Music Construction Set Instructions*** PART 1 - INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR COMMODORE ***GETTING STARTEDTurn on the disk drive, turn on the computer, and insert the MCS (Music Construction Set) disk. Type LOAD "EA",8,1 and press RETURN. Wait while the program loads.When the first MCS screen appears, press RETURN to use the program, or wait and the demo automatically begins. In the demo, you hear some of the songs on the MCS Disk. To stop a song and start the next, press the Space Bar. Press RETURN to leave the demo.CHANGING YOUR CONTROLSMCS assumes you are using the keyboard and a joystick. To point and drag the Hand Icon, use the joystick, the Arrow keys, or these keys: A for Up, Z for Down: : (Colon) for Left, ; (Semicolon) for Right. To make selections, use the joystick button or RETURN.To tell MCS that you plan to use a Koalapad, select the Plug Icon in the bottom corner of the Icons Box. Press the Space Bar until KOALA appears; then press RETURN.NOTE: Your Commodore 64 can sound up to three notes simultaneously; rests count as notes.LOADING AND SAVING MUSICTo perform the tasks below, first select the MCS Disk Icon.1. To see a list of the music on your disk, type CATALOG and press RETURN.2. To load music into memory from your disk, type LOAD and the name of your piece and press RETURN - for example, type LOAD BUMBLEBEE. When the red disk light goes out, press RETURN again. (To clear the entire score so you can create a new song, type LOAD NEW.)3. To format a disk to save music on, put the disk in your drive, type FORMAT, and press RETURN. (Note: Any information previously on the disk is erased.)4. To save music, place your own files disk in the drive. Type SAVE followed by the name you pick; press RETURN twice. (Use only letters, numbers, and spaces in your name.) When your drive stops, remove your files disk, reinsert the MCS disk, and press RETURN.USING SPEED, SOUND, AND VOLUME CONTROLSThe five gauges in the center bottom of the MCS screen control playback speed, sound quality, and volume. Use the Hand Icon to move the gauge markers up and down. See Using the Hand Icon below.Speed: Moving the marker up speeds your music up; moving it down slows your music down.Volume: You cannot control the volume for each staff separately. (This option is available on other computers.) Moving either marker up makes the volume softer; moving it down makes the music louder.Sound: The left Sound gauge controls the music in the top staff, and the right Sound gauge controls the bottom staff. Each Sound gauge can be set tat any of 13 different settings - 8 that mimic music instruments and 5 that produce percussion and special effects. Starting at the top of the gauge, these are:1. Harpsichord         4. Smoother Oboe   7. Brassy     10. Slap    13. Ring **2. Damped Harpsichord  5. Accordion       8. Flute      11. Drum3. Oboe                6. Regal Organ     9. Backwards  12. Synch * * Combines two different wave forms.** Uses ring modulation; adds and subtracts frequency components of the two wave forms and throws the original away.PRINTING YOUR MUSICIf you have a VIC 1525 Graphic Printer or an interface card that provides total emulation, load the music you want to print. Turn on your printer, and press Control-P. The printer prints 2-1/2 measures. Press any key to print the next 2-1/2 measures, and so on. Turn the printer carriage manually to stop printing on one page and start on the next. Press DEL to stop.*** PART 2 - GENERAL INFORMATION ***INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING AND PLAYING MUSICWhen you start MCS, the screen displays two staffs, which make up the score where you load or create music. Below the score are the Parts Box (on the left); Key Change, Time Signature, Speed, Sound, and Volume Controls (in the middle); and the Icons Box (on the right).USING THE HAND ICONUse the Hand Icon to:- Select other icons. Point to the icon and push the button quickly to turn the icon on; push the button again to turn it off.- Change Controls (for Key, Speed, etc.). To adjust the five gauges, point the Hand above or below the marker and push the button quickly to move the marker closer to the tip of the finger.- Move musical parts. Make sure the tip of the finger points to the note. Hold down the button, drag to the desired location, and release the button.PLAYING MUSICTo play a piece of music you've composed or loaded from disk, refer to the instructions for your computer on loading and saving music. On the MCS screen, select the Piano Icon at the top of the Icons Box. MCS plays your song from beginning to end. If you have a sound board, the score scrolls across the screen and the notes sound when they reach the left side of the screen (just above the triangular Play Head in the Parts Box).To scroll forward and backward in a piece, use the Arrow Icons on either side of the Piano; click to stop scrolling. Click on Piano to start the section and click again quickly to stop. To go back to the beginning, select the Home Icon (just below the Piano).As an example, load and play CANON. Then clear the piece from the score.CREATING MUSICYou can create music using a combination of two methods. You can drag musical parts onto the score from the Parts Box. And you can cut measures from an existing piece and paste them in a different location.USING PARTS FROM THE PARTS BOXThe Parts Box contains notes of various values (whole notes, half notes, and so on), rests; natural, sharp, and flat signs; an octave raiser (8===); a tie; and treble and bass clefs.To place music on the blank score, point to a part in the Parts Box (for example, a half note) and drag it to the desired location on the score. Then point to another part (such as a half rest), and repeat the process. (You can use parts as often as you want.) You can also drag parts *off* the score.CUTTING AND PASTINGTo cut measures from the score, select the Scissors Icon, place it in the blank area above a measure, and press the number of measures you want to cut. Pressing 3, for example, cuts out the measure you're on and the two measures to the right, and places them in an invisible storage area called a buffer. The cut and paste buffer will allow you to cut up to 9 measures at a time. If you try to cut more than the buffer can handle, you hear a beep and the command is not executed.To paste the last music you cut (which is now in the buffer), select the Paste Pot Icon and place it over the measure which you'd like the music inserted in front of. Then press the button. MCS inserts your measures, and it continues to store your music in the buffer until you cut something else or turn the computer off. You can also cut and paste between songs.KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS1 through 5     16th notes through whole notes6 through 0     16th rests through whole restsK and L         32nd note and 32nd rest (only available through keyboard)T               Treble clefB               Bass clefS               SharpF               FlatN               NaturalD               DotI               TieO               Octave raiserDEL             Erases whatever is being pointed at or heldSpace Bar       Puts down another of whatever you put down lastU               Inverts the note or tie you're carrying=               Scrolls forward one measureControl-P       Starts printingIDENTIFYING NOTESWhen you point the Hand at a note on the score and press P, the note sounds and the name appears in the Note Indicator (in the center bottom of the screen). To make the Note Indicator display a name automatically (without having to press P) as soon as you point to a new note, press Control-S. Press Control-S again to return the Note Indicator to manual control. And when pressing notes above and below the staff lines, press P to produce a helpful line segment.TRANSPOSINGTo transpose a song from one key into another, point to the Key Change Control at the bottom center of the screen and hold down your button. (Inverse video means that you're moving down the scale from your starting point; regular video means that you're moving up.) When the name of the new key you want appears, release the button. MCS then automatically inserts the correct number of sharps or flats at the beginning of the score and rewrites the song in the new key.If you try to transpose to a key that is too high or low for MCS to handle, you hear a beep and the command is not executed. You can also change the key of a piece manually by dragging sharps or flats onto the score from the Parts Box. In this case, however, you must also change each note in the song manually, and the Key Change Control no longer shows the correct key signature.SETTING YOUR TIME SIGNATURESelect a time signature for your piece (such as 4/4 time) from the Time Signature Control. If you have the appropriate sound board, the Beat Counter (to the left of the Scissors Icon) counts along as the music plays. If it finds a measure with too many or too few beats, it warns you by changing to inverse video.TIPS FOR COMPOSERS- Your songs can contain up to approximately 700 symbols (notes, sharps, flats) in each staff, so a song that averages 10 notes a measure can go for as long as 70 measures.- If you want to use only one staff, use the top one. If you want only the bottom one to play notes you must put rests on the top staff.- You can change the clefs in both staffs. For example, you can put a treble clef on the bottom staff.- Make sure that you don't place any notes on the score to the left of the double bar, or MCS can't play your piece.- Make sure that a chord is composed of notes that are all of the same value (so MCS can play it). Suppose that you have two half notes on the top of your chords, and you want a whole note on the bottom. Convert the whole note to two tied half notes. Place the tie underneath the first note.- MCS cannot play triplets as such. Try to approximate a triplet by using, for example, a sixteenth note and two dotted sixteenths.- To change keys in the middle of a song, you must put the new key signature in every measure. To do this quickly, insert the new key signature in a new measure and use Cut and Paste to add as many copies of that measure as you need. Then add your notes.- If the Beat Counter changes to inverse video but you can't find an error, take the measure apart a symbol at a time. You probably put one symbol on top of another.- If you don't have a sound board, certain MCS functions don't work: The score won't scroll as the music plays; the Beat Counter won't work; and pointing at a note and pressing P doesn't sound the note.CREDITSSoftware copyright 1983, 1984 William Harvey. Douglas Fulton adapted and arranged the music on the MCS disk and created the Commodore instrument sounds. Jim Nichals provided program consulting for the Apple Speaker version. Special thanks to Greg Riker for his work on the Atari instrumental sounds and pitch accuracy.