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              PianoMeter - graphical MIDI note visualisation
           -----------------------------------------------------


This  is  a  little  eyecandy.  It will show MIDI notes on a virtual piano.
You  can  separately  switch  on  and off the display of each MIDI channel.
Furthermore  the  program will inform you about the activity on all 16 MIDI
channels.

Piano  Meter  is now able to control the MIDI player "playmf" which is part
of this software package.

The  program  is  (very  slightly)  based on the "vu" example from the CAMD
developer package.


Requirements
------------

* OS 3.0 or better.

* installed camd.library (available on Aminet)

* any MIDI software using CAMD (e.g. Deluxe Music II, playmf)
  or an external MIDI interface for feeding MIDI notes.

* some free pens on your Workbench screen.


Usage
-----

The command can be started from shell or Workbench

The template for the shell command line is as follows

"LINK/K,OCT=OCTAVES/K/N,WINX/K/N,WINY/K/N,GM/S,GS/S,XG/S,MT32/S,NOHOOKS/S"

Description

* LINK/K  (Keyword)

The MIDI cluster to hook into.  Default is "out.0".  This will show you the
notes  that  are  going  to any external MIDI hardware.  Ideal for use with
playmf.

"in.0"  would  show  you  all  notes  that are coming from an external MIDI
interface at your serial port.

* OCT=OCTAVES/K/N   (Keyword, numeric argument)

This  keyword  specifies  the  number  of  octaves  to show.  Minimum is 1.
Maximum  is  11.  The center octave of the piano will always be note No #60
which is c-3, I think.  The number of octaves will be reduced if the window
would not fit on screen.

* WINX/K/N, WINY/K/N   (Keywords, numeric arguments)

The initial window position.

* GM/S, GS/S, XG/S, MT32/S   (switches)

these  correspond  to  the  same  switches  of PlayMF.  Please refer to the
PlayMF documentation for more details.

* NH=NOHOOKS/S   (switch)

disables  the filetype recognition hooks in ASL filerequesters.  Will speed
things  up  and  fixes  compatibility  problems with some ASL replacements.
Make  sure to set this switch when using Mui-Asl (at least until the author
fixes the problem).



Bugs
----

well, seems to work fine, except...

it can't make coffee.


History
-------

Release 1: initial release

Release 2: cdtv reported an enforcer hit (LONG write to 0).
           This was caused by a GA_Previous tag during gadget
           creation. I didn't know a NULL parameter is invalid.

           Implemented a simple Workbench interface. Can be
           started from Icon now.

           Added WinX, WinY parameter

           Implemented window resizing and "intelligent" gadget
           layout.

           Added Intuition menu strip

           Added CAMD cluster (link) selection requester

Release 3: added fireworks tool

Release 4: speeded up the BOOPSI classes (piano, channel LED)
           when using Cybergraphics

           active MIDI cluster is now shown in window title.

           added menu option to release all notes. Useful when
           notes are hanging after a buffer overrun.

           changing MIDI clusters will now flush all notes and
           reset the keyboard.

bugfixed
Release 4: fixed the piano display with Cybergraphics. Finally.

Release 5: no changes to this tool.

Release 6: no changes to this tool.

Release 7: dropped the name "vu". A piano has nothing in common
           with a VU-Meter.

           technology transfer from Fireworks to PlayMF. Allows
           asynchronous requester handling, saving of preferences,
           Drag&Drop for MIDI files, and remote controlling PlayMF.


Future
------

* tool type support.

* develop more BOOPSI classes for displaying MIDI information

* transform the GUI into a Betty GUI.

* implement the display of XG instrument and effect information

* use these BOOPSI classes for a MIDI datatype


See Also
--------

"playmf".   A Standard MIDI file player using the CAMD library.  Originally
provided as an example by Commodore.  Now overhauled, bugfixed and improved
by me.

"Fireworks"  from  this  distribution  -  a  thrilling MIDI fireworks tool.
Makes your music explode. Amazingly fast with Picasso 96.

GMPlay  1.3 - available on Aminet.  Uses your CPU to play MIDI music.  Does
not require any MIDI synthesizer, but lots of CPU power and RAM.


Contact
-------

for comments, bug reports and suggestions:

The author: Christian Buchner

            flowerp@eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de


Greetings
---------

Rafai Mantiuk - for the BCC precompiler that allows to programm
                MUI/BOOPSI classes with C++ syntax.

Tim Stack     - for his excellent Betty GUI system. This really
                deserves more public attention. My future application
                programs will be based on Betty. 
                see http://www.cs.utah.edu/~stack/betty/

CDTV (Tino    - for organizing the cool computer meetings in Erfurt
Wildenhain)     and for testing PlayMF and PianoMeter and for his
                suggestions

Martin Gierich- for his midi.datatype which is based on the original
                "playmf" as well. However it is not reentrant and
                will crash when loading the second MIDI file.
                Hey, have a look at my playmf source code! ;-)