MUSIC TYPEWRITER by B. Mikolasek & V. Meier Complete music system for the ZX Spectrum USER MANUAL (c) Soft Music This program and all of its associated software, documentation, code, text and visual presentation incl. keyboard overlay are protected by Copyright laws. It may not be copied, reproduced, modified, lent, hired, transmitted, translated, transferred or stored in part or in whole by any means or in any form without the express written permission of ROMANTIC ROBOT. PRODUCED, MANUFACTURED & DISTRIBUTED by ROMANTIC ROBOT UK LTD 54 Deanscroft Avenue, London NW9 8EN. Telephone: 01-200 8870 MUSIC TYPEWRITER is designed to assist Spectrum users in all phases of music making. The enclosed keyboard overlay will turn the Spectrum into a simulated music keyboard, while the program itself provides facilities for writing, editing, playing, copying to a printer & saving to tape. MUSIC TYPEWRITER uses real music notation with notes appearing on the screen simultaneously as played. It is easy to use for anybody; even for beginners without any knowledge of music - in fact they may find it an ideal tool to get acquainted with the basics of music. Neither the program nor the manual attempt to explain the music theory - a lot of material can be found on this subject - but offers a unique opportunity to see the music as it is played. Writing & playing is made as easy as possible; music is played directly on the keyboard; there are many error-trapping routines, automatic controls & corrections, clear error reports, quickly accessed instructions, etc. The system makes full use of preset parameters (defaults), such as note length or key, and is thus instantly usable. There is room for simple playing around, experimenting, learning, practising, etc. Advanced users can profit from sophisticated features like full editing, transposing, etc. MUSIC TYPEWRITER autostarts upon loading (load as LOAD ""), lets you set the colours of PAPER & INK and proceeds to the main program menu - or as called here program PAGE 0. MUSIC TYPEWRITER is organised in three program PAGES with each PAGE having its HELP PAGE with on-screen instructions: PAGE 0 - main menu with all main commands and with access to other pages PAGE 1 - key & time signatures, tempo, clef, tails PAGE 2 - catalogue of music pieces and their management All PAGES and their specific commands are explained further. In general: SPACE - moves the cursor around ENTER - enters the selected command or value key Q - quits any operation at any time and will bring you back to PAGE 0 BREAK - restarts the program & enables you to reset colours of PAPER & INK. The WRITE mode -------------- The process of writing your music is referred to here as the WRITE mode. Once written, your music can also be EDITed and EDITing is done within the WRITE mode as well. Music is written/played directly on the Spectrum keyboard. The enclosed overlay turns the Spectrum into a simulated music keyboard with the 2nd row from the top as black keys and the 3rd row from the top as white keys. It also incorporates a third row of music keys (the bottom one on Spectrum) as an added feature for correct music notation. Black keys on a piano can be interpreted as either sharps or flats depending upon circumstances, whilst the actual sound is exactly the same. To distinguish between the two cases - solely for notation purposes - the row below the white keys on the overlay is always interpreted as notes with flats and the row above as notes with sharps. There is just over an octave range available within the three key rows. The whole range can be shifted by using CAPS SHIFT & 2 - an octave lower SYMBOL SHIFT & 2 - an octave higher. The shifting will last until cancelled by pressing CAPS or SYMBOL SHIFT & 3. There are two clefs, with the bass clef using the lower and the treble clef the upper part of the 6 octave range. The basic note values used here range from a semibreve to a semiquaver. The values are printed above the top Spectrum row of keys together with signs for dotted notes, triplets, staccato and tenuto. The MUSIC TYPEWRITER uses defaults to speed up & ease writing. Once you choose a note value, it will apply not only to the next note, but to all that will follow until you select another value. Values are selected by simply pressing a relevant key and are displayed in the top left corner of the screen. You can also simply press any of the additional signs such as staccato, etc. and it will be taken as a default too. Finally, by pressing the music key (pitch) or PAUSE you actually enter a note which is than immediately shown. You need NOT to press ENTER here at all; in fact ENTER would END the WRITE mode and bring you back to PAGE 0. Commands in WRITE mode ---------------------- END - Key ENTER to terminate a piece. Possible only when "bar completed" report is displayed. DELETE - Key CAPS SHIFT & 0 to delete notes from right to left (from the last written note backwards). STEP - Key SPACE to step through existing notes from left to right (from the start of a bar onwards). STEPping will preserve existing notes which can otherwise be simply overwritten by pressing a value and a pitch/pause instead of STEP. BAR PRINT - Key CAPS SHIFT & 9 to print a hard copy of the current bar. Short guide to WRITE a NEW piece -------------------------------- To move from PAGE 0 to other PAGES or to select & execute a command on a PAGE use SPACE to move the cursor and then ENTER your choice. Our short guide has 6 steps and begins on 1. PAGE 0 - main menu and the starting point. Move to 2. PAGE 2 - select command NEW, input a title (up to 10 characters), press ENTER and Q (quit) to return to PAGE 0. 3. PAGE 0 - by having ENTERed a new title on PAGE 2 you were also given a set of default music parameters - treble clef, C major key, 4/4 rhythm, tempo of 180 MM and automatic appropriate printing of tails up and down. If these are OK, skip the next step; if not, move to 4. PAGE 1 - change any of the parameters - remember you can consult a HELP PAGE for quick on-screen reference as to how & what to do on each PAGE. Press Q for PAGE 0. 5. PAGE 0 - select WRITE, press value of next notes and then pitch or pause. Key ENTER to END the piece and automatically return to 6. PAGE 0 - you can PLAY, EDIT or PRINT the piece here or change its music parameters on PAGE 1 or SAVE it on PAGE 2. Commands on PAGE 0 ------------------ PLAY - Plays a currently selected piece. Its selection is made on PAGE 2, while its music parameters can be changed on PAGE 1. REPEAT - Repeats a piece N times. N=1 to 255 with 255 being an endless loop. WRITE - Enters a NEW piece or alters an OLD one (further explained in Commands PAGE 2 & Commands WRITE). EDIT - Enables to step through and, if required, change notes in a bar number N and onwards. N=1 to the length of a piece. EDIT mode can be quit by pressing key Q. PRINT - Makes a hard copy of a piece on a printer. HELP - Displays most important information on PAGE 0. PAGE 1 - Moves to PAGE 1 PAGE 2 - Moves to PAGE 2 Commands on PAGE 1 ------------------ KEY SIGNATURE - All major key signatures are contained within the program & available by pressing the relevant key. Example: using the keyboard overlay, press key F for F Major. You can transpose existing pieces by changing their key here. All sharps, flats, etc., will be properly adjusted. TIME SIGNATURE - Time signatures are chosen by simply pressing of the two values required (without pressing ENTER). Example: press 1 5 8 for 15/8 or 2 4 for 2/4 signatures. TEMPO - Enter values from 23 to 255 - just as on the metronome scale. TREBLE & BASS CLEFS - Select by cursor, confirm by ENTER. TAILS DIRECTION - Select by cursor, confirm try ENTER. 1. UP/DOWN (automatically) 2. UP only 3. DOWN only. Commands on PAGE 2 ------------------ MUSIC TYPEWRITER can have up to 16 different music pieces within its memory. PAGE 2 is designed for their management and will enable you to SAVE/LOAD pieces individually (!) or in block, create NEW ones, PLAY or EDIT OLD ones, etc. PAGE 2 contains a catalogue of existing pieces with their index number, name and length stated in a number of bars. The number of remaining bars available is displayed too. If you want to write a NEW piece, use PAGE 2 to give it its title. A NEW piece will then automatically be given an index number and a set of default music parameters: C major key, 4/4 time signature and tempo of 180 MM. You can change these - and all other general ones - on PAGE 1. An already completed music piece; ie. one shown with both the title and the final length, is called here OLD. An OLD piece with the highest index number is called LAST and has the advantage of extra editing possibilities - its length is expandable and its time signature can be changed. Short summary of commands on PAGE 2 ----------------------------------- NEW - Enter the title of a piece, press Q to return to PAGE 0. If you want to change preset music parameters go to PAGE 1. OLD - Enter the index number of a completed piece to PLAY or EDIT it. DELETE - Enter the index number of a piece to be deleted. The LAST place is DELETED only partly - while its name is erased, its notes can still be used by using the STEP command (see WRITE mode, please). SAVE - Enter either the index number of a piece to be SAVEd individually or enter A to SAVE ALL. LOAD - An individually SAVEd piece will be LOADed and added as LAST provided there is room enough. If, however, ALL places are to be LOADed, they will replace (erase) all existing ones. Error reports ------------- Too high - the pitch of a note is out of top range Too low - the pitch of a note is out of bottom range Both above reports can occur when transposing. Too long - the length of a note exceeds the limit given within a bar by the time signature. Piece too long - a piece cannot be LOADed as it consists of more bars than the memory can accommodate. In order to LOAD it you would have to DELETE some of the existing pieces first. Bar completed - displayed as confirmation at the end of each completed bar in the WRITE mode. Not completed - you cannot END a piece with an incomplete bar. You can, however, quit it unfinished and will be shown this report each time the incomplete bar appears. END - displayed at the end of PLAY. Length is only ... bars - EDIT attempted in a higher bar number than the piece contains. Last bar ! - a warning when you EDIT/WRITE into an already existing piece with a given number of bars and reach the last one. No note follows - there are no more notes to EDIT. Piece not yet created - you attempt to PLAY, EDIT or SAVE a piece which has just a title so far. Tape loading error - self-explanatory. Specifications -------------- Hardware required: ------------------ - ZX Spectrum - Optionally: ZX Printer or other printers capable of printing graphics - ROMANTIC ROBOT can also supply a special version of MUSIC TYPEWRITER to be used with a sound generator chip or even with MIDI interface for music synthesisers. Storage capacity: ----------------- - 254 bars - 16 pieces of music - special SAVE/LOAD routines for tape storage Pitch range: ------------ - six octaves (Contra C to c4) Rhythm and tempo: ----------------- - time signatures from 2/4 to 8/4 or 2/8 to 15/8 - automatic bar length control - all note values, dotted notes, triplets, staccato and tenuto - tempo from 23 to 255 (metronome scale) Graphics: --------- - all graphics appear simultaneously with sound - two staffs with treble or bass clef, key and time signature - notes with sharps, flats, double sharps and double flats, naturals - indication of +8 and -8 octave shifting - automatic or programmed direction of note tails - automatic bar lines and end lines - bar numbers and music title displayed Other features: --------------- - all major scales available at a touch of their keynotes - full transpose facility with automatic adjustment of all accidentals - full editing - special music keyboard overlay - on-screen instructions, error reports and help pages - acoustic & visual feedback upon each entry - hard copy of single bars or complete pieces