Tutorial And Walk-Through

This is the main screen for the Oscar Peterson Multimedia CD-ROM. There are several areas that you will notice (from top to bottom) :

The Title Bar at the top of the screen shows the title, bar number, and the total running time of the piece (in 800x600 or higher screen/display resolution.)

The Main Toolbar consists of the MODE BUTTONS, the SONG LISTS, the SECTION/PART LISTS, and the many FEATURE BUTTONS such as Audio Mix, SOLO, Key Transpose, and Print Buttons.

The Audio Overview Window (shown below) is a digital waveform representation of a song's audio data. This window allows you to quickly move to anywhere in a piece by mouse clicking anywhere in the waveform area. This area also allows you to set specific LOOP POINTS by clicking above and below the desired section. The top loop point marker sets the loop BEGIN point, and the bottom marker sets the loop END point.

The Piano Keyboard displays the notes that are being played on the piano keyboard as the song is being played. The red note-indicators show the bass or left-hand notes, while the blue note-indicators show the treble or right-hand notes. When the program is run on a screen that is displaying 1024x768 (or higher), the small piano keyboard (shown below) is replaced (default option) by a larger one.

Tool Bar Features And Feature Buttons:

View Notation/Video

Use this button to view the notation (or video, if applicable) screen. This will show full transcriptions (synchronized to the music) of the currently loaded/playing song. To view the MIDI notation instead of the Transcription Notation, press the MIDI Notation Button (shown below) while in the Notation Mode.

MIDI Notation Button

This feature is used in conjunction with the main Notation button. When pressed, this button switches the Notation display between transcription notation and MIDI Notation.

Book Button - View Text/Content

Use this button to close the Notation Screen and open the Text/Content Screen. You can enter the Text/Content mode and view pictures, text, biographies, technique tips (and more) while the music is playing.

Song Categories List

This listbox allows you to select songs from different Songlists (see below) based on the category selected here. To use the songlist which contains the entire list of songs available on the CD-ROM, choose the ALL SONGS category list, as shown above.

Songlist

Select a piece that you would like to hear by MOUSE CLICKING once to open the list of songs available in the currently selected Songlist, and again over the title of the piece. Playback starts automatically.

Media Playback Mode

This feature allows you to choose from a list of playback modes available for the currently selected song. (The playback modes list may vary from song to song.)

• Choose the MIDI mode if you wish to hear only a MIDI representation of the song.
• Choose the Audio mode if you wish to hear only the Digital Audio tracks in a song.
• Choose the Au/MIDI mode if you wish to hear BOTH the Digital Audio and the MIDI representation of a song simultaneously.
• Choose the Au/SMIDI mode if you wish to hear the Digital Audio parts of a song while also viewing the MIDI representation of the song (i.e. on the "virtual piano keyboard" or in MIDI notation.)
• The Video mode allows you to see/hear BOTH the Digital Audio and the video representation of a song (not available for all songs.)

Use this feature to select and jump to any section (i.e. verse, chorus, ending, etc) of a song. The text in this listbox also updates automatically as a song is playing, showing you exactly which section of the song is playing.

Part Selection

This feature allows you to choose which part to select for muting, soloing or MIDI notation purposes. For example, to see the MIDI notation of the Piano part, select the part from this list and select MIDI notation to see the part displayed.

The Tempo Box

This feature allows you to quickly change the tempo (or speed) at which the piece is played back.

Note (a) As a song is playing, you may notice that the number in this box will fluctuate. This only occurs when a given song-type contains both digital audio and MIDI, and is a result of the MIDI version of the song 'chasing' the digital audio data in an attempt to stay in synchronization. It does not mean the actual tempo of the music is fluctuating.

Note (b) Changing the tempo will affect the pitch of the Digital Audio playback, and if the playback mode is Au/MIDI (or Au/SMIDI), an adjustment is also made to the pitch of the MIDI playback to remain in tune with the altered digital audio. This feature is not aaplicable during video playback and so is disabled.

The Half Speed Button

This feature allows you to quickly change the tempo (or speed) at which a piece is played back to exactly 1/2 of its original speed.

Notes: Using the 1/2 Speed Button (F5) will affect the pitch of the digital audio playback (plays one octave below), but has no effect on the pitch of the MIDI playback (i.e. MIDI plays in the original octave.) This feature is disabled during video playback.

The Key Transpose Box

Allows you to quickly change the key at which a piece is played back.

Note: Changing the key will affect the tempo of the digital audio playback and if the playback mode is Au/MIDI, or Au/SMIDI an adjustment is also made to the tempo of the MIDI playback to remain in synch with the Digital Audio.

Mute Button

This button allows you to quickly mute or unmute the part currently selected by the Part Selection list box. Press once to mute the part, and press again to unmute

(ctrl-m is the keyboard equivalent.)

SOLO Button

This button allows you to quickly "Solo" a part (i.e. mute all other tracks) currently selected by the Part Selection listbox (ctrl-s is the keyboard equivalent.)

General Options button

Launches a Control Panel which allows you to set various program preferences such as Notation Scroll-Ahead mode, Semitone and Cents (tuning) adjustments, Random Playback when Play ALL is selected, etc.

Font Button

The font button launches a dialog which allows you to choose the type and size of font you would like the program to use when displaying text in the Book/Content portion of the screen. This is similar to choosing a font to use with a word processing program (e.g., MS-Word) or any other Windows program that uses selectable fonts.

Video Button

This button (or the F8 key) switches between the different video modes available when playing a song that contains video. The four modes are:

1. small video window
2. big video window
3. video + notation (small video- 800x600 screen resolution recommended)
4. just notation (audio only - show no video)

WinMixer Button

Launches the Windows Soundcard mixer (sndvol32.exe in Win95/98.) Use this button to quickly launch the Windows Volume control applet (program), where you will find additional controls for Audio and MIDI Output and Input levels (see your soundcard and/or Windows documentation for additional details on this volume mixer application.)

Print Button

The print button (ctrl-p is the keyboard equivalent) allows you to print out pictures, text (e.g., Playing Examples and 'Song Notes'), and the hand-transcribed notation of the currently selected song to your Windows Compatible Inkjet or Laser Printer.

Menu Button

This button offers easy access to the MENU items (i.e. File | Play) which offer access to the various functions and features of the program. This is especially helpful when running in 640x480 screen resolution mode, since the menu headings may not be in view.

Help Button

This button launches the opening chapter of the program's Help Topics, which contain the full descriptions of the various features and functions available in the program.

Loop Button and Section/Bars Selector

The Loop Button and Section/Bars selector work together to allow you to quickly select the following:

1) a section (using the section selector - HEAD, PIANO SOLO 1, etc.)
2) loop points (using the overview window),
3) a number of Bars (i.e. 1,4,8,12,24, etc.)

Select the section you wish to loop and press the Loop Button (at left) - or press the '1' key on the numeric keypad portion of the computer keyboard - to start the Loop feature.

Play a single piece by using the play button or selecting from the songlist.

The PLAY button will play the piece that is currently selected (highlighted) in the LIST Window. You can also use the mouse to select a piece; a piece will load and play automatically as soon as it is selected from the SONGLIST drop-down box.

The following buttons allow you to play one or more of the pieces that are displayed in the SONGLIST:

PLAYING YOUR FAVORITE PIECES

You can select your favorite pieces in the lists by clicking the MOUSE button on the checkbox beside the name of the piece. You should then see an asterisk beside the piece name indicating that it is a favorite piece of yours. Clicking the MOUSE button again to clear the checkbox will de-select it. You can save your list of favorite pieces (from one to all of the pieces) to disk by choosing the "Save Favorites..." option from the File Menu.

When you press the PLAY FAVORITES button, the pieces that have been selected as your favorites will be played one after another.

The Play All button

PLAYING ALL OF THE PIECES IN THE SONG LIST
Pressing this button will instruct the program to play all of the pieces in the current list of pieces one after another, or in a random order if the Random Playback option is selected in the General Options panel.

The Previous/Next buttons

These buttons move to the previous or next piece when you are playing a SET of more than one piece. (i.e. when playing the "Favorites" or when Playing the "ALL" Jukebox modes.)

The Stop button

As you may have guessed, you can stop the music by pressing the STOP button. When playback is resumed the song will start from the point at which it was stopped.

CONTINUED