Melody Player

Instruction Manual

March 14,2024

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:

Score title, duration, numbers of pages
Control icons,
Location in score
The score.

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

Features accessible if the user own a license:
- smooth karaoke
- karaoke mixer
- karaoke gauge
- copy/save karaoke text
- printing
- 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.