INTRO

=====
PianoRollComposer is a MIDI Sequencer.
Compose music with it -- choose from 128 instruments and 61 percussion instrumen
ts.
Fifteen different instruments, and all percussion instruments, can play together
.
When you play music, it creates and sends MIDI data to Windows to produce musica
l sounds.
Windows Synthesizes the MIDI data into musical sounds using built-in SoundFonts.
A MIDI keyboard can send MIDI data to PianoRollComposer for real-time music entr
y.

USING
=====
Left-click within the staff or ledger-line area to insert a note.
Hold the Ctrl key down while left-clicking to insert a sharp or flat note.
Sharps are shown as a darker color. Flats are shown as a lighter color.
Sharps or flats are selectable in Options.
The type of current note is shown at the top left of the screen.
The letters that represent the types of notes are:
W - Whole
H - Half
Q - Quarter
E - Eighth
S - Sixteenth
T - Thirty-second
Press one of those letters on the keyboard to select that type of current note.
The color under it indicates the ACTIVE instrument, as shown in Instruments.
Move the mouse pointer over a note to see its parameters at the top left.
The first line shows what instrument is playing the note.
The second line shows the note letter and F1 thru F12,
which is the function key to press to make that note's instrument the ACTIVE
instrument.
Right-click on a note to change its parameters.
Press the Up, Down, Left, or Right Arrow key to move a note that the mouse point
er is over.
Press the Delete key to delete highlighted notes,
a space that the mouse pointer is over, or a note.
The space must be void of notes vertically
and as wide as the current note type.
Press the Insert key to insert a vertical space
to the right of the mouse pointer location.
If the mouse pointer is on a note, all notes
to the right of the pointer will be moved right.
The width of the space deleted or inserted
will be the width of the current type of note.
Left-click below where the lowest note can be entered
to enter text at the mouse pointer.
This could be a chord name or a lyric word/syllable.
If text overlaps, press Ctrl+ or Ctrl- to rotate it.
Press the Delete key while the mouse pointer is over text to delete it.
When inserting or deleting spaces in music, lyrics/chord names are also moved.

MORE
=====
Selecting Save to PianoRollComposer.ini in the Options menu will stop this Help
from appearing when you run this program.
The range of notes is the same as on an 88-key piano, from a low A to a high C.
When inserting a note, it's moved to the nearest 32nd note location to the left
of the mouse pointer. Therefore, when inserting a note in a narrow space between
other notes, click at the left side of that space (don't just click in the midd
le of the space).
Notes from different instruments can overlap each other, as can a natural note a
nd its sharp or flat.
But the same notes from the same instrument can't overlap.
An overlapping note has to be from the ACTIVE instrument to move or delete it (t
o distinguish it from other overlapping notes).
A quarter note is 40 pixels wide (screen resolution is in pixels).
Beats/Minute in this program should really be called Quarter Notes/Minute. Music
plays at the same tempo as in any MIDI player.
When right-clicking on a note to change its parameters:
If Beats/Minute is changed, that Beats/Minute setting also applies to all fol
lowing notes up to a note with a different Beats/Minute.
Note Begin and Note End can't overlap other identical notes, unless they're f
rom different instruments.
If notes from different instruments overlap, the Parameters Window for each w
ill show successively.
If you enter a finger number to use (for piano students), and Show Fingers is
checked in Options, it'll show on the note.
Finger number examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, L5, R5, 5L, 5R.
Right-click on a measure bar to change the key or time signature at that measure
bar.
After writing music for an instrument, you can change that instrument to another
one in the Instruments menu.
Its music will be played by the new instrument.
You can reassign a channel to a different instrument at a specific location in t
he music by using List View in the Advanced menu.
The Instruments menu always shows the original instrument.
Moving the mouse pointer over a note shows the current instrument.
If you select none* in Choose Instrument, all notes from all instruments in that
Channel will be deleted when you play or save.
If you select none* as the Change To percussion instrument after selecting Chang
e a Percussion Instrument in PERCUSSION, all notes from the Change From percussi
on instrument will be deleted.
Only notes from instruments selected to SHOW & PLAY will transpose.
Notes from the instruments that have been selected to SHOW & PLAY will be affect
ed by HIGHLIGHTING.
After selecting Highlight on the menu, move the mouse pointer to just before the
notes to be cut/copied/deleted or transposed,
hold the left mouse button down, move the mouse to just past the end of the last
notes to be cut/copied/deleted or transposed,
and release the mouse button. Or Press Alt-A. Then press Ctrl-X to Cut, Ctrl-C t
o Copy, Delete, or U or D to transpose.
ONLY NOTES will be saved with Ctrl-X or Ctrl-C, and Pasted with Ctrl-V.
If the beginning of the highlight is more than a quarter note before the first h
ighlighted note, that space will also be Pasted
when pressing Ctrl-V.
To copy an 'instrument part' to another instrument, first be sure another channe
l contains an instrument that the 'instrument part'
will be copied to. Then, for the instrument to be copied, select SHOW & PLAY, an
d un-select all other instruments.
Highlight the 'instrument part' and press Ctrl-C or V, and in the New Instrument
window (which will show if the above requirements
are met), select the instrument to copy the part to, and then press Ctrl-V to co
py it.
To see a known chord name of a group of notes, press and hold the right mouse bu
tton while the mouse pointer is over a space, and move it to the diagonally oppo
sing corner of that group of notes. If the chord name is known, it'll appear at
the top left of the screen. Known chords are the choices seen in Advanced -Chord
s.
The ACTIVE instrument's pedal sustain will be shown as a horizontal bracket at t
he bottom of a set of staffs.
Not all sound cards allow you to hear Reverberation and Chorus Effects. My Realt
ek and SoundMAX don't; my Creative X-Fi does.
Note velocity means note volume. The MIDI Manufacturers Association uses this te
rm because a piano key struck with greater velocity is louder. Note velocity can
be reduced (and only reduced) by a MIDI Volume Control message that can be incl
uded in a MIDI file. This Volume Control message affects all notes from a select
ed instrument that play during or after the Volume Control message. The "during"
enables a note to change volume while it's playing. This, as well as a MIDI Exp
ression Control message, can be used to add dynamics to music. Total volume for
an instrument is note velocity multiplied by MIDI Volume divided by 127 (and the
n multiplied by MIDI Expression divided by 127, if Expression is used), 127 bein
g the maximum value. MIDI Expression is usually used for crescendos and dimenuen
dos. MIDI Volume can be inserted into the music in Advanced -Dynamics & Effects.
Changing Advanced -Playback Volume sends a MIDI Volume Control message to the Sy
nthesizer,
and changes existing MIDI Volume Control messages when they're sent to the Synth
esizer.
This volume change won't be part of the music.
The Options, Instruments, Dynamics & Effects, List View, Chords, Sustain, and th
is Help window can stay open while changing the focus to another window. And som
e windows can be opened while playing.

RECORDING
==========
A MIDI keyboard can be used to play any MIDI instrument, including percussion. I
t will play the ACTIVE instrument.
If you play the MIDI keyboard without recording, notes played will show as empty
white boxes, unless the ACTIVE instrument is Percussion, in which case the perc
ussion instrument name will show. If the cursor is over the staff or ledger line
area, the horizontal location will be wherever the mouse pointer is, otherwise
it will be at the 480th pixel from the left.
When you record over existing music, music from your MIDI keyboard will show mom
entarily as empty white boxes. When you come to the end of existing music, the
current beat will be picked up by a percussion instrument so you can keep record
ing.
If you select Adjust notes by altering beats/minute (in the Record from MIDI Key
board window), played notes will be moved as you selected, plus the beats/minute
for the previous note will be changed or added to slow the time before a note t
hat was moved back is played, or speed up the time before a note that was moved
forward is played, so that it sounds the same as when it was played (giving a mo
re real sound). The displayed beats/minute may stay the same, but the highly acc
urate milliseconds/tick change.
PianoRollComposer can only record from one MIDI instrument that's connected to t
he computer, or one microphone that's connected to the computer.

SYNTHESIZER
===============================
PianoRollComposer Synthesizer is only intended to synthesize a high quality pian
o SoundFont, such as
the Yamaha CF3 piano SoundFont from Mats Helgesson's excellent, but hugh, Maestr
o Concert Grand.gig file:
http://jdmcox.com/YamahaCF3.sfArk (10 MBytes -- It uses only one of 5 velocity s
amples per note, and every 3rd note)
The following program will uncompress an sfArk file:
http://jdmcox.com/sfark_setup.exe (509 KBytes)
You can also download the excellent SoundFont synthesizer, SyFonOne, from www.Sy
nthFont.com
PianoRollComposer can use it to synthesize (play) music using any SoundFont.
To allow the MIDI Output of PianoRollComposer to connect to the MIDI Input of Sy
FonOne,
you need to download and run LoopBE1 (free, on the Internet).
The two best free SoundFonts that contain all the MIDI instruments are Merlin Vi
enna.sf2 and SGM-v2.01.sf2
To see what's in any SoundFont file, select PianoRollComposer Synthesizer in MID
I Output,
select a SoundFont file that you've downloaded from the Internet, and press the
Y key.
PianoRollComposer can read all the Generator data in a SoundFont file, but it us
es only the most basic data in its synthesizer.
To use a specific SoundFont as default in the MIDI Output menu, open PianoRollCo
mposer.ini in Notepad and add a line like:
SoundFont=C://MIDI/YamahaCF3.sf2

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
====================
Use PageDown, PageUp, and Home to scroll thru pages or return to page 1.
Press the 1 thru 0 key to set your computer's Master Volume to 10% thru 100%.
Press M to Mute or un-Mute the Master Volume.
Press Ctrl-Z to Undo. Press Ctrl-Y to undo Undo. 10,000 entries can be undone.
After notes are highlighted, press Delete, Ctrl-X to Cut, Ctrl-C to Copy, Ctrl-V
to Paste at the mouse pointer,
or U or D to transpose them. Press Alt-A to highlight all notes.
Press the Spacebar to play from the beginning, or to stop playing.
Press P to start playing at the mouse pointer.
Press Esc to stop Playing, Recording, Highlighting, or recording or playing a Wa
ve file,
or to close any window (except Sustain).
When the music is stopped or ends, if it was started with P, the current screen
will remain,
otherwise, it will go to page 1.
Press W, H, Q, E, S, or T to select the type of note to be entered.
(whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, or thirty-second)
Press the period key to dot or un-dot that note type.
Hold the Ctrl key down while pressing the 3 key to make that note type 1/3 of it
s value.
(except for sixteenth or thirty-second notes).
Press F1 thru F12 to change the ACTIVE instrument to 1 thru 12,
presuming an instrument has been chosen for that channel.
Press D or U to transpose down or up.
Press Ctrl-D or Ctrl-U to transpose by an octave.
Press Shift-D or Shift-U to transpose to the next key.
Press # or b to make all accidentals sharps or flats. A # or b will appear at th
e top right of the screen.
Press + or - to increment or decrement all MIDI Volume Control messages sent to
the Synthesizer.
Hold Ctrl down and press + or - to rotate overlapping lyrics.
With Arrow Pointer near beginning or end of a note, hold Ctrl key down and press
Left or Right Arrow key to move end 1 pixel.
Press N, O, I, or R for New, Options, Instruments, or Record menu items.
Quite often, instead of pressing Alt-[letter] to select something, pressing just
[letter] will select it.
If you need to send a SysEx message, put a line like this in PianoRollComposer.i
ni (with your SysEx hexadecimal numbers):
SysEx=F0 00 20 63 00 0B 00 03 F7 and press ~ after opening PianoRollComposer, to
send it to the selected MIDI output device.