v3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Starting The Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Command Line Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Main Screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Setting Default Key Signatures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The Keyboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Music Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Octave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Note Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Pause Length. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Pause Button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Extend Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Tempo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Current Song Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Input/Status Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Keyboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Toggling Play Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Clearing Your Song. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Shelling To DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Editing Your Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Playing Back Your Song In The Full Screen Mode. . . . . . . . 28 Getting Help On Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Taking A Look At The Credits And Information. . . . . . . . . 28 Loading A Music File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Resetting The SoundBlaster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Playing Your Composition Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Playing RA Page Songs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Saving A Music File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Undoing Mistakes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Exiting The Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 The Edit Screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 HELP! On Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 The Editing Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Moving The Cursor Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Inserting Music Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Deleting Music Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Appending Music Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 The Block Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Searching Through Your Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Playing Back From Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Undoing Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Exiting The Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Using MMUtil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Starting The Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Command Line Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Programming With Melody Maker's Source Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Posting ANSI Music Onto A Bulletin Board System (BBS) . . . . . . . . . 44 WWIV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 QuickBBS/RA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 All Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Hearing ANSI Music On A Bulletin Board System (BBS) . . . . . . . . . . 45 Supporting/Non-Supporting Terminal Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . 45 TSR Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Modifying WWIV BBS To Hear ANSI Music Locally . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Authors Notes And Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Registration Of Melody Maker v3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Datagen Software Designs Support BBS Information. . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 1 Files Included In This Package: ─────────────────────────────── MELODY .DOC ─── Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation File MELODY .REG ─── Melody Maker v3.0 Registration File MELODY .HIS ─── Melody Maker v3.0 History File MELODY .EXE ─── Melody Maker v3.0 Executable Program MELODY .HLP ─── Melody Maker v3.0 Interactive Help File MMCONFIG.EXE ─── Melody Maker v3.0 Configuration Program MMUTIL .EXE ─── Command-Line Conversion And Playing MMSONGS .EXE ─── Melody Maker v3.0 Songs (Self-Extracting) *MMPROG .EXE ─── Melody Maker v3.0 Programming Samples/Utilities *MMPROG .DOC ─── Melody Maker Programming Guide *MMPLAY .TP6 ─── Melody Maker Music Routines For TPascal 6.0 *MMPLAY .TP7 ─── Melody Maker Music Routines For TPascal 7.0 *CALIBR8 .PAS ─── Calibration Unit For TPascal *SAMPLE .PAS ─── Sample Melody Maker Song TPascal Source *SAMPLE .C ─── Sample Melody Maker Song C Source *SAMPLE .BAS ─── Sample Melody Maker Song QuickBASIC Source AMUSIC .EXE ─── WWIV BBS Software ANSI Music Mod Archive DATAGEN .TXT ─── Information Text File MUSIC .MOD ─── ANSI Music Mod MUSIC .OBJ ─── OBJect File For Above Mod GAF001 .MOD ─── ANSI Music JukeBox Mod GAF003 .MOD ─── Abort ANSI Music With Shift-F2 GAF004 .MOD ─── Toggle ANSI Music On/Off GAF005 .MOD ─── Toggle On/Off And Clear Buffer DESIGNS .EXE ─── The Datagen Software Catalog [25 Files] *Registered Versions Only You may distribute this archive freely as long as all files are kept together in their ORIGINAL archived form, are not registered, and are not modified in any way. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 2 What Is It?: ──────────── Melody Maker is a unique, full screen, sound card supported ANSI music editor. ANSI music itself has been making its way into the BBS world by sending single-voice music over the modem with the help of an already established ANSI command language also use for displaying menus, changing colors, and creating artwork. With the power of ANSI music, a whole new dimension is added to telecommunications, and with the help of Melody Maker, creating that music is as simple as clicking a mouse button. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 3 Getting A Quick Start: ────────────────────── Although we feel that you should, by all means, read most, if not all of this documentation, we understand that it is quite a bit to read. Therefore, we've written this section on "Getting A Quick Start" to give you a few of the basics before loading up Melody Maker v3.0 for the first time. It is recommended that if you do not read the entire documentation file, that you read at least this section to give you an idea of how the program works. To get help from the main screen at any time, press ALT-H. This will list all of the available commands from the main screen. In the editor, the commands that you will use most are listed on the top of the screen. Most commands are self-explanatory, and listed right on the screen. Just take a look next to what you want to change, and usually the command to do it is somewhere right next to it. The three basic modes of Melody Maker are the Main Screen, Full Screen Playback, and The Editor. This documentation covers the complete Melody Maker package to the best of it's ability. Most keys consist of holding the ALTernate key down while pressing another key. Other keys may show a caret (^) symbol in front of them, which means to hold down the CONTROL key while pressing another key. If you have a mouse pointing device installed, by all means, USE IT! Using the mouse is by far the easiest way around Melody Maker, and probably the most enjoyable, but a mouse is NOT required in order to operate or use the program at all. That's about all you need to get a jump on things. Simply load the program and you're all set. It's probably more fun to explore and figure things out on your own then to read the documentation, but always remember that answers to most, if not all of your questions can be found in this documentation file. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 4 Before You Begin: ───────────────── Before you begin working with your new copy of Melody Maker v3.0, it is a good idea to cover a few simple topics ranging from the ANSI language, to making music in general. Music In General: Although we cannot completely describe and/or teach music in this small section, we feel that it is somewhat necessary to at least cover the basics of music itself. Melody Maker has been written with the concept of allowing everyone, regardless of musical knowledge, to "program" ANSI Music quickly and easily. For those that know the basics of music, this section will serve as a review, while for others, it will explain the simple basics. Music is done in beats. A beat is about 1 second, usually, depending on the speed, or time of the music. Music, as it is written, is placed on what is called a staff. There are two types of staffs, called the treble and bass staff, with the treble on the top like so: ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬┐ Treble ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼┤ Staff -> ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼┤ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼┤ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼┤ │ ││ │ ││ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼┤ Bass ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼┤ Staff -> ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼┤ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼┤ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴┘ At the beginning of the treble staff is a symbol called the Treble Clef, which looks somewhat like an ampersand (&). On the base staff, resides a symbol that looks like a curly backwards letter C. Most ANSI Music is done from the treble staff. In piano or keyboard, the bass staff is done with the left hand, while the treble staff is done with the right. The heavy double bar at the end of the staff means the music has ended. This double line occurs only on the last staff set for a piece of music. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 5 Above, Below, and in between these lines reside the notes for the music. Each note has a letter assigned to it, signifying the tone of the note, and where the note is placed on the staff corresponds to which octave it is played in. Below is a diagram of each note, and where it sits on the staff: ┌───── F │ E ├───── D │ C ├───── B │ A ├───── G │ F └───── E A good way to remember this is "FACE in the space," and "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge." FACE corresponding to those notes in the spaces of the staff and the first letter of "Every Good..." corresponding to those on the lines. There are numerous ways to remember this, but this may be the best way. If you want to learn the order of the notes corresponding to the keyboard, here's the order: CDEFGAB CDEFGAB... With each "group" corresponding to an octave. The first being 0, and the last octave being 6. The treble staff is octaves 3 through 6 starting from the bottom going up, while the bass clef is 0 through 2 from the bottom up. Middle C is usually played in octave 3 on the keyboard (about the middle.) Middle C appears in the staff between the treble and bass clefs and always has a line through it called the "ledger line." Along with plain notes, there are also sharps and flats, which signify a step up on the piano or keyboard. These notes are played on the small black keys to the right and left of the white keys. Flats always are to the left of a note, while sharps are to the right. Sharp notes are signified with a pound (#) sign after them, while flats are signified with a lower-case letter b after them. There are seven (7) different types of notes, each with a different length. The first is called a whole note, and looks like a stretched out letter O. A whole note is 4 beats. Second is the half note, which looks like a letter O, with a stem pointing up or down. A half note is half of a whole note, or 2 beats. Next, is the quarter note, which looks like a filled in letter O with a stem pointing up or down. It is a quarter of a whole note, or 1 beat. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 6 Fourth, is the eighth note, which looks like a quarter note, but with a tail at the top of the stem, or a single bar connecting two or more notes. As you may guess, an eighth note is an eighth of a whole note, or a half of a beat. The sixteenth note is next, which looks like a eighth note with another tail underneath the top one, or a double bar connecting two or more notes. The length of this note is 1/16 of a whole note or a quarter (1/4) of a beat. Next, is the thirty-second note. It looks similar to a sixteenth note with another tail below the last one, for a total of three tails. It's length is 1/32 of a whole note or an eighth (1/8) of a beat. Last, is the sixty-fourth note. Again, it has another tail below the last one, and it's length is 1/64 that of a whole note, or a sixteenth (1/16) of a beat. Along with notes, are rest symbols which follow the same rules for lengths as do the notes. Rests signify a moment of silence, or a pause in a music piece. Rests are difficult to describe, but this should give you an idea of what they look like: A whole rest looks like an upside-down hat, while a half rest looks like a hat right-side up. A quarter rest looks like a squiggly line that curves on the bottom. The rest of the rests, look like a diagonal lines with tails extending to the left. The amount of tails is the same as for the notes for each length of rest. Along with notes and rests, there are several other marks used within music. The basics are described below. The repeat marks. These marks signify a section of music that is to be repeated. These marks look like boxes in the staff with dots pointing to the section that is to be repeated, like so: ┌┬───────────┬┐ ├┼.─────────.┼┤ ├┼───────────┼┤ ├┼.─────────.┼┤ └┴───────────┴┘ You can have multiple repeat marks within repeat marks, but there are usually numbers corresponding to what section is repeated how many times. Dotted notes and rests. Sometimes a note or rest appears with a dot AFTER it. This signifies that the note is to be extended to 1/3 the note length. Dots can follow any type of note or rest. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 7 A note with a dot ABOVE or BELOW it is quite different. This signifies that the music is to be played in staccato, or 3/4 of the note is actually played, creating a plucking sound as each note is played. Notes that are played normally are played 7/8 of their full length. Notes that are "tied" together, meaning they have a curving line pointing to each other are played in legato, or the full length of the note is played. The curved line is called a tie. If a note is to be played sharp or flat all throughout the music piece, musicians can use what is called a "Key signature." Key signatures help assign sharps and flats to every note within a musical composition, and are defined at the beginning of each staff, and after the treble or bass clef symbols. For example: ┌───── │ # ├────# │ ├───── │ ├───── │ └───── Would signify that all "E" notes are to be actually played as E sharp, and that all "D" notes are also to be played as sharps. Flats can also be done the same way. Now that you have the basics to music, let's get on with ANSI itself! What Is ANSI: Literally, ANSI stands for the American National Standards Institute. Technically, it's a programming language; a way to make the computer do certain things, ranging from clearing the screen to cursor positioning. A typical ANSI command, looks somewhat like this: <-[34;40m All ANSI commands begin with an "<-[", (<- Stands for the escape character, ASCII #27) that signifies the beginning of an ANSI command, or an Escape Sequence. The remainder of the command is made up of a series of numbers followed by a letter, telling what the numbers mean. Here are a few ANSI commands: <-[2J = Clear The Screen <-[34;40m = Change Colors To Blue On Black <-[A = Cursor Up <-[40;12H = Position Cursor In Center Screen <-[B = Cursor Down <-[K = Clear To End Of Line <-[C = Cursor Left <-[s = Save Cursor Position <-[D = Cursor Right <-[u = Restore Cursor Position Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 8 In order for ANSI commands to work properly, one must have loaded the ANSI.SYS driver into memory before hand. To do this, simply include this statement somewhere in your CONFIG.SYS file in your main directory on your boot disk. Refer to your DOS manual on how to modify this file. Device = ANSI.SYS Make sure that ANSI.SYS is also located in the main directory, or if not, you can specify a drive and path in the device statement. As you can see, ANSI can be very handy for many things, and you can even reassign keys on your keyboard to type out or do certain things with it! The best way to learn about ANSI is by working with it. There are a few good text files floating around that tell how to use ANSI to it's fullest ability, as well as many ANSI drawing programs to help you create marvelous works of art with the language. What Is ANSI Music: When ANSI was first developed, and even today, music, or sound was not even considered as part of the package. Little is know about when, where, why, or even who thought up the idea of ANSI music, but it's presence has evolved greatly around the BBS community. ANSI Music is not part of the ANSI.SYS library, nor has it ever been. Therefore, loading up the ANSI driver will not allow you to hear ANSI music at all. Some type of program or memory resident utility is needed in order to hear it because of this fact. Why, if it's not really an escape sequence, is ANSI Music so popular, and used? Well, for one thing, it creates a totally new dimension to BBSing in general, as well as sprucing up anything that might have ANSI codes in it, not to mention that it's fun to play with, and use! A lot of software as of late that deals with ANSI escape sequences are aware of the ANSI music sequence that not many people know about. Here's a sample ANSI music sequence: <-[MFT120O3ABCDEFG^N First, we have the standard beginning to any ANSI command; the "<-[." Next, is the key to ANSI music, the M. This signifies that the next letters and commands correspond to music. After the M, is another character, either a 'F' or a 'B'. These stand for Foreground and Background respectively. Music Foreground, or MF, tells a program to play music in the foreground, and pause everything else that is going on. Playing music in the Background, or MB, tells a program to play the music in the background while continuing to do what it was or was going to do. Although 'F' or 'B' is not needed after the M for ANSI music to work, it is recommended that you do so. Some communications programs will lock up if the 'M' is not followed by a 'F' or 'B'. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 9 ANSI Music commands will continue until a ^N character is reached. ^N means CONTROL + N, and is equal to ASCII character #14. The ^N marks the end of an ANSI Music sequence. With that knowledge in hand, ANSI Music is a piece of cake! Music Types: Before entering the actual music into an ANSI Music command, it is a good idea to define what type of music you will be using. In ANSI Music, there are three types of Music: Normal, Legato, and Staccato. Each is set with the: M<type> command, where <type> is a single letter of the following: N for "Normal", plays 7/8 of each note length specified L for "Legato", plays the full length of each note, or 8/8 S for "Staccato", plays 6/8 the full length of each note You are not limited to one music type during an ANSI Music sequence, and may change it as many times as desired. The default music type is normal if not set. Notes: Without notes, music would be impossible! There are a total of 7 notes, entered into an ANSI music string as single characters which are one of the following: "C, D, E, F, G, A, B" Sharps And Flats: Not only are there 7 notes on the scales as we know it, but there are also sharps and flats, which are half-steps between notes. A sharp, half a step up on the keyboard is signified in an ANSI Music command by placing a "#" or a "+" after the note that you wish to sharp. For example, "A#" is an A sharp, as well as "A+". Flats, a half-step down on the keyboard, are done the same way, but with the "-" character, ie. "B-" Not all keys have corresponding flats and/or sharps. Here are the valid sharps and flats available through ANSI Music: "C#, D-, D#, F#, G-, G#, A-, A#, B-". This is best illustrated by looking at a keyboard. Pauses: Pauses are a moment of silence in a song with a specific length. In normal music, they are referred to as rests. Pauses are entered into the ANSI Music string by: P<number>, where <number> corresponds to the length of the Pause. See the section about note and pause lengths for more information. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 10 Tempos: Music works with tempos. The faster the tempo, the faster each note is played in a music piece. ANSI Music supports tempos as well for just that purpose. To specify a tempo, simply put the command: T<number> in your music string. For example: T120 specifies a tempo of 120, or 120 beats (quarter notes) per minute. Valid ranges for the tempo are 32 through 255. Tempos may be changed anywhere in an ANSI Music sequence, and the default tempo is 120. Octaves: As well as tempos, music also has different octaves. The higher the octave, the higher the pitch of a note, and the higher it appears on the scale. There are two ways to specify an octave with ANSI Music. The first, is with the: O<number> command, where <number> is in the range of 0 to 6. Zero being the lowest octave, and 6 the highest. In other words, "O3" sets the octave to 3, which is about the middle of the scale. Another way to change octaves only works if at least on octave has already been defined with the O<number> method. It consists of using the ">" and "<" signs to go up and down octaves. In other words, if the music command: "O3>" is interpreted, the current octave will be set to 4 at the end of the string because of the ">" parameter telling the program/utility to increase the octave by one. "<" will decrease the octave by one. You may also place more than one of the ">," "<" commands next to each other to go up or down more than one octave, like this: "O3>>><O1>>" Default octave is 3. Note And Pause Lengths: As with regular music, notes and pauses have lengths. In ANSI Music, note lengths can be given in two different formats, just as octaves can. The first method is with the: L<number> command, where <number> corresponds to the length of the note. This method only corresponds to note lengths, and not pause lengths. Valid numbers for any note length are one of the following: 1 = A Whole Note 2 = A Half Note 4 = A Quarter Note 8 = A Eighth Note 16 = A Sixteenth Note 32 = A Thirty-Second Note 64 = A Sixty-Fourth Note Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 11 Thus, specifying "L8" in your ANSI Music sequence would set the current note length to eighth notes. This method of note lengthing sets the "global" note length. The other method is a shorthand method. Instead of specifying a length with the letter 'L,' note lengths are given right after the notes themselves. For example, to specify an A note with a length of 16, you would do it like this: "A16" You may also incorporate sharps and flats with this method, placing them right after the note and before the length. Pause lengths are also done in this manner. For example: "P2" will pause for a length of a half note. Unlike the first method of note lengthing, which sets the length for all notes that don't have note lengths specified on them, this method specifies a length for ONE note only. The default note length, if not specified is 4, or a quarter note. Extending Notes And Pauses: In music, you can do what is called "dotted" notes. To avoid technicalities, dotted notes are played 3/2 times longer than the current length. To specify a dotted note, simply place a period after the note you wish to extend, like this: "A." More than one dot may be used, this causing the note to be extended even longer (3/2 as long for each dot), so "A.." or "A...." is allowed. Pauses may also be dotted as well as regular notes, and are handled in the same way. Dots should be entered after the length number of a note if one exists. Now that you have some background in ANSI and ANSI Music, let's move on to working with the best ANSI Music creator around! Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 12 System Requirements For Melody Maker v3.0: ────────────────────────────────────────── In order for Melody Maker to function to the best of its abilities, the following hardware and software is required: An IBM or Compatible Computer A Color or Monochrome Monitor DOS 2.0+ 200k free RAM A PC Speaker or Sound Blaster/Adlib Compatible Sound Card Along with these requirements, these other options are also recommended to get the most out of Melody Maker v3.0: A Microsoft Compatible Mouse and Driver A Sound Blaster/Adlib Compatible Sound Card A Hard Drive Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 13 Features Of Melody Maker v3.0 And What's New: ───────────────────────────────────────────── For those that had the pleasure of taking a look at the first release of Melody Maker, they will be even more surprised with this release! The program has been totally rewritten in an entirely different computer language to maximize efficiency, minimize size, strengthen the ability, and increase its user friendliness. Here is a list of what this new version of Melody Maker brings to you: Mouse Support! The thing that everyone has been waiting for! No more fiddling with the keyboard. Just point and click! Sound Blaster/Adlib Compatible Card Support! Now you can hear your musical creations through your sound card! Awesome Graphical Interface! Now, instead of boring screens, you can "press" the keys of the on-screen keyboard! Switch between three different modes of playback! Music controls are easy to find and set. Visual On Screen Playback! Like we said, three different on-screen play back modes! Watch the keyboard play back your creations on the full screen keyboard, the main screen's input keyboard, or while in the music editor! Animation of the keyboards bring your music creations to life! Push-Button Controls! With the mouse, simply move the cursor to the music controls, and press a button! The button on the screen will go down, acknowledging that you've indeed pressed it! No questions asked. Load Almost ANY ANSI Music Format! Load up those old Melody Maker compositions, or even load up ANSI Music from other music creation programs with no effort! Melody Maker filters out all standard ANSI commands, and leaves only valid ANSI Music left! Longer Song Lengths Allowed! The first release of Melody maker did not allow much room to program in, but with this version, you can program songs 10 minutes or more in length! Save In Different Formats! Save in ANSI Music format, Melody Maker format, or put your ANSI Music right into the ANSI display file that you have created earlier! Melody Maker even has the ability to save in source code format for those few programmers out there who program in C, Pascal, or BASIC! RA BBS Software Page Support! Now you can use Melody Maker to write those chat paging songs for Remote Access BBS Software! Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 14 Installation: ───────────── Melody Maker comes in it's own self-extracting archive, which makes installation quite easier. If you are going to be installing Melody Maker onto your Hard Drive: First, create a directory that will hold Melody Maker. Do this by using the DOS "Make Directory" utility, MD. For example, assume you want to place Melody Maker in a directory called "Melody" that is in your main directory. You would first move to your main directory, and issue the command: MD MELODY<enter> Next, copy or move the Melody Maker v3.0 archive (MMV30.EXE) into that directory. Then, move into that directory, and run the archive. In other words, issue the following commands: COPY MMV30.EXE \MELODY<enter> CD\MELODY<enter> MMV30<enter> The archive will then extract itself and install Melody Maker on the drive where you've created the directory for it. It is wise to take your original archive and store it on disk somewhere as a backup. If you are going to be installing Melody Maker onto a floppy diskette: First, make a backup copy of your Melody Maker archive file. Then, simply put the disk into your drive, and run the archive program. Melody Maker will extract itself onto that floppy. After it has unarchived itself, you may delete the Melody Maker archive, but be sure that you have a backup in case something happens to the copy you are installing. You may also install from one floppy to another if you have a two-drive system. Simply put the disk containing the Melody Maker archive in one drive, and a blank diskette in the other. Go to the drive that contains the blank diskette and type: <drive>:MMV30<enter> Where the <drive> is the letter of the drive that contains the Melody Maker archive file. You may also install Melody Maker to your hard drive this way by going to a directory that you've created on your hard drive for Melody Maker, and entering the letter for the drive that contains the Melody Maker archive in the above example. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 15 Configuring Melody Maker v3.0: ────────────────────────────── In order for Melody Maker to function to each person's specifics, a configuration program has been included with Melody Maker, called MMCONFIG.EXE. This program does not need to be ran in order for Melody Maker to function properly. Melody Maker will set up a default configuration for itself the first time it is ran if no configuration is defined. To run the program, simply type MMCONFIG at the DOS prompt from within the directory that Melody Maker is installed. MMCONFIG directly modifies the MELODY.EXE program file, therefore, you should keep the name the same (MELODY.EXE), but MMCONFIG will ask you for a filename if it does not find MELODY.EXE in the current directory. Also, if you plan to run any kind of Executable Compression Utility such as PKLite, be sure to run Melody Maker or MMConfig at least once to set up the configuration before running your compression utility. MMConfig may be ran any time after you've compressed Melody Maker. ┌────────────────┐ │ Datagen │ After loading, MMConfig will present you with │ Music Defaults │ a menu, as shown at the left. The current selection │ Misc Defaults │ is highlighted by a highlight bar. Move the highlight │ Save Defaults │ bar up and down with the cursor keys, and press the │ Sound Card │ <enter> key to select to change an option or execute │ Restore │ a command. Pressing ESCape from the main menu will │ Load Config │ exit MMConfig, while pressing ESCape from a sub-menu │ Save Config │ will retreat backwards one menu. │ Exit MMConfig │ └────────────────┘ The first option on the menu is "Datagen." Choosing the selection will bring up another menu with options that pertain to Melody Maker information and Datagen Software Designs information: ┌─────────────────────────┐ ┌───────────│ About Melody Maker v3.0 │ The first selection: "About │ Datagen │ Registration │ Melody Maker v3.0" brings up a │ Music Defa│ Software Warranty │ simple screen of information │ Misc Defau│ Support BBS Information │ about Melody Maker in general. │ Save Defau└─────────────────────────┘ The second selection brings up a │ Sound Card │ screen that gives some information on registering │ Restore │ your copy of Melody Maker v3.0. Please refer to the │ Load Config │ section in this documentation on registration for │ Save Config │ complete information on registration. The third │ Exit MMConfig │ choice brings up a screen of information concerning └────────────────┘ the users warranty toward the use of Melody Maker, and the final choice gives information on how to become a Datagen Software Designs Support Bulletin Board System. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 16 From the main menu again, the second choice labeled "Music Defaults" brings up a sub-menu that lets you change the default music information that Melody Maker will use when composing and playing music. ┌──────────────────────┐ Default Tempo lets you set the ┌────────────│ Default Tempo │ default tempo that Melody Maker │ Datagen │ Default Music Type │ will start off with. Valid ranges │ Music Defau│ Default Octave │ are 32-255 as described in the │ Misc Defaul│ Default Note Length │ section on ANSI Music syntax. The │ Save Defaul│ Default Pause Length │ next option, Default Music Type, │ Sound Card └──────────────────────┘ will let you select between three │ Restore │ types of music types that Melody Maker will start out │ Load Config │ with: Normal, Legato, or Staccato. Default Octave │ Save Config │ lets you choose between 7 octave ranges. Default │ Exit MMConfig │ Note Length and Pause Length options let you set the └────────────────┘ default note and pause lengths ranging from a whole note (1) to a 64th note (64). Below Music Defaults is another option called "Misc Defaults." This section is the miscellaneous options that you can preset for Melody Maker's operation. ┌───────────────────────┐ Default Filespec is an option ┌────────────│ Default Filespec │ used whenever Melody Maker lists │ Datagen │ Sort Directory │ a disk directory for you to look │ Music Defau│ Noise On Prompts │ at. This option lets you set a │ Misc Defaul└───────────────────────┘ path, and/or wildcard for your │ Save Defaults │ directory listings. The default is *.MM, which will │ Sound Card │ in effect list all files with an extension of "MM" in │ Restore │ the current directory. Sort Directory will sort the │ Load Config │ directory listing in alphabetical order. Choosing │ Save Config │ this option will toggle to non-sort mode. Whatever │ Exit MMConfig │ is shown is what Melody Maker will do. The last └────────────────┘ option toggles the noise on or off when prompts are displayed in Melody Maker. Whatever is shown, again, will be what Melody Maker does. Next, is Save Defaults, which allows you to change some parameters that Melody Maker will use when saving your files. ┌────────────────────────┐ There are three save modes allowed ┌────────────│ Default Save Mode │ for default in Melody Maker: ANSI │ Datagen │ Default Save Extension │ Music Format, adding to ANSI │ Music Defau└────────────────────────┘ Display Files, and Melody Maker's │ Misc Defaults │ own Compressed Format (source saving is not allowed as │ Save Defaults │ a default). The first option, "Default Save Mode" will │ Sound Card │ allow you to choose which one you want Melody Maker to │ Restore │ assume you want to save in. Default Save Extension │ Load Config │ allows you to specify what three letters you wish to │ Save Config │ assign to your files when saving music files. Enter │ Exit MMConfig │ three letters you want, and press the <enter> key. └────────────────┘ Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 17 Under Save Defaults is the "Sound Card" menu. This option is available only to registered users of Melody Maker v3.0. This option will allow you to change the "voice" of the tones that are played through your Sound Blaster/Adlib compatible sound card. Shown below is the Sound Card menu. Each of these menu items may seem confusing at first. The best way to understand what they each do, is to experiment, and change them around. ┌──────────────────────────┐ Amplitude Modulation literally ┌────────────│ Amplitude Modulation │ is the changing or modulation of │ Datagen │ Vibrato │ the amplitude of a sound wave. │ Music Defau│ EG Type │ In effect, AM modifies the │ Misc Defaul│ Keyboard Scaling Factor │ height of the sound waves back │ Save Defaul│ Modulator Freq. Multiple │ and forth. Vibrato is similar │ Sound Card │ Scaling │ to AM, but acts more like a │ Restore │ Attack Rate │ pulsating effect, due to changes │ Load Config│ Decay Rate │ in the pitch of a voice. │ Save Config│ Sustain Level │ Setting the EG Type to on, the │ Exit MMConf│ Release Rate │ sustain level of the voice will └────────────│ Feedback │ be maintained until released │ Algorithm │ (not played), while setting it │ Waveform │ to off will cause the voice to │ Test Sound Configuration │ decay immediately after hitting └──────────────────────────┘ the sustain phase. The keyboard scaling factor modifies the voice's envelope. If set, the envelope with be foreshortened as the voice rises in pitch. The modulator freq. multiple will actually modify what pitch each octave is played at, in relation to the notes actual freq. Scaling controls the output levels of the voice. The scaling level under this option will cause output levels to decrease as the frequency of the voice rises, while the total level will set a level to be constant. The attack rate, decay rate, sustain level, and release rate deal with a single voice. The attack rate (the amount of time for the voice to max) can be set to 0 for a slow attack rate, or set it to 15 for the fastest. The decay rate is the time between the peak and the sustain. Again, 0 is slow, and 15 is the fastest. The sustain level is the actual output during the sustain period. Setting this value to 0 is the loudest, and 15 is the softest. Finally, the release rate, the time after the sustain where the voice ends, can also be set to 0 for slow and 15 for fast. Feedback controls the amount of feedback sent back into the voice. Set this value to 0 to send no feedback through, or to 7 to send the most. The algorithm setting in MMConfig is difficult to explain, but for our purposes, all you need to know is that more complex sounds are easily created if this value is set to off. Finally, the waveform is what determines the actual wave-form of the voice. Each waveform has certain characteristics and the only way to fully understand them is to try each of them out. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 18 Last, from this menu is the Test Sound Configration. This menu option will simply play a note through the Sound Card (assuming it's present) with the current sound configurations. Next from the main menu is "Restore." This simply allows you to set all configuration parameters back to the built-in pre-defined defaults. These defaults are considered to be the best for using Melody Maker on an everyday basis. "Load Config" will simply load the current Melody Maker configuration file in the current directory into memory so that you may modify it. If you've made changes to the current modification, MMConfig will ask you if you wish to save those changes first before loading a new configuration file. When MMConfig first loads, it will attempt to automatically load your current configuration from MELODY.EXE. "Save Config" takes your current set options and writes them to the Melody Maker program file. The last option, "Exit MMConfig," does exactly what it says. It exists the program and returns to DOS. Again, if you've made any changes to the current configuration, MMConfig will ask you if you wish to save those before exiting. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 19 Running Melody Maker v3.0: ────────────────────────── Starting The Program: Starting Melody Maker is the hardest part of working the program! To start it up, simply type MELODY at the DOS prompt, and the program will load up! After that, you're home free. There are no special settings needed in order to configure Melody Maker to use a Sound Blaster or Adlib compatible card. Upon loading, Melody Maker will determine if one is present, and unless forced to use the PC Speaker, will use that output device for music output. Melody Maker has been fully tested on the Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Adlib, and Pro Audio Spectrum 16 sound cards. Due to the nature of Melody Maker's output routines to the sound card, certain sound card drivers may conflict with the program. This holds especially true in Windows. If Melody Maker does not function properly with your sound card that is Sound Blaster/Adlib compatible, check to make sure that no special drivers are loaded into memory, and if so, simply remove the driver, and everything should function properly. If you are using Windows, refer to your Windows documentation on how to remove sound card drivers from the setup and/or memory. Command Line Parameters: Melody Maker is not only for editing and composing music, but also for playing music! You can listen to any music file without going into the editor with the help of a few command line parameters: (Note that these commands also work with the enclosed MMUTIL.EXE program.) /P = Play. The "/P" parameter allows you to play ANSI music from the command line, or play an ANSI music file from the command line. First, to play ANSI music from the command line, simply put the ANSI music characters inside quotes, and place that, along with a space after the "/P." Melody Maker will load up and play the music you specified! Here are some examples: Melody /P "T120O3L16ABCDEFG" This example will play "ABCDEFG" at a tempo of 120, in octave three, with each note being a 16th note. If you do not specify any of the music parameters, ie. tempo, length, octave, Melody Maker will play the notes at the default parameters specified in the configuration file. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 20 Second, you can play an ANSI music file with the "/P" option. Simply specify the filename preceded by a space after the "/P" and Melody Maker will play that file for you. An example of this command line would be as follows: Melody /P MYMUSIC.MM If a filename extension is not specified, Melody Maker will assume the default extension as set in the configuration file. <filename> = Load. If you wish to load up Melody Maker with a song file already in the editor, all you need to do is specify the filename as the command line parameter. Melody Maker will load that file into its memory on startup. Here is an example: Melody MYMUSIC.MM Again, if no filename extension is specified, Melody Maker will assume the default extension as set in the configuration file. /S+ = Sound Blaster. This command line parameter signifies that the installed Sound Blaster/Adlib compatible card is to be used for output. If a compatible card is detected, Melody Maker will then send all music output through that device, otherwise, Melody Maker will use the standard PC Speaker. Melody Maker will default to the best mode possible, so this option is rarely needed. /S- = PC Speaker. This command line parameter signifies that the computers PC Speaker is to be used as the output device. The above command line parameters may be entered on the command line in any order, but they each must be separated by a space. The following command line parameters are for converting between different types of formats. /M <source> <dest> = Melody Maker Format. This option changes a song from ANSI Music format to compressed Melody Maker format. Enter the full name, including the extension of the ANSI Music song first, followed by a space, followed the destination filename to save the new format to. /A <source> <dest> = ANSI Music Format. This option changes a song from compressed Melody Maker format to ANSI Music format. Enter the full name, including the extension of the Melody Maker song first, followed by a space, followed by the destination filename to save the new format to. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 21 /R <source> <dest> = RA Page Format. This option changes a song from either compressed Melody Maker format to RA BBS software Page format. Enter the full name of the source music file, followed by a space, and the destination RA Page file. /F+ <source> <ansi> = Add To Beginning Of ANSI. This option adds ANSI Music or Melody Maker music to the end of an ANSI display file in ANSI Music format. Enter the full name of the music file first, followed by a space, followed by the filename of the ANSI Display file. /F- <source> <ansi> = Add To End Of ANSI. This option adds ANSI Music or Melody Maker music to the end of an ANSI display file in or Music format. Enter the full name of the music file first, followed by a space, followed by the filename of the ANSI Display file. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 22 The Main Screen: After loading Melody Maker, and after the Datagen Software Designs introduction, main title screen, and musical intro stored in MELODY.MM, you will come to the main screen of Melody Maker. Let's take a moment to explain what everything is on the screen, and what it does. Below is a colorless example of what the main Melody Maker screen looks like. ╔[■]═PLAY════[■]═EDIT══ MELODY MAKER V3.0 ═══DOS═[■]════CLEAR═[■]╗ ┌ MUSIC ┐ ║ │ F1 │ │ F2 │ │ F3 │ │ F4 │ │ F5 │ │ F6 │ │ F7 │ ║ │ ▄▄▄ │ ║ │ │ ││ │ ││ │ │ │ ││ │ ││ │ ││ │ ║ │> ████ N ║ │ │ ││ │ ││ │ │ │ ││ │ ││ │ ││ │ ║ │ ▀▀▀ │ ║ │ │ ││ │ ││ │ │ │ ││ │ ││ │ ││ │ ║ │ ▄▄▄ │ ║ │ │ ││ │ ││ │ │ │ ││ │ ││ │ ││ │ ║ │ ████ L ║ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ║ │ ▀▀▀ │ ║ │ └┐ ┌┘ └┐ ┌┘ │ │ └┐ ┌┘ └┐ ┌┘ └┐ ┌┘ │ ║ │ ▄▄▄ │ ║ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ║ │ ████ S ║ │ C │ │ D │ │ E │ │ F │ │ G │ │ A │ │ B │ ║ │ ▀▀▀ │ ║ └──────┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ ║ └───────┘ ╚[■]═SAVE════[■]═UNDO══[Song Length : 0]══HELP═[■]════LOAD═[■]╝ ┌────────────── OCTAVES ─────────────┐ │ v │ ┌─── TEMPO ────┐ ┌XTEND┐ ┌PAUSE┐ ┌QUIT┐ │ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ │ │▐<─█ ▐─>█ │ │▐███▌│ │▐███▌│ │ │ │ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ │ │▐ <█ 120 ▐> █ │ │▐███▌│ │▐███▌│ │▐██▌│ └── 0 ── 1 ── 2 ── 3 ── 4 ── 5 ── 6 ─┘ └─[<]──────[>]─┘ └─[.]─┘ └─[&]─┘ └────┘ ┌──────[^]── NOTE LENGTH ──[v]───────┐ ┌─[CTRL <]── PAUSE LENGTH ──[CTRL >]─┐ │ v │ │ v │ │ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ │ │ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ ███▄ │ │ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ │ │ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ ▀███ │ └── 1 ── 2 ── 4 ── 8 ─ 16 ─ 32 ─ 64 ─┘ └── 1 ── 2 ── 4 ── 8 ─ 16 ─ 32 ─ 64 ─┘ Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 23 - Setting Default Key Signatures. Sheet music usually displays which notes will be either sharp or flat throughout the entire piece of music. These 'defaults' are always shown at the beginning of each line of music, with a sharp (#) or flat (b) symbol on the lines corresponding to each note. For example - If a music composition had a key signature that looked somewhat like this : F ┌┬─#── D ├┼──── ( The lines represent the five lines of the B ├┼──── musical staff. The notes are there for reference G ├┼──── only. ) E └┴──── A musician would know that a note F anywhere in the music was not meant to be played as an F, but as an F Sharp. These key signatures aid the composer as well as the musician in providing an easy reference to global sharps and flats. Melody Maker supports such key signatures, and makes entering music that contain many sharps and flats much easier. You may define these signatures anywhere throughout the music, but only notes entered after that definition are affected. The last key signatures entered are saved along with the music when saving in Melody Maker format. To define a set of signatures, press the '#' key from the main Melody Maker screen. A window will appear with a sample music treble clef, and a single note as shown below. ╔═[ESC]═EXIT══════════════════FLAT═[ALT·S]═╗ ║ ▄▀▀▀▄ ^ ║ ┌┬─▐▌───▐▌──┬───┬───────────────────┬┐ F ║ ║ ││ █ █ │ │ ││ E ║ ║ ├┼──▐▌─▐▌───┼───┼───────── ▌────────┼┤ D ║ ║ ││ ▄▄▀ │ │ ▌ ││ C ║ ║ ├┼─▄▀▐▌─────┼───┼─────── ▄▄▌────────┼┤ B ║ ║ ││█ ▄▄▄ │ │ ███▌ ││ A ║ ║ ├▐▌─▄▀▐▌─▀▄─┼───┼─────── ▀▀ ────────┼┤ G ║ ║ ││█ ▀▀ █ ▌ │ │ ││ F ║ ║ └┴─▀▄▄▄▄▄▀──┴───┴───────────────────┴┘ E ║ ║ ▄ █ ║ ║ ▀██▄▀ v ╚═[ENTER]═ADD═════════════════REMOVE═[DEL]═╝ To set a key signature, first move the note with the up and down arrow keys, or if you have a mouse, click on the up and down arrows on the right edge of the window. Setting sharps and flats is a toggle, and pressing ALT-S or clicking on the [ALT-S] in the upper right-hand Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 24 corner with your mouse will toggle which type you are currently selecting. The opposite of what you are setting is shown next to the [ALT-S] at the top-right of the window. After positioning the note image on the note that you wish to sharp or flat, press the <ENTER> or <SPACE BAR> (or click the mouse on the ADD area) to set that current note. Pressing the <DELETE> or <BACKSPACE> key (or clicking on REMOVE) will reverse the process, removing a currently set note. Notes that are set will have either an '#' or an 'b' symbol next to them signifying what they have been set to. Be warned that not all notes are valid sharps or flats. Notes that can be set to sharp are 'CDFGA,' and notes that can be flat are 'DEGAB.' Press the <ESC> key to exit the window and return to Melody Maker. After setting key signatures, you may go about entering music just as normal, but if you enter a note that you have defined a key signature for, Melody Maker will prompt you as to whether or not you wish to assign that note to what you have set it to. This prompt is used only to allow you to override the signature and allow a note to be played 'naturally,' or without the sharp or flat. - The Keyboard. Probably the first thing you will notice about the screen is the keyboard located in the upper right hand side of the screen. This is where you will be entering your music most of the time. Each key on the keyboard represents a note of each octave, and has that note displayed on the key itself for easy reference. "Pressing" these keys will play the given note, and add it to the current music piece that you are working on. - Music Type. To the left of the keyboard is a boxed in area that is labeled Music Type. This area shows the current setting for the music type: Normal, Legato, or Staccato. An arrow points to the current setting. To change music types, simply press the letter that corresponds to the type you wish to change to, or if you have a mouse pointing device, click on the button next to the music type you wish to change to. Note that if you change a music type, that music type is not actually added to the music piece until you enter a note to play in that type of music. This conserves space, and keeps ANSI Music command size down to a minimum. - Octave. Below the keyboard, and to the left side of the screen is another boxed in area labeled Octave. This displays the current octave being played. To change octaves, simply press the number of the octave that you wish to change to, or click on the button above the octave you want with your Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 25 mouse pointing device. You may also use the ">" and "<" keys to move up and down octaves respectively instead of typing in numbers. Again, as with music type commands, octave commands are not actually added until you enter a note for use with that octave. Also, if you change octaves during a composition, and the octave difference is only by one, Melody Maker will use the "<" or ">" parameter instead of the O<number> to cut down on Music command size. - Note Length. This boxed in area located right underneath the octaves window shows the current setting of the note length. To change the note length, press either the up arrow key to shorten the length, down to lengthen the length, or click with your mouse pointing device on the length you wish to set. Once again, as with all other music commands besides notes, lengths are not added until you enter an actual note that uses that length. - Pause Length. Just as with the note length box, the pause length box shows the current pause length. Use ^LEFT (CONTROL+LEFT arrow key) and ^RIGHT (CONTROL+RIGHT arrow key) keys to change the pause length, or click with your mouse pointing device on the pause length you wish to set. Pause lengths do not enter pauses into the music composition, but merely set the current length for when a pause IS entered. - The Pause Button. Pauses are entered into the music piece by pressing the "&" key, or clicking the mouse button on the boxed area marked pause right underneath the keyboard and about the pause length boxed area. "Pressing" this button will create an audible sound if you've configured Melody Maker to do so, and add a pause with the current pause length to the music composition. - The Extend Button. To extend a note or pause, either press the "." key, or click the mouse pointing on the boxed in area marked extend. An audible sound is also made if you have Melody Maker to do so for the usage of this button, when pressed, and a dot is added after the current note. Notes and pauses in Melody Maker are only allowed 10 dots per note or pause. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 26 - Tempo. Changing the temp is different from all other music commands. The boxed in area right below the keyboard and to the right of the octave area is labeled tempo, and shows the current tempo value with four arrows surrounding it. To increase or decrease the temp, press the right and left arrow keys respectively. If you have a mouse pointing device, you may click on any one of the four arrows surrounding the current temp to change it. Clicking on the top two arrows will increase or decrease the temp by 10, while the lower two buttons will increase or decrease the temp by 1. As with other music commands, the actual tempo is not added to the song until you enter an actual note using that tempo. - The Current Song Length. Located right under the keyboard in the middle of the keyboard is a little area marked "SONG LENGTH." The number in this area gives the current number of CHARACTERS in the current song. In DOS, each character in a file is roughly one byte, so the current song length is roughly how many bytes your song will take up on disk. For curiosities's sake, you may enter over 7000 characters of music commands, which may end up being anywhere from 5 minutes long to a half an hour or more! - Input/Status Line. At the bottom of the screen sits a solid blue line. This is Melody Maker's input line, and is where most of your interaction with the program, aside from musical things, will take place. Most of the time, this input/status line will simply state whether Sound Blaster/Adlib output is on, off or not detected, the help command, and the name of the current project that you are working on. Now that you know basically what everything is on the screen, you need to know what keys do what, and how to work with Melody Maker. The next few paragraphs will help you with learning those controls. - The Keyboard. As stated above, the keyboard is probably the first thing that you will notice about the main screen, and this is where you will be doing most of your composition. Making music in Melody Maker is as simple as pressing the keys on a keyboard. If you have a mouse, all you need to do is position the mouse cursor over the key that you wish to press, and click a mouse button. If not, simply press the function key that is assigned to each key on Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 27 the keyboard. To activate sharp and flat notes, hold either shift key down and press the function key to left of the sharp/flat that you wish to use. After pressing a key on the keyboard, Melody Maker will play the note back for you in the current octave, tempo, music type, and note length. - Toggling Play Modes. In ANSI Music, there are two different ways to play music; in the foreground, and in the background. Melody Maker allows you to save ANSI Music both ways, selectable by pressing the ALT-B key. Music played in the foreground will pause all other computer functions (when listening to it outside Melody Maker), while music played in the background will play without interrupting other functions, assuming the software supports background playing. - Clearing Your Song. Although we've just begun, you still will eventually need to know how to clear a song from Melody Maker's memory. If you have a mouse, you may move the cursor to the button located on the upper right of the screen just above the keyboard marked "CLEAR" and click a button, otherwise, press ALT-C from your computer's keyboard to activate the Clear Song function. You will be prompted as to whether or not you are sure you wish to clear the song, and if you would like to save it first or not if you have made any changes since your last save. Simply press 'Y' for yes and 'N' for no, or click with your mouse on the yes/no/abort options on the status line. - Shelling To DOS. If for any reason you need to shell to DOS (temporarily exit) while in Melody Maker, you may do so my pressing ALT-D or clicking the mouse cursor on the button marked "DOS" in the upper right side of the screen. Shelling to DOS will temporarily quit Melody Maker and bring you to your operating system's prompt. Simply type "EXIT" (without the quotes) to return to Melody Maker and continue working on your musical piece. - Editing Your Song. During your composition stage, there may be times when you would like to edit your song, copy a section, delete a section, or insert a section. If you have a mouse, clicking on the button on the upper left side of the keyboard marked "EDIT" will invoke the music editor, or you may press ALT-E to do the same thing. See the section on the music editor for more information about editing your creation. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 28 - Playing Back Your Song In The Full Screen Mode. Sometimes, you'll want to play your song back on a full screen "piano." To do so, press ALT-F to activate the full screen playback mode. The screen will update, and you'll be at another screen with the standard status line at the bottom of the screen, and a full-size keyboard that takes up most of the screen. While in this mode, you may click your mouse cursor on the "PLAY" button located on the left side of the piano, or press ALT-P, you may click your mouse cursor on the "EXIT" button located on the right side of the piano, or press ESCape to exit back to the main screen, or you may click "LOAD" or press ALT-L to load a music file. During playback, you may press any key at any time to abort the music playback. Also, a percentage of the song played and the filename will be displayed while playing the song. - Getting Help On Commands. If at any time you wish to look up commands for the main screen, pressing ALT-H will bring up a screen that lists each command with a short description. Pressing ESCape will return you to Melody Maker, but any other key will bring you to a second level of help. The second level of help presents a picture of the notes with their corresponding numbers by them. Pressing ESCape will return you to Melody Maker, while pressing any other key will bring you to a third level of help. The third level of help consists of another screen showing all the pauses and their corresponding numbers next to them. Press any key to return to the main screen. - Taking A Look At The Credits And Information. For basic information on Melody Maker, and the address to Datagen Software Designs' office, press ALT-I, or click your mouse cursor on the words "Melody Maker" at the top of the keyboard to bring up an information screen. Press any key to return back to the main screen. - Loading A Music File. Loading a music file is easy. To load a music file, either click your mouse cursor on the button marked "LOAD" on the lower right side of the keyboard, or press ALT-L. After telling the program that you want to load a file, it will bring up a box on the screen that lists files according to the default file-specification that you've set in the configuration program. You may use a few keys for movement through the file listing: Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 29 Arrow Keys - Move the highlight bar up, down, left and right. Page Up - Moves the listing one screen up. Page Down - Moves the listing one screen down. Home - Moves the highlight bar all the way left. End - Moves the highlight bar all the way right. ^Page Up - Moves to the beginning of the listing. ^Page Down - Moves to the end of the listing. To load a file, position the highlight bar over the filename and press <enter>, or click your mouse cursor on the file you wish to load, or simply type in the name of the file you wish to load. If you type in a filename without an extension, Melody Maker will add the default extension as set in the configuration program to the name that you entered. You may also type in parameters for listing files, new directories, or new drives. For example. If the program is currently listing files on the C: drive, you can change to the B: drive by simply typing "B:" and pressing <enter>. Melody Maker will then list all the files with the default file specification on the B: drive. You can also specify paths and even file specifications as in the below examples: C:\MUSIC\ C:\*.* B:\MUSIC\*.MM C:R*.* The first example will list all the files with the default file specification in the "MUSIC" sub-directory located on the C: drive. The second example will list ALL files located in the main C: directory. The third example will list all files with an extension of "MM" in the sub-directory "MUSIC" on the B: drive. The last example will list all files that begin with an "R" in the main directory on the C: drive. Refer to your DOS manual for more information on listing files and wildcards. Assuming that you picked a valid filename to load, Melody Maker will the load the file into memory for you to work with. After the loading process, the pointers to the current octave, tempo, music type, and the song length will all be updated to the songs last settings. Another feature called "Log Directory" has also been added to the directory display. Pressing ALT-L will let you "Log" into another directory or drive. This function acts like a DOS "Change Directory" Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 30 command in that it will switch directories to whatever you tell it to. In other words, if you start up Melody Maker from the B: drive and load a file, Melody Maker will show all files on the B: drive. But, if you load up Melody Maker from the B: drive, and "Log" a new directory from the directory box, Melody Maker will show files in that subdirectory each time you bring up the display directory. If you are running a registered version of Melody Maker and are loading a Sound Card configuration that was saved earlier, the Sound Card will be re-configured for the new voice, and the current song in memory will not be cleared or modified in any way. Sound Card configurations are saved in Melody Maker Format. Please note that if you are loading a text file that contains ANSI Music, some text may be considered ANSI Music, such as the letters 'E', 'A', and 'G' (which are actual notes), and thus giving you "garbage" music located at the beginning and/or ending of your music. This allows the loading of many times of different formats of ANSI Music, and you may delete these arbitrary notes easily inside the editor. - Resetting The SoundBlaster. If you'd like to reset the SoundBlaster back to your original sound settings, you can do so by pressing ALT-O from the main menu. For registered users of Melody Maker, you are able to configure parameters for the actual voice of the SoundBlaster, and these settings are saved with songs when you save them in Melody Maker Format. You can override this setup by loading the song, and then resetting the SoundBlaster before initiating playback. - Playing Your Composition Back. Playing your music piece back is as simple as either clicking your mouse cursor on the button marked "PLAY" located at the left-top of they keyboard, or by pressing ALT-P. After initiating playback mode, Melody Maker will play your current composition back, along with animating the keyboard, and updating all the song information pointers! Along with that, a percentage of the song played, and the filename will be shown in the lower right-hand corner. Press any key to abort the playback at any time. Note: Some ANSI Music that you load may have non-standard note lengths. This simply means that the note lengths are not 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64. Melody Maker will display the note length value below the Note Length push buttons if such an event occurs. - Playing RA Page Songs. If you're using Melody Maker to create RA BBS Software Page songs, you may eventually build up quite a collection. Unfortunately, because of RA's somewhat crude paging song format, Melody Maker cannot load them Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 31 effectively. However, you may sample a RA Page file by pressing ALT-R from the main menu. This option will bring up a directory display, and playback a RA Page file as if you were hearing it from your BBS software. - Saving A Music File. Saving a music file is almost identical to loading one. Pressing ALT-S, or clicking the mouse cursor on the "SAVE" button located on the left side of the keyboard will let Melody Maker know you wish to save your music file. After choosing save, you will be prompted as to which format you wish to save in. By pressing <enter> at this prompt, you will choose the default save format as specified in the configuration file. Pressing ESCape will abort the save. Saving in ANSI Music, Melody Maker, or Source format: In choosing an above format, Melody Maker will bring up a directory window as if you were loading a song, but will ask you for the filename that you wish to save the current song to. Either type in a name or move the highlight bar to the filename you wish to save to. Melody Maker assumes the default extension if you do not enter one on ANSI Music and Melody Maker formats. If a file already exists, Melody Maker will ask you if you are sure that you wish to save over it. Enter a 'Y' or an 'N' for yes or no, respectively. After saving the file, Melody Maker will let you know, and then return to the main screen to await your next command. When saving in Melody Maker Format, Sound Blaster Configuration as well as Key Signatures are saved along with the music file. If the current song length is zero, Melody Maker will ask you if you wish to save the current Sound Card configuration. In doing so, the configuration is saved to a file in Melody Maker Format, and can be loaded at any time like a regular music file. No music commands are stored with a Sound Card configuration file. Loading a Sound Card configuration file merely sets the Sound Card for a specific voice and does not clear or modify the current song in memory. Appending your music to an existing ANSI display file: After choosing this format, Melody Maker will ask you if you want to add your music to the beginning or the end of the file. Enter either a 'B' or an 'E' for this answer. If you wish to add your music into an existing ANSI music file, Melody Maker will bring up a directory listing for you to pick an ANSI file to add the music to. Move the highlight bar to the filename, or type it in, and Melody Maker will do the rest for you. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 32 After adding the music, Melody Maker will let you know, and then return to the main screen for more commands. - Undoing Mistakes The undo command will undo that last change that you made to your song. Whether it be adding a simple note, or clearing the song totally. Simply click the mouse cursor on the button marked "UNDO" located at the lower left side of the keyboard, or press ALT-U to invoke the undo feature. Before undoing the last action, Melody Maker will ask you if you are sure. If no changes have been made, Melody Maker will inform you that there is nothing to undo. - Exiting The Program To exit Melody Maker and return to DOS, simply type ESCape from the main screen, ALT-X, or 'Q', or click your mouse cursor on the button marked "QUIT" located on the right side of the screen. Melody Maker will first as if you are sure, and then if changes have been made to the current song, will ask you if you want to save that song first, and then exit to DOS. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 33 The Edit Screen: By pressing ALT-E or by clicking on the "EDIT" button, you access Melody Maker's built in music editor. Working in the Melody Maker editor is just like working with any standard text editor. Melody Maker's editor allows you to insert or delete commands, block copy whole sections of music and more! Let's take a look at the editing screen now. HELP! On Commands: Right at the top of the screen is always a listing of they keyboard commands for the editor. A caret (^) in front of a command means to hold down the CONTROL key while pressing the other key(s) listed. By pressing ALT-H from the editing screen, you'll go into an "interactive" help mode that goes into more detail about ANSI Music syntax. A list will be displayed where you may choose which topic to receive help on. Simply press the number corresponding to the topic you wish to review. Pressing the ESCape key from the main selection menu will return you to the editor. The Editing Area: You will notice a boxed in area on the lower half of the screen. This is where your music is shown, and where all your editing will be taking place. While it only shows 10 lines of music at a time, it will scroll through your music while you move down through it. Speaking of moving, let's review some of the keys that are used in the editor. - Moving The Cursor Around. Moving the cursor around is as easy as pressing the arrow keys, but there are a lot more commands for movement at your disposal. Arrow Keys - Up, Down, Left, And Right. Mouse - Click on a valid position inside the editing window. Tab - Moves cursor right four (4) spaces. Shift+Tab - Moves cursor left four (4) spaces. Home - Moves cursor to beginning of a line. End - Moves cursor to end of a line. Page Up - Moves display up one screen. Page Down - Moves display down one screen. ^Page Up - (CONTROL+PAGE UP) Moves display to the top of the music file. ^Page Down - (CONTROL+PAGE DOWN) Moves display to the end of the music file and positions cursor for adding commands. If you have a mouse installed, you may also click on the buttons marked "PGUP" for Page Up and "PGDN" for Page Down located on the right side of the editing box. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 34 - Inserting Music Commands. You may insert a music command almost anywhere in a music file, but you MAY NOT split up already existing music commands. Inserting a command will shift all commands following to the right, and will "word wrap" commands accordingly so that none are split up. Again, you cannot split up music commands. If you are trying to insert a command, and nothing is happening, Melody Maker knows that you are attempting to split up a command. Move the cursor before or after that command and try again. To insert a note into a music line, simply type the corresponding letter for each note, ie. A, B, C, D, E, F, or G. In order to make a note a sharp or flat, position the cursor onto the note that you wish to change, and type '#' or '+' for sharp and '-' for flat. If you wish to dot or extend a note (up to 10 times), simply position the cursor somewhere onto that note command and press the '.' key. You may also enter note lengths after a note in the editor for the short-cut method described earlier. Simply move the cursor onto the note you wish to change the length to, and begin typing a valid note length. When you begin typing a length, the status line will clear and wait for you to finish entering the length. After you have finished entering the length, press <enter> and the music commands will be adjusted accordingly. To insert a pause into the music commands, press the 'P' key. The status line will update and ask you for a valid length for the pause you are entering. Enter the pause and press <enter>. The music commands will be updated accordingly. If you have a mouse, you may click on the box marked "PAUSE" in the middle of the screen to insert a pause. To insert a new tempo into the music sequence, press the 'T' key. The status line clear, and ask you for a valid tempo ranging from 32 to 255. Enter the value and press <enter>. Mouse users may click on the box "TEMPO" in the middle of the editing screen instead of pressing 'T.' To insert a new global length command, press the 'L' key. As with the tempo, the status line clear, and ask you for a length for each note. Enter the length, and press <enter>. Mouse users may click on the box "LENGT" in the middle of the editing screen instead of pressing 'L.' To insert a new octave, you may either press the 'O' key, which will update the status line and ask you for a new octave, or press the ">" and "<" keys to go up and down octaves respectively. Again, mouse users may click on the box marked "OCTAV" in the middle of the editing screen to change octaves instead of pressing 'O.' To change the music type, press the 'M' key. The status line will update and ask your for the key corresponding to each music type of either 'N'ormal, 'L'egato, or 'S'taccato. Press the corresponding Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 35 letter and press <enter>. Mouse users may click on the box marked "MUSIC" in the middle of the editing screen to change music types. As you enter music commands, the screen will be updated accordingly, and everything shifted as needed. You may cancel entering any commands by pressing the ESCape key. - Deleting Music Commands. Deleting commands is even easier than inserting them into the music commands. By using the backspace key, you can delete the command to the left of the command that you cursor is on. In other words, using the backspace key takes the command that the cursor is on, and moves it over on top of the one before it, erasing that command. Using the delete key is a little different. Delete will remove a command or part of a command that the cursor is currently on. Remember that commands are whole ANSI Music commands like: "T120" or "A#16". Pressing the delete key on the first character of a command will delete that whole command, while pressing delete on a sharp of flat sign will delete ONLY that sharp or flat. Pressing delete on a dot of a dotted note, will delete that dot from the note. As in inserting commands, deleting commands will update the display accordingly, shifting commands as needed. - Appending Music Commands. Adding music commands to the end of your music is simple. You do not need to move the cursor by hand all the way to the end of your music in order to do so. Pressing the ^PAGE DOWN (CONTROL + PAGE DOWN) sequence will bring the cursor to the end of your music right after the last command, and will allow you to continue typing in music commands. You may also move the cursor to the last line of commands and press the END key to move the cursor one space after the last command as well to begin adding music commands. - The Block Commands The Melody Maker editor has built in block commands that will allow you to copy, move, and delete large or small "blocks" of music. This can be very handy if you are programming a large piece that has many repeats in the music. All you would need to do is simply copy the part that is repeated to any point in your ANSI Music! Begin Block - This command marks the beginning of a block to be used. All you need to do to mark the beginning of a block is to move the cursor to the position that will be the start of the block and then press the Begin Block key sequence. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 36 There are a few ways to mark the beginning of a block. The first is the standard WordStar method with ^KB or CONTROL+K and then B. Another way is to press the F7 function key. End Block - This command is the opposite of Begin Block in that it marks the ending of the block you are going to use. Move the cursor to the position that you want to be the last command of the block and issue the End Block key sequence. They are as follows: ^KK or CONROL+K and then K, F8 function key. After setting the end of a block. the block that you've chosen will be highlighted in a different color from the rest of the music commands, showing you what you've chosen. Block Off - This command simply turns off the block if it is currently being displayed. Press the ^KH or CONTROL+K and then H sequence to issue this command. Copy Block - Probably the most used of all the block commands in Melody Maker is the Copy Block command. Use this to take your current marked block and copy it somewhere else. To issue this command, first, mark the beginning and ending of your block, move the cursor to the position that you want to copy the marked block to and then press the keys ^KC or CONTROL+K and then C. The block that was marked will then be copied over to the new position so you will have one more existing copy of the block. Remember that Melody Maker will not allow you to split-up music commands! Move Block - This command allows you to move a set of commands from one position to another. First, mark the beginning and ending of the block you wish to move and issue the Move Block command with the following keys: ^KV or CONTROL+K and then V. This command will essentially copy the block from it's old position to a new one, and then remove the old block from the music sequence, thus "moving" the block to its new location. Delete Block - If you ever need to delete a large section of music from your music commands, use the Delete Block function. First, mark the beginning and end of your block, and issue this command using the following keys: ^KY or CONTROL+K and then Y. The block will be removed, and all music will be updated accordingly. - Searching Through Your Music. Melody Maker also has a built in search function to allow you to search through your music easily for certain things! To begin a search, issue the command ALT-S and the status bar will prompt you with what you wish to search for. Enter what you wish to search for, character for character, in your music and press the ENTER key. Melody Maker will then ask you if you'd Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 37 like to Globally search, or start from the cursor. Global search will start searching from the beginning of your music creation, while from the cursor will start searching from the current cursor position. During the search, Melody Maker will move the cursor and prompt you if you wish to continue, assuming that it does find what you're looking for. At the end of the search, or when you tell it you no longer want to continue, Melody Maker will show you the total number of occurrences that it found what you were looking for. If it doesn't find it at all, it will tell you that it didn't. Searching through music is not case sensitive. - Playing Back From Cursor. In the editor, you have the handy ability to play your current song back from the current cursor position. This is great for "debugging" your composition when there is that strange stray note that you can't seem to locate or something similar. Simply move the cursor to the position that you wish to start playing from and press the ALT-P command to begin playback, or if you have a mouse installed, click on the button marked "PLAY" at the upper left side of the editing box. Melody Maker will search backwards through your music to find the last music information such as octave, tempo, note length, etc., and begin playing your music. You'll also note that a full-screen length keyboard will appear at the top of the editor while Melody Maker is playing your music. This will aid in your "debugging" so that you have a visual image of what is going on. The current project being played, and a percentage of played music is displayed on the status bar. Any key during playback will abort the playback. In unregistered copies of Melody Maker, playback will begin from the start of the ANSI Music. - Undoing Mistakes. If at any time during the editing of your composition you make a mistake with inserting commands, deleting commands with backspace, or delete key, accidently delete a whole section of commands with the block command, or copy or move a block without thinking twice, there is a solution! The Undo command. This command works identical to the Undo command on the main screen in that it will undo the last command that you did, but in the editor, you will SEE the results. Press the ALT-U key combination to issue this command. Note that this command will work from either the editing screen or from the main screen. In other words, you may exit back to the main screen and undo the last command that you did in the editor. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 38 - Exiting The Editor. Exiting the editor is as simple as pressing the ESCape key (or 'Q', or ALT-X) to go back to the main screen. Changes that you've made are saved, and the screen will return to the main screen. You may enter the editor at any time you'd like. If you have a mouse installed, you may also click on the button marked "EXIT" at the lower left side of the editing box to exit the editor. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 39 Using MMUtil: ───────────── Enclosed in the Melody Maker v3.0 archive is a handy utility that runs separate from the main Melody Maker executable. This program is simply a copy of Melody Maker's command line parameters, and lets you play back your creations without the main executable, and convert between different formats. This program takes considerably less time to load and run compared to the main Melody Maker executable, and therefore is great to use in batch files and when you want to play files on the fly. - Starting The Program To start the program, simply type MMUTIL at the DOS prompt. If you do not include any command line parameters, the program will bring up a screen listing them all. The next few sections will talk about each. - Command Line Parameters /P = Play. The "/P" parameter allows you to play ANSI music from the command line, or play an ANSI music file from the command line. First, to play ANSI music from the command line, simply put the ANSI music characters inside quotes, and place that, along with a space after the "/P." Melody Maker will load up and play the music you specified! Here are some examples: Melody /P "T120O3L16ABCDEFG" This example will play "ABCDEFG" at a tempo of 120, in octave three, with each note being a 16th note. If you do not specify any of the music parameters, ie. tempo, length, octave, Melody Maker will play the notes at the default parameters specified in the configuration file. Second, you can play an ANSI music file with the "/P" option. Simply specify the filename preceded by a space after the "/P" and Melody Maker will play that file for you. An example of this command line would be as follows: Melody /P MYMUSIC.MM If a filename extension is not specified, Melody Maker will assume the default extension as set in the configuration file. <filename> = Load. If you wish to load up Melody Maker with a song file already in the editor, all you need to do is specify the filename as the command line parameter. Melody Maker will load that file into its memory on startup. Here is an example: Melody MYMUSIC.MM Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 40 Again, if no filename extension is specified, Melody Maker will assume the default extension as set in the configuration file. /S+ = Sound Blaster. This command line parameter signifies that the installed Sound Blaster/Adlib compatible card is to be used for output. If a compatible card is detected, Melody Maker will then send all music output through that device, otherwise, Melody Maker will use the standard PC Speaker. Melody Maker will default to the best mode possible, so this option is rarely needed. /S- = PC Speaker. This command line parameter signifies that the computers PC Speaker is to be used as the output device. /O = Output. This option will tell MMUtil not to display any output. MELODY.EXE does not have this command line option. The above command line parameters may be entered on the command line in any order, but they each must be separated by a space. The following command line parameters are for converting between different types of formats. /M <source> <dest> = Melody Maker Format. This option changes a song from ANSI Music format to compressed Melody Maker format. Enter the full name, including the extension of the ANSI Music song first, followed by a space, followed the destination filename to save the new format to. /A <source> <dest> = ANSI Music Format. This option changes a song from compressed Melody Maker format to ANSI Music format. Enter the full name, including the extension of the Melody Maker song first, followed by a space, followed by the destination filename to save the new format to. /R <source> <dest> = RA Page Format. This option changes a song from either compressed Melody Maker or ANSI music format into RA BBS software Page format. Enter the full name of the music file, followed by a space and the filename of the RA Page file. /F+ <source> <ansi> = Add To Beginning Of ANSI. This option adds ANSI Music or Melody Maker music to the end of an ANSI display file in ANSI Music format. Enter the full name of the music file first, followed by a space, followed by the filename of the ANSI Display file. /F- <source> <ansi> = Add To End Of ANSI. This option adds ANSI Music or Melody Maker music to the end of an ANSI display file in ANSI Music format. Enter the full name of the music file first, followed by a space, followed by the filename of the ANSI Display file. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 41 Programming With Melody Maker's Source Output: ────────────────────────────────────────────── Melody Maker can save in three different source code formats: Pascal, C, and BASIC. Some programmers may find this function handy if they are creating music for games, or for other programs. When saving in these formats, Melody Maker writes a small program that can be compiled or ran immediately after saving it. Included with the registered version of Melody Maker are a few addition files that are for use in conjunction with Pascal source code created by Melody Maker. These files are, MMPLAY.TP6, MMPLAY.TP7, and CALIRB8.PAS. You will need to rename MMPLAY.TP6 or MMPLAY.TP7 to MMPLAY.TPU according to which version of Turbo Pascal you are using. You will also need to compile CALIBR8.PAS into TPU format. CALIBR8.PAS aids in the correct calibration of Pascal's DELAY routine used in making music. When a program is ran, Pascal calibrates it's timing routines so that all programs will essentially run at the same speed on any machine. Unfortunately, if a disk drive is running at the time of this calibration, the routines will not be calibrated correctly. This unit that is included will effectively hold off any calibration until all disk drives are not active. Simply include it in your uses statement before the CRT unit. No other actions are required. The other unit, MMPLAY.TPU, contains the routines that will allow you to auto-detect a soundcard, play through the PC Speaker, and play through the soundblaster. See the text file located in the programming utilities archive for more detailed information. Pascal and C are very similar in their source code formats, but you'll notice that BASIC is more closely related to ANSI music. In fact, when saving to BASIC format, you're almost saving in perfect ANSI format! It uses all the ANSI Music commands, except for the ANSI escape sequences. If you have any questions on programming, you should by all means read your documentation first that came with your software package. If you cannot solve any problems by ordinary means, Datagen Software Designs may be able to help you with those problems related to programming with Melody Maker's output, but only after other alternatives have been exhausted. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 42 Problem Solving: ──────────────── Although every effort has been made to insure that Melody Maker is for the most part bug free, errors may eventually turn up, usually in the form of a runtime error. If you receive a runtime error, please take a moment to write down the address portion of the error. For example: Runtime error 002 at 1234:03AD The address part of this runtime error is "1234:03AD." Also, be sure to write down the error number (in this case, 002). After writing down this information, you can send it to us, and we'll attempt to remedy the problem. There should, however, be very few of these errors. Other types of errors or problems are listed below with possible solutions. If you have a problem with some part of the program that you cannot solve, try looking in this section before giving up, or contacting us. If that fails, then feel free to contact us with all information about the problem so that we may attempt to re-create it. Program to big to fit in memory Melody Maker requires AT LEAST 180k to run properly. If you receive this message, try unloading any TSR (terminate, stay resident/memory resident) programs that you may have loaded into memory, and if necessary, any drivers as well. File not found Getting this message could mean many things, depending on where you receive it. If you get this while trying to load an ANSI Music file, make sure that you've typed the name correctly, and if so, make sure that the right filename extension is being added to the filename. Runtime error 2 is also File not found. Path not found This message pertains to disk directories. If you receive this message while in the directory display window, be sure that you're typing the name correctly, and also make sure that the path that you're entering exists on the disk that you are logged to. Too many open files You shouldn't see this error message, but if you do, you may need to increase the "FILES=" statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. Disk read/write error This error may indicate that there is a physical error on your diskette. If you're saving a file, try naming it something different or saving to another diskette. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 43 Any other problems that you may encounter could possibly be program errors. If you experience any other problems, please contact us with a complete description of the problem so that we may attempt to re-create the situation and determine if it is a program error or not. Any bugs, suggestions, or comments are gratefully welcome! Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 44 Posting ANSI Music Onto A Bulletin Board System (BBS): ────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Posting ANSI Music onto BBSs is not difficult, and allows others to hear the ANSI Music compositions that you've created. Below are a few examples of how to post your creations onto some of the more popular BBS Software programs. Remember to make sure that the BBS you are posting your music on has a place to post ANSI Music, or ask your sysop if it is okay before doing so. - WWIV From the main message area menu, type the command "//UPLOAD" to upload your ANSI Music file. Upload your music creation just as you would upload any other file. Usually, most terminal programs use the PAGE UP key to upload files. Refer to your communications package documents on how to upload a file, and make sure that the BBS you are calling has told you to begin your upload before you start sending. After you've uploaded your music, move to the message base that you wish to post it on. Again, remember to make sure there is a place for it. Next, press the 'P' key to post your message (Assuming that is correct for the BBS) on that message area, and give your message a title. Assuming that the transfer was successful, and you've done everything else correctly, your message should now be the last message posted in that message sub! - QuickBBS/RA Posting ANSI Music is a little bit more involved with these BBS software programs. One way is when asked if you'd like to upload a prepared message, answer yes, and proceed accordingly. Some sysops may have set up a specific on-line program (door) to allow ANSI viewing, or ANSI Music listening. Again, it is best to ask your sysop where you can post your creations. - All Others Most always, you'll be able to post your ANSI Music on your favorite BBS, but always make sure that it is okay. Usually, the best way to find out how to do it is to ask your sysop. He or she will probably be able to give you more detailed instructions due to the differences in BBS software. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 45 Hearing ANSI Music On A Bulletin Board System (BBS): ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── Calling a BBS and hearing ANSI Music is indeed fun! There are a few problems though, since ANSI Music is just now making its debut in the BBS world. Most terminal programs do not support ANSI Music unfortunately, but there are ways around that. - Supporting/Non-Supporting Terminal Programs Among the terminal programs that do support ANSI Music are Telemate and Qmodem. Both of these programs are excellent terminal programs, but each has its advantages and disadvantages. Let's take a look at each. Telemate - probably the best of the two. Telemate's ANSI Music support surpasses any other ever seen. ANSI Music, when received, is buffered, and played in the background while you can go about reading messages or what not on a BBS. ANSI Music may also be aborted at any time by pressing the ESCape key. Toggling ANSI Music ability on or off in Telemate is equally as easy. Under the Options pull down menu, and then into the General Options menu there is a little "check box" marked MUSIC. Simply move the cursor to this box and activate it using the space bar, making an 'X' appear in that box. An 'X' in the box means that ANSI Music will be played, while an empty box means that it will not. Qmodem - also supports ANSI Music rather well. Down on the status bar is a note-like image that will either be highlighted or not. If it is highlighted, ANSI Music will be played, and if not, ANSI Music will not be played. Press ALT-M to toggle this feature on or off in Qmodem. Unfortunately, Qmodem does not play ANSI Music in the background, and during playback, you will have to sit through all of the music. Also, during playback, you may not abort the music. These are the only two drawbacks of Qmodem's ANSI Music support. Hopefully, new versions will remedy this problem. There is another terminal program that supports ANSI Music, but not by itself. The terminal program, Telix, requires an ANSI Music script file in order to play ANSI Music. - TSR Programs That we know of, there is one TSR (Terminate & Stay Resident) program that allows you to hear ANSI Music with just about any program. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 46 Modifying WWIV BBS To Hear ANSI Music Locally: ────────────────────────────────────────────── Probably the most fun thing about ANSI Music is hearing it! Unfortunately, most, if not all BBS programs do not support ANSI Music locally. And also as unfortunate, most source code to BBS programs are not distributed so that you can add the music support in yourself, but... WWIV BBS is different. If you've registered your copy of the program, then you know that you can receive a copy of the source code to modify as you wish. Therefore, you can add what is called an ANSI Music MOD to enable your BBS to play ANSI Music locally! We've also included a few of the best ANSI Music Mods for WWIV in the Melody Maker archive just for this situation. Please refer to the directions inclosed with each Mod file for information on installing it into your registered copy of WWIV. For information on registering your copy of WWIV, please refer to the registration documents enclosed with your original WWIV archive. Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 47 Authors Notes And Credits: ────────────────────────── Questions, comments, complaints, or to receive a complete listing and description of all Datagen products, mail John Dailey and Cathy Nicoloff at the below address, through Compuserve at 73124, 2612, through Internet at 73124.2612@cis.com, through Prodigy at ID# MKHH05B, or through WWIVNet at 23@4709 (Enigma). Thank you for your support! Melody Maker v3.0 C/O John Dailey 1732 Wind Drift Rd. Orlando, FL 32809 There are quite a few people that have helped us during the production of Melody Maker, and although we cannot list everyone, we would like to thank a few people whom without, this program would probably never have gotten out into the world as much, or as quickly as it did. Mark Wilson of Mark And Joe's Just Put Us In Our Place BBS for distributing the first release of the program long distance. Eric Heimburg of Enigma BBS for translating a text file on programming for Sound Blaster to English. Phantom Lord and Gaf Man for allowing us to include their ANSI Music MOD files for WWIV. King Lerxt of King Lerxt's Computer Castle for all the support, ideas, hints, tips, tricks, and most importantly, all the ANSI Music! The Beta Testers of version 3.0 for making sure that the program was truly as easy and fun to use as we had hoped. All the BBSers who've used Melody Maker and have inquired as how to receive a copy. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation Sound Blaster is a registered trademark of Creative Labs Inc. WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro Borland C, And Turbo Pascal are registered trademarks of Borland International QuickBASIC is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation PKLite (c) PKWare Inc. WWIV BBS Software (c) Wayne Bell QuickBBS Software (c) Steve Gabrilowitz Remote Access (RA) BBS Software (c) Andrew Milner Qmodem (c) Mustang Software, Inc. Telemate (c) Tsung Hu Telix (c) DeltaComm Developement Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 48 Registration Of Melody Maker v3.0: ────────────────────────────────── Melody Maker v3.0 is being released under the Shareware policy. You may use Melody Maker for a trial period of 30 days free of charge. After that time, if you find that you enjoy using Melody Maker and plan on using it in the future, you must register your copy of the program for $12.00 U.S. currency. Registration of the program entitles you to free updates of the same version number (ie. 3.x), along with a registered copy of the version you are registering. Registering version 3.0 removes all time delays from the program, allows you to save your music in BASIC, C, or Pascal format, allows you to play your music from the cursor in the editor, and removes the shareware screen upon exit, restoring the DOS screen. Registration also adds you to the Datagen Software Designs Preferred Mailing List, and keeps you up to date on what's new with Datagen Software Designs. Pascal programmers who wish to obtain the source code to MMPLAY.TPU, and a detailed text file on programming sound cards may do so by sending an additional registration fee of $8.00 U.S. currency. Please be sure to check the box on the registration form to receive the programming source code. Your registration will help Datagen Software Designs in our goal to produce tons of quality, low cost software. To register your copy of Melody Maker v3.0, please fill out the enclosed registration file (MELODY.REG), and mail it to the address indicated on the form. Be sure to enclose a check or money order payable to "Datagen Software Designs c/o John Dailey" for $12.00 U.S., and also be sure that all information is filled out correctly and completely. Your registration will be processed as soon as possible, and a registration diskette mailed to you in a few weeks. Users of Compuserve may register their copy of Melody Maker online via the Shareware Registration feature (GO SWREG). Melody Maker v3.0 Documentation Page 49 Datagen Software Designs Support BBS Information: ───────────────────────────────────────────────── For information on becoming a respectable Datagen Software Designs support Bulletin Board System, simply mail the below address, with the following information: (Note - you must include all information.) BBS Name, BBS Phone Number, BBS Type and Version, BBS Net/Node (if applicable) Disk Size (5 1/4" or 3 1/2") Sysop Name, Sysop Real Name, Sysop Address, Sysop Age, How Long Your BBS Has Been Up, And finally, your reason for wanting to become a support BBS. Sysop's requesting to become a support board will be notified as soon as possible on their request, and if accepted, will be eligible to receive Datagen's Support BBS Newsletter, technical support on all Datagen products, and MUCH more! Send requests to: Support BBS Information Datagen Software Designs 1732 Wind Drift Rd. Orlando, FL 32809 Index ANSI 7 ANSI commands 7 ANSI.SYS driver 8 signifying music 8 ANSI Music 8 ^N 9 background 8 changing octaves 10 default music type 9 default note length 11 default octave 10 default tempo 10 dotted notes 11 dotted pauses 11 extending 11 Flats 9 foreground 8 Legato 9 marking end of 9 Normal 9 note lengths 10 Notes 9 Octaves 10 pause lengths 10 Pauses 9 pitch 10 sample sequence 8 Sharps 9 Staccato 9 Tempos 10 types 9 Clearing A Song 27 Configuraiton vibrato 17 Configuration 15 algorithm 17 amplitude modulation 17 and executable compression utilities 15 attack rate 17 Datagen and Melody Maker info 15 decay rate 17 default 15 EG Type 17 Exit 18 feedback 17 keyboard scaling factor 17 Load 18 miscellanous defaults 16 MMCONFIG.EXE 15 Modulator Frequency Multiple 17 music defaults 16 release rate 17 Restore 18 Save 18 save defaults 16 scaling 17 sound card 17 sustain level 17 waveform 17 Current Song Length 26 Editing A Song 27 Editor, The appending music commands 35 deleting music commands 35 display screen 33 editing area 33 exiting 38 inserting music commands 34 moving the cursor 33 playback (from cursor) 37 searching through music 36 undoing mistakes 37 using block commands 35 Exit from the editor 38 from the main screen 32 Exiting Melody Maker 32 Files Included 1 free ram 12 Global sharps and flats; key signatures 23 Hearing ANSI Music 45 supporting/non-supporting term programs 45 TSR programs 45 Help from the main screen 3, 28 in the editor 33 interactive editor 33 Input/Status Line 26 Installation 14 to floppy diskettes 14 to hard drive 14 Key Signatures adding 24 exiting 24 removing 24 Setting 23 toggling sharps and flats 23 keyboard half-steps 9 located 24 making music with 26, 27 Keyboard, The 24, 26 Loading A Music File 28 file listing 29 highlighting 29 logging to directories 29 typing name 29 using mouse 29 Main Screen 22 exiting 32 Making Music with keyboard 26 with mouse 26 MELODY.EXE command line 19 converting 20 MELODY.MM 22 MMUtil 39 command line 39 starting 39 MMUTIL.EXE command line 19 Modifying WWIV BBS Software 46 Music 4 bass staff 4, 5 beats 4 dotted notes and rests 6 double bar 4 eight notes 6 Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge 5 FACE in the space 5 flats 5 half notes 5 half rests 6 key signatures 7 legato 7 leger line 5 lower-case letter b 5 middle C 5 notes 5 notes, types of 5 octave 5 pound sign 5 quarter notes 5 quarter rests 6 repeat marks 6 rests 6 sharps 5 sixteenth notes 6 sixty-fourth notes 6 staccato 7 thirty-second notes 6 treble clef 4 treble staff 4, 5 whole notes 5 whole rests 6 Music Type changing from main screen 24 Note Length changing 25 Notes extending 25 non-standard 30 Octave Changing 24 inserting in the editor 34 Pauses Adding 25 changing length 25 extending 25 Playback from the editor 37 from the main screen 30 in full screen mode 28 of RA Page songs 30 Playmode, Foreground/Background 27 Posting ANSI Music 44 on QuickBBS/RA software 44 on WWIV software 44 other software 44 Problem Solving 42 Program Info 28 Programming With Melody Maker 41 auto-detecting sound card 41 BASIC and ANSI Music 41 calibration 41 CALIRB8.PAS 41 MMPLAY.TP6 & TP7 41 questions 41 Registration 15, 48 Resetting the SoundBlaster 30 Running Melody Maker 19 auto detection of sound card 19 Starting The Program 19 Runtime error 42 Saving A Music File 31 appending to ANSI display file 31 If songlength is zero 31 in ANSI Music format 31 in Melody Maker format 31 in source format 31 Shelling To DOS 27 Sound Card compatibility 19 conflicts with drivers 19 windows 19 Sound Card Configuration loading 30 saving 31 Splitting Up Music Commands 34 Support BBS Info 15 Support BBS Information 49 Tempo changing 26 TSR 42 Undoing Mistakes from main screen 32 from the editor 37 What's new 13