MusicReader Manual

From MusicReader Community Documentation

The MusicReader program is described in this chapter.

Contents 1 Display modes 1.1 Screen rotation 1.1.1 Windows 1.1.2 Mac OS 2 Menu 2.1 Icons 2.1.1 Main 2.1.2 Annotations Mode 2.1.3 Zoom Mode 2.1.4 Applications 2.1.5 Metronome / Tuner / Player / Recorder 2.2 Keyboard shortcuts 2.2.1 Playlist shortcuts 3 Library 4 Navigation and Mouse Modes 4.1 Navigation 4.1.1 Onscreen buttons 4.1.2 Navigation mode 4.1.3 Foot pedal and keyboard keys 4.2 Annotation 4.3 Select Measure 4.4 Zooming 5 Advanced Features 5.1 Applications 5.1.1 Metronome 5.1.2 Tuner 5.1.3 Music Player 5.1.4 Sound Recorder 5.2 Full screen / Hide menu 5.3 Switch to MusicConvert 5.4 Print a file

Display modes

The software can display your sheet music in multiple display modes:

1. One page only
2. Two pages
3. Half page

When your screen is in portrait mode the software will always display only one page. If it is in landscape mode (standard on most systems) then you can choose between the following option.

1. Rotate the screen left or right to display one page
2. Display two pages
3. Display half a page

After MusicReader started you can change to display mode by using in the menu.

Screen rotation

This section provides information about the screen rotation on Windows and Mac.

Windows

On Windows MusicReader can automatically rotate the screen when:

1. the computer already supports screen rotation, or
2. IRotate is installed

Mac OS

Some video cards include support for display rotation in Mac OS X. Look in Displays preferences; if you see a Rotate pop-up menu on the right side of the window, your video card supports display rotation.

On some macbooks screen rotation is unfortunately disabled by Apple. There is not yet a solution for this problem.

Menu

This section lists the menu icons and keyboard shortcuts.

Icons

The icons of the menu:

Main

Library	Previous Page	Next Page	Next Half Page	Browse
Navigation Mode	Annotation Mode	Select Measure Mode	Zoom Mode	Application

Annotations Mode

Pencil	Eraser	Marker	Symbol	Color
Width

Zoom Mode

Zoom In

Zoom Out

Current Zoom

Applications

Metronome / Tuner / Player / Recorder	Settings	Edit in MusicConvert	Print Music	Screen Rotation
Help	Exit

Metronome / Tuner / Player / Recorder

Metronome

Tuner

Music player

Sound recorder

Keyboard shortcuts

There are keyboard shortcuts available in the software for the most common operations.

[Page-up] or [Up] previous page

[Page-down] or [Down] next page

[H]alf page turn

Open [B]rowse

[P]lay / Pause recording

[S]top Playback

[U]ndo

[R]edo

Playlist shortcuts

When a playlist is loaded then you can also type a number (for example 1, 11 and 125) to jump to another piece in the list. This number is the place in the playlist where the piece is located.

Library

Check the library chapter for information about using the library.

Navigation and Mouse Modes

This section describes the navigation and mouse modes available in the MusicReader menu. Mouse modes determine the action performed on the sheet music. Some mouse modes have alternatives also listed in this section.

Navigation

In this subsection the navigation methods of MusicReader will be described.

Onscreen buttons

In the menu there are multiple buttons to navigate through the music. These are for page turning:

With these buttons you can turn pages back and forward. The half forward buttons changes the top of the screen to the next page and keeps the bottom on the current one. In this way you can see the top of the next page when you are at the bottom of the current one.

With you can request a dialog for browsing the music. In this dialog you can select the page or measure you want to navigate to. It contains thumbnails of the pages which you can view and select. There is also an option to select a specific page or measure number. When you enabled a playlist in the library, this list will also be visible in the browse dialog. From the playlist you can select a piece, which will then be loaded into MusicReader.

Navigation mode

When is selected in the menu you can turn pages by clicking on the sheet music. A click on the right side will turn the page forward and on the left side will turn it backward.

The separation between forward and backward is shown at the bottom of the screen:

In this mode there are three submodes which determine the actual type of page turn:

1. Standard turn of the file*
2. Always Whole Page
3. Always Half Page

You can change these modes after the navigation mode has been selected.

*=these page turns can be changed in MusicConvert.

Foot pedal and keyboard keys

Other possibilities are page turning by using keyboard keys:

• Page up or Up Arrow for previous page
• Page down or Down Arrow for next page

All foot pedals that can simulate these keys are compatible with MusicReader. Also function buttons on Tablet PCs can be used for this purpose if they activate the mentioned keys.

Annotation

The annotation mode consist of the following sub modes:

• Draw line
• Erase area
• Highlight area / Mark area
• Insert Symbol

In each mode you can choose the color and line-width which you want to use. With the draw, erase and mark modes you can simply draw a line on the sheet music. This line will be displayed with the selected color and width.

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TIP 1a - Tablet PC users can also use the erase side of the digitizer pen to erase annotations.

TIP 1b - Other users can use the right mouse button to erase, simply hold this button when erasing.

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TIP 2 - Use the color white to whiteout / hide parts of the sheet music.

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When you want to insert a symbol you either click on a location or draw a rectangle. When you click the symbol will be resized to the chosen line width. Drawing a rectangle will cause the symbol to be resized to the size of that rectangle. In this way you have full control over the size of the symbol.

It is also possible to add text to the sheet music. In the dialog you can select to enable this feature. Simply type the text and press OK. You can now insert it just like a normal Symbol.

Select Measure

With you can activate a mode where you can select a measure. This selection is used for the metronome, music player and for sending the measure to another musician in the network*.

*=network functionality is coming soon.

Zooming

Enlarging the sheet music can be done in the zooming mode. In this mode you can zoom into a specific area of the page and make for example accurate annotations. Zooming in can be done by clicking on the sheet music. You can also use the menu buttons:

Zoom in

Zoom out

Choose zoom factor

When the page is zoomed in, it is also possible to use scrollbars to go to another area of the page.

Advanced Features

In this section the advanced features are described.

Applications

In this subsection the special application wil be described.

Metronome

MusicReader has a metronome with the base functions and some enhanced functions. Before starting the metronome you need to specify:

• Beats (1-12 beats per measure)
• Tempo (40-240 bpm)

To start and stop the metronome use the and buttons.

can be used to turn the sound on/off (only possible if Windows has sound turned on).

The metronome has an enhanced function which shows the current measure in the music. For this functions it is required that the measure locations are known (see MusicConvert). If you have selected , the metronome will indicate the current measure starting at the measure of the displayed page. If you want to start from a specific measure you can also use to select a measure and then start the metronome. While the metronome is running the is automatically selected, so you can change the measure on the fly.

Tuner

When the tuner is activated it starts to listen to the input from the microphone attached to your system. Before you can use your microphone you need to activate it in Windows. You can adjust the tuner by selecting another pitch. Pitches from 410 up to 480 Hz are supported.

The tuner can also generate a tone at the desired pitch by clicking at . It will then switch to . Then you can also select another note. To stop the sound press the icon again.

Music Player

With the integrated music player you can play audio CDs and files. It works just like a normal music player. Multiple audio formats are supported, although some require a separate plug in (see Installation). It is also possible that there are audio files or CD tracks embedded in the sheet music file, in that case you can only choose these embedded items.

There are three possible sources for the music player:

• Embedded recording in the loaded file or an integrated reference to a CD tracks (requires CD)
• Audio CD
• Audio File

You need to choose one of these source before you can use the music player.

The music player has an enhanced function showing the current measure in the music. For this functions it is required that the measure locations are known and that the recording is calibrated (see MusicConvert). If you have selected the music player will indicate the current measure starting at the measure of the displayed page. If you want to start from a specific measure you can also use to select a measure and then start playback. While the music player is playing the is automatically selected, so you can change the measure on the fly.

Sound Recorder

With this feature you can record what you play and listen to it afterwards. It requires a working microphone. The recorder has the following buttons:

1. start / stop recording
2. start / stop playback of recording.
3. save recording

Full screen / Hide menu

Below the menu there is a bar with which you can hide/show the complete menu. In this way you can use the space of the menu to show the music fullscreen whenever this is necessary.

Shown

Hidden

Switch to MusicConvert

Sometimes you could find it necessary to change the file (page order, information, etc) currently loaded in MusicReader. When you press the displayed file will be loaded in MusicConvert. After changing the file you can easily switch back to MusicReader.

Print a file

MusicReader can print a complete piece including all the annotations. Simple click , select a printer and press OK.