MUSIC LIBRARY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM BY PERSONAL DATABASE APPLICATIONS Thank you for taking time to read about Personal Music Librarian (PML), the comprehensive music collection management system from Personal Database Applications. This professional-quality program will help you organize your collection and increase your enjoyment of it. This brochure describes PML in detail. The illustrations may vary from the actual product due to product enhancements and slight variations from one brand of computer to another. INTRODUCTION How can a PML help me manage my music collection? The foremost problem in managing a large collection of anything is locating the desired item. The simplest way to manage a collection is to shelve items in a specific order, such as by title, artist, or type of music. This does not require much work, but is very limiting. Suppose, for instance, that you have your collection shelved by artist. If you want to find one or many recordings by a particular artist, you will have no problem. However, if you want to locate a recording and you do not know who the artist is, you have no way of finding that album except through trial and error. Still more problems exist. Some recordings have selections from various artists. How would you catalog these? If your collection contains music on several types of media--LPs, cassettes, and CDs, for example--it is not convenient to shelve together recordings by the same artist but in different formats. Therefore, when looking for a particular artist, you must remember which album contains that artist's music, which format contains the desired recording, or check several places for it. Even without a computer, most of these limitations can be overcome with a staff of librarians. You are probably familiar with music libraries. The recordings are shelved in order by some number (generally the publisher's catalog number), and several index cards are used to locate each album. If you want to be able find an album by title, writer, artist, and category, you must have four card catalogs. Using the traditional library approach, it is now easier to locate a desired item. It is even possible, though time-consuming, to do more sophisticated searches, such as finding all recordings by a particular artist where the artist is also the composer. However, the card catalog system requires too much work for most private collections. A computer solves all of the problems listed above and makes your data much easier to locate. PML can instantly retrieve a recording by record# (your shelf number), label (publisher's number), title, artist, or writer. It can also search by any other item or combination of items. For instance, you can easily and quickly find all recordings in a certain category where a piano is used, or all recordings made by a particular producer within a specific time frame. In short, PML can quickly find any recording or group of recordings using any search criteria. What are the other benefits of using PML? *Entering information into a well-written computer screen is easier and more accurate than hand-writing or using a typewriter. *Changing information with a computer is much easier. It is easy to locate the record requiring change, and there is no erasing involved. *The computer can print the information in any number of formats: -labels to paste on the recordings. -reports listing your information in a specified format. For example, by category then writer, or all recordings by a certain composer. *Space savings. The information in a 4-drawer filing cabinet could be carried in your pocket when placed on magnetic disks. *You may easily copy the data for protection against loss or to share your information with a friend who owns PML. You have mentioned only recordings when discussing PML. Can it also manage information about selections on an album? Yes. PML has screens for managing song data. You may view all songs on a recording, or search the song file on any item or combination thereof just as you can with the recording data. What types of music can PML handle? Can I categorize and subcategorize my collection? PML can handle any type of music. You define the categories and subcategories that you want to use. Each recording or song may have several categories and subcategories. What media formats can PML work with? You define the codes to be used for format. PML will work with any format currently in use as well as any that may be introduced in the future--cassettes, open-reel, CDs, LPs, 78s, DAT, even sheet music. GENERAL OPERAION PML is a sophisticated program. However it is designed to be easy to use without frequently referring to the 50-page manual. Available options are displayed on the screen and are accessed by pressing a single key. Function key 1 is devoted to help. Pressing will display help specific to the screen or field you are in. Pressing function key 10 at any time will run an accessories screen. The accessories screen can run other programs, edit text files using a built in editor, or access the built-in calculator. Apple Macintosh, Atari ST, and Commodore Amiga users may access desk accessories with this screen. The screens used to manipulate your data are flexible and easy to use. Let's take a look at the features Recording Screen, which is used for managing album information. Keep in mind that PML's song screens operate similarly. ................................................................. . . . . . . . . . (illustration) . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................................. The Recording Screen is used for entering, changing, finding, and erasing album information. ................................................................. . . . . . . . . . (illustration) . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................................. The multi-record mode makes it easy to quickly view the most important information about several albums. This shows the database in writer order. The database may also be viewed in numeric, title, label, or artist order. Operation is simplified by using one screen for all operations-- entering, finding, changing, and erasing. The options are listed next to the cursor at the top of the screen. A short help message is displayed for individual fields at the top of the screen as you move the cursor from field to field. Extended help is available by hitting . To add a new record, simply press . Fill in the fields with the desired information. The program checks your input to miminize errors. You will be warned if a date, category, or format is invalid. For a list of valid categories or formats, simply hit while in the respective field. After filling out all desired fields, review your work, and hit to save the data to your disk. You may make extended notes of up to 64,000 characters using PML's built-in full-screen word processor, or use your favorite word processing program instead. Many database programs are cumbersome to use because locating the desired information is tedious. PML is designed with data accessibility in mind. You will not feel separated from your data by a computer. Looking at your data is as easy as looking at an attractive album cover! You may simply hit a key to change to the multi-record display mode, and page through your collection as you would a book. You may instantaneously get a record by number, title, label, artist, or writer. PML uses state-of-the-art indexing techniques to instantaneously alphabetize the database by the desired field, and locate the desired record, no matter how big your database is. You need not type the entire value you are looking for. The first few characters will do. For example, if you enter in the Writer field, the database will be instantaneously alphabetized by writer, and the first entry whose writer starts with "B" will be displayed. You may page forward or backward to the adjoining records, or use the multi- record display mode to look at 22 records at once. You may page forward and backward through your database from the multi-record screen, and select a record to display in more detail on the main screen. The database may just as easily be alphabetized by number, title, artist, and label. Imagine being able to find and display all recordings by a particular publisher or artist in a few seconds! You are not limited to retrieving by number, title, artist, writer, or label. PML can find by any field or combination thereof, including notes! You may look for values at the beginning or middle of a field. You may page through the retrieved records from the main screen, or view them with the multi-record screen. ................................................................. . . . . . . . . . (illustration) . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................................. You may retrieve your information by any field or combination thereof. In this example, a search is being done for all classical organ recordings. ................................................................. . . . . . . . . . (illustration) . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................................. The first matching record is displayed on the main screen. You may page thru the retrieved entries or view them with the multi-record screen. When retrieving using fields other than number, title, label, artist, or writer, the computer must read your entire database and look for matching records. The time required to do this varies depending on your hardware, complexity of the search, and field sizes used. Fifty records per second is typical on a minimal hard-drive system Once a record is displayed on the main screen, you may type and proceed to change the displayed information. SONGS From the Recording Screen, you may run the Recording Song Screen, and enter, view, or change songs for the album displayed on the Recording Screen. As with recordings, you may view all songs on an album using the multi-record mode, or display or change detailed information from a main screen. The Recording Song Screen will access songs for a specified recording only. It is used primarily when entering or viewing recording information. For accessing songs without regard to recordings, a Main Song Screen is provided. With it you may search for all songs with a given title or by a given writer in your collection, for instance. You may easily see which albums the retrieved songs are on. The data may be alphabetized and instantaneously searched by record# or title. The Main Song Screen operates like the recording screen. It may be used to enter, change, locate, and erase song information. You may search by any field or combination thereof. It also has a multi-record mode. Even though there are two screens that may be used to access song data, you do not enter the song information twice. The two screens look at the same data. ................................................................. . . . . . . . . . (illustration) . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................................. The Recording Song Screen accesses information about the selections on a particular album. ................................................................. . . . . . . . . . (illustration) . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................................. The Main Song Screen accesses selection information without having to specify which album contains the song(s). It also has a multi-record mode. Extended notes may be entered for songs as well as recordings. REPORT WRITER A unique and very useful feature of PML is its reporting facility. Most programs can print your data in only a few predetermined formats. With PML's menu-driven report writer, you may easily design your own custom reports and labels. You may choose which fields appear on the report, where they appear, and the order in which they, and which recordings or songs, are printed. Counting and totaling are supported. Control of printer enhancements (bold, italics, underline, letter-quality, condensed print, etc.) is supported for all printers without changing the reports. Several reports and are included with PML, including reports of albums, songs, and labels for albums or tape recordings where several albums are put on the same tape. All were created with PML's report writer. You may run these as they are or modify them to suit your needs. USER-DEFINED FIELDS You are not limited to the fields provided by PDA. Suppose that you want to record arranger, and would really like an arranger field in your music database. With PML, you can define your own arrannger field and retrieve or print data from it as you can any other field. This is accomplished using tagged fields. Anywhere in the Comment field (which may be up to 160 characters long), you may enter a tag, followed by the value for that field. For instance: ARRANGER:JONES, Q.| SAX:WATTS, E.| You may enter several tagged fields in the comment field along with regular comments if desired. FLEXIBILITY PML was designed to do what you want it to do. There are numerous configuration options. From a screen, you may change: *Most field sizes--make them larger to hold extra data. Make the ones you seldom use smaller to save storage space. *Two-digit or four-digit year date format--be ready for the year 2000! *European (dd/mm/yy) or USA (mm/dd/yy) date format--the setting of date format (European/USA or 2/4-digit year) does not affect how the data is stored in the database and may be changed at will. *Display colors or monochrome enhancements. *Automatic field exit--with this option on, the cursor will automatically advance to the next field when your typing fills the current one. *Valid categories and subcategories--PML checks your input of categories and subcategories to make sure you do not mistype something. Specify your own category and subcategory codes. *Valid formats--PML has a field which is used to indicate the type of media that the recording is on. Specify your own codes that suit your collection--CASS, REEL, LP, 78, 45, and CD, for example. PML will check your input for mistakes. Multiple databases are supported. Several databases may be combined into one, as you may want to do when upgrading your floppy-based system to a hard disk. Capacity is limited only by disk size. The space required by each record varies according to the sizes of fields you select and usage of the notes feature. PML is not copy-protected. ................................................................. . . . . . . . . . (illustration) . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................................. The PML Edit Table screen, which is used to specify valid categories, subcategories, and formats. Also illustrated here is the desk accessories function, which may be accessed at any time by pressing . ................................................................. . . . . . . . . . (illustration) . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................................. The PML Main Menu. DOCUMENTATION PML's manual is a comprehensive, professional 50-page book that includes an index and table of contents. It explains how to use PML and is a valuable reference should you have questions about PML. Included with PML is a separate 50-page manual of similar quality for the report writer. SUPPORT Should you need personal assistance, we are a phone call away. PDA offers PML on several popular computers and will offer it on new systems as they become available. This insures that you may still use PML as you upgrade your computer. DATA IMPORT/EXPORT A feature not often thought about when shopping for a database program is the option to import or export data to/from it. The importance of this should not be overlooked. If you use a music cataloging program that uses a proprietary format for the data files and has no import/export facility, you must key all data into it by hand, even if you already have your data in dBASE or a spreadsheet program. Worse still, if you decide to stop using the program (you get a different kind of computer, decide to buy a newer, better program, or whatever), you will not be able to access your old data except by looking at a printout. As rapidly as computer technology changes, can you be sure that you will still be using the same program 20 years from now? With PML, you may load data into it from other sources and extract data from it to be used in other programs. If PML or your computer become obsolete, your data will not. PML files can be converted to dBASE, DIF (used by spreadsheets and quickie data managers), comma-delimited text files, or fixed-field-length text files. Likewise, data in these formats can be converted to work with PML. >---*---< If you have questions or wish to order PML, please give us a call. Our hours are 4 to 10 PM eastern time, Monday thru Thursday. PML is available directly from PDA for $55 U.S., including Priority Mail shipping within the U.S. Orders are typically shipped the day after we receive your order. MasterCard & Visa are accepted. We invite you to obtain a demo copy of PML. It is available free on GEnie, Compuserve Information Services, several bulletin boards, and directly from PDA (you pay for diskettes and postage). The demo program is just like the real thing, except that the database is limited in the number of records it can hold. Let PML add to your listening enjoyment! PML is currently available for the IBM PC (512K RAM required) and the Atari ST (1 meg RAM required). It is coming for the Macintosh and Amiga. Personal Database Applications 2634 Meadow Bend Court Duluth, GA 30136-6037 404-242-0887 An illustrated version of this info packet is available for the asking!