WELCOME TO THE MUSIC TRANSCRIPTION SYSTEM II The Music Transcription System II is a high-quality, beginning-level music editor designed for folk songs, church hymns, children's songs, popular songs, or just about any vocal music. With it, you can enter your favorite melodies and have your computer play them for you, or create your own melodies and lyrics, store them on disk, and print them out in sheet music form! The program is designed for entertainment, music education, and beginning-level music publishing. It features extremely fast graphics that let you follow along in a song as it plays. A unique "bouncing ball" type cursor points to each word in the song as the corresponding note sounds, and the program's paging score display lets you read the music as easily as you would from a book or piece of sheet music. The Music Transcription System II supports songs up to 550 notes long with lyrics, guitar chord notation, and basic harmony in any of 15 different key signatures, 12 different time signatures, and 5 different clefs. Easy-to-use menus and setup screens make entering and editing music a snap. You can create original melodies just by playing on your computer keyboard like a piano. As you hit the keys, the program plays the notes and places them on the musical staff in standard music notation. Changing pitch of individual notes, or even transposing an entire song between different key signatures or clefs is as easy as hitting an up or down arrow key! There's even a collection of prerecorded songs on disk. Pick a song, load it into memory, and sing along! And there's more... With many late model Tandy computers or with the addition of a "Sound Blaster" board to an 80286 or faster IBM PC compatible, the Music Transcription System II provides vocal training and music transcription features not found in any other software. With its advanced sound input capabilities, the Music Transcription System II is the ideal tool for learning to sing - or for testing and improving on your current skills. You can sing along as your computer plays a song, and the program's advanced Digital Signal Processing algorithms will compute the pitch of your voice 18 times every second! Real-time "pitch-graphs" let you see what you're singing, while you're singing it. Beginning level singers, and self-professed "non-singers" can benefit dramatically from this instant feedback showing when notes are sharp, flat, or on-key! More advanced singers can try the sight-singing or harmony exercises included on the disk. And if you're a songwriter, or would like to be, the Music Transcription System II's unique sound input features can help turn your ideas into printed musical scores quickly and easily - even if you can't read music. The program lets you create original songs just by tapping on the spacebar while you sing. The software computes the pitch of your voice and places the corresponding notes onto the musical staff in standard music notation. Using the program's easy-to-use music editor you can add lyrics, harmony, or guitar chord notation, and print your creation for everyone to see. No matter what your background, interest, or computer hardware, the Music Transcription System II can help you enjoy the world of music in exciting new ways. We hope the program provides you many hours of entertainment, education, and music publishing fun. BASIC REQUIREMENTS The Music Transcription System II can be used on virtually any IBM PC compatible computer. To run the program you will need at least 256K of memory, DOS 2.0 or above, and a CGA, EGA, VGA, or Hercules compatible graphics display. Nearly any late-model computer will satisfy these requirements. To print musical scores, you will need a dot matrix printer which supports IBM/Epson compatible graphics, or an HP LaserJet II compatible laser printer. A special "Quick Print" feature in the program can be used with any printer, but prints using standard typewriter characters only. VOCAL INPUT REQUIREMENTS You can use the additional vocal training and singing transcription features of the program if you have a Tandy 1000 SL/TL series computer, a Tandy 2500 XL, or a later model Radio Shack computer with Tandy's advanced sound capabilities. With this latest release of the program, you can also use the vocal training and singing transcription features on 80286, 80386, 80386SX, or faster IBM PC compatibles with the addition of a "Sound Blaster" board from Creative Labs Inc. A clock speed of at least 10 MHz is required on these machines. With either of these setups you will also need a good quality electret condensor microphone. We recommend the Radio Shack model 33-1060 because of its excellent performance and relatively low cost. Dynamic type microphones may not work properly with the program because of their relatively low output level and more limited low frequency response. The audio input sensitivity on both the Tandy computers and the Sound Blaster is quite low. Therefore, a microphone preamplifier with adjustable gain is also recommended, but not required. A suitable preamp will allow you to sing as quietly as you like and/or hold the microphone further from your mouth as you sing. If you do not have a preamp, you should hold the microphone close to your mouth (less than one inch) as you sing. A preamp will also allow the program to be used with good quality dynamic microphones if they have a low frequency response that extends to 50 Hz or below. SOUND BLASTER DISCLAIMER Every effort has been made to assure that the Music Transcription System II program works reliably with the Sound Blaster board on 10 MHz and faster 286/386/386SX PC compatibles. However, since the hardware and software interface protocols are under the control of Creative Labs Inc. and not Questar Products Ltd., Questar Products makes no warranty that the Music Transcription System II will work in all configurations or with future enhanced versions of the Sound Blaster. MIDI REQUIREMENTS You can use the Music Transcription System II with a MIDI keyboard if you have a MIDI interface card that is compatible with the Roland MPU401 standard. The program supports MIDI input and output of melody lines in Omni mode. Please note that the Sound Blaster MIDI option is NOT SUPPORTED, since it is not MPU-401 compatible. STARTING THE PROGRAM To start the program from DOS simply type MTS and hit the Enter key. (See the additional instructions below for starting the program if you wish to use the Sound Blaster board, MIDI, or a LaserJet printer.) If you use the program on a hard disk, you should start the program from the directory that contains the program and associated files. Otherwise, the program will not be able to find the help files or the song files. If you have a Tandy computer and wish to start the program from Deskmate, insert the disk containing the Music Transcription System II into your disk drive and select the Run command from Deskmate's File menu. Enter MTS in the "Program name:" box and leave the "Data File:" box blank. Verify that the "CPU Clock Speed" is set to Fast and then select OK. OPERATING THE PROGRAM To help you begin using the program as quickly and easily as possible, on-screen messages and prompts are displayed which tell you what keys to use. Most functions of the program can be operated with the "Keypad" keys ( Up, Down, Left, Right arrow keys, Enter, Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn ) and with the function keys F1 - F10. In addition, the SPACEBAR and = keys are used to play songs. The Esc key is especially important since it allows you to exit any function you select. In addition, you should make sure the CAPS LOCK and NUM LOCK functions on your keyboard are off when using the program. Otherwise, the arrow keys and other keys may not work as you expect. The program also contains an extensive set of help files that can be accessed through the HELP function on the main menu. If this is your first time using the program you may wish to make a printed copy of the help files. To do so, print the files help1.txt through help9.txt. COMMAND LINE OPTIONS The Music Transcription System II is designed to automatically determine what type of computer you are using and what type of display you have. The automatic configuration feature has been tested on a wide range of computers and has been found to be very reliable. However, if you should experience problems, you can force the program to operate in particular modes using a command-line option. For example, when starting the program from DOS, MTS /IBM /CGA will force the program to assume it is running on a standard IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible computer in CGA graphics mode. This is the most common configuration and should work with CGA, EGA, and VGA displays. For Hercules compatible displays, use /HERCULES in place of /CGA. Command line options are also used to setup the program to work in special modes, such as for using LaserJet printers, or using a MIDI interface card. These special options are explained in detail below. A list of all available options can be displayed by typing: MTS ? Deskmate users can enter the ? or the desired options in the "Data File:" box when starting the program. As with DOS commands, any number of options can be used together. For example, if you wish to use the program with the Sound Blaster board and a MIDI board at the same time and print on a LaserJet compatible laser printer, simply issue the options as shown below: MTS /SB 220 7 /MIDI 330 2 /LASERJET ***** WARNING: ***** Selecting certain inappropriate options (such as using /TANDYSL on a regular PC compatible) may cause the computer to lock up, and force you to reboot. Be sure to choose only appropriate options. USING THE SOUND BLASTER BOARD If you have a Sound Blaster board and an 80286, 80386, 80386SX, or faster computer, you can use the Music Transcription System's advanced sound input features by starting the program with the following command: MTS /SB where and are the hex IO port and interrupt vector locations at which the Sound Blaster is installed. If you have not changed these settings from the Sound Blaster's factory configuration you can type the following command to start the program from the DOS prompt: MTS /SB 220 7 If you have problems with the program when using a Sound Blaster board, please check the jumper positions on the board. The IO port and interrupt vectors used are determined by reading the numbers on the board next to the jumpers. Also make sure that the DMA jumper is installed. Note the warning below if you are using Microsoft Windows. **** MICROSOFT WINDOWS USERS **** If you are using Microsoft Windows with the Sound Blaster board, you may have to exit windows and start the Music Transcription System from DOS to make the program work properly. Some programs (including Microsoft's own Flight Simulator) do not work correctly when started from Windows in some modes (such as Windows 386 Enhanced Mode). USING MIDI If you have an MPU401 compatible MIDI interface card, you can use the Music Transcription System's MIDI features by starting the program with the following command: MTS /MIDI where is the hex IO port address at which the MIDI card is installed, and is the hardware interrupt number used by the card. The stardard configuration for the Roland MPU401 interface card is port 330, interrupt number 2. Thus, you would type: MTS /MIDI 330 2 to start the program using the standard MPU401 settings. If you wish to start the program from Deskmate, you should enter the /MIDI and appropriate port and interrupt numbers in the "Data File:" box. ***** WARNING: ***** The standard interrupt number used by MPU401 interface cards (interrupt number 2) conflicts with the interrupt used by hard disks on some Tandy 1000 computers. On Tandy 1000 computers with hard disks, your MIDI card should be configured to use a different interrupt, and you should specify the appropriate interrupt when starting the program. The program will warn you if you attempt to use interrupt 2 on a Tandy 1000 machine. USING LASERJET PRINTERS If you wish to use an HP LaserJet II compatible laser printer for printing scores, you must supply the /LASERJET command line option when starting the program. MTS /LASERJET USING BATCH STARTUP FILES If you wish to use any of the command line options described above, you may wish to use a DOS "batch" file to start the program. A number of batch files are included on the Music Transcription System II program disk: MTSSB.BAT Use Sound Blaster at standard settings MTSMIDI.BAT Use MIDI interface at standard settings MTSLJ.BAT Use LaserJet II compatible printer For example, if you have a LaserJet printer, you can start the program without explicitly issuing the /LASERJET command line option by simply typing: MTSLJ at the DOS prompt. Similarly, if you wish to use the program with a Sound Blaster configured at the factory port and interrupt settings, you can type: MTSSB at the DOS prompt. If you wish to use a Sound Blaster or MIDI board configured at non-standard settings, or if you wish to use some combination of options not handled by these files, you will need to modify the appropriate batch file or create one of your own. Refer to your DOS manual for more information on modifying or creating batch files. REGISTRATION Questar Products Ltd. no longer requires registration for this product. Questar Products and the author of the Music Transcription System II retain full rights to the software, but hereby grant you free, unlimited use of this released version (2.44). You may use the program as you wish and share it with others, but you may not charge for it (authorized shareware distributors may charge a distribution fee). We deeply appreciate the shareware support we have received from our customers in the past and hope that you will support the authors of other shareware programs you find useful. VOCAL INPUT FEATURES ADDITIONAL INFORMATION We enjoy receiving comments about the Music Transcription System II program and the use of its unique vocal input features. However, we regret that we cannot respond to all correspondence. If you are interested in the technical implementation of the pitch detection algorithm employed in the program, you may wish to refer to the article titled "A Real-Time Pitch Recognition Algorithm for Music Applications" published in the Fall 1990 issue of Computer Music Journal (vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 60-71). Bug reports and questions/comments from researchers, educators, and previously registered customers should be directed to: Bill Kuhn, 750 Tall Oaks Dr., Apt. 12700K, Blacksburg, VA 24060.