Notation Software Users Forum  


Go Back   Notation Software Users Forum > News and notes > Announcements

Announcements News from the Notation Software team

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 03-30-2005, 05:50 PM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default The second beta release (v

The second beta release (version 1.0.9.5) is now available. You can download it by double-clicking this file link:

www.notation.com/MidiNotatePlayerSetup.exe

NOTE: Before installing MidiNotate Player, make a backup copy of \Program Files\MidiNotate\MidiDev.cfg

No patch is available for this version of MidiNotate Player. It is advised that you first uninstall the previous version of MidiNotate Player.

This second beta release of MidiNotate Player fixes all known bugs and reported usability problems, except the following:
  1. Although the User's Guide is now installed (always, not optionally) and is accessible via the Help menu, the contents of the User's Guide is under construction. There is no need for you to report problems with the User's Guide. I know that right now it is in shambles.
  2. MidiNotate Player might conflict with MidiNotate Composer, Composer Pro, or Musician in the area of MIDI device configuration. That is why it is recommended that you make a backup copy of the \Program Files\MidiNotate\MidiDev.cfg file.
This release of MidiNotate Player introduces new packaging of MidiNotate files. Before now, the MidiNotate executable (MNPlayer.exe, Musician.exe, Composer.exe, or CompPro.exe) was packaged with these three additional files: MidiNote.dll, TrnsParm.dll, and Undo.dll. Now, those three additional files are embedded inside the main executable (.exe) file and are no longer separately installed files. This change has been first made in MNPlayer, but the same change will be made in Musician, Composer, and Composer Pro. So, don't be surprised when you find these other files missing.

Please let me know if you find any problems with MidiNotate Player. This freeware program will be released to the public in approximately 10 to 14 days from now.

Cheers
-- Mark
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 03-31-2005, 01:01 PM
David Jacklin (dj)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hi, Mark: Second beta of th

Hi, Mark:

Second beta of the Player is looking good. The "lost staves" bug seems to have disappeared, as you said.

The import of page setup info is still problematic, though. When a file with legal size format is loaded, unless Page Setup is called up before changing to Page View, selecting Page View will initially bring up a displayed 8.5 X 11 white sheet, with staves layed out for 8.5 X 14.

On calling up Page Setup, the format shows right off that 8.5 X 14 is selected, but on clicking OK, the "Apply to only this or to all parts?" dialogue comes up, as if a change in format had been made. Clicking OK then displays a correct 8.5 X 14. Clicking cancel leaves the page at a displayed 8.5 X 11.

There is also a functionality difficulty with the way Player handles MIDI devices. Player seems to assign all parts to one MIDI port, even if the file loaded is set for multiple ports. With a fully orchestrated score, there are more than 16 channels required to cover all the instruments, therefore playback on more than one port is required. Although Player can load such files, it can't play them back properly if only one MIDI port is used. Without the Track Setup dialogue box, this can't be changed.






Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 03-31-2005, 03:40 PM
Sherry Crann (sherry)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Howdy Mark, In going throug

Howdy Mark,

In going through the Player just briefly, it's looking good. I haven't given it the rigamarole yet, but I did check some of the previous concerns I mentioned before, and it's looking good.

I also like the "learn more" button in the menu bar - nicely done

I might mention to anyone else who is listening in, that when I first installed the Player, I made a separate "C:\Program files\Midinotate Player" directory to install it in. While this did separate it for the most part, it seemed that my computer still got a bit confused at times and took a very long time to start Player when I clicked the desktop icon. At that time Player also "usurped" the assignment of .mid files, even though I had the assignment checked in Pro, and not in Player.

I think the problem was in the folder name "Midinotate Player". It had too many characters in the beginning of the folder names, so sometimes there was confusion about which folder's files to access. Sooooo.......

This time, when I installed the Player, I changed the directory name to C:\Program files\Notation Player", and it seems to have resolved any crossover issues. Player starts quickly as I would expect it to, there is no usurpation of assignments, and it did not affect my cfg file at all. If you want to have both programs installed and run them independently (which is what I wanted), then this solution seems to work.

ttfn,
Sherry
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 03-31-2005, 04:58 PM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Sherry, The advice you offe

Sherry,

The advice you offer above should ensure that there is no conflict between MidiNotate Player and other MidiNotate programs in the area of MIDI device setup.

I will try some more to reproduce the MIDI device conflict here so that I can then fix it.

The "association" (Windows terminology) of an application such as MidiNotate Player or Composer with the ".mid" file extension is a different matter. When you install MidiNotate Player, it will not be associated with .mid files unless you ask so during the setup, or if you later use the Associate command in Player's Setup menu.

MidiNotate's .mid file association behavior is currently being improved. During setup, if you ask MidiNotate (Player, Musician, Composer, or Composer Pro) to be associated with .mid files, the setup program will save the previously associated MIDI program, whether that might be another MidiNotate program, or some program by another company. Later, when you uninstall MidiNotate, the previously associated MIDI program will be re-associated with .mid files.

This same enhancement is being made for the Associate command in MidiNotate's Setup menu. When you associate MidiNotate with .mid files, the previously associated MIDI program will be saved; and when you un-associated MidiNotate with .mid files, the previously associated MIDI program will be restored.

This improvement has a flaw in that the previously associated MIDI program might have in the mean time been uninstalled on the user's system. That case is much more rare, however, than the case where the previously associated MIDI program is still on the user's system and thus makes sense to be re-associated.

I'm not aware of other programs doing this for .mid files and other types of files, but I have often wish they would. At least MidiNotate will now (in the next release).

Cheers
-- Mark
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 03-31-2005, 05:11 PM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hello David, I was able to

Hello David,

I was able to reproduce the problem with the wrong page size initially displaying in Page View. It turns out that I had fixed only part of the problem you previously reported.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

There is also a functionality difficulty with the way Player handles MIDI devices. Player seems to assign all parts to one MIDI port, even if the file loaded is set for multiple ports. With a fully orchestrated score, there are more than 16 channels required to cover all the instruments, therefore playback on more than one port is required. Although Player can load such files, it can't play them back properly if only one MIDI port is used. Without the Track Setup dialogue box, this can't be changed.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>Please try this quick investigation. I assume you followed Sherry's advice and installed Player under a different parent MidiNotate directory than the MidiNotate parent of Composer. In Player's parent directory, rename MidiDev.cfg to MidiDev.bak. Then copy the MidiDev.cfg from \Program Files\MidiNotate (parent of Composer) to the parent of Player. Then run Player and see if this problem goes away.

Thanks!
-- Mark


Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 03-31-2005, 05:30 PM
Sherry Crann (sherry)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Howdy Mark, Regarding assoc

Howdy Mark,

Regarding association of files, it may well have been a Windows problem, as I've also noticed this "hesitation" for other folder names that were very similar. For example, I have a subfolder where I keep my downloaded files separately in my own designated folder, and when I had initially named it "downloads", Windows apps really gave me grief about opening it and retrieving things - it would often just lock up on that folder if I was using Explorer to view folders and files. After I renamed it "down loads" (with a space), the computer got much less confused

Anyway, when I had initially loaded Player, I specifically did not associate .mid files with it because I wanted those to load in Pro. However, every time I'd click on a .mid file, invariably Player would open up with it. I went in to both Player and Pro to determine the file associations, and it was unchecked in Player and checked in Pro. Notwithstanding, every time I double-clicked a .mid file, it would still open in Player. However, since renaming the folder where it resides, I've not had that problem. Just a tidbit in case anyone else is having the same problem.

ttfn,
Sherry


Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 03-31-2005, 09:28 PM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Sherry, At any time, you ca

Sherry,

At any time, you can bypass an application's self-association with a file extension (such as .mid) by setting Control Panel / Tools / Folder Options / File Types / Registered File Types / MID. MID is the .mid file extension for MIDI files. This is a way you can check up on which application has the official last claim to a particular file extension.

There is also a way to see and change this information in the Windows Registry; but there is no good reason I know of for bypassing the Control Panel.

Cheers
-- Mark
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 03-31-2005, 10:30 PM
David Jacklin (dj)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hi, Mark: Yes! Copying Comp

Hi, Mark:

Yes! Copying Composer's MidiDev.cfg to the Player directory (I did as Sheri had suggested) seems to have fixed the problem with using multiple midi devices.


I looked a little further at the Page size problem I detailed above and I think that it's happening in Composer as well ! -- at least, the first time that Page View is called when running Composer. I've tried it several times, with different files and it seems to happen each time, that is, with a page size other than 8.5 X 11 -- the first attempt at page view always seems to come up 8.5 X 11. Resetting the Page Size in Page Setup fixes it for that and subsequent uses of Page View during the same session.

Now all of the files that I've used are older files, created before Composer 1.0, but I've not noticed any problem before now.


Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 03-31-2005, 10:54 PM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default David,


David,

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Yes! Copying Composer's MidiDev.cfg to the Player directory (I did as Sheri had suggested) seems to have fixed the problem with using multiple midi devices.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>That confirms understanding of the problem, and will help me to fix it more efficiently. Thanks for the report.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

I looked a little further at the Page size problem I detailed above and I think that it's happening in Composer as well!<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>This does not surprise me. Other parts of the page setup problem that I fixed a few days ago were also present in all versions of MidiNotate. At that time, though, I was surprised as you are now that we didn't observe this problem before. Maybe the bug is only a few months old rather than a few years old.

Cheers
-- Mark




Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 03-31-2005, 10:59 PM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hi David, I'd appreciat

Hi David,

I'd appreciate your sending me the two versions of the MidiDev.cfg file: (1) the version that was missing the MIDI port for the second set of 16 channels for Player, and (2) good version that you borrowed from Composer to get Player to work correctly.

Thanks!
-- Mark
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 04-01-2005, 12:25 AM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default David, The problem with the

David,

The problem with the page size is now fixed for the next releases of MidiNotate Player, Composer, Composer Pro, and Musician. This is the problem you reported, that if a non-default page size was saved in the .not file, that page size was not correctly restored when you reopened the file and went to Page View.

Thanks again for reporting the bug.

Cheers
-- Mark
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 04-01-2005, 01:04 AM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Clyde, David, and Sherry, I

Clyde, David, and Sherry,

I did what I thought was a pretty thorough test for the conflict between MidiNotate Player and MidiNotate Composer in the area of MIDI device configuration, and everything worked fine. I'd appreciate your doing the following test, and letting me know whether you run into a problem on your system. If you don't, then our next task is to discover what is different about my test versus the circumstances of the bug you're running into.

Here's the test I followed successfully, and which I hope one of you will try. It won't take long if you still have the setup programs for Player and Composer on your system:
  1. Install both MidiNotate Player and MidiNotate Composer underneath a new common parent directory, such as \Program Files\MidiNotateTest.
  2. Confirm that there is no MidiDev.cfg file in this \Program Files\MidiNotateTest directory. The MidiDev.cfg is automatically created the first time you run one of the MidiNotate programs.
  3. Run MidiNotate Composer for the first time.
  4. Use the Setup / Quick MIDI Device Setup command in Composer, and set the playback device to one that you commonly use.
  5. Exit Composer.
  6. Run MidiNotate Player for the first time.
  7. Use the Setup / Quick MIDI Device Setup command in Player. Confirm that the playback device is set to the one that you set above in Composer. This should happen because all MidiNotate programs under the same common parent directory will share the same MidiDev.cfg file.
  8. In Player's Quick MIDI Device Setup dialog, change the playback device to another one that you commonly use.
  9. Exit Player.
  10. Run Composer a second time.
  11. In Composer's Quick MIDI Device Setup, confirm that the current playback device is now the one you most recently set above in Player.
Thanks!!!

-- Mark

Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 04-01-2005, 02:30 PM
Sherry Crann (sherry)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Howdy Mark, I did the above

Howdy Mark,

I did the above experiment, and it indeed works.

Just a note on specifics of what I did.

1. I first uninstalled the original Pro and Player, but didn't delete the \Program files\midinotate directory.

2. Then, I installed Pro, then the Player into \Program files\test midinotate.

3. I ran Pro, and it took more time than usual to start up (about 9 seconds - it's usually instantaneous), and when I checked the midi configuration, all the devices and ports were listed the same as usual - even the GPO Studio devices. I thought those would only be detected initially if GPO were run simultaneously, or does MidiNotate pickup this info from the Windows system info? That's mostly just one of my "Curious Georgette" questions

4. Anyway, the rest of the test ran just fine, and I got the results as indicated.

ttfn,
Sherry
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 04-01-2005, 02:48 PM
Sherry Crann (sherry)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Howdy Mark, I forgot to men

Howdy Mark,

I forgot to mention that when I did the installations above, Player indeed installed a desktop icon when I checked the box, whereas Pro did not install an icon, even though I checked the box during installation for it to install a desktop icon. I tried it again (uninstalled, then reinstalled) just to be sure it was not installing an icon. I thought that was a bit weird.

ttfn,
Sherry
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 04-01-2005, 04:49 PM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Sherry, Thanks for testing

Sherry,

Thanks for testing the conflict between Player and Composer (Pro) in the area of MIDI device configuration. I read back through this entire thread and now see that you didn't ever report the MIDI device configuration conflict that Clyde and David have reported. You reported a different problem, regarding the .mid file association. So, I'm hoping that Clyde or David will do this same test you did, since they were the one's, not you, that ran into the problem.

Other things...

GPO does not need to be running for MidiNotate to detect the GPO devices. The GPO devices (ports / drivers) are registered with Windows when GPO is installed.

The Player setup program was recently fixed to correctly install the desktop icon, as you discovered. This fix for Composer Pro's setup has not been made yet.

Cheers
-- Mark
Reply With Quote
  #16  
Old 04-04-2005, 02:30 PM
Erwin O (erdax)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Mark The first version of t

Mark

The first version of the player did work except for the MidDev.cfg. conflict.
So I had to remove it from my system. Now today I installed the second version of the Player but that didn't work at all. Whenever I play a miidfile it's still the MediaPlayer who's doing the work and when I open the MN Player I got this (see screen capture).






















I couldn't find a solution for this, even rebooting several times, deleting and re-installing, in the same directory and in different ones.
Doesn't want to work. What is causing the problem??????????
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 04-04-2005, 03:10 PM
Sherry Crann (sherry)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Howdy Erwin, Regarding the

Howdy Erwin,

Regarding the font problem you mention above, the following is taken from the Knowledge Base FAQ on this problem:
************************************************** ********************
What should I do if the setup program says the Harmony music font cannot be installed?


The MidiNotate setup program might display this error message:

The music font (named 'Harmony') could not be installed. If MidiNotate does not display notes and other music symbols then please visit out web site FAQ page...

This problem may occur if prior to running the setup program you had run another version of MidiNotate which abnormally terminated. In that case, the Harmony music font may left locked by the abnormally terminated program, and cannot be replaced by the setup program.

To fix this problem, you can manually install the Harmony font using the Windows Control Panel / Fonts folder. First, remove any the copy of the Harmony font currently in the folder. If it cannot be removed, then reboot Windows and try again. After removing the Harmony font, use the Install New Font command in the File menu of the Windows Control Panel / Fonts folder. Install the Harmony font from its location: CProgram FilesNotation Software, IncMidiNotateharmony_.ttf.

************************************************** *******************

Did you try doing this manual installation of the font? Hopefully that will take care of your problem

ttfn,
Sherry

Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 04-04-2005, 06:17 PM
Erwin O (erdax)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hi Sherry I couldn't fi

Hi Sherry

I couldn't find my way through the FAQ's and thanks for your respond. I indeed did remove the Harmony font in Windows Control Panel / Fonts folder. Installing from its location didn't work: CProgram Files Notation Software, IncMidiNotateharmony_.ttf. In my case installing the harmony font gave: C Program Files/MidiNotate/Composer and Composer Pro and MN Player but I couldn't locate IncMidiNotateharmony_.ttf.

Cheers
--Erwin
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Old 04-04-2005, 06:55 PM
Sherry Crann (sherry)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Howdy Erwin, Please forgive

Howdy Erwin,

Please forgive me if I'm being redundant because I misunderstand the problem here

The Harmony font (harmony_.ttf) should install into the \Windows\fonts subdirectory. I just looked on my system (where Player and Composer are both working fine) and the only place that the harmony_.ttf file is installed is in the \windows\fonts subdirectory.

ttfn,
Sherry


Reply With Quote
  #20  
Old 04-04-2005, 07:29 PM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hello Erwin and Sherry, Th

Hello Erwin and Sherry,

The MidiNotate setup program should install the Harmony font in the Windows\Fonts directory. There are various reasons that might fail, that I won't go into here. If the installation of the font fails, then you can reboot Windows and the setup program should finish its work of installing the font. But even if none of that works, MidiNotate still has yet a further safeguard to make sure the Harmony font is available. However, that safeguard was not working in last release of MidiNotate Player. Erwin, I appreciate your report of this problem, because it brought to my attention that the safeguard was not working.

The safeguard is this: Even if the Harmony font never gets installed in the Windows/Fonts directory, all versions of MidiNotate have a copy of the font embedded inside the executable (.exe). If the Harmony font is not found in the Windows/Fonts directory, MidiNotate lifts the font out of its .exe and places it in the same directory as the .exe, and then refers to that extracted copy of the font. That safeguard has been working well for a year or two, but I broke it in the last release of MidiNotate Player. I'll fix it in the next release.

In the mean time, Erwin, you can download the following Harmony font file, and install it in your Windows/Font directory. Anyone else reading this post some weeks or months from now should not use this copy of the Harmony font, because it might be out-of-date. Instead, you should go to www.notation.com/support.htm and look for the Harmony_.ttf under Downloads.

<center><table border=1><tr><td>Harmony_.ttf
HARMONY_.TTF (41.2 k)</td></tr></table></center>

Cheers
-- Mark
Reply With Quote
  #21  
Old 04-06-2005, 11:37 PM
Erwin O (erdax)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Thanks Mark and Sherry, now it

Thanks Mark and Sherry, now it works but I still got a problem concerning the association to .mid and .kar files.
The player wouldn't open when activating a midifile. The first release of the Player did it, the newer version doesn't.

Could there be a problem too.

Cheers
--Erwin
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 04-07-2005, 12:39 AM
Sherry Crann (sherry)
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Howdy Erwin, I noticed some

Howdy Erwin,

I noticed some weirdness in my file associations, too, when I first installed Player. If you are using Windows XP, then you can click on the Start button, then go to Control Panel / Tools / Folder Options / File Types . Here, you can choose the filetype (.mid or .not) that you want to check on. Find the filetype in the list, and it will tell you what program is laying claim to that filetype. If it's the one you want, then just click ok. If you want to change it, you can do that in a little dialog box that comes up.

I hope this helps! It worked for me
Sherry
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 05:16 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Notation Software Germany GmbH www.notation.com/Imprint.php