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  #1  
Old 04-09-2005, 12:01 AM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
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Default This third beta release (v

This third beta release (version 1.0.9.6) of MidiNotate Player is fairly well polished, probably ready to be released in not many days. You can download the MidiNotate Player setup program here:

www.notation.com/MidiNotatePlayerSetup.exe

No patch is available for upgrading from previous versions of MidiNotate Player.

The free MidiNotate Player software will service two primary purposes:
(1) Transcribe MIDI files to sheet music that can be viewed on the screen as the notes play, or printed.
(2) View, print, and play NoteSoft .not files saved by MidiNotate Musician, Composer, or Composer Pro.

The only remaining known development task is to add an option that lets the MidiNotate Player reassign the tracks of a .not file to multiple devices on his system. David J pointed out that some of his .not files use more than one device, because there are more than 16 tracks/channels. I haven't yet decided on a user interface design that will support this option and yet which will be simple to use.

The Users Guide is done, and has been reviewed once for typos. The User Guide will have a second careful review pass.

PLEASE NOTE: Files saved by MidiNotate Player cannot be read by currently available versions of MidiNotate Musician, Composer, and Composer Pro. Therefore, do not open a .not file and resave it with the same name. This problem will be fixed with the version 1.1 release of MidiNotate Musician, Composer, and Composer Pro.

Please let me know if you spot any problems in MidiNotate Player. I'm planning on releasing it soon.

Cheers
-- Mark
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  #2  
Old 04-09-2005, 12:21 AM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
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Default P.S. Here are the most signif

P.S. Here are the most significant fixes in this latest 1.0.9.6 release of MidiNotate Player:

1. The page setup saved in the .not file is now correctly restored when the file is reopened, even if the paper size or other page settings are not the defaults for your printer.

2. Conflicts between MidiNotate Player and other versions of MidiNotate in the area of MIDI device configuration have been resolved. Now, each version of MidiNotate-- that is, Player, Musician, Composer, and Composer Pro-- has its own copy of the MidiDev.cfg file in its own subdirectory of \Program Files\MidiNotate. For backward compatibility, the first time you run MidiNotate, it will copy the MidiDev.cfg file from the \Program Files\MidiNotate family directory to the local directory, such as \Program Files\MidiNotate\MNPlayer. This solution resolves the conflict, but comes at the cost that the various versions of MidiNotate now no longer share a common MIDI device configuration. For example, if you have Composer and Composer Pro, and make a change to the MIDI device configuration in one, you'll have to make the same change in the other.

3. MidiNotate's handling of the .mid file association is much more robust now. When you install one of the versions of MidiNotate, it will remember what MIDI application was previously associated with the .mid file extension. If you later uninstall MidiNotate, the previously associated MIDI application will be re-associated. This works the same way as (and in conjunction with) the Associate command in MidiNotate's Setup menu. This design has a flaw that the previously associated MIDI application that is restored might no longer exist of the user's system; but that case is much more rare than the common case where the user would like to restore the association to the old MIDI application that is still on his system.

Cheers
-- Mark
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  #3  
Old 04-09-2005, 12:56 AM
Clyde (clyde)
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Default Hi Mark, Downloaded the ne

Hi Mark,
Downloaded the new player and the conflict between it and Composer is now resolved. Your solution of keeping things separate is understandable, and the downside is only a one time setup minor issue.

The issue with the page layout in Composer still needs to be resolved, so that the last stave of the song stays as originally intended in Player.

Looking good .....

I had a thought about another potential use of Player that I may try out - make it a type of Karaoke system, except with player you can have the melody line as well as the lyrics being highlighted. The actual band can be hidden parts.

I notice that when Player is playing that the blue line moves and the chord names turn red, but the lyrics don't change colour. Would it be possible to also include the lyrics?

Cheers ... Clyde
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  #4  
Old 04-09-2005, 01:25 AM
Clyde (clyde)
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Default Hi Mark, Two possible p

Hi Mark,

Two possible problems with Player:

(a) The 'select Parts' menu has some 'unnamed parts' in them that do not appear to be any logical selection of staves, and

(b) If I change the Font size, the overall stave size increases but the font stays the same. If I then reduced the size (using magnifying glasses) the font also reduces in size way beyond what it originally was, even though I had previously increased it.

These two problems can be seen on the attached song:

<center><table border=1><tr><td>Player
B70_John_3_16-BIAB.not (84.1 k)</td></tr></table></center>

(For problem (b), change the font to 24 and then hit the reduced magnifiying glass).

Cheers ... Clyde
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  #5  
Old 04-09-2005, 01:57 AM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
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Default Hi Clyde, Thanks for review

Hi Clyde,

Thanks for reviewing Player and spotting some issues.

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

I had a thought about another potential use of Player that I may try out - make it a type of Karaoke system, except with player you can have the melody line as well as the lyrics being highlighted. The actual band can be hidden parts.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>That's a good idea.

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

I notice that when Player is playing that the blue line moves and the chord names turn red, but the lyrics don't change colour. Would it be possible to also include the lyrics?<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>I confirmed that the lyrics do not highlight during playback for your B70_John...not file, but that happens in Composer also. It doesn't happen with some other songs I've tried. I'll research this.

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

(a) The 'select Parts' menu has some 'unnamed parts' in them that do not appear to be any logical selection of staves.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>I'll solve this by simply not reporting that there are some 'unnamed' parts in the .not file, unless there is only one part and it is named 'unnamed'.

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

(b) If I change the Font size, the overall stave size increases but the font stays the same. If I then reduced the size (using magnifying glasses) the font also reduces in size way beyond what it originally was, even though I had previously increased it.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>I wasn't able to reproduce the problem in the first sentence, but the rest of the problem I was able to reproduce-- that's enough to tell me there's a problem that needs to be fixed.

Thanks for the reports. These are definitely problems that need to be fixed before Player is released.

Cheers
-- Mark






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  #6  
Old 04-09-2005, 05:09 AM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
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Default Hi Clyde, I found out what

Hi Clyde,

I found out what the problem was with the missing lyrics in B70-John...not. The RH Piano staff is muted; it is intended for display only. MidiNotate has rule that lyrics are not highlighted if the staff is muted. Perhaps that is a good rule or a bad rule, I'm not sure.

For now, you can work-around the problem by turning off mute for the Piano RH track. Then set the volume level to 0. The piano notes won't be heard, but the lyrics will now highlight.

Cheers
-- Mark
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  #7  
Old 04-12-2005, 01:54 AM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
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Default Clyde, I have now fixed thi

Clyde,

I have now fixed this problem that you reported above:<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

(b) If I change the Font size, the overall stave size increases but the font stays the same. If I then reduced the size (using magnifying glasses) the font also reduces in size way beyond what it originally was, even though I had previously increased it.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>This was a bug not only in Player but all versions of MidiNotate.

I also fixed a usability problem, and increased the flexibility of font sizes in all versions of MidiNotate.

The usability problem was that if you changed the default font size, that change did not affect the size of any types of text that used a non-default font size. For example, the default font size might be 10, but the font size for lyrics 12. If you changed the default font size from 10 to 14, the staves, notes, music symbols, and any text using the default font size would all increase from 10 to 14; but the font size of lyrics would remain at 12. This is probably not what one would usually want. One would probably want the lyrics size to increase proportionally to (12*14)/10 = 16.8

Sigh, that exposed another issue, which is that MidiNotate supported only whole number point sizes for fonts. This has now been changed. MidiNotate now supports point sizes with one digit after the decimal point, such as 16.8 or 12.5.

The other improvement is that now there is an option to scale the size of all objects proportionally. This option is on by default. So, in the above example, the size of lyrics will be appropriately changed from 12 to 16.8 when the default font size changes from 10 to 14.


Cheers
-- Mark
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  #8  
Old 04-12-2005, 02:28 AM
Clyde (clyde)
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Default Thanks Mark, I understand

Thanks Mark,
I understand the problem and the need for decimals, otherwise increasing and then dcreasing the size does bring you back to where you started.

Cheers ... Clyde
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