Review of MidiNotate Musician 1.0

I installed this software on a Dell Dimension 4600 running at 2.34 GHz with 256 MB RAM with a Pentium 4 2.40 GHz processor, NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X, and SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio, running Windows XP Home Edition. I simply inserted the CD-ROM provided, with the program loading automatically after asking for my input on just a few basic questions.

Musician has a Windows-type interface with a menu and icons for mouse activation, mouse-over descriptions, and keyboard shortcuts. Although Musician is, in essence, a subset of the more capable Composer, the many shortcuts (I counted over 170), although logical, are difficult to remember completely, so you may like to print the summary page for quick reference. Similarly, the complex hierarchical system of hiding toolbars or "palettes" containing all the icons was confusing, so have a copy of the explanation handy. The program incorporates multiple levels of Undo, so you can experiment without fear of losing your original score.

To produce a score from a sound file, Musician will open an Internet browser window allowing you to search for MIDI or Karaoke files on the web which you can then download or save to your computer. Unfortunately, once this internet window was open, clicking on the back button did not take me back to the previous Musician screen as it typically should - I finally discovered that you must double-click the back arrow. You may also open and transcribe a sound file already on your computer. The screen shot example shows a transcribed version of a MIDI file of Baa Baa Black Sheep.  Underneath the main menu icons is the Note Values palette (toolbar).  To change a note value in the score, click on the icon for the desired note value.  Musician will adjust the entire measure to ensure the correct number of beats is maintained.

The changes you may make to the score include correcting any rhythms which were not accurately transcribed, adding accent and articulations, dynamics, slurs, pedal marks, other special music symbols, and lyrics. These options are available either from palettes or toolbars of icons or from drop-down menus. It was sometimes frustrating to try to edit rhythms, for example, to change a dotted quarter note and 8^th note to a quarter note plus a quarter note rest, but eventually it worked. You cannot add or change note pitches, although when I typed in ‘add notes’ in the User’s Guide Search function, I was incorrectly directed to a help screen for adding notes, which is NOT possible with Musician. A search for ‘edit rhythm’ also led me to the Editing Note Pitch help screen, which also is not applicable to this program.

Musician easily allows you to create a Fake Book Lead Sheet showing the melody and chords above it - the user may then edit the chords. You may also create an Easy Notes Part version where the note names are displayed inside enlarged note heads. Finally, for those interested in karaoke, you can prepare a large font Sing-Along version.

If you’d like to follow the score while your song plays, Musician highlights each note and lyrics in pink as it’s playing, and shows a moving blue vertical line where each beat falls. A great feature is the ability to change the volume of one or more parts, so you can hear only your part played instead of the whole orchestra or choir at once. The user may also transpose individual parts to a new pitch, with the choice to transpose the actual printed notes as well as the heard pitch, or just the written pitch (for instrumentalists who will read notes in a certain key, while the sound is heard at the original different pitch).