|
|
|
|
Melody Player
Instruction Manual
May 28,2024
|
|
Melody player is a freeware program
for playing music files created with Harmony or
Melody Assistant : MUS, MYR, MU3, MYA as well as
MID, ABC, MOD, S3M, XML, MXL files. It runs on
Macintosh ( Intel, Mac OS X 10.6 and later) and
Windows (Windows 95 up to Windows 10)
Digital audio files can be added (wav, aiff
mp3,ogg). For these files, tempo change or
transposing isn't available.
For instance, with Melody Player enables you can
send your music pieces to people who don't own
neither Melody Assistant nor Harmony Assistant.
You can use Harmony Assistant to collect a set of
music files into a single .MYA archive, since Melody
Player manages this format.
Melody Player includes :
- the light version of the digital sound database,
so it does not need any MIDI card or interface.
- Virtual Singer: song lyrics can then be sung by
synthesized human voices in English, French,
Spanish, German, Latin, Finnish, Japanese or
Occitan.
Melody Player works in two modes: a simplified mode
and an extended mode. The extended mode offers a set
of extra features, these features being tagged with
the symbol in this manual.
Extended mode is reserved to registered users of any
Myriad product.
List creator can force the simplified mode with
Harmony Assistant.
List creator can prohibit some changes from the
user. This will be tagged with the symbol in this document.
File list
From top to bottom:
The close box icon (can also be displayed as a cross
on the right of the bar) and the jukebox file name.
The check mark appears when the file has been
modified.
The -green- star appears when enhanced mode is
activated
If list is locked, the symbol .
- Display help
- Erase file list
- Load a file list. These files are in .box
format, created with Melody Assistant, Harmony
Assistant or Melody Player itself.
- Save file list. In the list, only the
relative location of the file to the .box
location is stored. The file will then have to
remain at this location.
- Save file list under another name.
- General setup
- interface language
- delay between music pieces in secondes
- use pedal device. Right button to start/stop
the music, left button skip to next item
- launch automatically playback when a .box is
loaded
- smooth lines on preview
- in scroll mode: smooth scrolling or page by
page
- offset in milliseconds to synchronise the
cursor and the audio
- piano key colors
- text size in list
- manage licences for all Myriad products
- Activate the score
view (see the "Score view" chapter)
Melody Player manages a list of files:
The duration of each file is displayed. The current
item is highlighted.
You can move an item in the list by keeping the
mouse button down for one second then dragging it
with the mouse.
You can add an annotation or specify the list of
measures to play.
Add a file to the list.
Add a folder to the list.
Remove a file.
List playback mode. Successively:
Play the current file then stop.
Play the current file in loop.
Play successively all files in the list then stop
Play successively all files in the list and loop.
Play randomly all the files
Play/pause music
Stop music
General sound volume. Click there to change it.
Contextual help line.
Score
View
If score view is activated, Melody Player looks like
this:
Control
icons
Control icons are, from left to
right:
Play/Stop music
Fast rewind
Fast forward
Pause
Stop music
Volume setting
Sound Mixer
Lectern Mode
Measure numbers
Scroll mode
Tempo setting
Activate/Deactivate metronome. A left long click
enables to select how many measures to play before
playback. A right long click selects metronome
output level.
Print settings. This icon is displayed if printing
is available.
Print. This icon is displayed if printing is
available .
Previous page. In Karaoke
mode and if several singers are present, switch to
next singer.
Next page. In Karaoke mode
and if several singers are present, switch to
previous singer.
Display scale. You can also use the mouse wheel.
Transpose down
Transpose up
Semitone offset
Save file
File information
Activate/Deactivate Virtual Singer. This icon is
only available if the document includes lyrics and
the author is a registered user.
Karaoke mode: display
lyrics.This icon is only available if the document
includes lyrics.
Previous view. This icon is only available if the
document include views.
Play the current view or the whole score. This icon
is only available if the document include views.
Next View. This icon is only available if the
document include views.
Page rotation.
Virtual keyboard
Location in score
A small blue triangle in this area shows the
currently played position. You can click in this
area to jump to any time position.
When the mouse
cursor is on the bar, will be displayed:
- Time position
in minute and second
- Position in
played bar and number of played bars.
When the piece include break symbols (repeats,
endings, segno, etc) this area is divided in two.
Above, the location in the written score, below, the
location in the played score.
When the mouse
cursor is on the bar, will be displayed:
Position in written
bar and position in played bar.
A right click enables to define a range of bar to be
played in loop.
Sound
mixer
You
can activate the Lectern mode mixer from its icon
(the mixer) or from the 'M' key.
The sound mixer enables to select the volume and
panning position for each staff.
Click the small blue loudspeaker to mute a
staff.
If values have been changed, you can revert to
the default settings by clicking the horizontal
black arrow.
Your changes will be memorized if you activated
this option.
Lectern
mode
You can activate the Lectern mode
from its icon (the double page) or from the 'U' key.
This mode is especially designed for performers who
need to follow the score on screen.
Pages are displayed two by two. The current page is
lighter, the next page is darker.
The next page is displayed either on the left or on
the right, so that the change of page does not
distract the performer. Page sequence is therefore
unusual.
Please note that Melody Player is compatible with
page turner pedals (tested with Bilila's
product),
which
enable
to
browse
the
document hand-free.
You can setup the pedal to start/stop the tune,
pause/depause the tune instead of changing the page.
Karaoke mode
You can activate the Karaoke from the "Txt" icon or
from the 'K' key.
This mode displays lyrics in sync with the music.
You can change the display scale from the Zoom icon.
To work on a text part, select the played bars in
the music list.
Or more precisely, select the part of the text you
want to play in loop.
If there are several staves with lyrics in the
score, you can change the displayed one with the
"next page" or "previous page" icon.
If the singer doesn't sing during more than 5
seconds, a countdown is displayed.
Right-click the text to copy it to the clipboard or
to save it as a text file.
The mixer allow to mix quickly between the singer
and the orchestra.
Area can be resized or hided using the resizing
icon.
Restrictions
"Own a license" means: "Harmony Assistant, Melody
Assistant, Virtual Singer, PDFtoMusic or PDFtoMusic
Pro is registered on the workstation".
Features accessible if the document creator own a
license:
- ribbon mode
- lectern mode
- measure numbering
- printing
Features accessible if the user own a license:
- smooth karaoke
- karaoke mixer
- karaoke gauge
- copy/save karaoke text
- transposition
- fine management of the virtual keyboard
Virtual Singer allowed if:
- The creator own a Virtual Singer license
- The user own a Virtual Singer license
- Otherwise within the usual time limits
Keyboard shortcuts
F1
|
Display help
|
|
Space bar
|
Start/stop
the music
|
|
Up arrow
|
Select
previous item in list
|
|
Down arrow
|
Select next
item in list
|
|
Right arrow
|
Next page
|
*
|
Left arrow
|
Previous page
|
*
|
Page up
|
Previous page
|
*
|
Page Down
|
Next page |
*
|
Begin
|
First page
|
*
|
End
|
Last page
|
*
|
Carriage
return
|
Play/Stop
|
|
Enter
|
Show file on hard drive
|
|
Del
|
Delete
current item
|
|
Backspace
|
Delete
current item |
|
+
|
Increase
score scale
|
*
|
-
|
Decrease
score scale
|
*
|
* (keypad)
|
Increase
sound level
|
|
/ (keypad)
|
Decrease
sound level
|
|
=
|
Change play
mode
|
|
0 (keypad) |
Activate/deactivate
metronome
|
*
|
8 (keypad) |
Decrease
tempo
|
*
|
9 (keypad) |
Increase
tempo |
*
|
4 (keypad)
|
Rotate score
|
*
|
5 (keypad) |
When music is
playing, fast rewind
|
*
|
6 (keypad)
|
When music is
playing, fast forward
|
*
|
1 (keybad)
|
Activate/deactivate
lectern
mode
|
*
|
2 (keypad) |
Previous view
|
*
|
3 (keypad) |
Next view
|
*
|
, or .
(keypad) |
Invert Play
View/Play Document mode
|
*
|
F
|
Fullscreen
mode
|
|
H
|
Hide/show
icons
|
*
|
i
|
Inverted
contrast display
|
*
|
K
|
Activate/deactivate
Karaoke mode |
*
|
L
|
Hide/Show
list
|
*
|
M
|
Hide/Show
sound mixer
|
*
|
R
|
Change sound
mixer settings storage mode
|
|
U
|
Activate/deactivate Lectern mode
|
|
V
|
Hide/Show
score
|
|
W
|
Decrease metronome output
level
|
|
X
|
Increase metronome output
level |
|
* = This shortcut is only available when the score
is displayed.
Appendix: Using
Melody Player to study piano pieces
One possible use of Melody Player is the study of
piano pieces.
Music will be played, left hand and right hand will
be represented on the virtual keyboard. A button
leads to a Web page that contains additional
explanations.
First, a Harmony Assistant document (. Myr)
containing the score has to be created.
The two hands have to be written on two
different staves.
- In the score, right and left hand should be
related to different instruments (even if both
are played on a piano)
- Staff names are free, it's the name of the
instruments that are used, for example "right hand"
and "left hand"
- The "left hand" instrument must have a slight left
panning posistion and "right hand" a right panning
position. This enables to differentiate them
and display a different color on the keyboard.
- File setup is done via the "Website" File>
Title, composer ...." field
It can be, for example:
key=on,no=8,
for=1,http://www.mypianolesson/num125.htm
key=on means
the virtual keyboard will automatically be displayed
no=xxx
specifies the number of octaves
fo=xxx
specifies the first octave
then comes the URL that will be opened when the user
clicks on "URL".
All commands are optional, separated by a coma or a
space.
If fingering information is related to
the notes, it is displayed on the keyboard.
Note: If sound and key display are not in
sync, please adjust the digital output offset
in the settings.
|
|
|
|