[Coco] BIN music files and karaoke?

[KnudsenMJ at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/1/04 8:49:24 PM Eastern Standard Time, AMODMO at aol.com 
writes:

> The music BIN files were created using George Quellhorst's great MUSIC3+ 
>  program. It was described in the April 1991 RAINBOW magazine, in an 
article 
> by 
>  George Quellhorst entitled "Resounding CoCo". It represented a major 
upgrade 
> of 
>  an older program called MUSIC+.

OK, thanks, now I think I vaguely remember that.  I was subscribing to the 
Rainbow well into its newspaper-format days, so must have seen that, but I never 
got into the type-all-day program entry masochism (gave it up after my KIM-1 
Hex trainer).

 "The MUSIC3+ program uses HSCREEN4 to place 
>  real notes on the screen, not letters or numbers, and it has a 17 column 
> window 
>  allowing 68 notes to be displayed on the screen simultaneously", the 
>  introductory description says.

So it was a poor man's Lyra or UltiMusE or Musica3 -- real notes.  Cool.

> Each note is entered (up to four notes in each space) one at a 
>  time. It sounds laborious but really wasn't too bad. 

Did you enter the notes from the keyboard only, or could you use the 
joystick/mouse?  Four harmony parts is par for the course in direct software synthesis 
-- don't recall anyone doing more.

>George Quellhorst also 
>  wrote a PLAYER program, which reads a disk's directory and displays the 
> music  (BIN) files on the screen. By moving the cursor, using the arrow 
keys, you 
>  select the tune you want to play. 

Good, a jukebox program.  I wrote one like that for UltiMusE (.UME) files.  I 
should have made a version for MIDI (.MID) files too.

> My final  effort 
>  was SONGBOOK, which uses a directory display much like George Quellhorst's 
>  PLAYER program. When you move the cursor, using arrow keys, to select a 
tune,
>  and 
>  press P (for Play), the music BIN file LOADMs and the TEXT file of the 
same 
>  name is LOADed and is displayed on the screen, one verse at a time, and 
the 
> music  plays again for each verse.

OK, now I see how you synchronized the lyrics with the music -- display a 
whole verse at a time, and each verse replays the whole file.  Works fine as long 
as there isn't an Intro, Vamp, or Coda in the BIN file.

> It works fine and it remains the most satisfying  
>  BASIC program I ever wrote. Dave Otis.

Music programs are like that -- the satisfaction is never-ending!  People are 
still tinkering with Dennis QUAVER.
Congrats on a good program -- Mike K.