 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Music Works 2.1.2: New features Bob Burt bobburt@melbpc.org.au |
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It was only a few months ago that I had the pleasure of reviewing Music Works 2 PC Update Music Works 2, August 1996). Readers will have noted that I was favourably impressed with the program, which, technically, was version 2.0g.
A few weeks later I had the opportunity of looking at a later version purchased by a friend and fellow Melb PC member. That was v2.1, which had a number of improvements. An outstanding new feature was the facility for saving complete pages of music prepared by Music Works to the Windows clipboard in Windows Metafile (.WMF) format. From the clipboard you can pour the music files into other graphics-aware Windows programs such as MS Word for Windows, Aldus PageMaker and Micrografx Picture Publisher, to name just a few of the programs in which I have subsequently tested this feature. More on this later.
This updated review is based on an even more up-to-date version of music Works. It comes on CD-ROM as v2.1.1, but an update on 3.5 inch disk, provided with its own instruction sheet, brings the program up to v2.1.2. The original manual is unchanged, but most of the major changes are detailed in a useful User's Guide Addendum, a READ.ME file with the details for creating and controlling grace notes, is an exception.
New features
Changes have been made in three areas
- Improvements to the main program
- Supply of a major multimedia tutorial
- Provision of a diagnostic utility
The most impressive addition is the WMF format clipboard facility, mentioned above. This expands the capability of Music Works to the creation of graphics-based material including musical scores, text and illustrations. Even though Music Works itself includes resources for adding text and lyrics, such additions can be handled more adeptly using (much more costly) programs such as Aldus PageMaker.
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The WMF transfer process in earlier versions of Music Works required entries in the Music Works .INI file to determine the size of the graphic image to be imported into other Windows programs. The current upgrade enables you to set the required page size in Music Works, a much neater solution.
Grace notes can now be added to compositions. These are short (or passing) notes which are played either before or on the beat. They are drawn at half normal size and can be used and edited in virtually the same manner as standard notes. They cannot be beamed to normal notes, but a number of grace notes can be beamed together. The Edit Note dialog box now has a Grace Note checkbox and several more options to shift notes from their correct positions, play them at a time that differs from that indicated by the score and adjust the played length of a note.
Control over adding of triplet notes has been much improved. You can select triplet mode (where triplet divisions are displayed on the ruler bar) by clicking on Layout from the View menu and then selecting the Triplets checkbox, or much more quickly by using the new hotkey Ctrl+D. The triplets, when created, can now be displayed as either curved or square (referring to the shape of the trio bracket). There is, as yet, no provision for the creation of quintuplets or septuplets.
Double-dotted notes are now supported and for this purpose the dot icon of the Note Palette cycles through
no dot, single dot, double dot each time it is selected.
Double sharps and flats can now be included, so the Note Palette cycles through the options on the sharp or flat buttons.
Sharps and flats (accidentals) can be offset from their normal positions in relation to the notes themselves by double-clicking on them and making the changes in the Offset dialog box that then appears. This is a very useful feature, particularly when displaying chords with more than one accidental in them. All such accidentals lie in the one vertical plane, which you would rarely see displayed this way in standard printed music. Adjustments can now be made to improve clarity. You do have to be careful, though, to ensure that you double-click on the handle of the accidental rather than the handle of the note itself, to bring up the Offset box. So you might well need to zoom in to do this. You can also use the same dialog box to "hide" the accidental, if you wish.
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In previous versions of Music Works only pairs of staves could be linked by braces, which can be either square or curly braces. In the new version any number of staves on a page can be braced, using square braces. In fact, just one stave can be "braced" in this way, if you so desire.
An option has been provided to turn guitar tabs on or off. This is controlled through the [Preferences] section of the MW2.INI file. The entire guitar tab can be shown, or just the title or the body, as required.
Back-up copies of compositions are created when they are opened for editing and a number of other, more minor, procedural changes have also been made. As well, several minor bugs have been corrected.
The tutorial
This is a self-running Lotus Screencam(tm) movie which highlights many of the major features of Music Works. It takes you through the creation of a simple musical composition with both a bass clef and rhythm (drum) accompaniment. To use it in full screen mode, you will need to use a 640 x 480 display, whereas Music Works itself is better displayed in 800 x 600 mode.
The tutorial is not fully interactive, in that you cannot control precisely which segment you wish to repeat or omit, but you can pause and, to some degree, speed the action. Of course you can exit whenever you wish. These limitations, are in the Screencam system, not the Music Works tutorial itself, which is well designed and fulfils a useful purpose. It runs quite satisfactorily from the CD-ROM, so you do not need to install this section to your hard disk.
The diagnostic utility
This is designed to check your system to ensure it is suitable for use with Music Works. The diagnostic checks your operating system, memory, MIDI devices and timers, and prepares a report for you. You can view the report in the program or print it, if you so wish.
Internet presence
If you have Internet access, you can visit the Middle Earth WWW site for Music Works at
http://www.gil.com.au/midearth where you will find latest news, technical information and a modest music composition library. You can download a demonstration version of Music Works from their site.
Conclusion
It is heartening to find this new, useful program being updated so energetically
- work has already started on the beta versions of Music Works 3, for example. While version 2.1.2 is not a dedicated Windows 95 program, it performs quite satisfactorily in this environment. This latest version's new features have enhanced the performance of an already attractively priced, specialist program.
Reprinted from the November 1996 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
