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Mouse Composition System User's Guide Version 1.0 (C) Copyright by Mike Kirsch, 1986--All rights reserved worldwide __________________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS __________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION 1 GETTING STARTED 3 THE INPUT SCREEN 4 Music Area 5 Functions Area 7 USING THE PROGRAM 8 REGISTRATION FORM 12 INTRODUCTION __________________________________________________________________ Overview Welcome to the Mouse Composition System. The system allows you to compose, play and edit songs by moving a cursor around the screen using a mouse. Reference If you're not familiar with the music that the IBM PC/XT/AT/JR computer can play, refer to the description of the PLAY command in the IBM BASIC manual. Requirements To use this system you must have: o An IBM PC/XT/AT/JR or compatible computer. o A Microsoft, Mouse Systems or compatible mouse. o 256K or more memory. Files The system consists of the following files: o COMPOSE.EXE--The composition system's program file. o COMPOSE.DOC--This guide, which may be printed using DOS's PRINT or COPY commands. o COMPOSE.CFG--A configuration file that describes your computer's monitor and printer to the system. If you're using a color monitor, you may change the display's foreground, background and border to colors of your liking. Registration This program is distributed as user-supported software. If you find the program useful or entertaining, you can become a registered user by sending a contribution of $15 to the author: Mike Kirsch 292 Circular Avenue San Francisco, CA 94131 Mouse Composition System Page 1 INTRODUCTION (cont.) __________________________________________________________________ Reaching Me You may send questions, commands or suggestions for improvement to me on the following timesharing services: CompuServe - 70110,334 Source - BDF331 GEnie - M.KIRSCH My time to respond to correspondence is limited. Queries from registered users will receive priority. Future The future of this software depends on how it is Versions received. If a lot of interest is expressed, I'll try to incorporate suggestions for improving and expanding the system. Registered users will be notified of future versions by U.S. mail. Mouse Composition System Page 2 GETTING STARTED __________________________________________________________________ Mouse Before you can run this program, you need to load Driver your mouse's driver software. If you own a Mouse Systems PC mouse, you load the driver by typing the following command at the DOS prompt: MSMOUSE /<port>[Return] The variable <port> must be replaced by 1 or 2 to specify which communications port your mouse is using. For example, the following command specifies that the mouse is using COM1: MSMOUSE /1[Return] If you're using another manufacturer's mouse, check the instructions that came with the mouse to determine how you should load the mouse's driver software. Loading Once you've loaded your mouse's driver software, the you start the program by typing: Program COMPOSE[Return] The program displays a copyright notice, plays a few bars of a song, then draws the input screen. Mouse Composition System Page 3 THE INPUT SCREEN __________________________________________________________________ Layout The input screen contains three major areas: o The program identification line, at the top, tells which version of the program you are using and displays the current time of day. o The music area, between the first and second horizontal lines, allows you to enter the music you want to play, and displays the current octave, note length, tempo, number of measures you've saved and the contents of the input buffer. o The functions area, between the second and third horizontal lines, allows you to select edit, play, file and other functions. The music and functions areas are described in detail in the following pages. Indicating Anytime you want to make a choice, you use the Choices mouse to move the cursor so that it is on top of the item you want to choose. After you've positioned the cursor, you press the LEFT mouse button to register your choice. Mouse Composition System Page 4 THE INPUT SCREEN Music Area __________________________________________________________________ Headings The music area contains lines which have the following headings: o Octave o Length o Notes o Current o Buffer contents Octave The Octave heading is followed by the numbers 0 through 6. These are the octaves in which you may play notes. The left and right arrows following the octave numbers cause the currently-selected octave to be raised or lowered once for each time you select them. When you've selected an octave, it's number is displayed on the "Current" line, next to "Octave=". The octave command is added to the buffer, and displayed below the "Buffer contents:" line. Length The Length heading is followed by the numbers 1/1 through 1/64. These represent a whole note (1/1) through a 64th note. Below the note lengths, you'll see the words "Normal", "Legato" and "Staccato", which select the duration that each note is plays. "Normal" causes each note to play 7/8 of the selected the length; "Legato" causes each note to play the full amount of the selected length; "Staccato" causes each note to play 3/4 of the selected length. Mouse Composition System Page 5 THE INPUT SCREEN (cont.) Music Area __________________________________________________________________ Notes The notes heading is followed by the notes C through B. You select notes you want to play from this line. When you make a selection, the note that plays is in the currently-selected octave. To play a dotted note, you select the note and then select "Dot". To enter a rest, you select a length and then select "Pause". You can play a note without adding it to the buffer by pointing to it and pressing the RIGHT mouse key. This is the ONLY time that the right mouse key is recognized. Current The Current heading displays: o The currently-selected octave o The currently-selected length o The currently-selected tempo, which specifies the number of quarter notes that are played in one minute o The number of measures that have been saved from the buffer Buffer The music that you record is placed in a buffer. Contents The contents of the buffer is displayed on the two lines below the Buffer contents heading. Mouse Composition System Page 6 THE INPUT SCREEN Functions Area __________________________________________________________________ Function The functions that you can choose fall into four Types categories: o Edit Functions--which allow you to manipulate the buffer's contents and any music that you've saved from the buffer o Play Functions--which allow you to play the buffer's contents, a measure that you've previously saved or a single measure that you've previously saved. You can also change the tempo from the play functions. o File Functions--which allow you to save a song in a file, load a song you've previously saved or create a text file that can appended to a BASIC program to play the song you've composed. o Misc Functions--which allow you to print the song you've composed on your printer, redraw the input screen (in case something goes wrong and causes the screen to scroll), change the configuration file (your monitor's type, colors and your printer's port) and quit the program to return to DOS. Mouse Composition System Page 7 USING THE PROGRAM __________________________________________________________________ Concepts The concepts used by this program are simple: o Use the mouse to point to selections. o Press the mouse's left button to record your selections in the buffer. o Compose and edit each measure of a song in the buffer, then save the measure as a part of the song and go onto the next. Making Whenever you select something from the music area Music (an octave, length, duration or note), the corresponding BASIC command(s) required to carry out your selection are added to the buffer. If your selection is a note, it is played after it has been added to the buffer. The buffer's contents are interpreted according to the instructions for BASIC's PLAY command. Briefly, they are: o Note lengths are shown as an "l" followed by a number representing the note length; a whole note is "l1", a quarter note is "l4", etc. o Rest lengths are shown as a "p" followed by a number representing the rest length; a half rest is "p2", a thirty-second rest is "p32", etc. o Durations are shown as an "m" followed by a duration letter; "mn" is normal, "ml" is legato and "ms" is staccato. o Octaves are shown as an "o" followed by an octave number; octave 3 is "o3", octave 5 is "o5", etc. o Notes are shown by their letters; C is "c", F sharp is "F#", etc. o Tempo is shown as a "t" followed by a number between 32 and 255; "t200" means that 200 quarter notes will be played in a one-minute period. Mouse Composition System Page 8 USING THE PROGRAM (cont.) __________________________________________________________________ Correcting If you make a mistake (select a wrong note, length, Errors etc.), you can correct it by pointing to "Backspace" in the edit functions box. "Backspace" deletes one character from the buffer. Note: If you've selected something that added more than one character to the buffer (a length of 64, for example--"l64"), be sure to backspace over the entire selection. If you want to delete the entire contents of the buffer, select "Clear the Buffer" from the edit functions box. Everything in the buffer will be deleted and you can begin your composition again. Playing You can play the entire contents of the buffer the by selecting "Play the Buffer" from the play Buffer functions box. Everything in the buffer will be played. Saving Once you've composed a measure of a song in the the buffer, you can save it as the song's next measure Buffer by selecting "Save the Buffer" from the edit functions box. When you save the buffer, you'll notice that the "Measures=" value is increased by one. Depending on the amount of memory that your computer has, you can save up to 4096 measures. Playing Once you've composed and saved some measures, you the Song can hear what they sound like together by selecting "Play the Song" from the play functions box. If something is stored in the buffer, it is played as the last measure of the song. Mouse Composition System Page 9 USING THE PROGRAM (cont.) __________________________________________________________________ Editing You can edit a song using the following functions: the Song o Replace a Measure--replaces a measure that you've saved with the current contents of the buffer. If the buffer is empty, the replace selection is ignored. o Copy Measures--allows you to specify a range of measures that you've saved, then appends them to the song. o Delete Measures--allows you to specify a range of measures that you've saved, then deletes them from the song. Any measures that follow the deleted measures are moved down to fill the gap created by the deletion. Saving When you've finished composing a song, or if you the Song need to stop work on a song, you can save your work by selecting "Save the Song" from the file functions box. You are asked enter a file name when you select this option; the file automatically receives an extension of ".mmc". You can also save your work as a BASIC program by selecting "Make a Basic File" from the file functions box. You are asked to enter a file name when you select this option; the file automatically receives an extension of ".bas". You must specify a starting line number and an increment value that will be used to create the BASIC program. Note: If you want to edit or continue work on a program, you MUST save it as a ".mmc" file (using the "Save the Song" function) so that it can be loaded at a later time. Loading You can load a previous composition for editing or a Song playback by selecting "Load a Song" from the play functions box. Only files with a ".mmc" extension can be loaded. The load function doesn't check a song at load time; if you load a file that you've given the ".mmc" extension to, who knows what will happen! Mouse Composition System Page 10 USING THE PROGRAM (cont.) __________________________________________________________________ Printing You can make a printout of the current song by the selecting "Print the Song" from the misc functions Song box. Measure numbers are added to each line to make it easy to locate segments of the song. Changing You can change your monitor type, screen colors Options and printer options by selecting "Change Configuration" from the misc functions box. Summary I've had fun writing this program; I hope you'll have fun using it. If you create some particularly fine music, I hope you'll share it by placing the ".mmc" files on some bulletin boards. If you want to become a registered user, you can use the registration from on the next page. Mouse Composition System Page 11 REGISTRATION FORM Please register me as a Mouse Composition System user. I have enclosed a: [ ] Check [ ] Money Order for $15 to cover my registration. Please PRINT all information Name: _____________________________________________________ Address: __________________________________________________ City: ____________________________ State: ____ Zip: __________ What type of computer are you using this software on? _____________________________________________________ How much memory does your computer have? __________K What type of mouse are you using? ________________________________ Mail this form and your contribution to: Mike Kirsch 292 Circular Avenue San Francisco, CA 94131 NOTE: Please, don't send CASH through the mail. Mouse Composition System Page 12