PsL Monthly 1993 December

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MU-03: PC Speaker Music & Sounds --------------------- #0094 Music Utilities Small Programs Disk --------------------- Beater 1.8 McElwee, Jared $10 turns your computer into a highly-accurate metronome. It can be set from 30 to 250 beats per minute. (Not on this disk. Ask for disk #8909.) Guitar 1.4 (GTR-JPC) Canannes, Jean-Pierre $0 aids in tuning a guitar to standard (Spanish) or D or G tunings. It can also transpose up to five half-tones up or down. This program comes to us from France and contains instructions in both English and French; it can play a short folk melody from either country. Jplay Jewl Tronics $? plays five different tunes through your PC's speaker, and shows a graphic representation of the notes on an EGA/VGA monitor. The different songs are accessed via the escape key. Comes complete with Pascal source code. MrOrgan Lutton, Mark $? is a Memory Resident ORGAN - a keyboard music program that lets you play while you work. ModPlay 2.0 Cox, Mark J. $0 allows you to play Amiga soundtracker/noisetracker files (or 4 channel Startrekker files) on a PC's speaker. (Not on this disk. Ask for disk #8749.) Musical Utilities 4.0 (MUSUTIL) Armada Software $20 is a collection of several useful musical programs. The main feature is the Frequency-Note converter, which will convert either a frequency to the nearest musical note, or if you input a frequency it will determine the closest note and octave. It also features a table of musical instrument ranges and a key transposition calculator. The last feature is a staff paper printing routine, which will printout music staff paper with 9, 10, 12, or 18 sets of lines per page. Piano Abramson, R. $? turns the PC keyboard into a keyboard instrument. Flats, normal notes and sharps follow one another on the keyboard, which is not conducive to serious playing. There is no documentation, but all instructions appear on-screen. Play Mefford, Michael $0 works like BASICA's PLAY command, or you can store PLAY commands in a text file to be played. For a sample, at the DOS prompt, enter PLAY STRING/F (the "/F" tells PLAY to look for a data file). Songedit (SNGEDIT) Campbell, George $10 is a music composition editor. You can even let your PC compose its own music. VMusic Holden, Ted $? was the first true polyphonic (multi-tone) shareware music playing program for the PC. This is the best music you can get on a PC without special equipment. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #0094 -------------------------------- -------------------- #2848 Music Programs Small Programs Disk -------------------- Anthems Moran, Nancy $1 is a set of five musical selections that have been used or suggested as alternate national anthems of the United States. Also included is "Stars and Strips Forever" by John Philip Sousa. Nancy Moran has become the leading virtuoso of music transcribed with Pianoman. These are not simple melodies, they are major compositions. Alleluia (ALLELUI) is a text file containing the words to popular Christmas carols for sing-alongs. Needs to be printed at 12 characters-per-inch. BachEd Poschman, Warren $5 is a set of songs that can be played with Polyphonic Music 1.20 (on disk #1845). The songs include: "Concerto for Two Violins" by J. S. Bach, "German Dance" by K. D. von Dittersdorf, and "Edelweiss". Dances Leman, Wayne $0 is a collection of 31 folkloric and classical dance tunes. Music plays through the computer's speaker. Familiar Waltzes (WALTZES) Leman, Wayne $5 is a collection of 46 popular waltzes. Music plays through the PC's speaker. (Not on this disk. Ask for disk #8911.) Hail Sander, Louis F. $0 plays "Hail to the Chief" on your PC's speaker - just in time for the Presidential elections. This version was taken from the original 1812 sheet music for the song. PCKeys 1.0 Jarrett, Eric $8 displays an on-screen piano keyboard which can be played with a mouse. You can also record and edit your compositions. (Not on this disk. Ask for disk #8985.) Polkas Leman, Wayne $5 is a collection of 27 polka tunes. Music plays through the PC's speaker. All of the tunes in this package are stand-alone programs created with PianoMan. (Not on this disk. Ask for disk #8911.) Popular Old Songs (POPULAR) Leman, Wayne $10 is a collection of 24 old popular songs, such as Auld Lang Syne, My Old Kentucky Home, Yellow Rose of Texas and many more. Music is played through the PC's speaker. Rousing Songs (ROUSER) Sander, Louis F. $12 includes 35 songs and melodies, from Alouette to Yankee Doodle, played on the PC's speaker. These seem awfully weak in this age of sound cards for the PC, but the military bugle calls may be of interest to some. QB 4.5 source code included. Tunes De Palma, John R. $0 is a collection of songs that do not require a sound card. Included are Here Comes the Sun, Star Spangled Banner, Mountain King, Happy Birthday, Toccata & Fugue in D. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #2848 -------------------------------- ----------------------------- #3967 Sound Effects/Utilities Small Programs Disk ----------------------------- Bugle Calls Sander, Louis F. $0 lets you play any of 20 well-known bugle calls from a menu or the DOS command line. What better way to let people in your office know that the mail has arrived or that a conference has been called? DigPak The Audio Solution $40-70 is a set of drivers that lets you play digitized sounds on any sound board, as well as the PC's speaker. It offers enhanced support for many games, such as Ultimate Baseball, Chessmaster 3000 and others. (See section MU-01 for many disks of sound files.) DPlayVoc 1.1 (DPLAYVO) Montelo Consulting $10 plays VOC files on the Disney Sound Source. PC-Studio 1.0 (PCSTUDI) Anabicis $15 is a digitized sound file player that does not require a sound card. The sounds are very good and clear on our test PC's speaker. A full-screen version lets you adjust volume, speed and other elements. A command line version lets you play sound files from within batch files. For example, after doing a CHKDSK, you could play the included HAL sound file that says: "I'm completely operational, and all my circuits are functioning perfectly." For more sound files, see section MU-01. Tommie Talley, Ardmore, OK: "I get a divide overflow error message when trying to run the program." PsL: When we retested the program on one machine, we also received a divide overflow, but after rebooting, it ran fine. On another machine, it ran the first time. All we can suggest is rebooting with no TSRs or drivers in memory. Sounds for Quattro Pro 3. (QPROSND) BC Design $0 is a sampler of sound files which can be played under Quattro Pro 3.+ Sampler #2 (SAMP-02) BC Design $12 per disk is a sampler of sound files which have been converted to play under Borland's Quattro Pro. Sounds included are "Charge!", "I'll be back", and "Hallelujah". TSR-FX Smith, Dave & Cravener, Bill $0 is a 1k TSR that lets you hit various hot keys to generate different sounds, such as birds, laser blasts, etc. Also included are small TSR's to speed up the keyboard and to add key click sounds. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #3967 -------------------------------- ACCU Music System 3.4 Fischer, Kevin ASP $23 #4897 lets you create music on your PC. AMS has many features which Ad Lib's Visual Composer does not, with some pro's and con's to them. In AMS, you can only see/edit/print one voice (series of notes) at a time, so to enter a chord, for example, you have to bring up the window for each voice (note) in the chord. Also, unlike VB, you cannot hear the notes as you enter them. This combo makes AMS less suitable for use in composing music. For transcribing from sheet music to the computer, you should find AMS easier to use. You enter notes in a window in text format (eg: CN is C natural) and they appear on the staff above the window. Other features AMS has over VB are the ability to print, to transcribe, and to play through the PC's speaker if you do not have a sound card, although you can only play one voice through the speaker and up to 11 at once through a sound card. AMS can convert between Ad Lib ROL files and its own format. Christmas Concert Moran, Nancy $0 #1500 is a set of 23 different Christmas carols that can be played in concert or one at a time. The music was produced using PIANOMAN (disk #108). The music is well above average complexity and sophistication and songs vary from two to five parts. Christmas International Moran, Nancy $0 #2016 is a set of 15 Christmas carols from around the world plus two musical works by J.S. Bach and Handel. Lyrics for at least one verse appear onscreen and complete lyrics are in an accompanying text file for printing out. This is a very interesting (and well done) break from the usual Christmas carols. CompTalk Forben Software Engineering $25-$30 #2279 uses digitized spoken words stored in individual files to create speech. Approximately 100 different words are on the disk; they are generally suited for use in batch files to give computer usage instructions. Does not work with DESQview. Gospel Songs Leman, Wayne $0 #3533 is a collection of 204 Old Time Gospel songs created with Pianoman. There is a four-part harmony for each song. Words for songs appear on the screen while music plays through the computer's speaker. While this is a wonderful collection of songs, we feel we must warn users that music on the PC's speakers cannot compare to music from an Ad Lib compatible sound card. Guitar Teacher 1.44 [GUITAR] Fenemore, Michael $15 #4098 (08-93 CD) displays chord structure for all the major, minor, seventh, major seventh, minor seventh, suspended fourth, and seventh suspended fourth. It will display in left- or right-handed mode and show alternative fingerings. It also aids in tuning a guitar. The program is very well designed and is fast and easy to use. Harmony Devoe, Leonard N. $0 #1876 includes 16 four-voice musical compositions that were made with Pianoman. The majority of the songs are works known to many people, Chopin, Joplin, Anderson, Brahms and Beethoven. Hymns of Resurrection Wayne Leman $0 #27587/3846 is a collection of religious hymns. Most songs have a four-part harmony. Words to the songs appear on screen while music plays through the computer's speaker. Also by the same author is disk #27587/3847 "Old Hymns of Praise", a collection of 47+ old hymns of worship. JR Music Machine #105 is an outstanding music program for the PCjr. Melody Master Efros, Alexei A. ASP $10-$50 #2886 is a one-voice music editor that lets you enter notes on a staff and output the finished song in a format that can be played through the PC's speaker or translated to formats usable by Pascal, C, or BASIC. A large collection of music files is included. You can configure your own tempos, note-lengths, foreground and background colors, and you can save a tempo with a melody. The usable range is almost eight octaves, and an extensive help system is available. Music Transcription System II Kuhn, William B. $16-$25 #2492 is a graphics-based music editor that lets you enter the melody for songs by "playing" the computer keyboard or by placing notes on a staff. It will semi-automatically enter the harmony. It will also let you enter the words to songs and when you play the song, a "bouncing ball" will point to the words as the corresponding note plays. It has special support for MIDI and for Tandy 1000 and PC 1000 computers. It will print musical scores on Epson compatible printers. The program supports songs of up to 550 notes long with lyrics, guitar chords, and basic harmony in any of 15 different key signatures, 12 different time signatures, and 5 different clefs, but only one clef at a time. William explained to us that the reasons for not allowing both bass and treble clefs on the screen at the same time is that this program was written for vocalists, not for instrumentalists. This leads to design considerations that make showing the Grand Staff difficult. That is a shame, because the ease with which music can be entered and printed would appeal to all musicians. (The author is no longer in business and does not support this program.) Musician's Organizer Sound Solutions $20 #3076 allows you to quickly and easily organize song lists, set sheets, job schedules, and contracts. It is easily customized, with a variety of printing options. Several useful tools are provided, including a Key Reference Chart, Chord Builder, Scale Builder, Metronome, and an Instrument Tuner. This is an excellent package for any performing musician or DJ. 512K is required and a hard drive is recommended. Muzak Priven, Aaron $? #581 This program does an admirable job of tying together a lot of music playing files, many of which can be found on our MUSIC disk (1-GA-094). MUZAK lets you select a category of music and then select songs from that category. The words are displayed for some of the songs. PC-Musician & Music2 #107 are two programs that will allow you to compose one-voice music on the screen with graphics. Fun just to play with. PC-Orc Busby, Richard T. $25 #2589 is a system of four programs which functionally reproduces Orchestra-85/90/CC and Piano-85/90 with an IBM Music Feature Card installed. These four programs include the following: PCOrc, the "executive" program which manages the system, provides services to and loads the other programs as needed; PCOrcMEd, a text editor which is provided as a means for entering or changing Orc music compositions; PCOrcVEd, an advanced feature in which Orc music can fully exploit the remarkable sound creation capabilities available with a MIDI synthesizer; PCOrcMCp, the music compiler. Requires 384K and the IBM Music Feature card. PC-Talk Creative Software Sounds Inc. $30 #3659 lets you reproduce digitized human speech through the PC speaker. It comes with a library of over 100 words and phrases suitable for business and personal applications. The voice command can easily be added to any batch file or menu program. A PCX display utility is also included, for creating talking slide shows. 512K is required, and a hard drive is recommended. EGA/VGA is required for the slide show capabilities. Psychic Piano Infoscape $15 #3848 is a database of over 650 songs in 30 categories including Broadway musicals, American and folk, Geographic, Names, Movies, Christmas and more. You can search songs by notes (with auto-transposition), title, and category, or you can play the Title-That-Tune game that is included to test your musical knowledge. You can also browse through the database in alphabetical order and play the first few bars from each of the songs through the PC's speaker. Sound Effects 6.1 Smith, David and Cravener, William $15 #20224 [2 disks] (10-93 CD) is a collection of 75+ sounds for batch files or fun. It includes phasers, stunguns, jets, fires, phones, speech, programmer's library, and ability to replace the speaker's beep. Sound Effects 7 Smith, David $10 #20064 [4 disks] & #20065 [3 disks] is a collection of over 80 EXE's that play sound effects and voice clips through the PC's speaker. These are ideal for use in batch files for an audible system response. Also included are a pop-up TSR sound effects and a replacement for the system beep. This is a two-MegaDisk set. SW-Talk Creative Software Sounds Inc. $30 #3666 lets you reproduce digitized human speech through the PC speaker. This package is akin to PC-Talk (disk #3659, above), but contains spoken phrases of particular interest to shareware authors. PianoMan Rubenking, Neil J. ASP $25 #108 turns your PC keyboard into a piano keyboard. It lets you compose and record music and play it back within the program or create self-playing EXE files, combining up to four different "voices" into one. The Pianoman disk contains the data files for a large number of music program. We also have a disk of music programs created with Pianoman, for those who want the music but don't want to do the work. ----------------------------- #0579 Pianoman Music Programs Small Programs Disk ----------------------------- contains many excellent music files. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #0579 -------------------------------- PianoMan Does Beethoven! Moran, Nancy $0 #1660 contains five keyboard works by Ludwig von Beethoven: Minuet in G-major, Theme and Six Variations on an Aria from the Opera La Molinara, Theme and Seven Variations on the National Song ("God Save the King"), Adagio cantabile from Sonata Pathtique and Adagio sostenuto from the Moonlight Sonata. 1-2-3 Bach! Moran, Nancy $0 #1565 contains twelve musical selections by Johann Sebastian Bach. Pianoman Goes Baroque! Moran, Nancy $? #1661 contains ten keyboard works by four popular but now lesser-known composers of the Baroque period: Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777), and Karl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788). This Baroque music holds up better to the vibrato that Pianoman uses to simulate chords. It cannot actually play two tones at the same time, so it creates "chords" by quickly alternating between the notes of the chords. Polyphonic Music GrigaSoft Productions $20 #1845 lets you play music on the PC in three-"voice" arrangements, similar to Ted Holden's VMUSIC. Like Vmusic, PM has no keyboard-playing method of entering the notes. Instead, the notes must be written into a text file which is then compiled and played by PM. PM is much the same as Vmusic, with the added abilities to play music in a batch file or in C programs (for which C code is included) while awaiting a keypress. Also on the same disk is the following: Music Editor Morgan, Bill $? #1845 is basically a text editor which plays music. Like PM, music is transcribed as text rather than by "playing" the notes on the keyboard as in Pianoman. An option allows you to covert the text into BASIC commands for adding to BASIC programs. A sample text file has several different music files to try. Although this is not a polyphonic program, the sample programs are well done for single-voice compositions. REmac Zobell, Richard E. $0 #2887 will play Macintosh sound files (see MU-7081) on your PC's speaker. A 286 or faster required. SoundShow BC Design $0 #3938 is a tutorial on how to create professional looking slide presentations using Quattro Pro's sound and slide transition effects. It includes 10 sound files, an example slide show, and detailed explanations. Quattro Pro 3+ required. Traditional Spirituals Leman, Wayne $0 #3661 is a collection of 26 traditional spiritual songs.. Songs were transcribed with Pianoman and are played through the PC's speaker. Words for songs appear on the screen while the music plays. Tune Trivia CD Audio Player It's All Relative Software $? #4270 is a music CD player for use with a PC CD-ROM drive. This DOS-based program has a very attractive EGA/VGA interface, including a large banner showing the name of the current song. There are numerous options for playing the song tracks, including random tracks, selected tracks, and all. You can start a CD playing and exit the program with the CD still playing as you run other programs. Requires a CD-ROM with appropriate drivers. Zebra Research Sound Kit Zebra Research $0 #4271 contains a sound player, editor and other utilities that will work with SND, Amiga, Tandy 1000 and other sound file formats. It works with the PC's internal speaker. ]]]]]