MusicReader Manual

From MusicReader Community Documentation

The MusicReader program is described in this chapter.

Display modes

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

One page only
Two pages (Solo Pro only)
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.

Rotate the screen left or right to display one page
Display two pages
Display half a page
Display whole page on landscape

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:

the computer already supports screen rotation, or
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.

There is also a utility to rotate your screen called Display Rotation Menu.

It can be downloaded from http://www.magesw.com/displayrotation/

Mouse/Touchpad Rotation

On notebooks/laptops it could be handy to rotate the integrated mouse touchpad. In that way you can still use it when the screen is rotated. Officially Windows doesn't supports a mouse rotation, but there is still a (unsupported) way to so it:

Uninstall IRotate (If you have installed it)
Install EeeRotate - http://vk.edward.li.googlepages.com/eeerotate (please read the description)

This program can only rotate the mouse to one side, it doesn't support both sides unfortunately.

Please keep in mind that we don't support this software.

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:

Standard turn of the file*
Always Whole Page
Always Half Page

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

*=these page turns can be changed in MusicConvert.

In the half page view of MusicReader the page turn modes are completely ignored. In the two page view a whole page means two pages at once and half means only one page is turned.

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.

MIDI commands

With the program MIDI Translator you can translate MIDI commands to the keyboard shortcuts of MusicReader. In this way you can also turn pages with MIDI commands, simply map it to the Page Up and Page Down keys. The software can be downloaded from http://www.bome.com/midi/translator/

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.

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.

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

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.

There is a redo/undo function for annotations in the last drop-down menu of the software. With you can undo changes and with redo changes in annotations. In Version 3+ of the software you also have the option to clear a page from annotations () and to save/clone a file (). With the last feature you can create files of the same piece with different annotations.

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 (not yet available).

Add Bookmark

With -> you can add a bookmark to a page. Bookmarks can be a number or letter. Naming the bookmark is optional. All bookmarks are listed in for fast navigation. To remove a bookmark simply click on the same location again and the bookmark will be removed.

Change Half Page Height (Single Page View Only)

With -> you can change the height of the half page turn. Click on a location in the music and the height will be changed to the choosen height. In this way you can for example use 75% of the height for the current page and 25% for the next page, instead of the standard 50% setting. You can determine the height for every page in the file and these settings are saved when you close the file.

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 (Solo Pro only)

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.

You can add a new embedded file by using or remove it by using .

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:

start / stop recording
start / stop playback of recording.
save recording

You can save the recording you made to a WAV, OGG, AIF or AU File. If you want a small file then save it to OGG, this format has a compression similar to MP3. The only drawback is that not all players support OGG. The music player in MusicReader supports OGG.

It also possible to embed a recording in the sheet music file so you can use it in the music player. Embedded files are always saved as OGG to keep the sheet music file small. The embedding feature is only available in version 3.0 with v. 3.0 license.

The recorder will always ask if you want to save the old recording when you record a new one. In this way you can't accidentally overwrite a valuable recording.

Full screen / Hide menu (Solo Pro only)

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.

PDF File conversion

Version 3.0 with v. 3.0 license only

In MusicReader you can also open PDF Files. The software will then automatically convert the PDF file to the MusicReader format and save it to a .mrs file. It will then load the converted file, this means all annotations and other changes are saved to the created MusicReader file. In this way conversion of PDF files is easy and fast. If you want to change the file afterwards then you can always load it into MusicConvert.

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

Pencil	Eraser	Marker	Symbol	Color
Width

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