ReadMe 1st for MuzicManiac

IMPORTANT. Always keep this Readme in the same directory with the MuzicManiac program. Lose it and using the program will be very difficult because MuzicManiac version mzmBeta2 has NO internal menus, only a few screen prompts.

1.mzmBeta2 (the music composer program with dozens of music functions including Load and Save to tape or disk; landscape and portrait Score Printing.)

3. musicsample1 ( test music score to load, play, edit and explore the MuzicManiac program.)

4.TestEnvelopeGenerator (A Graphic Envelope Generator program used to sample, shape and edit sound envelopes. This version of the envelope generator is Alpha software, without load, save or print functions. )

INSTALLATION. No installation is required. To load and run MuzicManiac type the following:

(For tape) load <hit RETURN> “Press Play on Tape” will appear on screen. Press Play button on your tape machine. At Ready prompt type run and copyright message appears on screen. Hit any key and the main music composer screen will open. You are ready to enter notes and symbols.

(For disk) load “mzmBeta2",08 At Ready prompt type run. The copyright message appears on screen. Hit any key and the main music composer screen will open. You are ready to enter notes and symbols.

Press “C” on your keyboard and Middle C (4) will sound and appear on screen as a Quarter Note.

ENTERING A LINE OF MUSIC (A Quick Tutorial). Start by entering the C scale. Press the following keys on your keyboard: c d e f g a b 5 c then press F1 to hear the scale. Now change to Voice 2 by pressing F5. Enter the following key presses, 3 a b 4 c d e f g a then press F1 to hear the notes play. After the note pattern plays, press F2 and both voices will play together. Press F5 again switching to Voice 3. Enter the following pattern: 2 i g f a g b a 3 c x b a e d f e g x then press F1 to hear the notes of the current voice. Press F2 to hear the score so far. F1 and F2 play back the last 2 bars. F3 and F4 play back starting at Measure 1. Let’s do some editing. Press the o key (the letter o like in one-step) press it only once as this key toggles one-step on and off. The one-step light should be on (alongside the current note box. Press F1. The score goes back 2 measures (in this case, to the start position.) Press the space-bar once. The first note will appear, and the information portion of the screen fills with the current note’s data. Press the space-bar again and the second note will appear. Now press <SHIFT> E for edit and the EDIT light should go on (an E alongside the note box.). Then press F8 once. The note is deleted (F8 removes notes one at a time each time it is pressed.) Enter another note ( press any alpha key a to g. ) Hit the space-bar again, but one-step has been disabled while we edit this portion of the score. Press <SHIFT> E for edit and the EDIT light should go off. Press the space bar again, it has been re enabled. Now turn off one-step. Press the o key again, the one-step light goes off and the score will continue playing to the end.

ENVELOPE AND FILTER LOOP. Press F7. The curser jumps to the Attack / Decay settings in the Envelope-Wave column. Press F7 again and the curser jumps to the Filters column. All the settings in the Envelope-Wave and Filters columns have prompts for the maximum and minimum values that can be entered. Prompts appear in the Prompt Window. F7 cycles between the Note, Envelope-Wave, and Filters columns.

PROMPT AND INSTRUCTION WINDOW Press F6. The curser jumps into the Prompt / Instruction Window. Type new ( actually NE is enough ) the score you entered is deleted and MuzicManiac returns to all the start-up defaults. Before you enter any further information, press F6 again and re enter the PROMPT / Instruction Window. Type old ( OL is enough ) and the score you previously entered is restored. The user should definitely save their score before resetting the program. The Commodore 64 does not have enough memory to store one complete score, and work on a second at the same time. Dead storage is a luxury the C64 can’t afford. The Prompt / Instruction Window is a two way portal issuing many prompts and calling up 15 important, but less often used functions like Load, Save, Print, Tempo, Key Signature, Time Signature, Vibrato and more. A table describing the functions is below.

LOAD, SAVE, PRINT YOUR MUSIC Press F6. The curser jumps into the Prompt / Instruction Window. Type save ( actually SA is enough ) Type (T) to save on tape, or (D) to save on disk. Follow the prompts. To load your music, press F6. In the Prompt Window, type load (LO) and follow the prompts. The Print function is intended for Commodore 64 printers with continuous form paper, but the instructions are rudimentary generic print codes and should work with any printer. (Emulators may require their own printer set-up proceedures.) The printed page is divided into three parts to accommodate separate instruments (similar to a conductor's master score.) To print, press F6, then type (P). The prompts are (L) large or (S) small, then (T) top of page, (C) center of page, (B) bottom of page. The mzmBeta2 prints in landscape mode.

W	whole note
H	half note
q	quarter note
i	eight note
s	sixteenth note
t	thirty-second note
y	sixty-fourth note
0 - 7	octave setting
a - g	notes
*	dotted note	each dot increases note time value by ½ to a max of 3 dots.
+	add one to octave	to a maximum of 7
-	decrease octave by 1	to a minimum of 0
#	sharp	increase note tone by ½ step.
$	Flat	decrease note tone by ½ step.
%	Natural	cancel sharp or flat
del	delete (ASCII 14)	cancel action, may be remapped on some emulators to home or backspace key.
/	Set master volume	sets volume for all voices, use envelope or filter settings for individual notes.
Down Arrow	cursor down (ASCII 17)	set special (not standard) frequency
Up Arrow	cursor up	return from special frequency setting
r	rest	whole to 64^th rest symbols available
x	extend	double note time value
p	play 2 voices	select any 2 voices.
n	Nonstandard note shape	voices 2 & 3 can have unique shapes
o	one-step	single step through score
<Shift>E	EDIT	Add remove symbols in mid-score

F1	Play current voice 2 Bars	goes back 2 full Bars to begin playing
F2	Play all voices 2 Bars	goes back 2 full Bars to begin playing
F3	Play current voice complete	goes back to Bar 1 to begin playing
F4	Play entire score	goes back to Bar 1 to begin playing
F5	Change Voice	cycles between Voices 1 -2 - 3
F6	To Information Window	15 functions available after entering F6
F7	ADSR Wave Filter settings	Cycles between Note-ADSR Wave and Filter columns.
F8	Delete symbol from score	erase last symbol of current voice

l	load	load music from Tape or Disk
sa	save	save music to tape or disk, by file name
p	print entire score	chose landscape or portrait mode
ve	verify music file	verify file in memory with data on tape or disk
si	time signature	all time signatures are available
k	key signature	all Major and Minor keys are available
t	set master tempo value	speed at which notes are played
r	set master release value	gap (off time) between notes
vi	vibrato	set pulse width for trembling effect
c	set cursor properties	allows less or more of score view on right
b	set bar number	reset bar count to 0 or 1
m	set measure properties	full, treble only, bass only
ne	new	reset program to default values
ol	old	return old score values to buffers
I	insert (not implemented)	used with envelope sampler

MuzicManiac is Free Beta software. Please note, MuzicManiac and mzmBeta2 is copyright by joseph tiraco with ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. It is free to use, does not require registration and will never expire, but NOT FREEWARE and NOT OPEN SOURCE. Distribution is restricted to the MUZICMANIAC.ORG WEBSITE. Do not redistribute in magazines, books, collections, over the Internet or through government or private mail service. The program code may not be modified except by the author. Bug reports and comments should be sent by the email form mounted at the MUZICMANIAC.ORG website. EMAIL IS NEVER ANSWERED. However, all mail sent using the form at MUZICMANIAC.ORG is read and appreciated.

MuzicManiac is distributed in the hope it may be useful, especially to young people eager to learn music, and develop the technical skills to read and write music script. The author received years of private music lessons in his youth, paid for by concerned, caring parents. It is this bountiful gift - this endless font of joy and pleasure - that I now share in my own small way.