Melody Player

Instruction Manual

Melody player is a freeware 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 work on Mac OS X (10.3 and later) and Windows (95 and later)

For instance, Melody Player enables you to send your music pieces to people who don't own neither Melody Assistant nor Harmony Assistant.

You can use Harmony Assistant to collect a group 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.

The file list

Melody Player manages a list of files:

A: Close the application
B: Display help
C: Erase the file list
D: Load a file list. These files are in .box format, created with Melody Assistant, Harmony Assistant or Melody Player itself.
E: Save the file list. In the list, only the relative location of the file to the .box location is stored. The file will then have to keep this location.
F : Sound card setting, interface language select, delay between tunes.
G: Mixer settings storage mode. If this mode is active, changes applied to the mixer will be stored when you select another file.
H: File list. 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.
I: Activate the score view (see the "Score view" chapter)
J,K,L: Move the view area in the list. You can also use the mouse wheel.
M: General sound volume. Click there to change it.
N: Resize window
O: Contextual help line.
P: Play/stop music
Q: List playing 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

R: Remove the current file from the list. The actual file on hard disk is not affected.
S: Add recursively (for all subfolders) all files from a folder to the list
T: Add a file to the list. You can also drag a file from the desktop to the application window.

Score View

If score view is activated, Melody Player looks like this:

vue

A: Control icons,
B: Location in score
C: Score.

The colors of the interface can change along predefined themes. Use Right Click and Shift+Right click to switch the theme.

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
Tempo setting
Activate/Deactivate metronome. A long click enables to select how many bars to play
Print settings. This icon is only available if the author of the piece enabled printing.
Print. This icon is only available if the author of the piece enabled printing.
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 (one semitone)
Transpose up (one semitone)
Save file
File information
Activate/Deactivate Virtual Singer. This icon is only available if the document includes lyrics.
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.

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

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

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 enables to browse the document without using your hands.
You can setup the pedal to start/stop the tune, pause/depause the tune instead of changing the page.

Keyboard shortcuts

F1	Display help
Space bar	Start/stop 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	Add an item to the list
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/deaactivate Karaoke mode	*
L	Hide/Show list	*
M	Hide/Show sound mixer	*
R	Change sound mixer settings storage mode
V	Hide/Show score

* = 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.
The 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 which will be opened when the user click 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.