MusiNum 2.08 Beta The Music in the Numbers (C) 1995-1999 Lars Kindermann MusiNum is a program which easily turns numbers into music. Fractal concepts and self-similarity are becoming audible now! Also a unique sonification tool: You can make music from your data! Requires Microsoft Windows 3.x, 9x or NT, an 386 with 2MB Ram at least and about 1 MB free hard disk space only! A general-MIDI device is strongly recommended to enjoy the music. ----------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: This program is in the public domain. You can use it for free and distribute it freely. There is NO WARRANTY in any way for this software! I, the author claim no rights on the music you, the user create with it. But if you publish music genetrated by MusiNum I request that the origin is stated in some way. By using this software you agree to the terms above. ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is still a BETA Version: - The help file is not yet finished. - Please report bugs to me! - Comments are wellcome also. See the online-help for more information and visit the MusiNum homepage for updates: http://reglos.de/musinum My email address: musinum@reglos.de ------------------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLATION MusiNum is distributed as an installable archive called either musinum208.exe or musinum208.zip. Both files are IDENTICAL, you can simply rename them. EXE: - Just run musinum208.exe to install OR (if you complain about running an unknown exe) - Rename it to musinum208.zip and... ZIP: - Unzip the archive to a temporary directory - Run setup.exe - After installation you can delete the installation files MusiNum installs the following files: Program-files: musinum.exe musinum.dll musinum.hlp musinum.ini readme.txt -> the musinum directory Visual Basic 3.0 shared run-time files: cmdialog.vbx grid.vbx spin.vbx threed.vbx vbrun300.dll -> \windows\system Many min files have been supplied by users and can be found in the musinum\examples directory. Uninstall: Just delete the musinum directory ---------------------------------------------------------------------- USAGE Run musinum.exe, press the Play [>] button and change any parameters in the voice windows to modify the music. Add more voices by clicking the buttons [1]..[16] and check the "on" field. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WHATīS NEW Most features are described in the on line help. However many changes and additions to this version are not yet included. Here is a short description of what is new since Version 1.1: File - Info & Comments -------------------- You can add a description of a composition into this box. If checked this description will always be displayed when the file is loaded. Remember Details ---------------- If Remember Details is checked the complete Setup including Window Positions and settings of disabled Voices are saved too. MIN-files will be much larger. Script ------ Scripting enables you to create more complex pieces by changing parameters over time. Each script entry is basically a musinum piece of itīs own which is activated on a specific counter value. Counter This box contains the numbers for which exist different setups. Double clicking an entry is the same as clicking the "Goto" button. Modify Will store all current parameters for the current counter position in the "Counter" list, replacing the selected entry. Add Will store all current parameters at the selected entry of the "Counter" list. Event Associate an Event with this count: - GOTO Loops - RUN Executes any shell Command - WAV play any wave sound file - STOP Playing will stop at this count - TEXT displays lyrics in the Status Bar Goto Will set the counter to the selected value and set all parameters to the stored values. Delete Will delete this entry. Clear Deletes all entries. Auto All changes in your session will be recorded automatically to script entries so you can replay your whole session later. There was a bug in 2.05: scripts were applied one step too late. If you encounter differences in your music edit your old .min files and decrease the counter values of the script entries by 1! Graph ----- The Graph button will display a window with a plot of the melody. User Scales ----------- In the scale selection box of the voice windows there are now user definable scales available. If selected an [edit] button appears and you can enter an own musical scale in the scale definition window. In the table you can enter the (midi) note (offset) to which each number will be mapped. Some buttons will display the default scales as examples or starting points for modifications. Drum ---- When checking the "Drum" box in an Voice window this voice will be directed to the drum channel of the midi device. It is usually channel 9 but can be set in the "Midi Setup" dialog. The "Note" box is disabled and the "Instrument" box displays percussion instruments now. When checking it the first time, the scale is set to "rhythm" and the drum "Instrument" is set to "60" Unchecking "Drum" will restore the previous parameters. Solo ---- When activating the Solo button, you will only hear the active voice. Hope this makes composition easier. MIDI Configuration ------------------ In the Midi Setup you can choose any midi player or editor like Cakewalk to process the files genetated with the "Make Midi" command from the Make Midi File Dialog. The Midi-Cannels for each Voice can now be defined here Author ------ When using File-New the first time MusiNum asks for your Name It will be added to the File-Info to identify the composer Data Sonification ================= MusiNum can load numbers from a textfile or from the clipboard which will be played instead of the usual square-sum algorithm. This will enable you to create own sequences of numbers or play any given numerical data. Files must be ascii ans may have up to 16 columns and 2000 rows. Fields must be separated by space. Any non-numeric entry will be interpreted as zero. As an example the file stock.dat is included. It contains daily values of Dow Jones, NASDAQ, and the gold price for Jan-1-1995 to Dec-31-1998. BUT: THIS TOPIC IS REALLY IN A TRUE BETA STAGE YET... Data Load --------- Read data from a textfile. After loding for each column a voice will be enabled and set to data mode. Data Paste ---------- Instead loading from a file data may be pasted from clipboard. The format must be the same as described above. Tables copied from Excel work fine! When starting musinum.exe with the /paste option it will immediately import the clipboard data. Here is an example for an Excel VBA macro. It can be added to an Excel menu or a button to give you instant sonification of selected data in Excel: Sub MusiNum() Selection.Copy Shell ("c:\musinum\musinum.exe /paste") End Sub This Macro can be installed to a button which allows for one-click sonification of the selection. Data Close ---------- Closes the data-table and resets all voices to the generic MusiNum algorithm. Data Window ----------- After loading a file or pasting from clibboard a window will be shown with a table containing the data. Closing the data-window will erase all data from MusiNum and return all voices to the normal state. Original The data is presented as in the file. Scaled The data is shown scaled to integers which will be mapped via the "musical scale" to notes as defined in the voice windows. Follow When checked the table always shows the actual data line just played. Scrollbar You can scroll musically through your data by moving this scrollbar connected to the counter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- KNOWN BUGS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HISTORY The Future: - Remove the Bugs, if any :) - More scales, all I found from all over the world, especially Gamelan - Import single voices or scales from other min-files - Remove the mod parameter and include the functinality in scale ? - ACTUALIZE THE HELP-FILE!!! - Make a 32 Bit Version (Has anybody an idea how to use an old 16-bit-dll from a Visual-Basic 6 exe?) - Collaborate in real-time via the internet ? - More interesting Graphics - Better installation procedure with uninstall - Create an Excel Add In - Load MusiNum generated Midi Files also - Use other fractal formulas ? Changes for 2.08 Beta: - Fixed an incompability with old .min files when the drum setting was not read correctly for Voice 10 - Author name is stored in musinum.ini Changes for 2.07 Beta: - Midi Files should be more compatible now - Import settings from other files file-import Changes for 2.06 Beta: - Register the .min files as a Mime-Type: audio/x-musinum Clicking on min files now works automatically - Fully reversible drum checkbox - Midi channel selection moved to Midi-Setup - Lists more Midi-Devices - Some bugfixes of course - Solo button to mute all voices except the active one - Files can get much shorter when unchecking the "Remember Details" option - Greatly enhanced Script capabilities with Events - There was a bug in 2.05: scripts were applied one step too late If you encounter differences in your music edit your old .min files and decrease the counter values of the script entries by 1 Changes for beta 5: - More user-scales - When changing scale a dialog comes up to ask if other voices shall be changed too - More modes - Sliders work much smoother now - Files (min) are much smaller now - Starting MusiNum again brings window to top and plays new file - Many, many bugs removed - Start-Counter is saved - Distributed as self-extracting zip for easier installation now Changes for beta 4: - Better Version-Check of musinum.exe and musinum.dll - Drum Checkbox works in a more reasonable manner now - FileOpen does not destroy the actual setup when aborted - An Info Window, where you can put some comments - Recent files list - English version of commdlg.dll (for win31 users) - Comments go into midi-file Changes for beta 3: - Setup now seems to work for win95 and win3.x ... - Anybody tried NT? Changes for beta 2: - It seems impossible to make an VB3 setup which does not crash either win 3.x or win95. So this is a manual setup version again. Sorry for those users whose win3.x has been damaged by my innocent use of an older Microsoft product... Changes for 2.0 beta 1: - Enhanced Outfit - Stereo Effects - More and User-Definable Scales - Drum Channel Support - Graphics Display - Link to WWW-Homepage in Help Menu - Setup Program