The World s Best Braille Music Transcription Program

Transcription

1 TM The World s Best Braille Music Transcription Program from OPTEK SYSTEMS Systems you can rely on

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3 TM Manual with Worked Examples version toc ca ta noun Music 1. A composition, usually for the organ or another keyboard instrument, in free style with full chords and elaborate runs. (Italian, from feminine past participle of toccare to touch) Don t know what I want, but I know how to get it Anarchy in the U.K, The Sex Pistols OPTEK SYSTEMS Systems you can rely on 73 Marion Street, Harris Park NSW 2150, Australia Copyright 2000 Optek Systems. All rights reserved.

4 Table of Contents Notices Acknowledgements System Requirements Registration Upgrades Warranty Contact Information Technical support Installation 3 Starting Toccata 4 General Layout 4 Insert and Add mode 5 Inserting Notes Bar Overflows 5 6 The Palette 6 Creating a New Score 7 Pitch and Placement Modifying a Note Value Translating to Braille Translation Modes More Notation Accidentals Playback Removing Attributes Effect on Modified Notes Naturals Delete notes Select range of notes Paste Selected Notes into another Bar Selection Mode and Parts Parts Part-Bar and Whole-Bar In-Accords Converting to Parts Order of Parts and In-Accords Parts and Stem Direction Chords Embellishment of Chords Interval Doubling

5 Table of Contents Slurs and Ties Ties and Chords Removing Slurs /Ties Navigating the Music score New Page Track Mouse Position Keyboard controls Play Back options Lyrics End of Phrase Marker Doubling Lyrics Printing and Embossing Embossing the Braille Music Printing the Braille Music Printing the Music Notation Saving Files 24 Loading Files 24 Braille formatting choices 26 Bar-over-Bar format Braille Options Dialogue Box Show Clef Signs Show Hand Signs Show Staff Name ( instrument ) Show Tempo Show Measure No. ( Bar number ) Measure on Free Line Show Tracker Dots Show Lyrics Show Capital Sign Show Repeats Settings Start Measure No. Music Indent Lyric Indent and Lyric Runover Bars / Section Format Bar-over-Bar / Section-by-Section Line Between Sections / Parallels Grade II Braille Octave Sign at Start of every Measure in Bar-over-Bar Format Showing Instrument Names Line Width and Page Length

6 Table of Contents Embosser Options Line Width / Page Length Page Numbering Embosser Port Windows Device Embosser Braille Table Music Score Options System Settings Staves per System Tempo Staff Number / Name Maximum No. Bars / Page Stave Settings Clef Key Beats / Measure and Beat Unify Key Unify Time Voice and MIDI Channel Bar Dialogue Box options Clef Changes Time signatures and Key Changes Deleting Clef Signs and other objects More complex Music Notation Beaming Autobeam Manual Beaming Tuplets Converting to Triplets Preserving Note Stem Values Tuplet Ratio Dynamics and Expression Fingering Pedal, Pause, Turn, Arpeggio Marks Crescendo marks Music Repeats 42 Six Key Entry and Saving Braille Music 42 The Event Info Dialogue Box 43 Scanning Music and loading MIDI or NIFF files into Toccata 44 Starting SharpEye 44

7 Table of Contents Bohemian Rhapsody worked example Recognising the Image File Brace Staves for Each Instrument Correcting Errors Editing Bohemian Rhapsody Save as NIFF or MIDI? NIFF options MIDI Output Options MIDI files and Toccata Loading MIDI files in Toccata worked example Correcting MIDI omissions in Toccata Other Editing required NIFF or MIDI Dynamics omitted Title Page Editor Add Phrasing Marks to Lyrics Set Braille Options Save as a Toccata file Troubleshooting 53 SharpEye Music Reader 55 Introduction System requirements Installation Brief guide Scanning Music Editor Overall Process 58 Image And Music Windows 58 Scanning General Scanner settings - colours Scanner settings - resolution Scanner settings - brightness Scanner settings - misc Loading and Editing an Image Reading the image Zones Music Editor Saving Music Files Saving as MIDI Short notes wrong Saving as NIFF Parts and voices Multi page scores Batch processing

8 Table of Contents Miscellaneous Options Window Positions MIDI output options NIFF output type Directories for image and music files The Music Editor Warnings about rhythm problems Selections Deleting objects Modifying Symbols Clefs and keys Time Signatures Lyrics Rests Notes and chords Moving symbols Creating symbols The right button Choosing a symbol Joining staves Irregular Systems Editing guidelines Keyboard shortcuts Problems and Tips Limitations on notation recognised Image quality Tips and techniques Adding notes to the right stave Selecting overlapping note heads Partial measures Split measures Gray notes won't go Vertical alignment Chords entered as two notes Missed notes in beamed groups Rests in the wrong voice or stave Hidden overlaps Incomplete voices Images from unusual sources Black rectangles in display

9 Notices and System Requirements Notices Optek Systems retains all ownership rights to the Toccata TM computer program and other computer programs offered by Optek Systems including all associated documentation and materials. The Toccata source code is a confidential trade secret of Optek Systems. You may not attempt to decipher, reverse-engineer or decompile Toccata, or knowingly allow others to do so. Toccata and its documentation may not be sublicensed and may not be transferred without the prior written consent of Optek Systems. Toccata is licensed to be used on only one computer at a time. You may not make copies for the purpose of installing Toccata on additional computers even if at the same location. Only you, your employees and contractors who have agreed to the above restrictions may use Toccata. Your right to copy Toccata and this manual is restricted by copyright law. Making copies, adaptations or compilation works without prior written consent of Optek Systems is prohibited by law and constitutes a punishable legal violation. Optek Systems may revise this manual from time to time without notice. Toccata program was written by Nigel Herring. On-line Help was written by Nigel Herring and Terry Kenaghan. This manual written by Peter Cracknell. Toccata and Toccata Manual are copyright of Optek Systems. Toccata is a trademark of Optek Systems. SharpEye Music Reader copyright Graham Jones, VISIV, 21e Balnakeil, Lairg, Sutherland UK Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation Acknowledgements We acknowledge the kind and very comprehensive assistance of Jane Ware of the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB UK), and the very useful comments and suggestions of Bettye Krolick in the US, in the development of Toccata. System Requirements Toccata is a 32 bit computer program which will run on Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT workstation 4. There is no Mac version available. Your computer processor should be an Intel Pentium or compatible, 200 MHz or faster (400 MHz recommended) Your computer should have a 3½ inch floppy disk drive and 8MB of free space on the hard disk The RAM should be 32 Mb or greater (64 Mb recommended) The sound card should be SoundBlaster compatible and the associated drivers should be able to process MIDI playback The computer screen should be SVGA and the resolution 800x600 or greater Page 1

10 Support and Upgrades Registration In order to receive Technical Support it is necessary to register your purchase of Toccata. This is just a matter of ing, writing or faxing to us your name, the name of your organization and contact details, and the Serial Number of your copy of Toccata. If you have , Registering with us also allows you to receive notification of improvements and upgrades to Toccata and information about related products. Upgrades The cost of upgrading from previous versions of Toccata depends on how old your version is compared to the latest version as specified by Version Number. The Version Number of your software is printed on the Installation Disks, on the Toccata splash screen, and in the About item in the Help Menu. Your Serial Number is also displayed in these places. Your registered User Name, Serial Number and Version Number are required by us prior to the issue of an upgrade. Freight charges will depend on shipping costs from Australia. Warranty Optek Systems provides Toccata, and this manual, "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Contact Information Contact your local supplier, or Optek Systems directly at : OPTEK SYSTEMS PO BOX 436 HARRIS PARK NSW 2150 AUSTRALIA Telephone (+612) Fax (+612) Web terryk@mpx.com.au Technical support The support staff at Optek Systems will, to the best of their ability, assist with questions concerning the use of Toccata or problems that may arise. However, Optek Systems cannot provide instruction in the rudiments of music notation, the rules of Braille Music, or the basic operating techniques of computer use, and we refer enquiries of this nature to specialist instructors or publications. Optek Systems may support via telephone and fax, but we would prefer enquiries. You must give us the following information : Your Registered User Name, the Serial Number and Version Number of Toccata and the version of Windows your are using (95/98/NT/2000). Please describe what you were attempting to achieve and the problem. If the problem is with a Toccata file, please send this as an attachment, along with a copy of the Toccata.ini file, which is located in the \Program Files\Toccata folder. All problems relating to SharpEye with Toccata must be directed to Optek and not to the writer, Graham Jones of VISIV. In addition to the information specified above, please also include copies of, as attachments 1) The scanned image (as a TIF file using Packbits compression) 2) the SharpEye MRO file 3) the MIDI file. Please draw attention to the relevant issues and explain what you were attempting to achieve. Page 2

11 Installation Installation and Setup Software Protection Dongle Before installing the software, locate the Software Protection Dongle which was supplied with Toccata. Plug this onto your Parallel Printer port (or a spare USB port for the USB version) you may then attach a printer cable to the back of the Dongle if required. If a Dongle is not present when Toccata is installed or run, the program will run in Demo Mode. Toccata in Demo mode is fully functional except that work cannot be saved, and only small amounts of Braille can be embossed. If installing to a network Setup Make sure you have full Network Administrator rights Insert Disk 1 into the floppy drive of your computer Make sure no other programs are running On the Desktop, select MY COMPUTER, Control Panel, Add / Remove Programs Click on INSTALL, click on NEXT, click on FINISH Insert disks as prompted If Setup asks whether you wish to Keep or Replace Existing Files, select Keep Screen Settings Toccata will not display correctly unless Small Fonts are specified in Windows Display Properties. To check that this is set, or to set Small Fonts Select MY COMPUTER, Control Panel, Display Properties Click on the Settings Tab Set Fonts to Small Fonts if this control does not appear, click on the Advanced Button, and then on the Fonts control. Click on the OK button until the Display Properties closes down. You may need to restart your computer if prompted. SharpEye Music Reader If you wish to use the SharpEye Music Reader as your Music Recognition program, install it after installing Toccata using the disk provided see page 57. Fonts If you find after install, and after rebooting your computer, that the musical notes and Braille fonts appear strange, you should open the Fonts folder (in the Control Panel, under Settings in the Start Menu of Windows), find the font called OPTEK BRAILLE FONT and double click on it to show the font details. Close the Font, then repeat for the Font called TOCCATA. Printer Settings Toccata by default embosses directly using LPT1. It is not necessary to install any drivers specific to your embosser. However, if you are using Windows95/98 and you want to use a Printer Driver (which allows you to utilise Windows Print Manager to queue print jobs), instead of directly using LPT1, refer to the instructions on page 34. UNINSTALLING To uninstall the Toccata software, select the program in the Add/Remove Programs list (START, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs). Note that Un-installing Toccata will remove the program but not any music or Braille that you have created. A full install procedure is required to re-install Toccata, even if the machine had Toccata previously installed. It is not necessary to un-install Toccata if you are simply moving the dongle between computers that have Toccata fully installed. Page 3

12 Getting Started with Toccata Starting Toccata From the Windows START Menu, select Programs, then the Toccata folder, and then the Toccata icon (you may wish to add a Shortcut to your Desktop refer to your Windows Help for instructions on how to do this). Toccata will start and play the first bar of J S Bach s Toccata and Fugue. The Toccata splash screen will appear. With the mouse s left button, click anywhere on the splash screen, which will then disappear revealing the Notation Editor screen. You are now ready to use Toccata! We shall start with a simple worked example, beginning with placing musical notes in the Notation Editor, then translating this simple piece to Braille music, embossing it, and saving your work. Subsequent sections will deal with more complex music, the variations in Braille music formatting, and how to load MIDI files from music score scanning programs such as SharpEye. General Layout Toccata is divided into four regions - a Menu Bar at the top of the screen, below which is a Toolbar, below which are a Palette of notes and the Editing Window. Menu Bar Toolbar Editing Window Palette The Menu, Toolbar and Palette will be described in greater detail shortly, but we shall begin with the major region, the Editing Window. The Editing Window can either show just the Music Notation Editor (shown above) or just the Braille Editor, or a half of each, one above the other. The Braille Editor displays the translated Braille equivalent of the music displayed in the Music Notation Editor. First place notes into the Music Notation Editor, referring to the original printed music score you are working with. Then switch the Editing Window to display the Braille Editor and review the translated Braille Music. Before you can place notes into the Notation Editor, you have to learn about the two Modes of placing notes, Insert and Add Mode, and how to select note values from the Palette. The next section explains the general concepts, and then develops a worked example which progresses from simple note placement to a real musical example, with Lyrics, chords and so on. Page 4

13 Getting Started with Toccata Insert and Add mode Inserting Notes Notes can only be clicked into the score if either Insert or Add Mode have been selected. Nothing will happen when you click on the music staves until you specify one or the other mode of placing notes. When you click on the INSERT button on the Toolbar, Insert Mode is selected. These buttons are like radio buttons if one is switched on, the other is switched off. It is quite important that you understand the difference between the two modes. On ordinary sheet music an attempt is made to space the notes in a bar in such a way that the rhythmic beat is clear. If quavers (1/8 notes) occur amongst crotchets (¼ notes), they will occupy only half the space of a crochet to show that they are played in half the time of a crotchet. Insert Mode in Toccata automatically takes care of beat alignment for you. When you place notes on the stave, Toccata works out where they should go in terms of the beat according to their note value. All you need to do is click on the pitch line. Insert Mode is the main mode used when placing single parts and is the most convenient method for most music. Add Mode, in contrast, places the note almost where you clicked it. Almost, but not quite, because Toccata divides each bar up into an exact number of beat units called quantiles. By default, each bar is divided into quaver (1/8 notes) quantiles, but you can increase or decrease this by clicking on the quantise control buttons. When you click in a note in Add mode, it goes to the nearest quantile beat position. You should attempt to place the added note at approximately the correct beat position, otherwise notes may be superimposed upon each other when the new note snaps to the nearest beat position (quantile). If the new note is the same pitch and value as the note it superimposes, the original note will disappear in the score but still exist, and still be shown in the Braille! To correct such an occurrence you will either need to use the Undo feature CTRL Z or the Event Info feature (see page 43) Add mode allows you to place notes more freely than Insert Mode. Its main use is when working with multiple Parts (see page 14) and with MIDI files (see page 44). Theoretically, you could squash up eight quavers (1/8 notes) into the first beat in Add Mode and the translated Braille would look the same, but the score would look very messy and would be difficult to follow when checking see the example below Page 5

14 Getting Started with Toccata Bar Overflows In terms of the translated Braille, Toccata doesn t care whether you use Insert or Add Mode, as long as your bars add up, ie there aren t more notes in a bar than are allowed by the time signature for example more than 8 quavers (1/8 notes) in a 4/4 bar. Insert Mode will actually ding with an error sound and show overflow notes in red should you accidentally place them. Add Mode however, is quite happy to allow extra notes and in both cases, the Braille translation will show as many notes as you erroneously placed so beware! Clearly, using Insert Mode has tremendous benefits from an error-checking point of view, especially in pieces with lots of notes in a bar. Take care when editing an already completed bar, even in Insert Mode. If you add a Dot of Prolongation (for example to a crotchet (¼ note) Toccata will not always indicate an overflow. The Palette Having set the mode by clicking on the Insert Mode button, you can now select any note value from the Palette (displayed on the left side of the screen) by single clicking (left mouse button). Alternatively, press the numbers 1 to 7 on either the keyboard or the numeric keypad 1 being a semibreve (whole note), 2 a minim (½ note) and so on. By default, Toccata already has a crotchet (¼ note) selected. A double click will place notes into the score in the bar that the mouse pointer is in. Notice that the shape of the mouse pointer changes from a traditional arrow pointer to the note value shape you have selected from the Palette. Some of the objects shown in the Palette are notes and rests, the other objects modify existing notes, as briefly explained below : Note Values Semibreve (Whole note), Minim (1/2 note), Crotchet (1/4 note), Quaver (1/8 note), SemiQuaver (1/16 note), DemiSemiQuaver (1/32 note), Semi Demi Semi Quaver (1/64th note) Articulation (1) eg Staccato or shortened note (2) Dot of Prolongation (extra half note) (1) Chords - Add note to Chord (2) Ties or Slurs notes together (3) Beaming Rests from Whole Bar Rest to 64th note rest Crescendo and Decrescendo marks Accidentals (1) Sharp sign (2) Flat sign (3) Natural Sign Repeats (1) End of Piece Bar Line (2) Start repeat (3) End Repeat (4) First Time Repeat (5) Second Time Repeat (6) Double Bar Line Tuplets beam group of notes to be played within one beat Page 6

15 Getting Started with Toccata Creating a New Score Having learnt about Insert and Add Modes and how to select notes from the Palette, you are ready to place notes into the Notation Editor. Toccata automatically creates a new blank score for you at startup two staves in 4/4 time in the key of C. The worked example that we shall develop in the following pages is in ¾ time so we will need to change from the default 4/4 time signature displayed. To do this we need to create a new score as follows Click on File in the Menu Bar, then click on New Click on the No button when asked whether you wish to Save current work? The Stave Options Dialogue Box will appear In the Stave Options Dialogue Box, click on the down arrow in the Beats / Measure control to change the beats from 4 to 3 Click on the OK button. The Stave Options Dialogue Box gives the user complete control over the setup of the score, including key and time signatures; this will be discussed fully in the section entitled Music Score Options (page 35). Here we just needed to specify ¾ time, and this is now shown on the score. Note and Rest values can be selected from the Palette by a single left mouse click or by pressing 1 to 7 on the keyboard or numeric keypad. The notes themselves can then be clicked onto the stave by a double left mouse click. The notes will appear on the stave at the pitch position that the mouse was at when you double-clicked. Page 7

16 Getting Started with Toccata Pitch and Placement With Insert Mode on, and a crotchet (¼ note) selected from the Palette, place the following notes into the first bar by double clicking with the left mouse button use the head of the crotchet cursor to position the note. If you make a mistake when clicking, and position a note at the wrong pitch, you can correct this very easily. Position the pointer over the errant note. Now just hold down the left mouse button and drag the errant note up or down the stave to the correct vertical position and release the left mouse button. Notice how the note turns blue when you click on it this indicates that it has focus. As you point to a note, notice also the information displayed in the Toolbar s Note Information Panel : The Note Information Panel shows which Stave, Bar and Beat the pointer is on, and also the note pitch in this case A in the fourth octave. This panel is particularly useful in Add Mode, because as you move the pointer along the bar, even if no notes are placed, the Panel shows the current beat position so you can place them more accurately. Stem Direction - note that Toccata automatically aligns the note stem for you. For notes pitched above the central line of the Treble Clef (B), the stem points downwards. For notes below the central line the stem points upwards. You may over-ride the automatic settings at any time by single clicking with the right mouse button on an already placed note. This reverses the stem direction. This may be useful for the sake of clarity in certain pieces, particularly those with Parts, but has no effect on the translated Braille. Modifying a Note Value To change an existing note s value, select another note from the Palette, move the pointer to the note to be changed and single click on it. To modify an existing note s value eg make it dotted select the modification from the Palette, move the pointer to the note to be modified and double click on it. The new note values will appear, and you will see an immediate effect on the subsequent notes in the Bar, which will shuffle along to their new beat positions. Try changing the 1st note in the example above to a dotted crotchet, and then the 2nd note to a quaver ( 1 / 8 note): Page 8

17 Getting Started with Toccata Translating to Braille So far you have learned the basics of placing and editing notes in the Music Notation Editor, and we will continue elaborating this example to explore other aspects of notation. Before we do this, it is probably a good time to introduce the Braille Editor Window, so that you can see the effect and inter-relationship between the notes in the Notation Editor and the resultant Braille side by side as the example develops. You should have a Bar of notes : a dotted crotchet (G), a quaver (1/8 note - A), and a crotchet (G). To translate this to Braille, select OPTIONS from the Menu Bar, and then TRANSLATE Either click on OPTIONS, then TRANSLATE, Or Press CTRL T On the keyboard The Editing Window will change to a blue screen displaying the Braille for the bar you have composed this is the Braille Editor Window. To switch back to the Music Notation Editor, either select VIEW from the Menu, then SCORE, or click on the SCORE VIEW Button on the Toolbar. At any time you can switch between Music and Braille by clicking on either the SCORE VIEW button or the BRAILLE VIEW button. Page 9

18 Getting Started with Toccata You may also display both together by selecting VIEW, BOTH from the Menu. Translation Modes When you select TRANSLATE from the Options Menu, Toccata performs a Full Translation of the entire piece, even if you have only changed one note in one bar. This is always the safest way to translate, because changes in one bar may affect the Braille in another bar. For example, slurs between bars, or the insertion of a change of Time Signature will have a major bearing on subsequent bars. Another mode, called Immediate Translation, shows instantly the Braille for the current bar as you insert notes into the Music Notation Editor. This is particularly useful for beginners, and obviously you should have BOTH the Notation Editor and Braille Editor in view simultaneously (select View Menu, Both). To activate Immediate Translation, select Options Menu, Immediate Translation the shortcut is CTRL M. In any event, it is important to appreciate that translation is a one-way street ie changes in the music are reflected in the Braille, but if you make changes to the Braille these are not reflected in the Music. The default Braille formatting in Toccata is Bar-over-Bar, which is the most common layout used in Braille music, but you may also select the Section-by-Section format. By default, Hand Signs are shown -.> for the Right Hand, and _> for the Left Hand. Bar (also known as Measure ) numbers are shown in the left margin (without the number sign #). All these are optional and can be changed through the Braille Options Dialogue Box (see page 27) to access this, select the OPTIONS menu, then BRAILLE or press F4. Page 10

19 Getting Started with Toccata More Notation Accidentals Sharps, Flats and Naturals ( accidentals ) can be placed by selecting the required symbol from the Palette and double clicking on the note. For double-sharps or double-flats simply double click again. A third double click will restore the note to its original pitch Note : In music score, and in Braille Music, it is inferred that an accidental will apply to all subsequent same-pitched notes in the Bar without having to mark each with the accidental sign. This rule also applies to notes in different octaves, but sometimes, for clarity s sake, accidentals in other octaves occurring in the same bar are also marked. In Toccata it only matters to the playback whether you include these accidentals. To illustrate how Toccata handles accidentals we shall use our previous example and sharpen the first G remember to double click on the note. 1st G 2nd G Listen to the music by clicking on the Playback button Tracking Bar Stop Button Timer Playback Playback is a very useful feature in Toccata, as it can quickly draw the user s attention to mistakes in the notation, especially for familiar pieces. Notice the yellow tracking bar which follows the music in real time, and the Stop Button and Timer. Clicking anywhere on the music will clear the Timer. Pressing SPACEBAR at any time stops playback. Notice that the second G note sounds as a G sharp even though you did not put a sharp sign on it. This is because Toccata knows that by marking the first G as G#, subsequent Gs will sound sharpened if they occur in the same octave. However, in the Braille, the sharp sign is not shown for the second G, as it did not appear in the notation, but is implied : A.>'%"\'I\ Sharp Sign 1st G 2nd G Page 11

20 Getting Started with Toccata Now change the second G (in the fourth octave) to a G in the fifth octave by dragging the note up the Staff make sure you have a crochet selected from the Palette, position the pointer over the G, hold down the left mouse button and drag the note up to its new position, then release the left mouse button When you select Playback you should notice that the second G does not sound sharpened, and this is because Toccata only automatically changes the sound for notes in the same octave. To hear the notes accurately you will need to put a sharp on the second G. Of course, this will also now appear in the Braille Music. This is how the Music and Braille will look if you sharpen the second G : A.>'%"\'I%.\ Removing Attributes To remove a Sharp or Flat, first make sure you have the same Sharp or Flat sign selected from the Palette, then double click on the note until the sign disappears. Try removing the sharps from the example so far. Effect on Modified Notes Notice how when you removed the sharp from the first G, which is a dotted note, not only did the sharp disappear, but also the note changed back to a crotchet (¼ note). For Modified Notes, such as Dotted or Staccato notes, making any change to its attributes will force a reversion to its original timing value. This reversion also occurs if you change the pitch of a modified note by dragging it up or down the staff. You can avoid this by clicking on the Palette note value twice until no note is shown as selected on the Palette. In this state you should find that dragging modified notes, such as dotted notes, will keep their timing value Naturals Placing a Natural sign on a note indicates that the note is to be played naturally, without sharpening or flattening, despite a preceding note in the bar being sharpened or flattened, or the key signature of the bar including a sharp or flat for that note. Do not confuse this with removing an accidental as described above. In the example below, the top staff has a sharp removed from the second G, but musically it is implied to still pertain because of the preceding sharpened G. In the bottom staff, the second G is naturalised. These differences are reflected in Playback, and in the Braille. Page 12

21 Getting Started with Toccata In the Upper Staff, the Sharp sign was Removed In the Lower Staff, the Sharp was Naturalised Upper staff '%"\I\ Lower staff '%"\I*\ You may also check and adjust pitch, accidentals, and timing modifications directly for any note by invoking the EVENT INFO BOX, (see page 43). This function is invoked by pressing F8, or TOOLS menu, EVENT INFO. Delete notes To delete a note, click on the DELETE MODE button, then double click on the note. It is not necessary to select the corresponding note value from the Palette. You will know that the pointer is focussed on a note because it will turn green. If Parts are present you must also select the appropriate Part button to delete notes in that Part. Select range of notes You can select a range of notes and delete them all in one go. Click on the SELECT MODE button. Position the mouse pointer in one corner of an imaginary rectangle that will enclose all the notes. Hold down the left mouse and drag out the selection rectangle to enclose the notes. You may now : Delete the selected notes press the Delete Key on the keyboard Cut the selected notes to the Windows Clipboard press CTRL X or Edit, Cut Copy the selected notes to the Windows Clipboard press CTRL C or Edit, Copy Page 13

22 Getting Started with Toccata Paste Selected Notes into another Bar If you have selected some notes and copied or cut them to the Windows Clipboard, you may then move the mouse pointer to another bar in any Stave, click to bring focus to that bar, and Paste the notes into that bar by pressing CTRL V. Selection Mode and Parts Parts, which are described below, are two or more melodic lines occurring in the same Staff or Clef. In Toccata, it is possible to denote an Upper Part in orange and a Lower Part in pink. Where there is only one melodic line in a Staff (the normal case), notes are referred to as No Part and shown in Black. Selecting a range of notes and then deleting the notes enclosed will delete all notes in all Parts within that selection. You cannot Select just the Upper, or just the Lower Part. However, if you Select and Cut or Copy a range that includes Parts, and then Paste that range into another Bar, the separate Parts are preserved. Parts Where two or more melodic lines occur in the same Clef, each line is referred to as a Part. Toccata shows each Part in a separate colour in the Music Notation Editor. Toccata normally enters the main flow of music as black coloured notes, and where other Parts occur these black notes are referred to as No Part. When entering the notes for a new Part, Add Mode must be selected (see page 5), otherwise, if Insert Mode were used, a Bar Overflow would occur. To select a Part, either click on the Parts button on the Toolbar, or from the Options menu, select Assign Part (CTRL R). The example below shows two parts, upper and lower, with appropriate note stem directions. Note that where two or more Parts occur in a Bar, they must be complete, including all rests, except whole-bar rests. Part-Bar and Whole-Bar In-Accords Toccata does not support Part-Bar In-Accords, only Whole-Bar In-Accords. This means that all Parts in every Bar must add up ie rests are not implied and must be shown. In actual music scores, Parts are often incomplete, and you will need to insert the missing rests for correct translation. Converting to Parts If you need to add a Part to existing ( No Part ) notes, first convert the No Part notes to a Part, and then Add the opposite part. Select the Part colour you wish to convert to, then click on the matching note values on the Palette and single click on each note to be converted. Page 14

23 Getting Started with Toccata Order of Parts and In-Accords When working with Parts in the Notation Editor, you should be aware of the order in which Toccata translates them to Braille. Braille music always shows the main flow of music first, then any Parts, which are described as being In-Accord with the main Part. Therefore, you must always show the main music in the colour that will be translated first. Where No Parts exist, this is always the default Black notes. Where Parts exist in a Stave, the order of translation depends on the Clef, according to the following table : Order of Translation of Parts Clef First Second Third Treble Black (No Part) Upper (orange) Lower (pink) Bass Lower (pink) Upper (orange) Black (No Part) Parts and Stem Direction If when adding a part you need to, or accidentally, place a note at the same spot and pitch as an existing note, the added note will show a stem in the opposite direction to the existing note, to indicate that two notes occur at the same location. You cannot add a third note at the same location. Chords Chords occur where notes of the same timing value in the same Part occur at the same beat. Chorded notes always have the same stem direction, determined by the placement of the first note of the chord. As far as Toccata is concerned, the first note is taken literally as the first note placed by you. It does not matter which note you choose to place first, but remember that the stem direction of the chord will depend on whether the first note is above or below the centre line of the Staff. You might think that constructing the rest of the chord is just a matter of ADDing in notes at the same beat, but you should not do this, and instead use the Chord tool from the Palette. To put a new note chorded with a first note, select the Chord symbol from the Palette then move the mouse pointer to the first note which will then light up in blue. Double click at the pitch you require and the note will go in. With the Chord mode selected you can move over the entire score and chord notes as required. You may place all the first notes and then come back and chord them, or you can build each chord as you go. Which note in a chord is the first note in the Music Notation Editor actually has no impact on the translated Braille because Toccata uses the following Braille rule for chords Chords in the Left Hand are denoted with the lowest pitched note first, Chords in the Right Hand are denoted with the highest pitched note first. In the following example the first chord was started with an F in the fourth octave as the first note on the score, and the second chord was started with a C in the fifth octave, but the Braille will be identical for each chord : Place the first note of a chord, then select the Chord button from the Palette (the cursor changes shape as shown) Double click the other notes in the chord. A.>.?+9?+9 Page 15

24 Getting Started with Toccata Embellishment of Chords It is important that all embellishment of the chord eg Staccato, Dot of Prolongation are put onto the first note before the Chord is built if you don t do this, the order of translation may be incorrect. Interval Doubling To save space in repeated chord patterns, the technique of Interval Doubling is used automatically by Toccata, and this may often be combined with Repeats (see page 28), as in the example below :.>"&++GHG+77!0EH0G+ Slurs and Ties A Slur indicates that the notes within the slur are to be played smoothly together. A Tie occurs between adjacent notes at the same pitch and indicates that the time value of the later note is to be added to the earlier note. Ties and Slurs are placed in the same way in Toccata and have the same symbol in the music notation, though they result in different symbols in the Braille. Slurs and Ties may be within a Bar, across Bars and even across Pages. They must be in same Part. Nested slurs (slurs within slurs) are allowed up to three levels. Ties and Slurs must always be the last notation added to a Bar To Slur or Tie notes, select the Tie/Slur Notes button from the Palette and then double-click on the first note. A begin Tie/Slur symbol will appear. Move the pointer to the later note (for a Tie), or the last note in the series (for a Slur), and double click on that note. The Tie/Slur symbol will connect the notes. Slurred notes "=CCHIJYJICG.?`C? Ties and Chords To tie all the notes in a chord to another chord, move the pointer over the first note of the chord (which will light up in blue), hold down the SHIFT key, and then double click to initiate the Tie/Slur. Then SHIFT and double click on any note in the second chord. Page 16 Tied notes

25 Getting Started with Toccata Removing Slurs /Ties Slurs and Ties are removed by selecting the Delete button from the Toolbar and then double clicking anywhere on the Slur or Tie. Worked Example Silent Night You will have enough information now to complete a few bars of the example we have been working on. Try and use the Select, Copy and Paste functions to save time notice that the basic note patterns are repeated in Bars 1 and 3, and 5 and 7. Remember that you will have to click once to bring focus to each bar you wish to work with, and that you may need to click the Insert Mode Button back on if you have been using the Delete or Select Modes in order to put in more notes or the Chord mode to put in chorded notes. #C4 A.>"\'I\ P' \'I\ P'.O: T' N? "R' S[ _>_P' N'9 P' N'9 R' O'# P' P' Q] AJ.>.?'J[ _>_['H] Page 17

26 Getting Started with Toccata Navigating the Music score New Page When you complete a page of music in the Notation Editor (10 bars for a 2 Stave system), if you need to create a New blank page press CTRL with ENTER. The Music Notation Editor can be easily navigated using ordinary Windows controls, namely the Vertical Scroll Bar on the right hand side of the Window, and the Horizontal Scroll Bar at the bottom of the Window. You may not always see these controls, depending on whether or not the music is completely displayed in the available space. This depends on the amount of music, the resolution of your computer display, and the Size Control. You may display the music at between 50% and 400% of normal size by either clicking on the Size control or selecting View Menu, Size and the desired percentage. Either the Size Control Or the View Menu can be used to show the Music larger or smaller, but more or less will be displayed in the available space Track Mouse Position If the Size selected is wider than can show two complete bars in the available space, a Horizontal Scroll Bar will be available. Toccata also has a feature (normally switched on) called Track Mouse Position. This shifts the Bar that the Mouse pointer (arrow pointer) is on fully into view, allowing editing of that Bar if required you will still need to single click to bring focus to that bar. You may wish to turn this feature off if you find the movement too jumpy, and you can do this by selecting the Options Menu, Track Mouse Pos or pressing CTRL L. Keyboard controls Apart from using the mouse controls, you can navigate the score using keyboard controls. Bear in mind that Toccata can only show a maximum of 10 Staves per Page. Cursor Down / Up HOME / END CTRL HOME Page Up Page Down New Page Left / Right Cursor CTRL G CTRL N Move up or down one Stave Move display to leftmost or rightmost Bar Go to Top of current Page Display Top of Previous Page if only one page, Top of Page Next Page, same relative Stave Position CTRL Enter If Mouse Tracking is Off, scroll left and right Go to Page Goto Bar Number Page 18

27 Getting Started with Toccata Play Back options You can control the music Playback with the Playback or Stop buttons Toccata normally plays back all Staves, for example Bass and Treble Clef, together, but you may choose to hear only one selected Staff by deselecting the Combine Staves option in the MIDI Menu. With Combine Staves deselected you can select the Staff to be played by clicking on it before clicking on the Playback Button. You can also choose to Follow Playback or not ie see the yellow bar move through the music, and you may choose to see or hide the Timer. If you find the playback a bit jumpy, you may improve this by reducing the music Size (to display more on the screen), turning off the Timer and possibly also the Follow Playback options. Whether Staves are Combined in Playback or not, Toccata always translates to Braille all Staves in the piece, unless the MIDI Channel for any particular Staff has been set to Off, in which case that Staff will not be either played back or translated to Braille. The Midi Channel option is in the Stave Options Dialogue Box, which can be displayed by pressing F2, or from the Options Menu. To set a Staff to Off for Playback or Translation purposes Select the Staff Select Off from the MIDI Channel list Click OK Page 19

28 Getting Started with Toccata Lyrics Braille Music with Lyrics has two components the lyrics as a stream of words, followed by a single stave of musical melody. A vocalist can work out the way the lyrics are to be phrased by singing one syllable per each note of the melody, unless a Slur occurs in the music, indicating that a single syllable is to be sung over a number of notes (as for example in Handel s Messiah for the first syllable of the word Amen ). When using Toccata to compose or copy vocal scores you should create a new score with just one Stave (usually the Treble Clef). If the original piece you are copying from shows piano accompaniment, you would normally create a separate 2 Stave score for that; Braille music is normally provided separately for vocalists and accompaniment. However, if you wish to present a combined score, you should create a 3 Stave system, the first Stave being the Melody, and then Treble and Bass Clefs in the usual way. Lyrics, and Lyrical Slurs, will be applied to the Melody Stave. When translating the Braille, you may only wish to show the Lyrics and Melody for a vocalist, in which case you can omit the lower Staves, by using the Setting a Staff to OFF method shown on the previous page. In this manual we have developed a simple 2 Stave piano piece called Silent Night as a worked example. We shall continue with this example, as the piece is so familiar. However, for existing scores in Toccata, there is no way of adding a new Stave if you try increasing the number of Staves in the Stave Options Dialogue Box, all your notation is erased. Luckily, the Treble Clef provides the melody satisfactorily, so we can simply omit the Bass Clef and add lyrics to the Treble, which becomes the Melody Stave. To insert lyrics into Toccata, a special text editor called the Lyric Editor is used. Lyrics are entered bar by bar, and you should use hyphens to break up words that have more than one syllable. With the music for Silent Night : Click the mouse pointer in the first Bar of the Melody stave (the Treble Clef). Press the L key on the keyboard to start the Lyric Editor Type the letters Si- lent with hyphen as shown Click on the OK button, or press Enter Putting the hyphen immediately after the first syllable ( Si ) breaks the word and forces the next syllable to go to the next available note : However, anybody who knows the tune will remember that the first word is sung as if there were three syllables, not two ie Si i lent. In printed music score, this may be shown as Si- - lent with an extra hyphen to indicate the syllable splitting. Technically, you could type this into the Lyric Editor and it would appear correctly in the notation, but you should not do this, because, as it stands, the translated Braille will incorrectly imply that Silent is to be sung over only two notes, not three. As mentioned above, the lyrics in the translated Braille music are shown as a stream of whole words, and all phrasing is worked out from the music in the Melody Stave. Therefore, it is essential that you put Slurs into the Melody Stave to achieve split-syllable phrasing. Slurs automatically force syllables to go to the next available note : The Melody Stave has a Slur, which forces the next syllable to the 3rd note Page 20

29 Getting Started with Toccata Using the Slur tool on the Palette, slur the first and second notes in Bars 1, 4 and 10, and then using the Lyric Editor, enter the lyrics as indicated below : Bar 1 Bar 2 Bar 3 Bar 4 Bar 5 Si- lent night, Ho- ly night! All is Bar 6 Bar 7 Bar 8 Bar 9 Bar 10 calm, all is bright, Round yon Vir- gin When translating this to Braille lyrics are always shown in the Section-by-Section format : Use the Braille Options Dialogue Box (F4 or Options Menu, Braille) Select Sectionby-Section Click in Lyrics box the Click OK. The translated Braille music in Section-by-Section format should appear as follows : #C4 Silent night1 Holy night6 all is calm1 all is bright1 'Round yon Virgin A "\'CI\ P' \'CI\ P'.O: T' N? "R' S[ AJ.?'CJ[ The first two lines (ignoring the time signature on the top line) are the lyrics, the last two lines are the music for the Melody (Treble Clef), each line of which shows the Bar or Measure Number in the left margin. Braille Music readers will notice that even though 8 Bars / Section was (by default) specified in the Settings column, this is over-ridden when lyrics are specified, and all the lyrics for the whole piece are shown in the first Section. Transcribers would now attempt to split up the lyrics into more readable chunks, whilst at the same time trying to fit as much onto a line as possible this can be achieved in Toccata using End of Phrase Markers. Page 21

30 Getting Started with Toccata End of Phrase Marker To show lyrics in Braille Music in more readable chunks, there is a phrasing mark that can be employed in the Lyric Editor called the End of Phrase Marker. If you place a backslash\ (next to the Backspace Key on the keyboard) after a lyrical phrase, the Braille will break the section at that point. Lyrical phrases follow musical phrases and may be shorter or longer than a Bar. Toccata also has an automatic phrase marking facility, which inserts End of Phrase markers after punctuation in the lyrics eg after commas, periods and so on. When you come to translate, if Toccata detects no phrase marks in the lyrics, you are prompted No Lyric Phrase Marks detected in Stave 1 Add phrasing marks automatically based on punctuation? Automatic phrasing may be sufficient for many lyrical pieces, but often more than one short phrase can fit on a Braille line, and if the two phrases are naturally associated eg Silent Night, + Holy Night!, then Braille Music transcribers might want to use an End of Phrase Marker (\) after the second phrase rather than breaking at the comma ( Silent Night, ). Try adding in backslashes to the Lyric Editor for Bars 4 and 8 of Silent Night click in the Treble Clef for those Bars, press L on the keyboard, and the Lyric Editor will show the lyrics you have already entered; just add a \ at the end of the words and click on OK or press Enter Bar 4 night!\ Bar 8 bright,\ Before you translate this to Braille, two other optional refinements can be selected from the Braille Options Dialogue Box (F4) : Grade II Braille English-speaking Braille readers generally read Grade II Braille more comfortably than Grade I (uncontracted) Braille. Grade II Braille saves space by contracting common letter patterns into smaller units. Check the Grade II Braille box. Show Capitals You may optionally show the Capital Sign, Below is the resultant Braille if these refinements and phrase marks are implemented : #C4,SIL5T NI<T1,HOLY NI<T6 A "\'CI\ P' \'CI\ P' ALL IS CALM1 ALL IS B"R1 E.O: T' N? "R' ',R.D YON,VIRG9 I "S[?'CJ[ Page 22 ¾ time signature Silent Night, Holy night! Bars 1 to 4 All is calm, all is bright, Bars 5 to 8 Round yon Virgin Bars 9 to 10

31 Getting Started with Toccata Doubling Lyrics If adjacent words or phrases are repeated, Braille music often shows a lyric doubling sign to save space. You may put braces {..} around words or phrases that you want doubled in the Braille, omitting the second occurrence from the Lyric Editor. Tripling is achieved with a double brace eg {{yeah}, and for more than three repetitions precede the first brace with a number eg 4{la}. This completes the section on Lyrics. The next short section deals with Embossing (printing with a Braille printer) the Braille Music, and Saving the work we have done as a file. Printing and Embossing Embossing the Braille Music Make sure that your embosser is connected, either directly, or via a switch box, to the parallel printer port of your computer. Select File menu, Emboss or press CTRL E. See (page 34) for more detailed information about Embossing issues. Printing the Braille Music It is also possible to print an ink copy of the Braille Music using an ordinary printer. This shows the Braille dots, and may be useful for proof-reading purposes. Instead of selecting LPT1 as the Embosser Port (see page 34), select a Windows Device and choose a printer. Printing the Music Notation To print a hard copy of the music in the Notation Editor, make sure your printer is connected and then select File Menu, Print or press CTRL P. The standard Windows print dialogue box will appear. You may print any number of copies of either just the current sheet (page) of music score or ALL pages, or a range of pages. Click OK or press Enter to print. You may choose between different qualities of printout by selecting a printer resolution from Options Menu, Printer. Page 23

32 Getting Started with Toccata Saving Files To save your work as a file, select File menu, Save, Toccata. Type in a file name eg Silent Night and then Click on the Save button (or press Enter). This will save the notation you have worked on with a file extension.toc. Notice that there was also the option to Save Braille Music, and this allows you to save the translated Braille separately as a.brm file; however, remember that you can always generate the Braille at any time for a Toccata file by Translating once loaded. BRM files are in ASCII text format and can be directly embossed from any computer, even if Toccata is not loaded. BRM files are also compatible with the Duxbury Braille Translator program. Loading Files In the next sections of this manual we shall be working with a more complicated sample file, supplied with Toccata. To load this, select File menu, Load, and then choose Toccata from the three available file types, which are : NIFF MIDI Toccata Braille (just the translated Braille for a piece, without Music Notation) In the Load Toccata File Dialogue Box, click on the file called Mozart and then click on the Open button. Page 24

33 Getting Started with Toccata This will load the file called MOZART into the Music Notation Editor, the first page of which is shown below : W A Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Page 25

34 Braille Formatting Braille formatting choices STYLES Toccata has been set to translate music to Braille according to the most common layout (Bar-over-Bar) so that for everyday usage it will not be necessary to make any adjustments just press CTRL T to translate and then CTRL E to emboss. This will work fine for ordinary Bass and Treble Clef music in the KEYBOARD Style. However, as already seen, the LYRIC Style requires the Section-by-Section format. One of the great strengths of Toccata is the ease with which it is possible to switch between formats and make fine adjustments, according to the requirements of the Braille Music reader. For example, Toccata could generate Silent Night in KEYBOARD Style for a piano accompanist, and also another version in LYRIC Style for a vocalist. This section of the manual describes all the features available for formatting the Braille Music. Five STYLES are instantly available for translation. KEYBOARD, INSTRUMENTAL, LYRICS, SINGLE LINE and USER. When a style is selected from the Style Menu, translation is immediately performed. All subsequent translations, CTRL T, will use the selected style. Bar-over-Bar format (Keyboard Style) The main usefulness of the Bar-over-Bar format is that it lines up vertically each Bar in each Stave, making it easy to follow, in time, the music across a number of Clefs. This is also what printed music score does, by the use of Bar lines. However, no attempt is made in the Braille to line up individual notes, and the Braille reader has to keep a count of the timing value of the notes shown in each bar. Here is how the first 6 bars of Eine Kleine Nacht Musik will look in Bar-over-Bar format using the default settings : %%#D4 A.\'0"#E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO.\'"#E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO "\'0E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO ^:'0_#_E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO E.\0"#\`CHJIH SRSRG]`CGID.G "E++EEEEEEE+ E//EEEEEEE/ "HHVHHV "IIIIID"GI _HHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH ## 4/4 staff 1 Bar 1-4 staff 2 Bar 1-4 staff 3 Bar 1-4 staff 4 Bar 1-4 staff 1 Bar 5-6 staff 2 Bar 5-6 staff 3 Bar 5-6 staff 4 Bar 5-6 For the sake of clarity (though at the expense of compression) transcribers may wish to indicate the Clef names, or the instrument names (Viola, Flute etc). They might also wish to put a blank line between each parallel a parallel being the equivalent of the Stave in the music score. For keyboard music, it is customary to indicate hand signs rather than Clefs ie left hand / right hand. Normally the Octave Sign is not shown at the start of every Bar, (though it is always shown at the start of every new line), but it can be included if required. Adjustments like these are achieved by using the Braille Options Dialogue Box, which can be selected from the Options menu, or by pressing F4. The features of this box are now described in more detail. Page 26

35 Braille Formatting Braille Options Dialogue Box Show Clef Signs eg Treble >/L or Bass >#L In some pieces it is useful to show the Clef Name eg Treble Clef or Bass Clef. However, this is more suited to music with two clefs only. In our example of Eine Kleine Nacht Musik, three of the four Clefs are Treble, so showing these may not be as relevant as showing the instrument name (see below). Show Hand Signs eg Left Hand _> or Right Hand.> Keyboard music can show either Clef signs, or Hand Signs eg Left Hand and Right Hand. Showing Hand Signs is more commonly used than showing Clef signs. Obviously Hand Signs are not relevant to pieces for stringed instruments. Show Staff Name ( instrument ) In orchestral music, it is common to show instrument names, rather than Clefs. To save space, instrument names are abbreviated eg VC for Violincello. These abbreviations are used to replaced the default names for the Staffs Staff 1, Staff 2 etc. This process is fully described on page 32. Show Tempo If selected, the tempo of the piece is shown is shown on the top line of the Braille music, preceding the key and time signatures eg?7#acj %%#D4 Show Measure No. ( Bar number ) Measure (Bar) numbers occur once for each Parallel but only for the top stave of each Parallel. A.\'0"#E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO.\'"#E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO "\'0E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO ^:'0_#_E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO E.\0"#\`CHJIH SRSRG]`CGID.G "E++EEEEEEE+ E//EEEEEEE/ Measure on Free Line Bar Numbers appear indented on own line above each Parallel. This format takes up more space, but the Parallels are more clearly separated. Page 27 #A.\'0"#E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO.\'"#E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO "\'0E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO ^:'0_#_E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO #E.\0"#\`CHJIH SRSRG]`CGID.G "E++EEEEEEE+ E//EEEEEEE/

36 Braille Formatting Show Tracker Dots '''''' In Bar-over-Bar format only, tracker dots are used for clarity where a Bar in one Staff has numerous notes (eg semiquavers 1/16) but the same Bar in other Staffs has few notes. For example, in Bar 23, the third Stave is considerably fuller than the other Staffs. ;:'.IDIDI ''''' ;E00:EE:E0.QR ''''''''''' G++]GG]G+.I99III9I##III# GHIHGHIG _EEEEEEEE ''''' EFGFEFGE Show Lyrics Lyrics in Toccata are always in the Section-by-Section format see previous example on page 21. You must select both the Section-by-Section button as well as Show Lyrics check box. Show Capital Sign, The Capital Sign indicates that the next letter in the Braille was a capital in the printed version. This only applies to lyrics and expression marks (eg Andante ). Where a whole word is capitalised, two capital signs precede the word. Show Repeats The Repeat sign 7 is used to save space in the Braille where the same patterns of music recur in the same Stave, either within the same Bar ( Simple Repeats ) or across various Bars ( Complex Repeats ). The button next to the Show Repeats check box activates the Repeat Options dialogue box, which allows you to choose whether to apply Simple or Complex Repeats. Complex Repeats will also include Simple Repeats. Below is an illustration of simple repeats : with repeats _HHHH7 or, without repeats _HHHHHHHH Settings Start Measure No. Toccata will normally start Bar ( Measure ) numbering at 1, but there may be occasions when you wish to specify a different number, for example if you have taken an extract from a piece. If you split a long piece of music into various separate files, you will need to add 1 to the last Measure Number of the preceding file in order to continue with correct numbering. Another common and important instance is where the first notes of a piece are an upbeat or anacrusis, and not counted as a complete Bar, and here the Start Measure must be set to Zero. For example below: #D%#C4 J "F HGFCGCHG Page 28

37 Braille Formatting Note : it is not important as far as the Braille translation is concerned exactly how notes in an anacrusis are placed in the Music Notation Editor; it would not matter if the quaver (1/8 note) shown above was placed at the first beat or the third beat. However, if you playback the music, it will sound more accurate if it is placed at the last beat. Music Indent Toccata normally indents the Braille music by 2 spaces from the left margin. This value may be increased or decreased if required. If Bar numbering is shown, a spare space will always occur after the Bar number, even if the Music Indent is set to zero, or if the Bar number has more digits than the Music Indent. A spare space is always shown, even if Bar numbers are omitted and the Music Indent is zero, in order to allow for special margin signs like the Runover Continuation 'sign. The Runover Continuation sign indicates that the following music is the continuation of a broken (or hyphenated ) Bar. This only occurs where there is too much music in one Bar to be shown on one line. This frequently occurs where Expression marks such as Allegro con brio etc are used. Broken bars end with a hyphen " sign. Runover music appears coloured red in the Braille Editor Window. The following example includes a Runover, and samples of the Braille are shown in various formats : Bar-over-Bar with Music Indent 2 and Measure Numbers in Margin #D4 AJA.>'>Sempre>legato"(CJCIC.E)CHCJCI".ZCFC"JCE"(CICHC.D _>'_OT AJB.>.GHEH8"J8.F"W _>^)CCEFH=^)(C)_GF^W Bar-over-Bar with Music Indent 2 and No Measure Numbers #D4.>'>Sempre>legato"(CJCIC.E)CHCJCI".ZCFC"JCE"(CICHC.D _>'_OT.>.GHEH8"J8.F"W _>^)CCEFH=^)(C)_GF^W Page 29

38 Braille Formatting Section-by-Section with Music Indent 2 and Measure Numbers in Margin #D4 AJA >Sempre>legato"(CJCIC.E)CHCJCI".ZCFC"JCE"(CICHC.D GHEH8"J8.F"W AJA _OT )CCEFH=^)(C)_GF^W Lyric Indent and Lyric Runover Lyrics, which are always shown Section-by-Section, normally start at the left margin (zero indent). Runover is normally indented 4 spaces. The example below shows the default indents, with Measure Numbers. In this example, to demonstrate Runover, the Phrasing Mark (\) has been removed from after the phrase Music music for a while where it would normally be expected : c M Music music for a while shall all your cares beguile1 Lyrics, in Grade I Braille, indented 4 at Runover D "['IU.P`CFF=CFECD WX.F"ITCNCZD') G.YC)CIX Phrase marks in Lyrics force new lines in Braille and these Lyrics start at left margin shall all1 all1 all1 G' "I.:XJ.$X" shall all1 all1 all1 H' "I%]XJ %(C%=CFX" Page 30

39 Braille Formatting Bars / Section This setting controls the amount of Bars shown in each Section when using Section-bySection format, normally 8 Bars. The setting has no effect in Bar-over-Bar format. Format Bar-over-Bar / Section-by-Section These are radio buttons ie only one button can be ON, and clicking one on automatically switches the other OFF. Click on the formatting style you wish to use. Line Between Sections / Parallels For the sake of clarity, a blank line can optionally be used to separate Sections in Sectionby-Section format, or Parallels in Bar-over-Bar format. In the example below, we shall use the Section-by-Section format for Eine Kleine Nacht Musik (see page 25 for the score), first without a separator line, and then with a separator line, which makes the Braille much clearer : A E G A E G %%#D4 >/L.\'0"#E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO.\0"#\`CHJIH SRSRG]`CGID.G.IH\`CHJIH SRSRG]`CGID.G >/L.\'"#E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO "E++EEEEEEE+ E//EEEEEEE/ "E++EEEEEEE+ E//EEEEEEE/ %%#D4 A >/L.\'0"#E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO E.\0"#\`CHJIH SRSRG]`CGID.G G.IH\`CHJIH SRSRG]`CGID.G A >/L.\'"#E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO E "E++EEEEEEE+ E//EEEEEEE/ G "E++EEEEEEE+ E//EEEEEEE/ Without Lines between Sections it is easy to mistake the start of a new Section With Lines between Sections, the Staves are more clearly displayed, but the Braille music will be longer Grade II Braille When selected, Lyrics and Title will be shown using contracted (Grade II) Braille. Octave Sign at Start of every Measure in Bar-over-Bar Format In keyboard music, an Octave Sign is optionally shown at the start of every Bar in Bar-overBar format, even though it may not be required for Braille clarity. Octave Signs show the octave that a note occurs in eg. for the fifth octave. Octave signs always occur at the start of a new line, after interruptions to the music, if the interval between successive notes is greater than a third and the second note is in a different octave, and always if the interval is a sixth or greater. Page 31

40 Braille Formatting Showing Instrument Names As mentioned previously, there is a method of showing the names of the instruments in an orchestral piece, rather than the Clef name, which, as in the case of Eine Kleine Nacht Musik is not particularly useful as three of the Staffs show Treble Clef anyway. It would be better to indicate Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola and Violincello. To save space, these are abbreviated to VL1 VL2 VLA and VC. To achieve this, Show Staff Name must be selected from the Braille Options Dialogue Box (see page 27) and you must also rename the staffs to the abbreviations shown above, otherwise the Braille will show Staff 1 Staff 2 etc. To rename the staffs, you need to bring up the Stave Options Dialogue Box by pressing F2, or selecting Stave(s) from the Options Menu. Click in the Staff Number / Name box and type your abbreviated instrument name Click in the Voice box and choose an instrument voice for playback purposes Click in the Staff Number/Name edit box and type VL1 this will over-write the contents which by default should be (Staff 1). Click on the down triangle symbol next to the edit box and this will show all the Staffs. Click on the second staff and over-write this as VL2. Repeat this for the remaining staffs, and then click on the OK button. For Playback purposes, you may also wish to select different Voices for different staffs (instruments). The quality and range of the available voices will depend on your computer sound card and its drivers. For each staff (instrument), click on an instrument name from the list in the Voice edit box. Overleaf is the Braille for the first 14 Bars of Eine Kleine Nacht Musik in Bar-over-Bar format, without Page Numbers, with Measure Numbers shown on a free line for clarity, and showing instrument names Page 32

41 Braille Formatting %%#D4 #A >vl1'.\'0"#e\'e HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO >vl2'.\'"#e\'e HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO >vla' "\'0E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO >vc' ^:'0_#_E\'E HEHJO?'I?'I DIGIO #E >vl1'.\0"#\`chjih SRSRG]`CGID.G >vl2' "E++EEEEEEE+ E//EEEEEEE/ >vla' "HHVHHV "IIIIID"GI >vc' HHHHHHHH _HHHHHHHH #G >vl1'.ih\`chjih SRSRG]`CGID.G >vl2' "E++EEEEEEE+ E//EEEEEEE/ >vla' "HHHHHHHH IIIIID"GI >vc' HHHHHHHH _HHHHHHHH 25 lines can be fitted on one Braille page with the default settings. There are four spare lines on this page, but this is not enough to show a complete new Parallel (5 lines required) #I >vl1'.hh(=&=hh)ihi JJZDJD:V.OP >vl2' ":+.DDEED)! HHGG\V "TN >vla' "EEEEEEEE EEEEO M >vc' HHIIT M _HHIIJJGG #AB >vl1'.zd'?yj'w ")I'[HGFG HXIXJXV >vl2' ")I'[!H'\ "$$?[ "EXGXHXV >vla' _QR ''''' "??[: EX"EXEXV >vc' JXEXHXV _OP ''''' _??:: The next Parallel is therefore forced over to a second Braille page. This is indicated on screen by a horizontal line Line Width and Page Length By default, Toccata assumes you are embossing with standard Braille paper, which measures 40 characters wide by 25 lines deep. Depending on your embosser, and the paper you use, you may wish to change this. Select Options menu, Embosser (F5), and then specify a Line Width and Page Length. Page 33

42 Braille Formatting Embosser Options The translated Braille generated by Toccata is sent as ASCII text, without control characters, to the embosser connected to your computer. This means that Toccata should be set up with margins and page lengths that correspond to those set up on your embosser. This can be achieved by using the Embosser Dialogue Box : Embosser Port Select the Port that your embosser is connected to, normally LPT1: Windows Device Line Width / Page Length Match these settings to your embossers margins Page Numbering Page numbers will be automatically inserted into the Braille music, but one line will be reserved as a Page Number Line, reducing the number of lines per page to one less than the Page Length indicated. If you click on Windows Device, you will be able to take advantage of Windows Background Printing, but you must specify the Generic / Text Only Printer from the list box, otherwise the embossed Braille will be garbled. If the Device list does not show an entry for Generic / Text Only, you must add this Printer Driver and re-start Toccata. To add a Printer Driver : Select MY COMPUTER, Printers, Add Printer, then click on NEXT Make sure Local is indicated and select NEXT In the Manufacturers list, select GENERIC, then NEXT In the Printer Port, select your preferred LPT, usually LPT1 then select NEXT Where it says Do you wish Windows to use this as your default printer? select NO, then select NEXT Where its says Do you wish to print a test page? select NO and then FINISH Embosser Braille Table The embosser should be configured to the U.S. ASCII Braille Table. Refer to the instruction manual of the embosser if the Braille Table needs to be changed. Page 34

43 Music Score Options Music Score Options All options pertaining to the configuration of the Music Score are set via the Stave Dialogue Box, which is displayed when you select File menu, New. From here you may specify how many Staves there are, what instrument name is associated with each Staff, what Clef is shown on each Staff, and which instrument voice will sound for each Staff during playback (see page 19). You may also set the Key signature and Time signature, the tempo, and the number of Bars shown on each page. By selecting File menu New you have complete control over the Score, but you also erase whatever music was in the Music Notation Editor (you will be prompted whether you wish to save your work). If, instead of starting from scratch, you wish to make Score option changes to music already loaded, you can bring up the Stave Dialogue Box at any time by pressing F2 or selecting Options menu, Stave(s). It is important to understand that in this case not all options are available; you will not be able to change the key or time signatures or the tempo, or the number of Bars displayed all you can really do is adjust options pertaining to individual Staffs eg the Clef of the Staff, or the instrument name. The Stave Dialogue Box is shown on page 32. Below is a description of each option : System Settings Staves per System In Toccata, the terms Staff and Stave are interchangeable though normally Staff is the singular and Staves is the plural, occasionally Stave is also used as the singular. A group of Staves, for example the group of four Staves in our arrangement of Eine Kleine Nacht Musik on page 25, is called a System. Ordinary piano music is therefore a 2 Stave System. You may set between 1and 16 Staves Per System by clicking the up or down triangle ( spin buttons ). Tempo The Tempo, or the metronome mark, will affect the Playback, and, if Show Tempo is checked in the Braille Options Dialogue Box, will be shown before the Key and Time Signature. You can only change Tempo in this way for New scores. You may change Tempo for playback purposes for any Bar using the Tempo control on the Toolbar but this has no effect on the Braille music. Staff Number / Name The text shown here is what will be displayed in the Braille music if Show Staff Name is selected in the Braille Options Dialogue Box; see the worked example on page 32. Maximum No. Bars / Page The default settings are for a 2 stave system, with 20 Bars per page. Toccata always shows 2 Bars side by side, so a standard new Score will display 5 Systems per page. You may wish to reduce the number of Bars per page if your computer is slow, as displaying fewer Bars speeds up the screen refresh, which in turn allows notes to be placed more quickly, and music to be played back in a smoother manner. Page 35

44 Music Score Options Stave Settings Clef You may select one of the four Clefs Treble, Bass, Alto and Tenor by clicking on the down triangle and then clicking on a Clef name. This is then associated with the Staff shown in the Staff Number/Name box. Repeat this process for all the Staffs. Key The Key signature for the music can be selected from the Key box. This applies to all Staves, and can only be adjusted for New Scores. Beats / Measure and Beat Use these controls to set the number of beats in the Bar (Measure) and the note value of each beat. So, for 6 quaver (1/8 note) beats per Bar (6 / 8 time), click the Beats / Measure control up to 6 and the Beat control up to 8. The button marked sets Common Time, and the button marked sets Cut Common Time (2/2). If either of these is selected, these symbols will appear as the Time Signature in the Score and equivalent Braille. Unify Key If Unify Key is un-checked, a Key signature will have to be applied to each Staff. However, Toccata in this version cannot process different Key signatures across Staves, so Unify Key should be left checked. Unify Time It is technically possible to apply different Time Signatures for each Staff if the Unify Time box is un-checked, but normally the same Time Signature is applied to all Staves, so this box should remain checked. Voice and MIDI Channel The Voice List Box can be used to associate the sound of a particular instrument (a Voice ) with a particular MIDI Channel. The sound card in your computer works with a system of 16 MIDI Channels. A Channel can have only one Voice, but that Channel can be used by any number of Staves. Therefore, to make each Stave have a different sounding Voice in playback, it is necessary to associate it with a unique Channel except for Channel 10, which is reserved for Percussion. The assignment of Voices to MIDI Channels has no bearing on the translated Braille. Remember that there is also a Channel OFF option, and you may use this to remove a Stave from Playback and Braille translation which is a useful method for extracting instrumental parts from an orchestral score see page 19. Page 36

45 Music Score Options Bar Dialogue Box options The Stave Dialogue Box is the means by which the entire Score is structured. However, you may need to make changes to a particular Bar (Measure) or to the music flow from a particular Bar onward. The Bar Dialogue Box, which can be displayed by pressing F3 or by selecting Options menu, Bar, is the means for achieving this, as described below : Press F3 whilst your pointer is in the Bar you wish to make a change to. When inserting Clef changes, check the Beat position is slightly less than the note ahead of which the change is to occur Clef Changes To insert a Clef change, position the mouse pointer just to the left of the note and press F3 to display the Bar Dialogue Box. Check the Beat Position is correct it should be slightly less than the note ahead of which the change is to occur. If it is on the note, or behind the note in terms of beat position, you may manually correct this by clicking on the up/down triangles (spin buttons) adjacent to the Beat box. Finally, click in the Clef box to select a Clef. Click OK and the Clef sign will appear on the Score. All subsequent notes, in all following Bars, will be repositioned according to their equivalent placing on the new Clef. If you wish to revert to the original Clef, or another Clef, you will need to repeat the process above at the appropriate point in the music. In the example below, there is a momentary change to Treble Clef in the second Stave, but the original Bass Clef is re-established in the next Bar. If, as in this example, you wish to re-establish a Clef at the start of a new Bar, you must position your mouse pointer after the last note of the previous Bar, rather than ahead of the first note of the new Bar. Page 37

46 Music Score Options Time signatures and Key Changes Changes to Time or Key Signature apply automatically from the beginning of the Bar your mouse pointer was in when you press F3 to display the Bar Dialogue Box. It is not possible to position such changes within a Bar. By choosing an appropriate radio button, you may apply the change just to the Bar (Measure) you initiated the change in, from this Bar to the end of the piece, or specify a Bar at which the music will revert to the previous Time or Key Signature. The example below shows a change for Time Signature in Bar 3 (to 6/4) which automatically reverts to 4/4 in Bar 4 because Apply to this Measure Only was selected. Key changes will also be naturalised in the following Bar if Apply to This Measure Only is selected. However, in the following example, a key change to D was made in Bar 3 and Apply From This Measure to Measure : 4 specified. Notice how the To Measure you specify includes that measure, and that the reversion to previous key occurs in the measure after that. Reversion is achieved by automatically placing natural signs. Changes to Key Signature always apply automatically to all Staves ie you cannot restrict a Key change to one Clef only. Also, note that by changing Key, Toccata does not transpose the notes they remain at their original pitch positions. This also means that in Playback, the original pitch is preserved. If you require the notes to Playback with pitch appropriate to the new Key, you will need to re-insert each note one by one. New notes added or inserted into the Bar will acquire the correct pitch. None of this has any impact on the translated Braille. Deleting Clef Signs and other objects Clef Signs, Time and Key Signatures are objects, just like notes; technically, they are referred to as Events with no time. They can be detected and deleted using Event Info (see page 43), or by simple deletion select the Delete button from the Toolbar, point to the object (eg a Clef Sign) and double click when it turns green. You may need to click once first in the Bar to bring focus to the Stave. Deleting Clef Signs will cause a re-build of the Score as notes adjust their pitch positions. Page 38

47 More complex Music Notation More complex Music Notation This section will cover the remaining notation topics, including Beaming, Tuplets, Dynamic Expression, Pedal Marks, Musical Repeats and direct Braille editing using six-key entry. Beaming Autobeam Toccata will normally be in Autobeam Mode, which means that if you are inserting multiple notes with the value of a quaver (1/8 note) or smaller, Toccata automatically beams them. Beamed music is generally clearer to read on the Score than individual notes, but is not indicated in the Braille. To select or de-select the Autobeaming option, press CTRL B or select Options menu, Auto Beam. Manual Beaming With Auto Beam switched off, you may at any time Beam a group of notes that occur within the same Beat, as long as they are in the same Part (see below). Click on the Select Button from the Toolbar and mark out the range of notes to be beamed by holding down the left mouse button. Click on the Beaming button on the Palette. Beat 1 Beat 2 Then click with the right mouse button in each beat of the marked out area and the notes will be beamed as shown below. Notice that Toccata works out the stem direction for notes above and below the centre line on an averaged basis. Tuplets Beamed notes always have an even ratio of notes to beat 2 quavers (1/8 notes), 4 semiquavers (1/16) and so on. Tuplets have an odd ratio. The most common tuplets are Triplets eg 3 quaver notes to be played in the space of 2 quaver notes (a single beat of 4/4 time). Tuplets are indicated by beamed groups with a bracket which includes the Tuplet Number. Page 39

48 More complex Music Notation Converting to Triplets To convert a group of notes to a Triplet, follows the steps below : Click on SELECT Click on Tuplet button in Palette Mark out the notes 4 Right mouse click inside the marked out area. To preserve original note value hold down SHIFT key whilst clicking. Triplet sign will bracket the notes 5 Beam the Triplet Preserving Note Stem Values Toccata will attempt to fit Tuplets to the span of a single beat unless the Tuplet ratio is adjusted (see below). For example, if crotchets (¼ notes) had been selected, instead of quavers (1/8 notes) in the example above, Toccata would have automatically converted the crotchets to a quaver triplet, as this would be the closest note value fitting the beat. If you wish to force Toccata to preserve the original stem value, you should hold down the SHIFT key whilst right clicking. Tuplet Ratio To alter the Tuplet Ratio, select Options menu, then Tuplet Ratio and click the appropriate radio button. Tuplets are shown on the score to occupy approximately their beat length. If semiquaver (1/16) tuplets are involved, they need to be compressed to occupy a half-beat, and to achieve this you need to alter the Tuplet Ratio, which is normally set at 1:1 ie 1 Tuplet to 1 Beat. Semiquavers require a 1:0.5 ratio. If crotchets are to be selected instead of quavers (1/8 notes), you will need to alter the Tuplet Ratio so that a 3 Crotchet Tuplet will occupy the space of 2 beats, or a 1:2 ratio. Page 40

49 More complex Music Notation Dynamics and Expression Dynamics and Expression marks can be placed anywhere on the score using the Dynamics Editor, which is invoked by pressing the letter D at the appropriate point in the score. Marks are placed at the beat that the pointer was on, and at the same pitch position. Expression marks are simply typed into the Editor eg Allegro or mf sempre stacc. The Braille will show exactly what you have typed, with appropriate word signs, except for the special case for the word crescendo. If you use write out the full word crescendo it will appear in full in the Braille, but if you use the abbreviation cresc. It will appear as cr. Marks, once placed, can be moved to other positions by simply dragging them ie by holding down the left mouse button on the Mark, repositioning the pointer and then releasing the mouse. Marks cannot be edited once placed, but they can be deleted by selecting Delete mode from the Toolbar, and then double clicking on the first letter of the Expression mark (it will go green when it has focus). Special signs can be typed into the Dynamic Editor, according to the table below : Mark Segno Coda Trill Mordents Half breath Full breath Strings Bow Up Strings Bow Down Fingering Keyboard S O tr ~, U V Description Capital S Capital O tr Tilde Inverted commas Comma Capital U Capital V You can mark fingering for notes or chords by clicking on the note with the mouse pointer and pressing the F key. Indicate the fingers and click OK. The numerals will appear in line with the notes on the score. Alternate fingering is not supported in this version of Toccata. To delete Fingering marks, select Delete from the Toolbar, point to the fingering mark and double-click. Page 41

50 More complex Music Notation Pedal, Pause, Turn, Arpeggio Marks Pedal, Pause, Turn and Arpeggio marks are selected within the Dynamics Editor by clicking the spin buttons after clicking on the Symbols button. Crescendo marks Crescendo and Decrescendo marks are inserted into the score by selecting their symbol from the Palette, positioning the cursor at the beginning beat position, holding down the left mouse button and dragging out the mark up to the end beat position, then releasing the mouse button. The Crescendo mark will snap to the nearest beat position, according to the quantile. Crescendo marks are one shot ie once placed, the Crescendo symbol button on the Palette is switched off. Music Repeats The Palette has provision for musical repeats. These are inserted by selecting the appropriate Repeat button and then double clicking at the appropriate beat position in the Stave. To force a Repeat sign to occur at the beginning or end of a Bar, double click close to the Bar line (within the Bar) and the symbol will snap to the Bar line. First and Second Bar Repeats Double Bar Line and End of Piece marks are all inserted in the same manner. Six Key Entry and Saving Braille Music Ideally, you should not need to edit the translated Braille as it appears in the Braille Editor Window. However, there may be occasions when you wish to make minor changes as long as the formatting is not affected. Toccata allows Six Key Entry providing that your keyboard is compatible with this mode. In the Braille Editor, position the cursor (using mouse pointer or cursor keys) at the point where you wish to enter Braille characters and then use the Spacebar, SDF and JKL keys as if you were typing Braille with a Perkins Brailler. You may use the Delete key, and also the ordinary Cut (CTRL X) Copy (CTRL C) and Paste (CTRL V) functions. The Braille Editor Window will automatically wrap lines longer than the page width. Toccata will seek back along a long line for a logical place to hyphenate the long line eg an octave sign. If Page Numbering is on, Toccata will normally repaginate correctly ie move the Page Break and Page Number line according to whether you have inserted or deleted lines. With Page Numbering on, you cannot move within or edit the Page Number Line. If you make changes to the Braille after Translation, these will not be preserved if you save your work as a Toccata file translation is a one-shot procedure. To save the Braille as a separate file, select File menu, Save, Braille Music. Page 42

51 Event Information The Event Info Dialogue Box There are times when notes or other notation objects are placed incorrectly on the score, or appear hidden behind other objects, and you need to adjust or delete them. Sometimes this can be difficult to do using the mouse, and in situations like this, or simply to confirm that what you see on the score is really what is there, the Event Info Dialogue Box can be used. Event Info is an information panel which completely describes the object currently focussed upon, and allows you to make changes to the attributes of that object eg the pitch or duration of a note. Event Info can be invoked by pressing F8 or by selecting Tools menu, Event Info. Event Info controls are limited to the current Bar. The large right arrow advances through the events in the Bar, and, after the last event, begins again with the first event in a scrolling fashion. In the example above, Event # 4 is the first note of a Chord (Event Type Crd), occurring at Beat 1 exactly, the pitch being G in the 5th Octave (Note G5), and duration value a dotted crotchet (¼ note) (Length 11). The note is a No Part note (Part None), and has a MIDI # 79. By clicking on the spin buttons, you can increase or decrease the stated values if necessary. When you click on the Apply button, your changes will take immediate effect and may be seen in the Score. Clicking on the Delete button will delete the object. Clicking on the Close button will close the Event Info Dialogue Box. The Ticks field shows what fraction of a beat the note is on, bearing in mind that there are 64 ticks to a Beat. A quaver (1/8 note) occurring after a crotchet would therefore show Ticks 32. The Length of a note is an integer, according to the following scale : The odd numbered Lengths are reserved for Dotted Notes eg 11 is a dotted crotchet (¼ note). MIDI # is the actual MIDI pitch that will be played by your sound card. Page 43

52 Scanned Music, MIDI and NIFF Scanning Music and loading MIDI or NIFF files into Toccata One of the great time-saving features of Toccata is its ability to load MIDI or NIFF files generated by music scanning programs. Included with Toccata is a pre-registered copy of SharpEye Music Reader which is a program that converts a scanned image of music score to a MIDI or NIFF file; the manual for this program is appended to this Toccata manual. There are other programs, such as Smartscore from Musitek that will also scan music and generate MIDI or NIFF files. There will be slight variations in procedure depending on the scanner and Music program used, but generally speaking, the process is as shown below : Scan a sheet of music using flatbed scanner o Start SharpEye and process the TIF file o Inspect the recognised music for mistakes in processing o Correct mistakes with the tools provided by SharpEye o Save as a SharpEye (MRO) file eg page1.mro Scan the next Page, load into SharpEye o Save the resulting image as a TIF file Process, edit and save as page2.mro Repeat until all Pages have been scanned and saved as MRO files o Append all the MRO files together in SharpEye o Save as a single NIFFor MIDI file In Toccata, load the NIFF or MIDI file o Inspect for mistakes against the original score o Add in any ommited notation (such as Dynamics) o Translate to Braille Starting SharpEye If you have not already installed SharpEye, refer to the instructions on page 57. The installation creates a Program Folder in the Start menu called VISIV. SharpEye and the program will start. Click on If you do not know how to save scanned images as TIF files with your scanner software, consult the on-line Help or documentation that comes with your scanner. The Windows Imaging program, which is usually found under Programs, Accessories, is a common means of scanning material into your computer. Page 44

53 Scanned Music, MIDI and NIFF Bohemian Rhapsody worked example A scanner is not required for the example we shall be working with, as we have supplied a pre-scanned TIF image file, which will be located in the Toccata Folder. Start SharpEye and from the Image menu select Open. Locate the file called BR.TIF in the \Programs\Toccata folder : Click on the Open button, and the scanned image file of the first page of Bohemian Rhapsody will appear in the Image Window of SharpEye. Because of the Zoom factor, you will only see a portion of the paper, and you will need to reduce the Zoom to about 25% by clicking on the Reduce Zoom button. You might also find it clearer if you Maximize the SharpEye program, Drag the Image Window to the lower part of the screen and Stretch its edges, as shown here Page 45

54 Scanned Music, MIDI and NIFF Recognising the Image File Click on the Recognition Button and SharpEye will process the Image file to extract recognisable music; this process may take several minutes depending on the speed of your computer. When complete, the recognised music will appear as a stream of Bars, which can be edited. The original Image file is synchronised with this for cross-reference : Brace Staves for Each Instrument The very first thing you should do after recognition is to check the score for any Braced Staves these are Staves that belong to the same instrument, usually the Bass and Treble Clef of the piano. SharpEye does not automatically make this association, so you need to click on the thick horizontal bar between Staves to Brace them together. Correcting Errors SharpEye has two Palettes for making corrections one or the other will appear in the grey area under the Toolbar. These are displayed when you click on the Recognised score. A Left mouse click will display the Edit Palette (which allows you to modify existing notation objects) and a Right mouse click will display the Insert Palette (which allows you to insert missing notation objects). Whilst clicking anywhere in the Recognised music stream, the Image Window will automatically jump to the same location and show red cross hairs on the object you clicked upon for easy cross-reference. Example to insert a missing dotted crotchet (¼ note) : Click anywhere on the Recognised score with the Right mouse button to bring up the Insert Palette. Left click on the crotchet symbol The Insert Palette is displayed when you Right click on the score Page 46

55 Scanned Music, MIDI and NIFF Move the pointer to the position in the Stave that you wish to insert the crotchet (¼ note) and Right click the note in. To edit the crotchet in order to make it a dotted crotchet, Left click on the crotchet in the score it will go red, and the Edit Palette will appear. Left Click to select a dot of prolongation from the Palette and it will immediately appear on the note. The Edit Palette is displayed by Left clicking on a note. to delete any note or object, Left click on it and the press the Delete Key. Editing Bohemian Rhapsody There a number of small errors which need correcting using the Insert and Edit Palettes : Chorded Crotchets (¼ notes) missing from Bars 1 and 3 : - Click Right mouse button to display Insert Palette, then Left mouse click to select Chord Tool. Move pointer to appropriate point on chord in Bar 1 and Right click to insert the note. Move pointer to Bar 3 and Right click in the missing note. Semibreve (whole note) missing from Bass Clef in Bar 10 : - Right click to display Insert Palette, left click on a Semibreve, then right click the note in. Notice that SharpEye shows a blue Error triangle against Bars that have insufficient or excessive note values in this case because the Semibreve was omitted, 4 beats were missing from the Bass Clef. SharpEye also shows problem notes as greyed out. Incorrect phrasing of word Be-cause in lyrics : - SharpEye has written Be-cause as one word attached to the A, rather than Be- attached to the G and cause attached to the Page 47

56 Scanned Music, MIDI and NIFF A. Left click on the word Be-cause and type cause. Now Left click at the position that the lyric for the G should have gone to and type Be-. Bar 12 Note incorrectly marked as Staccato : - Left click on note. From the Edit Palette select the Staccato dot (bottom row). This toggles on/off Staccato. Bar 13 Treble Clef, B missing from minim chord : - Right click to display Insert Palette, select Chord tool, Right click in the note. Save as NIFF or MIDI? When all corrections have been made, you should save in either the NIFF or MIDI formats, both of which are recognised by Toccata. We strongly recommend using the NIFF format because this transports more information and means less work once a file is loaded in Toccata. For example, MIDI does not transport Slurs, and these would have to be added in Toccata. There are also problems with Tied notes, and Ties should preferably be removed in SharpEye before Saving as a MIDI file. The table below compares how NIFF and MIDI handle various musical elements: Element Enharmonics Slurs Ties Dynamics Expression Tuplets Parts NIFF MIDI X X X X X X X Comment eg B sharp Ignored in MIDI Should be removed before saving as MIDI eg ff eg Andante Single beat triplets only in MIDI Some Part information in MIDI Note: scanning programs such as SharpEye or Smartscore always discard Dynamics and Expression at the recognition stage. Smartscore does allow you to type these back in, and, if you save as a NIFF file, Toccata will correctly show these but you may as well put these back in using Toccata. NIFF options In SharpEye, NIFF Options, we recommend selecting Graphical rather than Musical before saving. The Graphical format saves the music warts and all even if SharpEye has detected errors such as too many notes in the bar. The Musical format only saves notation that makes musical sense and discards error notes marked in grey. MIDI Output Options In SharpEye, MIDI Options, you may specify a Tempo, and choose whether to output Lyrics (make sure this is checked in our example). You may also Honour Repeats, which makes the resultant MIDI file explicitly contain repeated segments; you will probably want to keep this unchecked when outputting to Toccata. Page 48

57 Scanned Music, MIDI and NIFF MIDI files and Toccata MIDI files contain information about the pitch and time duration of musical events in a piece of music. Unlike NIFF, MIDI files do NOT contain information about the way a piece of music should appear in a notation or scoring program. Because of this MIDI files must be interpreted by Toccata to display the music in the form it was intended to be played. If you scan an original score using SharpEye, it is recommended that you save in the NIFF format, but it is also possible to acquire music files from other sources, eg the Internet, and these will generally be in the MIDI format. MIDI files store information about different instruments or voices in separate tracks. In Toccata these tracks are assigned to individual staves. The number of tracks in a MIDI file will determine the number of Staves per System in Toccata, up to a maximum of 16 tracks / Staves. Toccata will load MIDI files generated by SharpEye and show the same number of Staves. When Toccata loads a MIDI file, you should bear in mind the following points : All notes are placed in ADD Mode No Dynamic / Expression marks No Slurs No Ties No Phrase mark (\) for lyrics Occasional enharmonic changes Because of the limitations of the MIDI format, you will need to check the score in Toccata for possible timing errors and enharmonic changes (eg E flat shown as D sharp). You will also need to add in Dynamics, Slurs and Ties, and add Phrase marks to lyrics. You may also need to beam quavers (1/8 notes) and semiquavers (1/16 notes) for clarity when loading MIDI files from sources other than SharpEye. Loading MIDI files in Toccata worked example Select File menu, Load, MIDI and select BR.MID, then click Open. Toccata loads the file and displays it in the Notation Editor. Editing in Toccata Delete the superfluous crotchet rest in Bass Clef Bar 4 Re-instate missing Ties in Bars 5 and 6. Page 49

58 Scanned Music, MIDI and NIFF Correcting MIDI omissions in Toccata Superfluous crotchet rest (¼ note rest) in Bass Clef Bar 4 : - Bar 3 is in 5/4 time, and shows a Whole Bar Rest, which implies 5 beats in this case. SharpEye inserted the superfluous rest to force MIDI to count 5 beats. Toccata could not display the superfluous rest in bar 3 and shows it instead in Bar 4. Select Delete mode and double click on the crotchet rest to delete it. Re-instate Ties in Bars 5 and 6 : - Select the Tie/Slur tool from the Palette and re-instate the Ties in Bars 5 and 6, as shown in the original score above. Notice how the lyrics re-align correctly when you re-establish the Tie : After Ties are reinstated the lyrics Look in Bar 5 / And in Bar 6 occur on the right beat Enharmonic Shifts in Bass Clef beat 1 of Bars 10 and 11 : - MIDI converts any B sharp (shown below in the original) to C in the MIDI file. This also occurs for E sharps. In ADD mode, drag the note to the B line and add a Sharp sign. Missing Chord in Bar 12 : - The F in the Treble Clef on the third beat in Bar 12 is an Upper Part coinciding with a minim chord in the Lower Part. Toccata cannot work out from the MIDI file the difference between two notes of the same pitch occurring at the same time, so one is dropped. You will need to select the Chording tool from the Palette and add the missing minim remember to select the Lower part first. Page 50

59 Scanned Music, MIDI and NIFF Other Editing required NIFF or MIDI Files loaded into Toccata by either NIFF or MIDI will require some final adjustment prior to translating and embossing as Braille; these steps are described below, continuing with the worked example. Dynamics omitted Use the Dynamics Editor (D) to add in Dynamics and Expression eg mf in bar 1, and any other symbols and marks (eg Bow signs for violin, pedal marks, breath signs and so on). Title Page Editor MIDI and NIFF files often come with Title Page information, usually the composer, the name of the composition, date and so on. The Title Page comes automatically into Toccata, and you may type in new information or edit existing information using the Title Page Editor, which is invoked by selecting Options menu, Title Page or by pressing F9. SharpEye inserts the words Produced using SharpEye into the Title Page. This will appear in the translated Braille, unless you click on the Clear button to delete it. Add Phrasing Marks to Lyrics Unless you prefer to use Automatic Phrasing (see page 22), use the Lyric Editor to add the backslash Phrasing Mark to the lyrics at the appropriate points, as suggested below : Is this the real life? Is this just fan- ta- sy?\ Caught in a land- slide, No es- cape from re- al- i- ty\ O- pen your eyes, look up to the skies and see\ I'm just a poor boy, I need no sym- pa- thy,\ Be- cause I'm eas- y come, eas- y go, Lit- tle high, lit- tle low,\ An- y way the wind blows Page 51

60 Scanned Music, MIDI and NIFF Set Braille Options In the Braille Options Dialogue Box, (F4), select Section-by-Section format, Show Lyrics, Grade II Braille, and no hand or Clef signs. Unless strictly required, you may omit to Show Capital sign to save space. Translating this for just this page of the music gives : PRODUC$ US+ %>PEYE Produced using SharpEye (Title Page - delete if desired) <<#D4 IS?! R1L LIFE8 IS? J FANTASY8 A X"JJJWW XJJJJJ\ CAU<T 9 A L&SLIDE1 NO ESCAPE F R1L;Y4 C #E4 X"IIIW[GG #D4 "JJJJI]' OP5 YR EYES1 LOOK UP 6! SKIES & SEE1 E "EEEE`C:'E EEFG`C]_W "( I'M J A POOR BOY1 I NE$ NO SYMPA?Y1 H X"HHH\\ #E4 X"GGHGFD" 2C I'M EASY -E1 EASY G1 LL HI<1 LL L[1 I'"HIJ #D4 *"JJ<WIIW *JJ<WIIW ANY WAY! W9D BL[S AB "HHHH]W A B C D E H AJ AA AB X>mf"J+##00J+J+W/W+#0 X"J++*93J93J#0J93J+93\*+0 #E4 X"I+<#0I#0I+#0W+93[+#0_G-G#D4 "J#0-J#0-J+93J#0-I+9-]'+9"E++EEE.C:'E+ E%9E9F+0G+3.C]+3_W "(+0 X"H++HH\\+ #E4 X"G/0G/0HG0FD+H0I0J0 #D4 *"J%#*-J#-<W*#<-I*#-I#-W#*"J%#*-J#-<W*#<-I*#-I#-W#"HHHH]W<>"PQ9 A MM #E4 M #D4 M ^R'\ T'^: &<>VW_\^W Y #B I #E4 ^=V #D4 %_:*:%?: %:*:%?: PO two flats 4/4 lyrics music for 1st stave Music for 2nd Stave Music for 3rd Stave Page 2 There is great flexibility over the use of Phrasing Marks, and for the sake of clarity it is often preferable to force shorter chunks of lyrics. In any case, it is preferable not to allow music runovers, and you may use Phrasing marks in the Lyrics to control this. Save as a Toccata file Having edited the file thus far, remember to save your work as a Toccata type file (.TOC), otherwise the corrections you have made will not be preserved. Page 52

61 Troubleshooting Troubleshooting This section lists answers to problems that may occur as you use Toccata. If your problem is not resolved by reference to this section, or another part of the Manual, please contact us for further advice, or look at the FAQs page on our website refer to the contact details on page 2. Missing Notes in Braille and Playback If for some reason a note in the notation remains coloured blue or green after a selection operation, these notes are not translated, or heard during Playback. Click on the Stave containing the note. Re-translate. Notes Lock on in Insert Mode If you are too quick placing notes in Insert Mode (within a beat length) you may find that when you Playback the music some notes may lock on ie not stop sounding. Most frequently occurs when placing large value notes such as minims or semibreves (whole notes). To correct this, press the Green MIDI button to switch off the connection to the sound card, then press again to re-enable or leave off whilst placing notes. Copied Notes get Pasted into leftside Bar If you have Track Mouse Position enabled, you should use the CTRL V Paste command rather than selecting Edit Paste, as moving the Mouse Pointer towards the Edit Menu may move Bar focus to a leftside bar and paste the notes into an incorrect bar. This is not an issue with Track Mouse Pos Off. Music and Braille Fonts appear incorrectly after install From Windows Start Menu, select SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL, FONTS and double click on the Toccata and Optek Braille Fonts. No notes, or Bass Clef only notes, after loading a MIDI file from SharpEye MIDI Tempo and Velocity information may have been scrambled. In SharpEye, select Options, MIDI Options, and make sure Tempo is set to a value higher than 10 and Velocity is not zero. Save the MIDI file again and load into Toccata. Page 53

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63 SharpEye Music Reader SharpEye Music Reader Graham Jones 2000 Address: 21e Balnakeil, Durness, Lairg, Sutherland IV27 4PT, Scotland, UK Website: ALL SUPPORT QUERIES RELATING TO SHARPEYE s USE WITH TOCCATA SHOULD BE SENT TO OPTEK SYSTEMS terryk@mpx.com.au Page 55

64 SharpEye Music Reader Introduction System requirements Installation Brief guide Overall Process Image And Music Windows Scanning Loading and editing an image Reading an image Music Editor Saving Music Files NIFF and Lime Multi-page Scores Batch Processing Miscellaneous Options The Music Editor What it does and doesn't do Warnings about rhythm problems Selections Deleting symbols Modifying symbols Moving symbols Creating symbols Joining staves Irregular Systems Guidelines Keyboard shortcuts Problems and Tips Introduction Limitations on notation recognised Image quality Tips and techniques Gray notes won't go away! Black rectangles in display Page 56

65 SharpEye Music Reader Introduction SharpEye is a music OCR program. It converts scanned images of printed music into MIDI files. This is a difficult task for a computer program to perform, and inevitably there will be some errors when the music is complex or crowded, or the input image is of poor quality. SharpEye has a built in music notation editor which has been specially designed for checking and correcting the output before saving it as a MIDI file. System requirements You need a W95/W98/NT4 machine. SharpEye does use a fair bit of memory and processor time. A Pentium with 16MB RAM is a reasonable minimum. Memory is much more critical than processor speed. If you want to process large images such as orchestral scores or run other programs alongside SharpEye you'll probably need more than 16Mb RAM, or the system can become totally bogged down. You will need a scanner to scan the printed music in. It s not essential, but you will almost certainly want a MIDI editor/sequencer (if you don't already have one) so that you can play around with the output from SharpEye. Windows/IE4 comes with a simple MIDI player so you can double click on the MIDI file saved from SharpEye and hear the result, but the music will all be played on a synthesised 'piano'. Installation SharpEye is supplied as a single self-extracting file, usually with a name like se113.exe. Double-clicking on this will start the installation. By default, this will put the program files in the folder Program Files\visiv-co-uk\SharpEye and add a few icons to the start menu. Brief guide If you don't like reading manuals, and prefer to learn by trial and error, here is a brief guide to get you started. Scanning SharpEye 1.0 does not scan directly. Scan in the music and save it as a TIFF file or bitmap (.BMP) file. It should be a black and white image. Scan at 300dpi for most music. A higher resolution may be better if the music is printed small. Try to make the scan as straight as possible. Either drag the file into SharpEye, or use the Open File dialog. Click on the blue arrow to start the conversion. Music Editor The right button is devoted to inserting new symbols. You'll often have to insert a symbol which is not quite what you want and then select and modify it. The black rectangles at the start of the score are for joining staves. You should normally join staves that belong to one instrument (usually a keyboard instrument). Warnings about bars (measures) that SharpEye doesn't understand are shown at the end of each measure, and individual notes that are not understood are shown in gray. Page 57

66 SharpEye Music Reader Overall Process Image And Music Windows There are two important windows in SharpEye, one that displays the input image and one which displays the music output. The music output window is SharpEye's main window. It contains the main menu and toolbar, and closing it will quit SharpEye. You can change the window positions that SharpEye uses when it starts. Arrange the windows the way you want, then click on 'Save window positions' in the Options menu. The Image window displays the scanned image. You can drag TIFF or BMP files in here. You can move and resize it as you wish, and change the scale at which it is displayed. You can close and re-open it. You can also create a zone to process part of the image. Here is the music output window: Page 58

67 SharpEye Music Reader The toolbar has the following buttons, from left to right: Open image file (BMP or TIFF) Open the image window (if it is closed) Zoom in image Zoom out image Convert image Open music file (own format) Save music file (own format) Save MIDI file Save NIFF file Scanning This version of SharpEye does not support direct scanning. You should scan the image(s) you want to process, save them as black and white Bitmap (.bmp) or TIFF (.tif) files, then drag them into SharpEye. General Make the scan as straight as possible. SharpEye automatically copes with small amounts of skew, but accuracy is highest when the scan is straight. Be sure that the printed music is flat on the scanning surface. If the paper is not flat, it's likely that the image will be smudged or distorted, and this will confuse SharpEye. Scanner settings - colours You should set the colours to black and white. Different scanner drivers use different terms for a black and white image. It may be described as "Monochrome" or "Line art" or "Bi-level" or "One bit per pixel (1bpp)", or there may be an "OCR" setting which is suitable. By default scanners will often produce a full colour image, which is no good for SharpEye. SharpEye will convert some greyscale TIFF files into the black and white format it needs, but this is not ideal since it wastes time and disc space. Scanner settings - resolution You should set the resolution to 300dpi for most printed music. A higher resolution (eg 400dpi) may be useful if the music is printed small or a lower resolution (eg 200dpi) if it is large. As a check to see if you've got things right, an uncompressed scan of an A4 page at 300dpi will be about 1Mb in size. Another check: when you have loaded the file into SharpEye, and displayed it at 100%, the distance between the staff lines should be very roughly 20 pixels. SharpEye will attempt to read music when this spacing is as low as about 10, or as high as 40 or so, but accuracy tends to suffer when the scale is too small and speed suffers when it is too large. The standard mouse pointer (in W95) is 16 pixels high. Page 59

68 SharpEye Music Reader Scanner settings - brightness The default brightness level is usually fine. One thing to watch is that with high quality printing, the staff lines may be very thin (less than 1/300 inch) and may become broken when scanned. In this case reducing the brightness may improve things a lot. With poorer quality printing the lines are usually thicker, or already broken, and the default brightness level is usually best. Scanner settings - misc Some scanners have settings such as 'photo', 'half-tone' or 'dithered'. These attempt to represent grey levels with patterns of black dots and are not helpful for OCR (music or text), so turn these settings off. Options such as 'text' or 'line-art' are probably a good thing. See the section Image quality in the on-screen help to get an idea of what kind of scans SharpEye can cope with. Loading and Editing an Image To load an image into SharpEye, you can drag the file from Windows Explorer into the "Input Image" window. You can also load images via an Open File dialog. Choose Image - Open from the main menu, or click on the leftmost toolbar button, then double click on the file you want to load. In either case it will be displayed in the "Input Image" window. You can zoom the view of the image to different sizes. This doesn't change the image, just the way it looks on screen. Either use Image - Zoom or the two zoom buttons. You can invert the image if necessary (swap black and white) from the Image menu. You can also rotate the image by multiples of 90 degrees from the Image menu. Reading the image To convert the image, choose Image - Read from the main menu, or click on the button with the blue arrow. This will start another program (the "music OCR engine") which does the conversion. A small window will open which shows some information about the process as it proceeds. You can minimise this window if it is in the way. The conversion can take some time, depending on the size of the image and the complexity of the music - and the speed of your computer of course. Once the engine has finished, the result will be loaded into the music editor for you to check and edit. You can stop the reading process once it has started by choosing close from the "Music OCR Progress" Task Bar menu, by clicking the close icon in the "Music OCR Progress" window (if it is open), or by choosing "Stop Reading" from the Image menu in the main window. If the recognition is poor, please see the section Scanning above, and the section Image quality in the on-screen help. Page 60

69 SharpEye Music Reader Zones If you want to process only part of the image you can create a zone around the area. You can use the mouse to drag out a rectangle in the image window. This can then be adjusted using the eight handles around its border, or moved as a whole by picking it up in the middle. You can delete it using the Delete key or from the Image Menu. You don't need to know what the engine is doing, but you may find it interesting. It goes through the following stages: Starting - Loads data files and the image. Finding edges - Traces around the shapes to model them as polygons. Finding skew angle - Finds the skew of the image to correct for it (up to 2 degrees or so). Finding staves - Finds the scale of the staves and locates them. Reading text - Uses traditional text OCR to read lyrics etc. Finding noteheads - Searches along staves and ledger lines for notes. Finding beams - Locates shapes that may be beams. Finding verticals - Locates shapes that may be stems or barlines. Finding slurs - Locates shapes that may be slurs and ties. Consistency checking - Checks the shapes found so far for consistency with one another. Erasing objects - Removes the shapes found so far from the image Finding symbols - Locates all the fixed size symbols: clefs, rests, flags, etc. Analysing - More consistency checks, and joining everything together. Music Editor Most of the time you are using SharpEye, you will be checking and correcting the output in the music notation editor. The next chapter is devoted to this. Saving Music Files You can save the music as a MIDI file, a NIFF file, or in SharpEye's own format. If you save it in its own format, you can load it back later and continue editing. If you save it as a MIDI file, you can play the file or edit it in a MIDI editor/sequencer. If you save it as a NIFF file, you will need a program that imports NIFF files to make use of it. For more details see NIFF and Lime. SharpEye does not load MIDI or NIFF files. You can find the usual Save and Save as options on the Music menu (for saving in SharpEye's own format) and the MIDI and are also three buttons. The one with the M is for SharpEye format, the one with the NIFF menus. There magenta notes on is for MIDI, and the one with an N on a green background (to remind you of Lime) is for NIFF. Saving as MIDI There are a few options for MIDI output available from the Options menu: You can set the tempo for the piece. The tempo is in quarter notes (crotchets) per minute, regardless of the time signature. Page 61

70 SharpEye Music Reader You can set the MIDI velocity (ie volume) for all the notes in piece. This is in the range 0-127, and the default is 64. For example, if you are using Cakewalk to work on the MIDI files, it is convenient to set this value to 100, since Cakewalk gives any new notes you insert a velocity of 100. Note that if you set the velocity to zero, you will get a silent MIDI file which can be confusing! You can decide whether repeat signs are taken account of or ignored when generating the MIDI file. You can choose whether to include any lyrics that SharpEye has found. Note that it is not possible to put more than one line of lyrics into a MIDI file - SharpEye puts in the top line of lyrics if there is more than one. Also note that some programs that import MIDI files ignore any lyrics. You can make SharpEye put different voices on different channels, so that notes with up stems will get a different channel number to those with down stems. This can be set per stave using the circles at the start of the score. You can toggle between one circle (one channel output for that stave) or two by clicking on them. You can join pairs of staves. This puts both staves on one MIDI channel. This also changes the way that SharpEye analyses the rhythm, and is described in more detail in the section Joining staves. Short notes wrong If notes have the wrong length when imported into a MIDI sequencer, check that the settings in the sequencer are appropriate. Sequencers often expect input to be played in on a keyboard, and may be set up to force notes into a particular rhythm. This may misinterpret short notes and rests in MIDI files. Saving as NIFF NIFF (Notation Interchange File Format) is a music notation format which can contain much more information than MIDI which stores little more than the sound of the music. For example, information about stem direction, beaming, expression marks such as staccato and accent, ties and slurs are all lost when SharpEye makes a MIDI file. Even clefs and barlines cannot be put into a MIDI file, though they may be reconstructed by the program reading the MIDI file. NIFF was designed to overcome these limitations and provide a publicly documented format for interchanging music notation information between programs. NIFF is becoming increasingly popular, but it is a very flexible format and different people are using it in different ways. SharpEye can export two kinds of NIFF file, and you can choose via the NIFF options dialog from the Options menu. The 'Musical' NIFF export writes a file similar to that generated by Lime. It contains very little graphical information, but should be rhythmically correct. In order to achieve this, SharpEye will omit gray notes, and may invent rests in order to fill gaps in voices. The 'Graphical' NIFF export writes a file similar to that generated by SmartScore (another music OCR program). It contains the positions of all the staves, notes and rests and some other symbols. Gray notes are included. In this case, there will be some rhythmic errors unless you ensure everything is correct before exporting. Page 62

71 SharpEye Music Reader In order to make use of the NIFF facility you need a program that imports NIFF files. The best-known program that does this is a music notation editor called Lime. Lime is shareware: you can find out more about it, and download a trial version from There are several other notation programs which have or will soon have NIFF import. If your favorite notation program does not import NIFF, and you would like to use SharpEye with it, ask the producers to add this feature. Parts and voices NIFF has provision for both parts and voices, with voices being a subdivision of parts. SharpEye does not assign voices, but it does give each note a part ID. This should enable you to extract individual parts in a NIFF editor. Normally there is one part per stave. If you join two staves at the start of the score, they will become one part in the NIFF file. You can make SharpEye give notes with up stems a different part ID to those with down stems. This can be set per stave using the circles at the start of the score. You can toggle between one circle (one part ID for that stave) or two by clicking on them. Multi page scores Music scores are often more than one page. You can deal with these in several ways. You can process pages individually as usual, and join them together in a MIDI editor or NIFF editor. Alternatively, you can convert the pages individually into SharpEye's own output format, and then join them in SharpEye. For example you might have scans of a three page score called page1.tif, page2.tif, and page3.tif. You can load these one by one into SharpEye and convert them, saving them as page1.mro, page2.mro, and page3.mro. Then load page1.mro into SharpEye, then page2.mro, then page3.mro. Each time you load an output file into the editor when there's already a score there, you will be asked if you want to replace the existing score or join the new one onto the end. Obviously in this case you should choose Append. You can load the *.mro files by dragging them into SharpEye's main window, or via the Open dialog. You can do corrections before and after joining. SharpEye will automatically load the correct image as you edit different pages, as long as the image files are still where they were when first converted. Note that there is currently no way to undo an append operation, so it is best to save your work before joining something onto it. This is particularly important if you have several pages joined together and have spent a lot of time correcting them. Make sure you save this before adding another page which might be from a bad scan or even the wrong page. Batch processing SharpEye has a 'batch mode', so that many images can be processed at once. These might be several pages from the same score or separate pieces of music. The batch mode converts a set of image files into music files in SharpEye's own format. If they are from the same score you will still have to join them manually as described in the section 'Multi-page scores'. In order to set up a batch, choose 'Batch process' from the Image menu. This opens a dialogue where you can choose the images to be converted and the folder where the output music files will be put. Page 63

72 SharpEye Music Reader The 'Add files...' button opens the standard Open File dialog, where you can select one or more images (TIFF or BMP files). You can add images from several folders, but note that they must all have different names. If you want to remove some files from the batch, select them and use the 'Remove selection' button. You also need to choose an output folder where all the music files (*.mro files) will be put. The 'Browse...' button allows you to do this. If there are already music files in the output folder with the same name(s) they will not be overwritten. It is advisable to use an empty folder for the output folder to avoid confusion. Now you can click on 'Start batch' to start the processing. A window will open to show you how things are going. This shows a list of the files and their status. The image being processed will have 'Converting' next to it. Once it is finished it will become 'Done' or 'Error' if the conversion fails for some reason. You will not see the usual 'Music OCR Progress' window. If there are any errors, a log file 'SharpEye batch errors.txt' will be created in the output folder where you can look for more details. This will overwrite any previous file with the same name. While a batch is being processed various options are disabled. You can stop the batch by clicking on the 'Stop batch' button in the Batch progress window, or by closing this window. Miscellaneous Options This covers the setting and saving of various options. Window Positions You can arrange the image and music windows as you like, and then choose Options - Save window positions. This will set the initial positions for the next time you start SharpEye. MIDI output options These are saved when you exit the program so that they will still be as you set them next session. The settings in the MIDI options box are used for newly converted images. However, note that these values are also saved in the corresponding SharpEye music file (.mro file), so if you load a SharpEye file, this will replace the settings in the MIDI options box. NIFF output type This is saved when you exit the program. It is not stored in.mro files. Directories for image and music files SharpEye saves the directories you use for images, its own output files, MIDI files and NIFF files when you exit the program. Page 64

73 SharpEye Music Reader The Music Editor What it does and doesn't do The music editor in this version of SharpEye never formats the music. For this reason alone it is not suitable as a general purpose music notation editor. It is designed only for correcting the output from the music OCR process. On the other hand, it has several features that are designed to help with the corrections. The music editor window is linked to the image window, so that when you click in the editor, the image scrolls to the same place in the image. It displays warning symbols at the end of each bar (measure) that has errors or ambiguities in the rhythm. It also draws any noteheads that it can't understand in grey. This works a bit like a spellchecker, and directs your attention to likely errors. It is intended to be easy to learn. Almost everything can be done with the mouse and the Delete key. SharpEye does not try to ensure that what you do looks good. There are many ways of writing a piece of music which will produce the same sound (and in most cases the same MIDI file). Some are sensible and some aren't - SharpEye doesn't try to make you sensible! SharpEye is also fairly limited in its ability to avoid clashes of symbols, and in complex or crowded music symbols may overlap one another. Warnings about rhythm problems SharpEye uses two methods to indicate problems with rhythm. At the end of each measure that contains a problem, just below the bar line, it displays a warning symbol (a blue triangle). In such a measure, it may also display some of the notes in gray instead of black. This means SharpEye is not sure when they should be sounded. SharpEye also displays ties, slurs and lyrics in gray if it doesn't know which notes to attach them to. If you see the warning sign, but no gray notes, it means there are not enough notes or rests to fill the measure. This is probably because SharpEye has missed a note or has made a note too short, perhaps by missing a rhythm dot. If there are warnings on lots of measures, it may be a time signature error. If SharpEye misses, or misreads a time signature, or if the music is from the middle of a piece and so contains no time signature, it will cause lots of warnings. If there are gray notes, there are two main causes. The first is the opposite of the problem above: SharpEye has 'seen' a note (or rest) that is isn't really there, or made a note too long by missing flags or beams, or there is a time signature error. The second cause of gray notes is a bit more subtle. It may be that there are neither too few nor too many notes, but it is still not clear when they should sound. This typically happens in keyboard music, where two staves are used for one instrument. By default SharpEye looks at each stave individually when analysing measures. But keyboard music often only makes sense by looking at both together. Page 65

74 SharpEye Music Reader The best cure here is to join the two staves at the beginning of the score. An alternative is to add rests to fill in the gaps in each stave, but that's usually a lot more work! Selections You can select objects by clicking on them, and they will become red. Once they are selected you can modify them or delete them. Clicking on a barline or time signature will select all the ones vertically above and below in the same system (ie all the ones that occur at the same time). When you click on a notehead that is part of a chord, it will become red and the rest of the chord will become dark red. This is to indicate that you can modify either the chord or the single note but pressing Delete will just delete the note. You can select the whole chord by double-clicking. You can select multiple notes and chords by using Control-click, as long as they are all in the same stave. You can select a complete line of text by double-clicking on it. It can then be deleted but not otherwise modified. When you have selected something, you can delete it with the Delete key. Also a tool pane with dark red symbols will open at the top for modifying the selection. Deleting objects Symbols are deleted by selecting them and using the Delete key. Note that some objects - rhythm dots, triplets, accidentals, and articulation marks such as staccato, tenuto, accent and the pause sign (fermata) are regarded as properties of notes and not as symbols in their own right. In order to 'delete' these, you should select the note or chord they belong to and modify it appropriately. If you select a lyric word, the delete key operates in the editable field in the toolpane, ie deleting individual letters. If you select a whole line of text (by double-clicking) you can delete it with the delete key. You cannot delete the rightmost barline in a system. Modifying Symbols The general method is to select the object(s) you want to change in the score, then click on the symbol in the toolpane that you want to change it into. Clefs and keys These are straightforward, the only slight complication is when a key signature changes the key to C. The natural sign in the key signature toolpane is for this. If you change an existing key signature using this, it will show as the right number of natural signs to cancel the last key signature. Page 66

75 SharpEye Music Reader Time Signatures If you can see the symbol you want, click on it as with clefs and keys. For less common time signatures, enter the signature in the edit box (eg "12/16") and then click on the p/q symbol next to it. Lyrics You can edit lyrics a word (or syllable) at a time in the edit field. If you insert a space in the word, SharpEye will split the word into two at this point. It attempts to attach the parts to nearby chords. If this fails, one or both parts will become grey, and you will need to move them. Rests You can change the kind of rest and also set the number of rhythm dots. To remove any rhythm dots, click on the empty circle. (This circle is used to mean 'none' or 'nothing' elsewhere too.) You can set or remove a pause sign (fermata). The fermata symbol toggles the symbol on or off. You can set or remove a triplet on a rest and a note or rest on either side by selecting the rest and clicking on the -3- symbol. See under modifying notes for more details. Notes and chords If you have selected a single note head you can change the accidentals for a single note head, or remove them by clicking on the empty circle. Most modifications apply to a note or to the whole chord if the head is part of a chord. You can select multiple chords and apply the same operation to all at once. A couple of operations only make sense if more than one note or chord is selected. At the left of the toolpane there is a tool for swapping the stem direction of a note. This will swap all the notes in a beamed group if you select one note in the group. Next is a tool for swapping between flags and beams. If you select some notes which are not beamed together and click here, SharpEye will attempt to join them. Note that SharpEye will join quarter notes (crotchets) in this way. This may not make musical sense, but it is useful for correcting common recognition errors (eg due to broken stems). If you select one or more notes that are all within a beamed group, this will separate them into single notes with flags. The notes must all be in the same measure and stave. Page 67

76 SharpEye Music Reader You can set the number of dots as with rests. You can change the duration by clicking on one of the note symbols. You can set or remove a staccato, tenuto, pause, or accent. These tools toggle the symbol on or off. You can set or remove a triplet by selecting the middle note and clicking on the -3- symbol. You cannot set the rarer kinds of irregular notes, though duplets can be mimicked using dotted notes. Note that when you change the time signature, SharpEye will recalculate which notes it thinks are triplets, and may override what you have done. You should therefore make sure the time signature is correct first. (It is sensible to get the time signature right first for other reasons too.) To the right of the accidentals is a tool for vertically aligning selected notes. They must all be in the same measure, but not necessarily in the same stave. The horizontal positions of the selected notes will be averaged. At the right end of the pane is a tool for adding and removing ties. If a note or chord has a tie to its right this will remove it. Otherwise SharpEye will try to add a tie from the note or chord. Note that slurs are drawn in thin lines, and ties with thicker lines to help distinguish them. Also note that ties or slurs which are not attached at both ends are shown in grey. Ties and slurs can also be edited by dragging - see the next section. Moving symbols You can move some objects by dragging with left button. Note heads can be moved up and down, and placed either side of the stem. Rests can be moved freely, as long as they stay in the same measure and stave. Clefs and key signatures can be moved horizontally, as long as they stay in the same measure and stave. Lyric words can be moved horizontally within the same line. Slurs can be moved within a system. If you drag near one end you will move that end; the other end stays fixed. If you drag near the middle you will be able to move the slur as a whole. Creating symbols The right button You always use the right button to insert things. If you have been selecting things, the first right click will not insert anything, but will show the insertion toolpane, with a symbol similar to the last selection highlighted. The insertion toolpane uses green symbols to distinguish it from the modification toolpanes. Page 68

77 SharpEye Music Reader Choosing a symbol There are so many possible variations of musical symbols that to show all of them would make things hard to find, or complicated to choose. Instead the insertion toolpane shows the basic kinds of symbol available. You should choose a symbol that is close to what you want and then modify it after inserting it. For example, in order to insert a 3/4 time signature, you would choose the only time signature available in the toolpane (a 4/4) and insert that in the right place. Then left click it to select it and change it to a 3/4 in the time signature toolpane. Barlines work in a similar way. The three shapes of clef can be chosen directly. If you need a tenor clef you need to insert an alto clef (C clef) and then change it. There are two key signature symbols, one for flats and one for sharps, which insert a single sharp or flat. For keys with more than one sharp or flat, insert either of these then modify it. If you need a key change to the key of C insert either of these then change it by clicking on the natural sign in the key signature toolpane. You can choose all the basic durations of rests, and add rhythm dots later if need be. Notes and chords are a little more complex. You can only insert notes with flags, not beams. You can set the stem direction using the three symbols on the left (up stem, let SharpEye decide, down stem). To make chords, you add note heads to notes that are already there. For this use the symbol (which shows a single note and a two-note chord) just to the right of the notes and rests. Do not try to make chords by lining up two notes - SharpEye will regard them as separate notes and they will not behave as expected. To insert a lyric word, choose the "la-la" symbol. Note that it is only possible to edit text in an existing line of lyrics but not to insert a new line. Sometimes SharpEye will miss a complete line (usually when the syllables are few and far between) and you will have to enter the text in a MIDI or NIFF editor. To insert a slur, choose one of the curves just below the "la-la" symbol. When you have chosen a symbol to insert, the pointer will change to indicate this, but remember to use the right button - the left button will still select things. Joining staves It is sometimes necessary to join two adjacent staves in a system, usually because they are both to be played by one instrument (eg keyboard or harp). This enables SharpEye to analyse the rhythm properly, and will put both staves on the same MIDI channel. The black rectangles at the start of the score are for joining staves. Initially these are horizontal, indicating the staves are separated. If you click on one, it will become vertical, joining a pair of staves. You can reverse the operation by clicking again. Page 69

78 SharpEye Music Reader It is not always necessary to join staves in keyboard music. Sometimes the right hand and left hand parts make sense independently. Occasions when it is necessary include: (1) Where a single melody line is written on two staves, wandering between both, and with no rests to fill in the measures where no notes are sounding. (2) When the main rhythm is given by the left hand part of a piece for keyboard, and notes are aligned with this in the top stave without rests or other notes to indicate when they sound. If you're wondering what the circles at the start of the score are for, see under Saving music files. Note for experts: It might seem better if SharpEye always looked at neighbouring staves in a system to analyse the rhythm. However there are problems with this approach as well. While the rule that notes that sound together should be vertically aligned is usually followed, it is not always the case in printed music, so this assumption can lead to errors too. Also, if SharpEye makes an error in one stave, it might spread into other staves if it relied too much on vertical alignment. Future versions may handle this differently. Irregular Systems If SharpEye finds systems with different numbers of staves in the page (or when appending, in the score) it will add extra empty staves at the bottom to make the score 'rectangular'. This may be correct, but often it isn't. In order to deal with this, you can use the green arrows that are shown between systems. By default they join each stave to the corresponding one in the next system, ie, they are 'parallel'. If this is wrong, you can drag the arrow heads up or down to join the correct pairs of staves. For example, it may be that all instruments are shown on the first system of a score, but on later systems, instruments are dropped if they are not playing at that point. SharpEye will add empty staves at the bottom, but unless it happens to be the bottom instrument that was dropped, this will mean that some instruments are mismatched. However, if you change the linking arrows you can correct this, by linking the missing instruments to the empty staves. Not every score layout can be dealt with in this way, especially when an instrument or group of instruments uses a variable number of staves throughout the piece. In such a case you may have to deal with the score in sections and join them together with a music notation or MIDI editor. Editing guidelines If you're not sure how to go about checking and correcting a score, here are some suggestions. Check the time signature(s) first. There's usually just one at the start of the music, but some music has changes in the middle. If there are warnings on most of the measures, the time signature is probably wrong. Next check the clefs and key signatures. These usually occur at the left of each system, sometimes also in the middle. If you export and play the MIDI file, and it mostly sounds OK, but it sounds horrible for some section(s), its likely to be this kind of error. Page 70

79 SharpEye Music Reader Look at all the measures marked with warnings. Remember that the warnings are like those from a spellchecker and don't catch all errors. Proofreading music to ensure there are no errors at all is difficult. Use your ears as well as your eyes. Editing of ties, slurs and lyrics is usually best left to last. Remember that they will be shown in gray until SharpEye can attach them to notes. If you have a MIDI editor it is up to you how much editing you do in SharpEye and how much you leave to do later. It is almost essential to ensure the time signatures, clefs, key signatures and barlines are correct before exporting, but detailed note editing can be done either way. If you export a score which contains gray notes they will not be put into the MIDI file. Keyboard shortcuts There are some keyboard shortcuts to speed up the process of correcting errors. These use the function keys. Not everything can be done in this way, only the more common operations. F1 starts the SharpEye help. The other function keys only operate when inserting, and when modifying notes and rests. The keys F5 through F10 are assigned note durations as follows. F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 1/32 1/16 1/8 1/4 1/2 1 In insert mode, these select notes of these durations. In modify mode, they changed the selected rest or notes to these durations. When in insert mode, F2, F3, and F4 can be used to set the stem direction of the note to be inserted, in the same order as the tool pane: F2=up, F3=auto, F4=down. F11 selects the 'add head to chord' option. When modifying notes, F2 swaps stem direction, F3 changes flags to beams or vice-versa, F4 cycles through zero, one or two rhythm dots, and F11 cycles through the common accidentals: none, sharp, flat, natural. When modifying rests, F4 cycles through zero, one or two rhythm dots. The available shortcuts are summarised in the diagram below. The first line relates to the create tool pane, the others to modifying notes and rests. Page 71