MUSEDT.PRG       USER'S   GUIDE               July 16 1992  

New: Envelope command
     Automatic time adjust in append command

1.   Using the left mouse button, click on any key on the piano keyboard.
The corresponding note will sound on the speaker and be displayed on the
music staff on the screen. If you made a mistake and wish to correct the
last note you entered merely click on the correct key with the right mouse
button. Hit a few keys on the keyboard and then click on the rectangle
marked "play" on the control panel just above the keyboard. The entire
sequence of notes that you entered will be played back and displayed on
the music staff.

2.   To erase all your work and start over, click on the "reset" button
on the control panel.


3.   The default note length is a quarter note. You can change this by
clicking on the sprite of the desired length. Triplets are indicated
by the small number three besides the note. The note is highlighted
by a brighter rectangle. 


4.   The last key on the keyboard, on the far right, marked REST, enters
a musical rest.  Try to enter a tune and play it back.


5.   You may key in up to three tracks to produce quite complex polyphonic
music. By default you start with track one. Change the track number by
clicking on the square marked TRK 1. The square should now indicate 
TRK 2 and the notes of that track (if any) will be displayed on the
musical staff.


6.   Repeat signs |: :| may be inserted in a specific track by clicking
on the appropriate sprite. The music enclosed by the double vertical line
and the :| will not be played on the repeat.  Beware, the repeat signs
only apply to a specific track. You must insert them at the appropriate
places in the other tracks.


7.   The button marked show displays the last 8 notes that you keyed in
for the active track. I find it very useful for tracking errors in
either my program or the music keyed in. The repeat signs are not
displayed during "play" mode, but are visible during "show".


8.    When clicking on the "play" button, the program starts from the
beginning of the music and continues to the end with all repeats or until
you interrupt it by hitting the spacebar on the computer keyboard. If 
interrupted, the editor is positioned at the last notes played in all
the tracks.


9.    The pressing the cue button with the left mouse button allows you
to hear the last few notes before the edit position. Pressing the cue
button with the right mouse button plays the music from the current spot
until it reaches the end or is interrupted by the space bar.  Note that
the cue function automatically realigns the other the other tracks with
the active track. Note the cue button provides a convenient way of
re-aligning the other tracks. 


10.   You may also shift the edit position note by note by clicking on
the buttons marked with the arrows  --> and <--.  The program acknowledges
this by automatically calling the "show" function. The edit position
is at the last note displayed, on the right.


11.   Notes may be deleted or inserted anywhere in the music using the
DEL and INS buttons. The INS button merely repeats the current note shifting
all the remaining notes to the right. You can then overwrite these notes
either using the left mouse button (for the following note) or the right
mouse button for the current button. 


12.   The button marked FF allows you to move to any position of the music
using the mouse. This may be useful for long pieces.


13.    The key signature and time signature do not affect the manner in
which the music is played but do change the way they are displayed on the
music staff. The placement of bar lines is determined by the time signature.
The insertion of accidentals (sharps, flats and natural symbols) are 
determined by the key signature.  Initially a key signature of C major
(A minor) and a time signature of 4/4 is assumed.  The numerator of the
time signature is the number of beats per bar. The denominator of the
time signature is the size of the beat (eg quarter note).

The following abbreviations are used in the editor window for note durations.

WN    Whole note
HN    Half note
QN    Quarter note
EN    Eighth note
SN    Sixteenth note
TN    Thirty-second note

dots following indicated dotted notes, and the 3 indicates triplets.
Note that EN3 + EN3 + EN3 has the value of one quarter note.

The top left corner of the screen indicates the current key signature,
time signature and tempo. Both the major key and minor key signature
are indicated. Thus C+ means C major and A- means A minor. The tempo
is currently in arbitrary units numbers near zero are very slow and numbers
near a 100 (maximum) are very fast.

14.   As you are keying your music or after any "show" operation, you
will see a set of numbers on the right of the screen above the keyboard.
These numbers indicate the note count at the current edit position, the
number of beats elapsed (including this note) and the microbeat fraction.
The note time value, or other special codes are also indicated on that
line. I find this line very useful for locating misregistrations between
various tracks. At the end of a tune, I usually expect the beat counts
for all tracks to agree. Use the TRK button to examine the other tracks
at the current edit position. The program gives a whole note a value
of 96 microbeats (indicated in the fraction component of the beat). Thus
a quarter note has a value of 24 microbeats etc.

 
Clearing an entire voice

15.   Sometimes, I find it very difficult to locate an error in the
transcription of a particular track. I sometimes prefer to erase
the whole track or the remainder of the track beyond a certain point
and start over. The CLR button, permits you to perform this task.


Saving or Loading a Tune File on Disk

16.   You may save or recover your music using the "SAVE" and "LOAD"
buttons. The data will be stored in a file with a "*.TUN" extension
whether you specify it or not. For example if you specify the file
name JUNK, the program will write a file called JUNK.TUN. The
file also saves the active key signature, time signature and tempo.


17.   The APND function is very useful as I find it more convenient
to key in a long piece into several consecutive files. To append
the files together, load the first file and append the rest of the
files into the memory of the program. The program has storage for up
to 1000 notes, this can be easily changed if you have the GFA Basic
sources. The APND function now automatically inserts rests to
ensure that the voices remain time aligned in the file which is
being appended. For example if voice three in file1.tun ends before
the other voices, additional rests are added so that all voices
end at the same time. A maximum of 255 quarter rests can be added.


18.	The ENVL command now allows you to change the decay time
and volume of the notes in the three voices.  Like the speed command
it applies to the entire tune and it is coded into the *.TUN file.
The effect of the ENVL command is only heard when playing the
tune using the PLAY command.



