INTRO
=====
PianoRollComposer is a simple DAW (digital audio workstation).
It uses MIDI, a digital protocol for storing music information.
Compose, record, and play music with PianoRollComposer.

Notes are displayed in piano roll format; music looks the way it sounds.
Notes from up to 16 different instruments can show together on the music staffs.
(576 instruments/articulations, using 36 VST plugins or 36 instances of a VST plugin)

PianoRollComposer can send MIDI data to:
    Windows, to play music using Windows built-in instrument sounds.
    SyFonOne, to play SoundFont instrument sounds.
    VST plugins, which return instrument sounds for PianoRollComposer to play.
    EastWest Player, Kontakt, or any software that plays its own sounds and accepts MIDI input.

One or two MIDI keyboards can send MIDI data to PianoRollComposer to play and record music.
The Virtual Keyboard does the same, and they can be split into different instruments to play simultaneously
by selecting Assigned Instruments on the Virtual Keyboard menu (up to 9 instruments for each keyboard).

You can compose music by:
    Direct entry onto the staffs.
    Recording onto the staffs with a MIDI keyboard or the Virtual Keyboard.
    Step-Recording one note or chord or multiple instruments at a time with a MIDI keyboard or the Virtual Keyboard.

PianoRollComposer can record music on the staffs to a WAVE file, and it enables editing and merging of WAVE files.
Your voice's pitch can be displayed on the staffs when you record your voice to a WAVE file.
Record over an hour of music.


USING
=====
When the mouse pointer is over a main window (like this one), it's active.

Left-click within the staff or ledger-line area to insert a note.

Notes from different instruments can overlap each other.

Hold the Shift key down while left-clicking to insert a sharp or flat note.
Sharps are shown as a darker color. Flats are shown as a lighter color.
Sharps or flats are selectable in Options, or by pressing the # or b (B) key.
The current accidental type is shown at the top right of the screen.

The type of current note and the ACTIVE Instrument shows at the top left of the screen.
The color under it indicates the ACTIVE Channel for that Instrument, as shown in the Instruments window.
Press the letters below on your computer keyboard to select the corresponding note types
(if the mouse pointer is not over a note):
   W - Whole
   H - Half
   Q - Quarter
   E - Eighth
   S - Sixteenth
   T - Thirty-second
   F - sixty-Fourth
If the mouse pointer is over a note, and that note's information shows at the top left of the screen,
pressing one of those letters will change THAT NOTE to that size, if it wouldn't be blocked.

Move the mouse pointer over a note to see its parameters at the top left of the screen.
   The second line shows which instrument is playing the note.
   The third line shows the note letter and the MIDI note number.
   Velocity refers to how hard the note is played (as on a piano (loudness)).
   Note Begin and End numbers are computer screen pixels from the beginning of music.

Right-click on an Instrument's note to change its parameters (unless you selected the fourth Step Record).
Changing the Beats/Minute entry will change beats/minute in the music from that location.

Press an Arrow key to move a note that the mouse pointer is over (Up, Down, Left, Right).
The note can move left or right by the distance of a thirty-second note (5 pixels)
unless the note type is a sixty-fourth -- then the note can move left or right one pixel.

Hold the Shift key down and press the Left or Right Arrow key (with the mouse pointer over a note)
to move the note's nearest end 1 pixel.

Press the Delete key to delete a note or space or highlighted notes that the mouse pointer is over.
A space must be void of SHOW & PLAY notes vertically and as wide as the current note type.
SHOW & PLAY refers to check boxes for each instrument in the Instruments window.
If the mouse pointer is on a space, almost everything to the right of the pointer will be moved left.

Press the Insert key to insert a vertical space to the right of the mouse pointer location.
If the mouse pointer is on a space or note, almost everything to the right of the pointer will be moved right.

Notes that aren't selected to SHOW & PLAY won't move if a space is deleted or inserted.

The width of the space deleted or inserted will be the width of the current type of note.

Left-click in the lightly-shaded area under the staffs to enter lyrics/chord names.
Press Delete while pointing to a lyric/chord name to delete it.

Press a number on the computer keyboard to reduce the volume to a percentage of that number. 0 is 100%

When you save music to a MIDI file, expression/modulation dynamics will be added to it
if those dynamics aren't in the music for each instrument in the music.


MORE
=====
Selecting Save to PianoRollComposer.ini in the Options menu will stop this Help from automatically appearing.
About 30 different entries can be saved, including most new window positions.

The following files will be in the Windows folder, C:\Users\Public\PianoRollComposer
     PianoRollComposer.ini
     AssignedInstruments.dta (see Virtual Keyboard)
     CCs.dta (contains Expression and Modulation data)
You could change PianoRollComposer.ini to PianoRollComposer32.ini and PianoRollComposer64.ini
to use either one, depending on whether you're using a 32-bit or 64-bit VST
(the 64-bit version needs to be saved in Unicode Encoding).

The range of notes is the same as on an 88-key piano.

When inserting a note, it's moved to the nearest 32nd note location to the left of the mouse pointer
unless it's a 64th note.
Therefore, when inserting a note in a narrow space between other notes, click at the left side of that space.
However, in Options, you could select Place Notes at the note type's position,
instead of the nearest 32nd note location. This is for adding notes quickly
(if you want a one-time-only placement of a note at the nearest 32nd note location,
hold the Shift key down when you left-click on the music to enter a note).

Notes from different instruments can overlap each other.
The same notes from the same instrument can't normally overlap.

If you select Indicate Overlapping Notes in Options,
and if the same notes from the same instrument overlap for some reason, the second note will be striped.
But, if you don't select that, if the same note from the same instrument overlaps another,
the first note will be changed to end at the beginning of the next note.
Normally, selecting Indicate Overlapping Notes will indicate that different instruments are playing the same note.

A quarter note is 40 pixels wide (computer screen resolution is in pixels).
This is just a useful size. MIDI saves music using different information.

Beats/Minute in this program should really be called Quarter Notes/Minute.
Music plays at the same tempo as in any MIDI player.

Right-click on a measure bar to select the key signature and/or time signature at that measure bar.

............
HIGHLIGHTING
Affects music from instruments that have been selected to SHOW & PLAY in the Instruments window,
as well as Dynamics&Effects, Time and Key Signature, beats per minute, and lyrics/chord data.

Press Ctrl-Left Mouse Button or Ctrl-H or Shift-H to begin highlighting at the cursor.
Or press Ctrl-A to Highlight everything.
Press Esc to cancel highlighting.

After notes are highlighted:
Press Ctrl-X (to Cut), Ctrl-C (to Copy), Delete,  or Edit -Transpose, or Advanced -Loop on the Menu.
If the beginning of the highlight is more than a quarter note before the first highlighted note,
that space will also be Pasted when pressing Ctrl-V.
AND
To move all highlighted Expressions and Modulations,
move the cursor over one of them and press the up or down arrow key.
AND
If you select Files -Export Highlighted after you pressed Ctrl-X or Ctrl-C,
you can save the highlighted data (except for lyrics/chord data).
Select Files -Import Highlighted to load exported highlighted data at the mouse pointer location.
AND
If you right-click on a highlighted note to change a parameter,
that parameter of all highlighted notes will change,
EXCEPT if the parameter is to delete or move notes from the same instrument,
just those notes will be deleted or moved.
AND
To loop, first Highlight the notes you want to loop, then select Advanced -Loop.
There will be a time delay between the end of the loop and the beginning of the loop
equal to the difference between the end of the last note and the end of the Highlight
(corrected to the nearest Sixteenth note position).
............

To change everything played by an instrument in one channel to play by an instrument in another channel,
select Edit -Change Instrument on the Menu (there needs to be an instrument in the other channel).
AND this will work with highlighted notes, which won't change instruments not highlighted.

If using the 128 General MIDI instruments:
In the Instruments window, if you select 'none' (the last of the 128 General MIDI Instruments in each Channel),
all notes from all instruments in that Channel will be deleted when you select Play or Save.
If, after selecting Change a Percussion Instrument in PERCUSSION, you select NONE* as the Change To instrument,
all notes from the Change From percussion instrument will be deleted.
After writing music for an instrument, you can change that instrument to another one in the Instruments menu.
All of its music will be played by the new instrument.
OR
You can reassign a MIDI channel to a different instrument beginning at a specific location in the music
by selecting Change Instrument after right-clicking on a note there.
(it sends a Change Program Control Code to the Microsoft's synthesizer (or whatever's playing the music)).
The Instruments menu always shows the original instrument.
Moving the mouse pointer over a note shows the current instrument.

The ACTIVE instrument's pedal sustain will be shown as a horizontal bracket at the bottom of a set of staffs.

Note volume can be reduced by a MIDI Volume Control message that can be included in a MIDI file.
A Volume Control message affects all of an instrument's notes that play during/after the Volume Control message.
The "during" enables a note to change volume while it's playing.
This, as well as a MIDI Expression Control message, can be used to add dynamics to music.
Total volume for an instrument is note velocity multiplied by MIDI Volume divided by 127
(and then multiplied by MIDI Expression divided by 127, if Expression is used), 127 being the maximum value.
MIDI Expression is usually used for crescendos and dimenuendos.

Changing Advanced -Tempo changes existing MIDI Tempo Control messages when they're played,
but won't remain as part of the music.

Most windows can stay open while changing the focus to another window.
Some windows can be opened while playing.

The Options window has a selection to use a sustain pedal to not end notes versus sending a MIDI control message.
If you don't have a sustain pedal, you could convert a Modulation control message to a Sustain control message
in Advanced on the Menu (full modulation for sustain pedal down and 0 modulation for sustain pedal up).


SOUNDFONTS (using SyFonOne)
===========================
Download SyFonOne (free, at www.SynthFont.com).
Download and run an interface program like LoopBe1 (free, at www.nerds.de/),
which allows the MIDI Output of PianoRollComposer to connect to the MIDI Input of SyFonOne,
PianoRollComposer sends music data thru LoopBe1, and SyFonOne plays it using any SoundFont.
If you use ASIO4ALL with SyFonOne, you need to run SyFonOne before you run PianoRollComposer,
because PianoRollComposer will take over the sound system if it runs before ASIO4ALL.

Some of the best General MIDI SoundFonts can be found at:
www.soundfonts.gonet.biz/
These Merlin SoundFonts cost $10 or less, and are well worth the cost.
Arachnosoft's free Arachno Soundfont is pretty good.

To uncompress an sfArk file into an sf2 SoundFont file, put this in your browser's address bar:
jdmcox.com/sfark_setup.exe


VST PLUGINS
============
VST plugins are dll programs containing instrument sounds or effects.

To play VST plugin sounds, you might want to download and install the free ASIO4ALL (see Options).
Normally Window's built-in WASAPI sound routines work just fine, although you should try all
modes to see which works best.

When you record music using a VST plugin, the WAVE file that results
doesn't come through your computer's sound card,
but instead it's copied directly from your VST plugin.
Therefore you should change the default Wave Files -Recording Quality 
to match your VST plugin's numbers.
Windows could convert sounds, but the sounds won't be the exact original.

Most VST plugins work with "template" files.
These "template" files contain (or point to) instrument sound files that you've saved in your computer.
PianoRollComposer can't access the contents of "template" files, so you'll have to create text files
with the names of the instruments in each "template" file for PianoRollComposer to show them.
Put them in C:\Users\Public\PianoRollComposer (after creating the PianoRollComposer folder).
And put copies of VST plugins there, along with anything else related to PianoRollComposer.
This is how to create a file containing the contents of each "template" file:
In PianoRollComposer's Menu, select File -Plugin Instruments. Create a new file with the same name as
a "template" file. Then in the window that opens, enter the instrument names in a "template" file,
one per line. These names will appear in the Instrument window after you've entered all instrument names,
saved, and closed this window.

You can also add the lowest and highest playable MIDI note number after the instrument's name in parentheses,
e.g. Cello (36-85). MIDI note numbers can be found using the Options window.
PianoRollComposer will shade the keys on the Virtual Keyboard that aren't within these parameters.

So, after you load a VST plugin and load a "template" file in it,
select the associated file in File -Plugin Instruments to display its instruments in the Instruments window.

After selecting a VST plugin in Midi Output on the Menu, and loading a "template" file" if it has one:
Press Esc to minimize a VST Plugin editing window (if there is one)
(press V anytime to maximize the Active Plugin's editing window).

Then select Another VST Plugin as desired (maximum of 36).
It's often the same VST Plugin, in which you'd load a different "template" file.

Press X to show all instruments once they've loaded, then
click on an instrument to make it the Active Instrument.
Press a Shift-Arrow key to move these instruments.

If showing all instruments (X), press C to show Expression & Modulation of instruments shown by pressing X.

If you Load saved Assigned Instruments, press Z to see up to 60 sets of Assigned Instruments onscreen.
Left mouse click on an instrument there to make both those Assigned Instruments and that instrument active.
You can't enter notes with a left mouse click while this is showing.

If the instruments when pressing X are the same as when pressing Z, but they're not in the same order,
then close and re-open PianoRollComposer, and load the instruments in the order they are in Assigned Instruments,
or delete the loaded Assigned Instruments, and load the Assigned Instruments in the order the VSTs were loaded.

With the mouse pointer NOT over a note,
pressing the Up or Down Arrow key changes the Instrument Channel,
and pressing the Right or Left Arrow key changes the Instrument Plugin.

To do the above with the pointer OVER a note:
If you press the Scroll Lock key or the | on your keyboard
a note the pointer is over can't be moved, and the | shows at the upper right of the screen.
Press the Scroll Lock key or the | again to make it disappear and allow the note to be moved.

While in a VST plugin editing window, press the left or right Arrow key
to change to another existing plugin editing window.

Some VST plugins can't combine their notes with notes from other VST plugins
(to play simultaneously), so select Advanced -Don't Play VST Plugins Simultaneously.

To automate opening VST "template" files, 
First, copy your VST plugin file to C:\Users\Public\PianoRollComposer
because this is where other related files are automatically placed (keep it simple).
Then, open Notepad and enter the names of all "template" files (e.g. Strings.ewi), one per line.
Save it as "Instruments.txt" in that folder (C:\Users\Public\PianoRollComposer).
Then instead of entering the name of a "template" file, press Ctrl-V to paste that name in.
This method insures that music you write will see the same instruments in the same Plugins in the same order.
This will also automatically load the associated instrument names into the Instrument window for each Plugin.
If you need more than one Instruments.txt file, create more in Notepad, saving them with a number instead of 
the s at the end of "Instruments", and then open the desired one in Choose Instrument?.txt in Advanced in the Menu.

If you use EastWest Instruments, read http://jdmcox.com/EastWest.txt.
If you use Native Instruments, read http://jdmcox.com/Kontakt.txt


KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
====================
PageUp, PageDown, Home, and End function as they should.

Arrow keys on a note move that note.
Arrow keys on the music not on a note change the instrument channel or port.
Arrow keys on the Virtual Keyboard change the Assigned Instruments or the active keyboard.

Press the Spacebar to play from the beginning, or to pause playing. Press it again to un-pause.

Press P to start playing from the mouse pointer.

When the music is stopped or ends,
if it was started with P, the current screen will remain,
otherwise it will go to page 1.

Press Esc to stop Playing, Recording, Step-Recording, Highlighting, or recording or playing a Wave file,
or to close any window except Sustain if it has the focus.

Press Ctrl-Z to Undo.
Press Ctrl-Y to undo Undo.

Press W, H, Q, E, S, T, or F to select the type of note to be entered.
(whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second, or sixty-fourth)
Press the period key to dot or un-dot that note type.
Press Ctrl-3 to make that note type 1/3 of its value, or again to un-make it 1/3 of its value.
(whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes only).

Press # or b to make all accidentals sharps or flats. The chosen accidental type shows at the top right of the screen.

Right-click on a measure bar to add/change the key and/or time signature at that measure bar.

Hold Ctrl down and press + or - to rotate overlapping lyrics so they don't overlap.

Press Ctrl-Delete or Ctrl-Insert to Delete or Insert a space of 1 pixel.

Press Ctrl-M to start/stop the metronome that you selected in Virtual Keyboard.

Press C, D, I, K, L, M, O, or ? to open Chords, Dynamics&Effects, Instruments, Keyboard, List,
Modulation/Expression, Options, or Help Using.
Press those letters (or alternatively press Esc if they have the focus) to close them.

Press R to Record, or N to clear music.

Press the reverse asterisk (`) to select a VST Plugin.

As a last resort, on and off note data can be deleted in the List window with Ctrl-Delete.

If you create a text file in NotePad named User.txt in PianoRollComposer's folder, and put whatever you want in it,
when you press the G key, that text file will open in PianoRollComposer.

If you need to send a SysEx message, put a line like this in PianoRollComposer.ini
(with your SysEx hexadecimal numbers): SysEx=F0 00 20 63 00 0B 00 03 F7
Then press ~ after opening PianoRollComposer to send it to the selected MIDI Output.

STOP STUCK NOTES by pressing any keyboard number with Shift or Ctrl held down.
This sends an off message to all VST plugin notes that are playing.


ADVANCED
==========
While in a VST plugin editor, make sure it has the focus by clicking on it,
and then press any key on the computer keyboard. If you close the VST editor and open it or another VST editor,
the mouse pointer will move to where the mouse pointer was when you pressed a key.
and
While in the Wave Files window or in the Plugin Instruments window, left- or right-click
anywhere where the mouse pointer is an arrow. The mouse pointer will move there when you open that window again.
and
While in the Virtual Keyboard, press K for the mouse pointer to move to the cursor location when you open it again.
and
Save it by opening the Options window and selecting Save to PianoRollComposer.ini