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Text File | 1990-06-25 | 16.2 KB | 339 lines

Lyra Demo Documentation (version 1.2) Thanks for obtaining the demo version of Lyra for the IBM PC! Lyra is a MIDI oriented music composition program that is designed to be affordable, easy to use, and powerful. In addition, it is 100% compatible with the large ready-to-use library of music files for the Color Computer available from several sources (including DL4 on the CoCo sig on Compuserve). Lyra will work with any IBM PC (AT recommended!) compatible that has a Hercules or CGA (or EGA, VGA) display. A Microsoft mouse, while not necessary, is highly recommended. If you wish to play music, you must have an MPU-401 and a MIDI synthesizer connected, or a Sound Blaster card. Before you use the program, make a backup copy and store the original in a safe place. All of the files on the disk can be copied to a hard disk; just make sure that everything is in the same directory. (Note: the commercial version is not copy protected.) Load the program by typing lyrademo and pressing the return key. The screen will change to a 640x200 2 color graphics mode and a box in the center of the screen will give you a brief introduction. Press any key to continue. Move your mouse about and you will see a cursor shaped like an arrow or diamond moving around the screen. Using Lyra is basically knowing what you can do with the arrow. ENTERING NOTES The cursor keys at the right hand side of the keyboard can be used to move the note on the screen, or you can use the mouse, or a combination of the two. By moving the note up or down on the musical staff, you select a pitch. This pitch is displayed just below the bass clef. When you have the right pitch, press the left mouse button or "return" (or "enter") key. The note will be entered into the score. CHANGING NOTE PITCHES Once you have entered several notes, you can experiment with changing notes to different pitches. This is done by simply positioning the cursor (the movable note) directly above or below the note you wish to change and pressing the left mouse button or "return" key. ENTERING SHARPS AND FLATS A note that should have a sharp or flat in front of it can by entered by positioning the cursor and pressing the "S" or "F" key. A natural (used only when the key signature is being used) is entered with the "N" key. INSERTING NOTES You can just as easily insert notes. Position the cursor just before a note and press the "return" key or click the left mouse button. DELETING NOTES Deleting a note is done by putting the cursor directly above or below the errant note and pressing the "Del" key (on the right hand side of the keyboard) or the "D" key. The right mouse button or ESC key also deletes a note. CHANGING VOICES Lyra is capable of 8 simultaneous notes (or 8 note chords). When you start the program, all notes are automatically entered into voice 1. You can change this to one of the 7 other voices by pressing the ALT key (left hand side of the keyboard) with a number key. ALT+2 selects voice 2, ALT+8 selects voice 8, and so on. You can also select a voice by moving the cursor to the upper right hand corner of the screen with the mouse. When it is over the box with the voice number you wish to select, click the left mouse button. The voice you want to use must have its box displayed as a solid white (or whatever is the same color as the box border). Only one voice can be selected at a time. You'll notice that repeatedly selecting the same voice will cause the box to change from solid to "dotted" to hollow. When it is dotted, that voice will not be displayed on the music staff. You can use this feature to pick individual voices when the display gets crowded. When the voice box is hollow then the corresponding voice is displayed in "halftone". This makes it easy to pick out a voice when the display gets crowded. SELECTING NOTE LENGTHS Note lengths are selected by pressing one of the number keys (1 through 7) or moving the mouse to the row of notes and rests at the bottom of the screen and clicking on the desired note or rest. You can select a rest by pressing the SHIFT key with the number key. When you do, the selected rest will change colors. You can also select a note or rest with the mouse; move the cursor over the desired item and press the left button. The selected note or rest will be highlighted. TRIPLETS, DOTTING AND TIEING NOTES All notes can be modified by making them triplet, dotted, or tied to the previous notes. Just position the cursor directly over the note you wish to change and press the "," (triplet), "." (dot), or "T" (tie) key. Please note that the tie is NOT the same thing as a slur! MOVING THE DISPLAY The cursor can be quickly moved up or down an octave with the "Pg Up" or "Pg Dn" keys. The "Home" and "End" keys move the cursor to the left or right ends of the score. When the cursor it at either side of the score, it changes shape into an arrow pointing to the side. If you press the left mouse button or the left or right cursor keys, the whole display will move in that direction. You can move to an approximate point in the score by moving the cursor over the area directly above the notes and rests at the bottom of the screen. Click in the box and the bar positioned at the extreme left will move to where you clicked, and the display will change. If you click in the middle of the box, the display will start at about the middle of the score. If you click at the point one-third from the left side of the box, the score will display at about one-third from the beginning. And so on. You can also use the "Goto bar" command under the Edit menu. A NOTE ON DIALOG BOXES Many of the commands accessed through the menus request information from you through a box displayed on the center of the screen. If there is more than one line to enter, you can move about using the up and down arrow keys to move from line to line. You can use the right and left arrow and HOME and END keys to move from one letter to another. The INS and DEL keys can be used to insert spaces or delete letters from a line. When you are finished entering everything, press the ENTER key. If you want to abort, press the ESC key. Pressing the left button of the mouse is the same as the ENTER key and the right button as the ESC key. Some dialog boxes display a list of items with a large inverted color selector cursor. Just move the cursor about with arrow keys or mouse until the item you want is selected, and press ENTER (or the left mouse button). USING THE MENUS At the top of the screen is a list of the various menus that have different commands. You can access a menu by pressing the "Alt" key plus the first letter of the menu. For example, to access the "File" menu, press ALT+F. Or move move the cursor to the top of the screen directly under the menu you wish to access. Select a command by moving the highlight down either with the arrow key or mouse and pressing "return" or the left mouse button. Pressing the key corresponding to the first letter of the menu item will immediately execute the command. You can move to a different menu by pressing the right or left arrow keys or moving the mouse in the desired direction. You can abort by pressing the "Esc" key, or moving the highlight bar to beyond the bottom of the menu. When an item is displayed in half-tone, it is not available. This is due to the fact that you must perform some other command first (as with the block commands). Most of the menu commands are fairly self-explanatory. Of those that may cause you trouble, here's a brief explanation. THE CONFIGURE COMMAND The configure command is accessed through the EDIT menu. While there are a number of parameters that can be modified with this command, the only one we are interested is the "MIDI Device", "Address", and "Interrupt". If you are using Lyra with an MPU-401 compatible MIDI interface, then you should set "MIDI Device" to "MPU-401". If you are using a Sound Blaster card then set it to "SBLASTER-S"; if you have the MIDI connection box for the Sound Blaster, you can have MIDI by setting it to "SBLASTER-M". The "Address" and "Interrupt" lines should be set to the correct numbers, depending on how your particular card is configured. The numbers should be entered in decimal or hex. If you use hex, then make sure that the last number is followed by an "H". THE OPTION COMMANDS The purpose of these commands is to let you enter musical or MIDI information that is not a note. Select the desired option; the cursor changes to a box. Move the box to where you wish to put the option and press the "return" key or the left mouse button. The instrument option transmits MIDI program changes. You can set up the names of the instruments and their associated program numbers in the Instrument command under the MIDI menu. "Tempo" is used to enter a "local" tempo change. The actual tempo is a combination of the Master Tempo (which is set under the Play menu) and the local tempo. When the Master Tempo is set to 1.00, then the local tempo is the beats per minute (not exact in this version). "Byte" instructs Lyra to send the specified hex byte (you must enter two hex digits) unaltered to your synthesizer. By stringing several together you can send almost any type of MIDI information. "Octave" is used to either raise or lower the pitch of a voice by one octave. If the marker is placed above the staff, then it raises the pitch; if placed below the staff, it lowers the pitch. "Loco" cancels the effect of a previous Octave command. "Volume" lets you change the volume of music. You can customize the exact MIDI volume by using the Set Volumes command under the MIDI menu. "Events" is used to send larger amounts of MIDI data than can be conveniently sent with the MIDI byte option. In fact, you can send a whole file of MIDI data such as a system exclusive dump. The actual data in the event is set up through the MIDI menu. THE BLOCK COMMANDS These commands let you work with blocks of music. You first must mark a block by positioning the cursor over the starting and ending points and pressing the "M" key each time. The music within a block is displayed in inverted colors. A block may be cleared by selecting the Reset command under the Block menu. If you select the Copy command, the music in the block will be copied to a special area of memory and held until you make use of it with the Paste command. The Cut command copies the block of music to the holding area in memory and also deletes that music from the score. The Paste command takes the music in the holding area of memory and puts it back into the score at a spot you designate. When you select the command, the cursor changes shape. Move it to where you want the pasting to occur and press the "return" key or the left mouse button. The Transpose command lets you transpose a block by a given number of steps (use negative numbers to lower pitches). You can specify either a "harmonic" transposition which will move the notes to a new key, or "modal" which keeps the notes in the current key signature. The block commands work only with music that is currently displayed. You can selectively work with different voices by turning off the undesired voices first. Take care with these commands. They all assume that when you paste, all music at the paste point aligns at that point. If one or more voices are empty or are in the middle of a long note, then the new music for that voice will be out of alignment with the other voices. PLAYING MUSIC In order to play music, you must have an MPU-401 (or compatible) properly connected, and a MIDI synthesizer hooked up to the MPU- 401. Or, if you have corrected set up the Configure command (see above), you can used a Sound Blaster card. If you have everything connected up correctly, then you might check the channel assignments under the MIDI menu to make sure your synthesizer is "listening" on the right channels. The Filter command under the Play menu is used to filter out certain types of data. You can enter one or more of the following letters: b, c, e, i, or m. B stands for "midi byte", c for "channel", e for "event", and i for "instrument", and m for "clock". When the letter is in the filter, that type of MIDI information is not transmitted. When channel is filtered, then all notes are transmitted on channel 1. The Play command will play only the music that is displayed on the screen. If you wish to mute a voice, turn its display off. WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE PROGRAM? Obviously, there is a lot more that Lyra can do than we've covered here. Feel free to experiment! The only commands that have been disabled are those that display the message "Not Available: Demo Version". If you have questions about what certain functions can do, feel free to write or call for more information. ABOUT THE COMMERCIAL VERSION Version 1.00 was released January, 1990. As of this writing, the version is 1.21. As you can see, the program is in a constant state of evolution and improvement. Purchasing a copy puts you in touch with the latest changes and makes you elegible for inexpensive updates. The price is $49.95. As with all MusicWare products, your purchase includes a 30 day money back guarantee, free bug fixes, and free telephone help (when purchase directly from MusicWare). Payment may be made with a personal check, Visa, MasterCard, or money order. The phone number is (503) 738-0119; ask for Lester Hands. MusicWare Hamlet Route Box 1261 Seaside, OR 97138 Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. Lyra is a trademark of MusicWare. Copyright (C) 1989 by Lester Hands. You are permitted to distribute copies of the demo program disk for non-commercial purposes, provided that no changes are made in any of the files.