Music maker Nick Carter, London NW1. Easy entry of melodies using simple cursor controls is possible with this program. Thus calculation of BEEP values is avoided. Several facilities are included, enabling editing, transposition and SAVEing and LOADing on tape. On running the program, the display will appear and in order to enter a note, the following procedure should be followed. Firstly, in order to enter the pitch of the note, use the cursor control keys 6 and 7 - without Caps Shift - to move the note which will have appeared on the middle ledger line up or down as required. Then, when it is in the desired position, press the ENTER key to fix that note in the memory. A prompt will then appear, enquiring whether this note is a flat, sharp or natural or whether you do not require a note but a rest instead. You should reply with the first letter of the relevant word except in the case of a natural where for convenience any key except f, s or r will do, the ENTER key being the best choice. On answering the prompt, an arrow will appear below the crotchet in the row of notes in the top right-hand corner of the screen. This can be moved right or left, again using the cursor control keys - this time 5 and 8 - and, when the ENTER key is pressed, the duration of the note printed will then be stored in memory. The computer then returns to the pitch entry routine, ready to repeat the process or to accept any of the commands listed on the screen. The pro- cedure for each of these is as follows: # Play - A prompt will appear asking the speed in crochet beats per minute. As a very rough guide, the following may help: Largo/Adagio - Slow (40-75); Andante/Moderato - Moderate (75-120); Allegro - Fast (120-170); Presto - Very fast (170-210). Obviously, this depends very much on the piece in question, so experimenting may prove to be the best method. # Alter - A prompt will appear asking for the number of the note in the tune to be altered. When this has been answered the Editing message will indicate that the new note can be entered - in the same way as any other - but in this case it will overwrite the incorrect note. The computer will then return to the pitch entry routine so that the next note entered will be added to the end of the melody. # Transpose - A prompt will ask the required change in semitones - the answer to which should be a positive or negative integer. If the transposition is possible, control will be returned to the pitch entry routine, otherwise the prompt will re-appear. Entering 0 will leave the tune un- affected. # Save - This will run the Play routine. When the tune has finished playing, press any key and, in reply to the prompt, enter the name of the tune. Follow the commands to save the bytes and then, after the OK message, rewind the tape and play it so that the bytes can be verified. # Load - This will load the first bytes on the tape and then pass control to the pitch entry routine, so that the next note entered will be added to the end of the new melody. The program is written for a 16K Spectrum with a maximum tune length of roughly 50 notes, requiring 100 bytes of storage space. In order to use the program on a 48K machine, or to have tunes in excess of 50 notes, the following lines will have to be changed: 50, 60, 505, 615, 715, 730, 815, 855, 860. If required, the delay time - specified by the maximum value of F in line 1000 - can be shortened to speed up entry, but the purpose of this is to prevent one key-press being read by two consecutive sub- routines, so beware!