In order to install the
Harmonic Entropy Music Composition System you must have a PC compatible, also
sometimes called x86, computer and a working soundcard. The minimum
requirements to run the program are the following:
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Minimum
Requirements
|
|
CPU Speed
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1 GHZ
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Memory
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256 MB RAM
|
|
Hard Disk Space
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50 MB
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Sound Device
|
SoundBlaster
compatible
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Table 1:
Minimum requirements to run the software
For the best performance we recommend the following
system or better:
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Recommended
Requirements
|
|
CPU Speed
|
1.7 GHZ
|
|
Memory
|
512 MB RAM
|
|
Hard Disk Space
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50 MB
|
|
Sound Device
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SoundBlaster Live or newer Soundcard and good
PC speakers
|
Table 2: Satisfying the recommended requirements will give
better playback, performance, and a higher quality sound output.
The following is a detailed description of each step in the
installation process:
1.
Insert the Harmonic
entropy CD into the CD or DVD player in your computer.
2.
If AutoPlay is enabled
the installation procedure will begin immediately. If installation does not
begin skip to the end of this section, entitled Advanced Installation. You know
the installation process has begun if you see the following graphic appear on
screen:
3.
The next screen that
appears will be the introduction screen. Please press next to continue.
4.
The next screen allows
you to choose where you want to install the program. If you do not know where
you want to install the program, use the default location by pressing next.
5.
The next screen lets
you adjust how Windows handles installing your program. By default, the program
is put into the start menu in Windows. You can adjust where you want shortcuts
placed on your computer by clicking the radio buttons on the left hand side of
the white pane. For example, if you want a shortcut to appear on your desktop
after completing installation click the on the desktop radio button. After you
have made your choice, or if you just want the default, press next.
6.
You are now ready to
install. Press the install button to continue.
If the program does not
automatically install, which can happen if AutoPlay is disabled in Windows, or
you want additional control over your installation, browse to the Harmonic
Entropy install CD. You will notice a file called install.exe. Click on this
file to begin the default installation.
NOTEFOR ADVANCED
USERS ONLY: By default, the installer installs
Java Virtual Machine 1.4.2_03 onto your system. This virtual machine in no way
affects your current Java setup, and does not override any settings currently
on your computer. This is done only to ensure compatibility, and to ensure the
user has the correct version of Java installed. If, however, you would prefer
to not have this extra virtual machine installed, browse to the CD and look for
the folder labeled NoVM. This folder contains another file called install.exe.
By installing this file no extra virtual machine is installed, and it is up to
you to ensure that your Java installation is compatible with our product. The
installation procedure is identical to the default procedure, except that no
extra virtual machine is added. If you don’t know what a Java Virtual Machine
is, or how to test if your system is compatible, then this file is not for you!
Use the default installation instead.
If
you chose the default installation you can start the program from the start
menu in Windows. To do this in WindowsXP go to start, all programs, Harmonic
Entropy, and select the Harmonic Entropy Icon. This will load the main window
and allow you to login to the program.
Mouse
users: Click on the x in the top right corner
of the screen to exit the program.
Keyboard
users: Most screens have an exit button where
you can click to exit the program. Here is an example from the main menu of the
Harmonic Entropy program.
The IntelliKeys keyboard is a special keyboard which
has templates used to navigate a graphical user interface. The IntelliKeys
keyboard can be used either in conjunction with, or on its own, as an input
device to this program. Each user can define his or her own templates as an
input to the program, and as such we will not be trying to describe each
possible template in the course of this user manual. However, as a general rule the easiest way to make a template is
to create graphics resembling the graphic user interface in the main music
composition screen, or the screen where you actually compose the music. The Harmonic entropy team did make one
custom template that has keys matching those in the user interface. To know
what key to press for a certain action please reference appendix B for a
listing of all of these keys used in the user interface.
Once you have started the program you must log in to use it. To log in
do the following:
Mouse
users and keyboard users:
1. Press the button with your account name on it, the administrator
button, or the guest button. Notice that if you are using the keyboard that the
currently selected button is highlighted in yellow.
2. (Optional) Enter a password if necessary and press ok
The main menu screen consists of the main options the user has
available for creating scores, opening templates, or opening previously saved
scores. There are several options available at this screen.
1. To create a truly customized score click the Make a Score wizard.
This button will take you to a series of screens that will allow you to make a
score with a variety of options. For more information on the wizard see the
section labeled “Make a Score Wizard.”
2. The easiest way to make a score is to select the Create a Default
Score button, either with the keyboard or the mouse. This option will make a
default score with a tempo of 100, a time signature of 4/4, and only one
instrument, namely the piano. This button will take you directly to the main
composition screen. For more information about the composition screen see the
section labeled “Composition Screen.”
3. The Open a Template button brings you to a list of possible
templates. A template is defined as a blank musical score, and so each template
essentially allows you to create a new score with default instrumentation, like
a string quartet or rock band. Note
that on this screen, the name of the template is located on the left side of
the screen, and if the template is highlighted, the instruments in that score
show up on the right side of the screen. The following is an example of the
string quartet template:
4. The open a score screen will open scores for a particular user. For
example, if you always log in under the guest username and save your files
under the simple save option, see the “Simple Save” section for more details,
then all of your files will be saved in a special folder for the guest account.
When you log in under guest and click the open a score button you will be shown
all scores that were created under that account and saved using simple save.
Another bonus is that by highlighting a score in the open save screen the score
will be played back, through your speakers, so you can hear what the score
sounds like.
5. The last button on the Main Menu is the Logout button. This button
will log you out of the program and bring you back to the “login screen”. You
can then log into another account or exit the program.
The make a score wizard
allows you to make a customized and individual score. This section of the document will describe each individual screen
in the make a score wizard. To get to the wizard click the make a score wizard
button on the main screen.
1. The first screen in
the wizard is an introduction screen. To continue press the next button, or
press cancel to go back to the main menu.
2. The second screen
allows you to adjust what instruments are added to the score. For more
information on adding and deleting instruments from the score see the section
titled “Adding and Deleting Instruments Screen.”
3. The third screen
allows you to adjust the time signature and tempo of the musical score. A time
signature is how many beats the measure has, and a tempo is how fast the music
plays. When you have selected the time
signature and tempo, select the next button to go on to the next screen.
4. The fourth screen is
the finish screen. If you are finished selecting the instruments, time
signature, and tempo then press the finish button to create your score. If you
are not finished you can go back to change your options or cancel out of the
Make a Score Wizard.
The
composition screen is by far the most complex aspect of the music composition
program. It is in this screen that the user actually composes the music they
wish to save or have the computer play back. This screen has many
subcomponents, and thus it seems warranted to give it its own section in this
document.
The
music composition screen controls most of the features for editing, saving, and
playing music. Essentially, the screen allows creation of new documents, copy
pasting of parts of the document, adding measures, changing instruments, and of
course composing music.
The
following section will discuss the top row of toolbar buttons, including their
functions and keyboard shortcuts. The
order of the buttons will be from left to right. Each button will have a
description and a keyboard shortcut. A keyboard shortcut is a key that you
press on the keyboard to have that button take an action. For a complete
listing of the shortcut keys, reference appendix B.
1. New Button: Creates a new default score, which has a
tempo of 100, a time signature of 4/4, and a piano as an instrument.
Keyboard
Shortcut: N
2. Open Button: This button opens a score using the
simple open option.
Keyboard
Shortcut: O
3. Save Button: This button saves a score using the
simple save option, or if the user already has a score saved this button saves
the score to the location it was last saved.
Keyboard
Shortcut: S
4. Cut Button: The cut button cuts the notes from the
currently visible track to be pasted into another track.
Keyboard
Shortcut: X
5. Copy Button: The copy button copies notes from the
currently visible track to be pasted into another track.
Keyboard
Shortcut: C
6. Paste Button: The paste button pastes one measure of
notes currently on the clipboard into another track, replacing that measures
data.
Keyboard
Shortcut: P
7. Undo Button: This button undoes virtually any
operation in the program, from adding new instruments, to notes, to measures,
changing tempos, etc. If the undo button is disabled, or grayed out, there is
nothing to undo.
(Enabled)
(Disabled)
Keyboard
Shortcut: U
8. Redo Button: This button redoes virtually any
operation in the program, from adding new instruments, to notes, to measures,
changing tempos, etc. If the undo button is disabled, or grayed out, there is
nothing to undo.
(Enabled)
(Disabled)
Keyboard
Shortcut: R
9. Pause Button: This button pauses the MIDI playback
if it is currently running.
Keyboard Shortcut: F5
10. Stop Button: This button stops the MIDI playback
if it is currently running.
Keyboard Shortcut: F6
11. Play Measure Button: This button plays only the
measure currently displayed on the screen.
Keyboard Shortcut: F7
12. Play Button: This button starts MIDI playback
from the beginning of the musical score.
Keyboard Shortcut: F8
13. Help Button: This button brings up the help
screen, which contains a copy of this document.
Keyboard Shortcut: F1
14. Exit Button: This button exits to the main menu,
after issuing a warning. If you exit without saving you could potentially lose
some music.
Keyboard Shortcut: Esc
The following section will discuss the left side of
the screen toolbar buttons, including their functions and keyboard
shortcuts. The order of the buttons
will be from top to bottom. Each button will have a description and a keyboard
shortcut. A keyboard shortcut is a key that you press on the keyboard to have
that button take an action. For a complete listing of the shortcut keys,
reference appendix B.
1.
Sixteenth Note Button:
Clicking this note or pressing the keyboard shortcut tells the musical score
that if a note is added it should be a sixteenth note. In this case a sixteenth
note is equivalent to one Box on the screen.
Keyboard Shortcut: 1
2.
Eighth Note Button:
Clicking this note or pressing the keyboard shortcut tells the musical score
that if a note is added it should be an eighth note. In this case an eighth
note is equivalent to two Boxes on the screen.
Keyboard Shortcut: 2
3.
Quarter Note Button: Clicking this note or pressing the keyboard shortcut
tells the musical score that if a note is added it should be a quarter note. In
this case a quarter note is equivalent to four Boxes on the screen.
Keyboard Shortcut: 3
4.
Half Note Button:
Clicking this note or pressing the keyboard shortcut tells the musical score
that if a note is added it should be a half note. In this case a half note is
equivalent to eight Boxes on the screen.
Keyboard Shortcut: 4
5.
Whole Note Button:
Clicking this note or pressing the keyboard shortcut tells the musical score
that if a note is added it should be a whole note. In this case a whole note is
equivalent to 16 Boxes on the screen.
Keyboard Shortcut: 5
6.
Add a Measure Button:
This button adds a measure to the end of the score.
Keyboard
Shortcut: A
7.
Insert a Measure
Button: This button inserts a measure right before the measure currently on the
screen.
Keyboard Shortcut: M
8.
Delete a measure
button: This button deletes the measure currently displayed on the screen
Keyboard Shortcut: D
9.
Clear Measure Button:
Clears the notes out of the currently selected track panel.
Keyboard Shortcut: B
10.
Change Tempo Button:
This button pulls up a screen allowing you to change the tempo of the current
measure, or a range of measures.
Keyboard Shortcut: E
11.
Change Time Signature
Button: This button pulls up a screen allowing you to change the time signature
of the current measure or a range of measures.
Keyboard Shortcut: T
12.
Add or Delete
Instruments Button: This button pulls up a screen allowing you to add or delete
instruments from the score.
Keyboard Shortcut: I
The Bottom Toolbar
1.
Previous Measure
Button: This button displays the previous measure for all the instruments in
your score.
Keyboard Shortcut K
2.
Current Measure
Display: This button displays the current measure number.
3.
Next Measure Button:
This button displays the previous measure for all the instruments in your
score.
Keyboard Shortcut L
Adding deleting notes involves what are called track panels. Track
panels can be thought of as musical instruments and have two main states, open
and closed. In order to open a track panel you must highlight the “+” button
and press the space bar or the enter key.
To close the track panel you can press the backspace key. The following
is a picture of a closed track panel:
And the following is a picture of an open track panel:
To add a note to the track, which is also called a measure, press
either the space bar, the enter key, or click the left mouse button where you
want the new note to occur. Mouse users can also click the right mouse button
to reset which button is highlighted.
Here is an example of a user adding a C major chord to the track panel.
First add the note C5 as a whole note. We do this by first pressing the
5 key on the keyboard or by pressing the Whole Note Button with the mouse. The whole note button should now be
highlighted in the left toolbar. Now click the spacebar button on the note C5,
which is the note C in the middle of a standard keyboard. You should now see the following:
Now switch to a half note by pressing the 4 key on the keyboard and
move the highlighted button, using the left, right, up, and down arrows, to the
E5 button. Move the highlighted button to where it appears blue on the screen. Now press the space bar or enter key. If you
would prefer, you can also click here with the mouse. You should now see the
following:
To finish our major chord, move the highlighted button to the gray
portion 4 boxes to the right of the current location on G5 and press enter. You
should now see the following:
Notice that the line E5 only extends through 8 boxes. To fix this we
are going to add a quarter note to the end of the note on E5. Start by pressing
the 3 key on the keyboard. Then move to the blue button right after our note
finishes on E5. Now press the space bar key, enter key, or click with the mouse
on that location. You should now see the following:
Notice the button we clicked has a red beginning and all subsequent
notes are pink. This means it is a new note and does not continue from the
previous note, but we want this note to continue to the end of the measure. To
change this, click in the same position one more time. You should now see the
following:
We now have a major chord. Lets now delete the notes. Pressing enter or
spacebar a third time removes the sixteenth note that is highlighted. You
should now see the following:
Notice the note disapears, meaning off, and the note after it turned
red, indicating it is the start of a new note. Scroll back up to the G5, at the
beginning of the note. Now press the delete key. Pressing delete forces the
entire note to be deleted from the score. If you decide that you would rather
keep the notes, however, you can always undo your actions by pressing the U
key. You should now see the following:
To add or delete instruments open the
add/delete instruments screen from the composition window or use the make a
score wizard. This window looks like the following:
To navigate the list of instruments to add to the list on the right
press the up and down arrow keys, or use the mouse. To add an instrument press
the space key, and for a more complete list of instruments press the tab key.
Here is what the screen would look like after pressing tab and then adding two
flutes:
To remove instrument use the arrow keys or the mouse to navigate to the
right list and press spacebar or enter.
Or you can highlight something on the right list, navigate to remove,
and then press spacebar or enter. Here is what the screen would look like after
removing one of the flutes:
If this window was opened from the composition screen press ok, and the
score will now look like so:
Notice that pressing the page up key, from the flute, will take you to
the piano, and pressing page down key, from the piano, will take you to the
flute.
The
administrator can add, delete, or otherwise adjust accounts on the system. To
adjust accounts log in as administrator and you will notice that the main menu
has one extra button labeled administrator options. Click this button to begin
adjusting accounts
The
administrator screen allows the user to adjust user accounts and looks like so:
The
add account button will add a new student to the list. The delete an account
button will delete a student account, but will not delete that user’s files.
The rename an account button will change the name on a given account. The
change a password button will change any password on the system, including the
administrators, and the view password will show the password of any user.
The
final note is that if the administrator is to lose his or her password
completely they can look in the resources folder for the file called
LogInOut.class. This file contains the passwords for the system in plaintext.
To adjust this file browse to it in windows, right click on it, and click the
“open with” option. A box will pop up like so:
Click
“Select the program from a list” and press ok. Choose WordPad from the list and
make sure the box saying “Always use the selected program to open this kind of
file” is NOT selected. Now press
ok and look at the file, which will appear as so:
The field Administrator : Administrator : 0,
circled in red in the picture for clarity, is the administrator password, which
in this case is Administrator.
This
appendix is intended to give the reader a common sense idea of what a few basic
musical terms mean.
Instrument: A musical instrument is typically a physical device that can produce
sound. This can be anything from a guitar to a simple drum.
Note: A particular pitch or sound over time.
Time Signature: How the beat is divided up in a measure of music.
In a 4/4 measure the beat is divided up into two main parts, duple, and in 3/4
the beat is divided into 3 main parts, or triple.
Tempo: How fast the music is played.
Track: A term used in computer music to indicate a collection of notes over
time.
|
|
|
|
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New
|
N
|
Creates a new blank score
|
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Open
|
O
|
Opens a saved Score
|
|
Save
|
S
|
Saves the current score
|
|
Cut
|
X
|
Cuts the musical data out of the currently selected track into
the clipboard, leaving the currently selected track blank
|
|
Copy
|
C
|
Copies the musical data out of the currently selected track
into the clipboard
|
|
Paste
|
V
|
Pastes the musical data from the clipboard into the currently
selected track
|
|
Undo
|
U
|
Undoes an action.
|
|
Redo
|
R
|
Redoes an action.
|
|
Pause
|
F5
|
Pauses any current playback. Pressing play will then continue the song from the point it was paused
|
|
Stop
|
F6
|
Stops any current playback. Pressing play will then continue the song from the start of the song.
|
|
Play Measure
|
F7
|
Plays the currently selected measure
|
|
Play
|
F8
|
Plays the whole song from the beginning
|
|
Help
|
F1
|
Brings up the help screen.
|
|
Key Help
|
F2
|
Brings up a list of keys and what they map to.
|
|
Exit
|
Esc
|
Exits out of the composition screen and pulls up the main
menu.
|
|
Sixteenth Note
|
1
|
Enters a sixteenth note. A sixteenth note represents one box
in the track panel.
|
|
Eighth Note
|
2
|
Enters an eight note. An eight note represents two boxes in
the track panel.
|
|
Quarter Note
|
3
|
Enters a quarter note. A quarter note represents three boxes
in the track panel.
|
|
Half Note
|
4
|
Enters a half note. A half note represents four boxes in the
track panel.
|
|
Whole Note
|
5
|
Enters a whole note. A whole note represents five boxes in the
track panel.
|
|
Add measure
|
A
|
Adds another measure to the end of the composition
|
|
Delete Measure
|
D
|
Removes the currently selected measure
|
|
Insert Measure
|
M
|
Inserts a measure before the currently selected measure.
|
|
Clear Measure
|
B
|
Clears the currently selected measure.
|
|
Change Tempo
|
E
|
Pulls up the change tempo screen.
|
|
Add/Delete Instruments
|
I
|
Pulls up the Add/Delete Instrument screen.
|
|
Change Time Signature
|
T
|
Pulls up the Change Time Signature screen.
|
|
Next Measure
|
L
|
Displays the next measure on the screen.
|
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Previous Measure
|
K
|
Displays the previous measure on the screen.
|
|
Increase Volume
|
+
|
Increases the volume of a particular note.
|
|
Decrease Volume
|
-
|
Decreases the volume of a particular note.
|
|
Track Below
|
Page down
|
Navigates to the instrument track below the current selected
track.
|
|
Track Above
|
Page up
|
Navigates to the instrument track above the current selected
track.
|
