ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Music Box is a "shareware" adaptation of Musica. The original 
program  was written in 1983 and underwent numerous 
improvements over the next 2 years. After enjoying 4 years of 
success as a commercial program, the author decided to re-
release it in this new guise. You are free to give this program 
to your friends provided that you do not charge a fee for it. 
You may not include this program as a part of a commercial 
program. 

If you enjoy the program, please let the author know. If you're 
feeling especially generous, include a contribution of any 
amount. $15 will register you and make you elegible for the 
next update and a printed manual. The more people who register, 
the more updates and improvements! Send you comments and $$ to: 

        Lester Hands
        Box 629
        Rockaway, OR 97136


START-UP 

After turning the computer and disk drive or tape recorder on, 
load the program by typing LOADM "MUSBOX":EXEC or CLOADM 
"MUSICA":EXEC:RUN and then press the ENTER key. After a short 
pause, the TV screen will display treble and bass staves with a 
copyright notice. Press any key; the notice will erase and the 
memory and part indicators will appear. 

LOADING MUSIC

After loading the program as described above, press the "L" 
key. If you load from disk, a directory of the music files on 
the disk will be displayed. Enter the name of the music you 
want to load. If you have a cassette system, pressing ENTER 
without a name loads the next file. As soon as the composition 
has loaded, the screen will display the first 12 chords. Press 
the "P" key to play. 

If MUSIC BOX cannot find the file name you entered, the program 
will halt and Basic will give you an error message. Enter "RUN" 
and try again. 

ENTERING MUSIC 

Whenever you see a little flashing black box on the music 
score, you can enter or edit music. This flashing black box is 
called a cursor. It marks the exact spot in a composition where 
a command will take place. 

In the middle of the screen is a line that reads "1705=MEMORY   
1=PART". MEMORY tells you how much room there is left for more 
music. PART is a reminder of which of the four possible parts 
you are entering music into. 

To enter a note, select the correct pitch by moving the cursor 
up and down with the arrow keys and then press ENTER. Since 
MUSIC BOX can play up to four notes at once, you must specify 
which part (or voice) you want a note to be in. This can be 
selected by pressing "V" and then "1", "2", "3", or "4". 

Sharps and flats may be entered by pressing either "S" or "F" 
before pressing ENTER. 

In addition to entering notes pitches by the up/down arrow, 
"S", and "F" keys, the right joystick can be used. First press 
the "J" key and try moving the joystick up and down. The cursor 
should move accordingly. When you have the cursor positioned 
correctly, press the "FIRE" button to enter a note. Sharps and 
flats are written by moving the joystick to the right for 
sharps and left for flats before pressing "FIRE". To turn the 
joystick off, press the "J" key again. While the joystick is 
on, you will notice that the cursor is gray instead of solid 
black. 

EDITING MUSIC 

If you press "ENTER" immediately after entering a new note, you 
will find that the note is erased. Individual notes can be 
changed this way. Of course, only the note in the voice part 
indicated by the "PART" marker will be affected. The cursor 
does not need to be positioned on the desired note; just line 
it up vertically (directly under or above) and press "ENTER". 
The desired note will disappear and the cursor will be 
positioned where the note was. 

In addition to changing individual notes, MUSIC BOX can add or 
delete chords. This requires the use of the "I" or "D" keys. 
Pressing the "I" key will copy the chord at the position of the 
cursor whereas the "D" key will delete the chord. 

CHANGING NOTE LENGTHS 

Position the cursor directly on, under, or above the chord you 
want to change (the vertical position is not important) and 
press 1 to get a whole note, 2 for a half note, 3 for a 
triplet, 4 for a quarter note, 5 for an eighth triplet note, 6 
for a sixteenth note, 7 for a thirty-second note, 8 for a 
eighth note, and 9 for a sixty-fourth note. Note that all four 
notes in a chord are affected. It is not possible to write a 
chord with notes of different lengths. 

MUSIC BOX plays consecutive notes without a break between 
notes. This is important because it enables you to enter a note 
of any length. For example, to enter a dotted eighth note, 
enter an eighth note and then a sixteenth note of the same 
pitch. While you see two notes on the screen, when they are 
played you will hear only one, a dotted eighth note. 

If you want repeated notes to have breaks between them, you 
will have to insert rests between each note. A good rule of 
thumb is to half the note length, and make the rest the same 
value. For example, repeated quarter notes should be written as 
eighth notes with eighth rests between. 

When entering polyphonic music (music in which all the voices 
move independently of each other), remember that MUSIC BOX 
understands only chords. If the first part is moving in eighth 
notes but the fourth part is only half notes, the fourth part 
must be changed so that it is a string of 4 eighth notes for 
each half note. 

RESTS 

Rests are displayed as a blank space with a number over the 
middle C position indicating the value of the rest. This number 
has the same meaning as the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 
9 described above for note values. 

To enter a rest, press "R". A rest will be entered at the 
cursor position. 

MOVING THE CURSOR QUICKLY 

Once you have entered a fair amount of music, there are some 
cursor commands that will save you time pressing the arrow 
keys. "B" will reset the cursor to the start of the music 
whereas "E" will position it at the end. Pressing "SHIFT" and 
either the right or left arrow keys will move you forward or 
backward until another key is pressed. "SHIFT" and either the 
up or down arrow keys will move the cursor up or down an 
octave. 

Another useful key is the "T" key which allows you to find the 
next tempo and tone table change marker (to be discussed). 

Any time you press a key during the playing of a composition, 
the music will immediately stop and you will be able to edit 
the composition. Normally the screen will return to the 
position in the music before you pressed "P"; the exception is 
if you press the key "U" which will cause the screen to update 
to the point at which you stopped the music. 

HANDLING MORE THAN ONE PART 

MUSIC BOX can handle up to 4 separate parts of music. Each part 
is called a "voice" and is numbered 1 through 4. Each part must 
be entered separately. Once you specify which part you want to 
work with by the "V" key, the program will enter all notes into 
that part until you specify another part. You can easily tell 
which part you are in by looking at the right hand side of the 
screen. Just after loading the program, you will see "1=PART". 
This means that all notes will be entered into the first part. 
You can change the part by pressing "V" and then 1, 2, 3, or 4. 

SAVING MUSIC 

To save a composition, press the "K" (keep) key. Enter the 
composition name and press "ENTER". 

HIGHLIGHTING PARTS 

When you have entered a large amount of music in four parts, it 
can be very difficult to figure out what notes are in part 1 
(soprano) or which are in part 3 (tenor). This problem may be 
remedied with the "H" key. All parts except for the one 
selected are displayed in half-tone, making it very easy to 
follow a particular part through your composition. Note that 
the highlighting effect takes effect on all notes following the 
current cursor position, and that it has no effect on the 
actual music code stored in memory. 

ENTERING BARLINES 

Entering barlines will greatly improve the legibility of your 
music when you are in the process of editing it. Simply 
position the cursor at the spot you want a barline and press 
the "M" (measure) key. As you would expect, barlines have no 
effect on the music, but they do use up memory. 

MARKING REPEATS 

The "N" key can be used to mark sections of music that you wish 
to repeat when played. The beginning and end of each section to 
be repeated must be marked with this key. When you press the 
"N" key, a standard repeat bar will appear on the screen. MUSIC 
BOX keeps track of the start and end of repeat sections by 
changing the positions of the two pairs of dots. 

When the music is played, the first repeat bar is ignored until 
the second one is encountered. The program goes back to the 
previous repeat bar and continues playing. 

MUSIC BOX will not perform correctly if you start playing music 
in the middle of a repeat section. For best results, start 
playing music with the cursor positioned just before the start 
of a repeat section or at the very beginning of the music. 

NUMBERING BARLINES FOR FAST EDITING 

Barlines may easily be numbered to facilitate editing music. 
Press the "," key and numbers will appear above each barline. 
You may position the cursor at any barline by pressing the "Q" 
key, then three numbers corresponding to the desired barline. 
If the "ENTER" key is pressed instead of the three numbers, the 
previously entered number will be used. 

CHANGING TIMBRE AND VOLUME 

Each part may be assigned a particular timbre, or distinctive 
sound such as a flute, violin, or oboe. In MUSICA II, the 
timbre of each part is controlled by a list of numbers called a 
"tone table". There are four tone tables, numbered 1 through 4. 
You can generate new timbres for each tone table if you wish. 

All parts are assigned to tone 1 initially. You can change this 
assignment by pressing the "C" key. More on this in the next 
section. 

When you press the G key, two rows of numbers will appear. The 
first number in each group of 12 numbers identifies the table 
(1-4). Next is another number followed by a colon. This is the 
volume. After the colon are 8 numbers. These numbers control 
the timbre of the table and are called the harmonics. Each 
number represents the volume of that particular harmonic. 

You may change make any changes by moving the cursor around 
with the arrow keys and typing the desired numbers. When you 
are finished, press "ENTER". 

MUSIC BOX keeps track of the numbers you enter for each tone 
table while you use the program, and stores them with the music 
code on tape or disk. The best way to use this option is to do 
a lot of experimentation. Here are some suggested numbers to 
use: 
 
    1 9:90000000    Pure flute sound ("sine" wave)
    1 9:99090000    Bright flutey sound
    1 9:90900000    Imitation clarinet sound
    1 9:98765432    Buzzy, reedy sound
    1 9:90090009    Sparkling flutey sound
    1 9:97250000    A good "basic" sound

CHANGING TEMPO AND TONE TABLE ASSIGNMENTS

This command allows you to take full advantage of the many 
different sounds that can be synthesized with the "G" key. As 
previously mentioned, all 4 parts are assigned to tone table 1 
initially. The "C" command allows you to change this assignment 
and also to change the tempo. 

After pressing "C", the screen will tell you what the last 
assignment was (4 numbers, corresponding to parts 1 through 4) 
and ask you to enter a new assignment. As soon as you have 
entered your assignments (pressing "ENTER" makes no change), 
they will be displayed vertically on the treble score. Next you 
will be asked to enter the tempo (the speed at which the music 
is played). You will be prompted to enter a number from 01 to 
99 (you must enter 2 numbers). By pressing "ENTER", no change 
will be made. 

If you enter "1243" for the part assignments, part 1 will have 
the timbre of tone table #1, part 2 of #2, part 3 of #4, and 
part 4 of #3. 

Tone and tempo assignments may be made anywhere in the music as 
many times as you wish. Use this feature to give tonal variety 
to your composition, and to produce changes in speed 
(accellerandos and ritardandos). 

SPECIAL EFFECTS 

Two special effect keys are "X" (exchange) and "Y" (copy). The 
"X" key is of interest only if you have the STEREO PAK 
attached. It allows flip-flopping of the stereo channels (part 
1 is exchanged with part 2, and 3 with 4). This effect starts 
at the current cursor position and continues to the end of 
music. Multiple flip-flops may be made through the music, 
producing an "echo" effect. 

The "Y" key can have a number of effects. It will copy the 
notes of a given part to a second part. Be careful when you use 
it because it will destroy whatever was in the second part (the 
part that was copied to). By pressing "0" in response to the 
prompt "DEPTH OF VIBRATO (0=NONE)?", the notes of one part will 
be copied exactly to the next. If, however, you press any other 
number key (1 through 9), a number proportional to the key you 
pressed will be subtracted from the first part before it is 
stored in the second. The second part now has notes that are 
slightly flat to the notes in the first. When a note is played 
with another note that is slightly flat, an undulating "beat" 
is created. This causes a useful effect when the music is 
played: vibrato or chorus, depending on the number pressed. 
Numbers 1 through 3 give a rather pleasing chorus effect, while 
higher numbers give a progressively faster vibrato. Remember, 
when you use this command, you reduce the number of available 
parts by one. 

When you use the "Y" command to produce a chorus or vibrato 
effect, MUSIC BOX will not be able to recognize the off-pitch 
notes. At any time the screen has to be updated (such as 
pressing "B"), MUSIC BOX will display a message "UNRECOGNIZED 
PITCH". This is just a reminder that you have used the "Y" key 
to create notes that do not have standard pitches. These non-
standard notes are not displayed. They will sound correctly, 
however, when you use the "P" command. 

COPYING AND DELETING BLOCKS OF MUSIC 

Sections of music may be easily copied using the block move 
command. First mark the beginning of the section by pressing 
".". Now move the cursor forward to one note after the end of 
the section and press "." again. Now move the cursor to where 
you want this block copied and press ".". 

A block of music may be deleted by first marking the start and 
end with the "." key then pressing "-" to delete. 

HIGH SPEED OPERATION 

If your computer is capable of running at twice the usual clock 
speed, you will be able to realize a significant improvement in 
the quality of sound from MUSIC BOX. 

Before you try this command, be sure you have saved whatever 
music you have in memory. This is because MUSIC BOX permanently 
alters the music code and your computer may lock up while 
attempting to run in the speeded up mode. In addition, all half 
and whole notes must be changed to quarter notes (use the 
insert to copy 4 quarter notes for each whole note, etc.). 

PRINTING MUSIC ON A PRINTER 

MUSIC BOX has a command that allows you to print music on a dot 
matrix printer that was set up during configuration. To print, 
press the "W" key. The printing will start where the cursor is 
and continue until the end of the music. 

Unless you have the registered user's version which allows you 
to configure MUSIC BOX for several different printers and Baud 
rates, you are limited to printing on a Radio Shack dot matrix 
printer at 600 Baud. 

ADDING A TITLE AND COMMENTS 

The ";" key allows you to write two lines of a message that is 
displayed every time the music is played. This is useful for 
giving specific directions on how to play the music, a 
copyright message, or a title. Use the right and left arrow 
keys to move the cursor and type in whatever you want. Exit by 
presing "BREAK" or "ENTER" twice. The "CLEAR" key erases the 
title. 

COMMAND SUMMARY 
 
 A:Additional commands (disk only)-user definable commands 
   may be loaded from disk and executed 
 B:Begin-reset the program to the start of the present 
   composition 
 C:Change-change the tone assignments for each part and the 
   tempo; pressing "ENTER" at each prompt will assign the 
   default (current) values 
 D:Delete-delete the chord (all 4 parts) at the position of 
   the cursor 
 E:End-move the cursor to the end of music
 F:Flat-make the next note entered flat
 G:Generate-create new timbre and volume
 H:Highlight-highlight a specified part
 I:Insert-insert a chord at the present position of the 
   cursor; the chord at the cursor position will be 
   duplicated 
 J:Joystick-turn on/off the option to use the right joystick 
   to select pitch; right/left positions of the joystick 
   correspond to sharp/flat; use the "FIRE" button to enter 
   notes; all other keys except for the up/down keys work as 
   before 
 K:Keep-save the present composition to disk or tape.
 L:Load-load a composition from disk or tape. With the disk 
   version, a directory of music files will be displayed. 
 M:Measure-write a barline at the current cursor position
 N:Repeat bar-marks the beginning or end of a section of 
   music to be repeated when played 
 O:Set some options for performance and hardware.
 P:Play-play the composition starting at the current cursor 
   position. This command may be interrupted at any time by 
   pressing any key; if the "U" key is pressed, the score is 
   updated to the point where you interrupted the music. 
 Q:Quick find barline-move to specified barline number.
 R:Rest-enter a rest
 S:Sharp-make the next note entered sharp
 U:Update-when used from the command mode, acts the same as 
   "O" except that the altered notes are restored. 
 V:Voice-used to change the current voice (part) assignment
 W:Write-print music on your printer.
 X:Exchange parts 1 and 3 with 2 and 4; this results in 
   flip-flopping of the channels if you are using the STEREO 
   PAK 
 Y:Copy from one part to another. Use this option only after 
   completion of music entry and only with 3-part harmony. 
   This command may be used to create chorus or vibrato 
   effects or 3-position stereo if you are using the STEREO 
   PAK 
 Z:Exit-exit to BASIC
 1-9:Change the note value of the chord or rest at the 
   current cursor position. 1=whole note, 2=half note, 
   3=triplet, 4=quarter, 5=eighth triplet, 6=sixteenth, 
   7=thirty-second, 8=eighteenth, 9=sixty-fourth 
 -:Block delete; press after marking block with "." key.
 @:STEREO PAK/TV port flip flop; select where the sound will 
   go. When the STEREO PAK is selected, an "S" at the middle 
   bottom screen will appear; to reset to TV, press "@" again 
 ;:Enter title and message; exit by pressing the "BREAK" or 
   "ENTER key 
 ,:Barline numbers on/off toggle
 .:Block move command; mark the beginning and end of the 
   section of music to be moved, then where it is to be moved 
   with the "." key 
 ?:Help command: press the ENTER key to review all the 
   commands. 

 "BREAK"-Cancels the commands Q,Y,G,H, and C.
 "CLEAR"-Erase the music memory; when the copyright notice is 
   displayed, press any note to continue 
 "ENTER"-Enter a note (or erase one if the current part 
   assignment is the same as a note under or above the 
   cursor) at the current cursor position. The note may be 
   written in any one of 4 parts (see the "V" command). This 
   command affects only the current part displayed at the 
   right-hand side of the bottom of the screen 
 "UP ARRROW"-Move the cursor up
 "DOWN ARROW"-Move the cursor down
 "RIGHT ARROW"-Move the cursor forward
 "LEFT ARROW"-Move the cursor back
 "SHIFT UP ARROW"-Move the cursor up an octave
 "SHIFT DOWN ARROW"-Move the cursor down an octave
 "SHIFT RIGHT ARROW"-Move the cursor forward until another 
   key is pressed 
 "SHIFT LEFT ARROW"-Move the cursor back until another key is 
   pressed