MidiNotate Player second beta release 1095

The second beta release (version 1.0.9.5) is now available. You can download it by double-clicking this file link:

www.notation.com/MidiNotatePlayerSetup.exe

NOTE: Before installing MidiNotate Player, make a backup copy of \Program Files\MidiNotate\MidiDev.cfg

No patch is available for this version of MidiNotate Player. It is advised that you first uninstall the previous version of MidiNotate Player.

This second beta release of MidiNotate Player fixes all known bugs and reported usability problems, except the following:

1. Although the User's Guide is now installed (always, not optionally) and is accessible via the Help menu, the contents of the User's Guide is under construction. There is no need for you to report problems with the User's Guide. I know that right now it is in shambles.
2. MidiNotate Player might conflict with MidiNotate Composer, Composer Pro, or Musician in the area of MIDI device configuration. That is why it is recommended that you make a backup copy of the \Program Files\MidiNotate\MidiDev.cfg file.

This release of MidiNotate Player introduces new packaging of MidiNotate files. Before now, the MidiNotate executable (MNPlayer.exe, Musician.exe, Composer.exe, or CompPro.exe) was packaged with these three additional files: MidiNote.dll, TrnsParm.dll, and Undo.dll. Now, those three additional files are embedded inside the main executable (.exe) file and are no longer separately installed files. This change has been first made in MNPlayer, but the same change will be made in Musician, Composer, and Composer Pro. So, don't be surprised when you find these other files missing.

Please let me know if you find any problems with MidiNotate Player. This freeware program will be released to the public in approximately 10 to 14 days from now.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi, Mark:

Second beta of the Player is looking good. The "lost staves" bug seems to have disappeared, as you said.

The import of page setup info is still problematic, though. When a file with legal size format is loaded, unless Page Setup is called up before changing to Page View, selecting Page View will initially bring up a displayed 8.5 X 11 white sheet, with staves layed out for 8.5 X 14.

On calling up Page Setup, the format shows right off that 8.5 X 14 is selected, but on clicking OK, the "Apply to only this or to all parts?" dialogue comes up, as if a change in format had been made. Clicking OK then displays a correct 8.5 X 14. Clicking cancel leaves the page at a displayed 8.5 X 11.

There is also a functionality difficulty with the way Player handles MIDI devices. Player seems to assign all parts to one MIDI port, even if the file loaded is set for multiple ports. With a fully orchestrated score, there are more than 16 channels required to cover all the instruments, therefore playback on more than one port is required. Although Player can load such files, it can't play them back properly if only one MIDI port is used. Without the Track Setup dialogue box, this can't be changed.

Sherry,

The advice you offer above should ensure that there is no conflict between MidiNotate Player and other MidiNotate programs in the area of MIDI device setup.

I will try some more to reproduce the MIDI device conflict here so that I can then fix it.

The "association" (Windows terminology) of an application such as MidiNotate Player or Composer with the ".mid" file extension is a different matter. When you install MidiNotate Player, it will not be associated with .mid files unless you ask so during the setup, or if you later use the Associate command in Player's Setup menu.

MidiNotate's .mid file association behavior is currently being improved. During setup, if you ask MidiNotate (Player, Musician, Composer, or Composer Pro) to be associated with .mid files, the setup program will save the previously associated MIDI program, whether that might be another MidiNotate program, or some program by another company. Later, when you uninstall MidiNotate, the previously associated MIDI program will be re-associated with .mid files.

This same enhancement is being made for the Associate command in MidiNotate's Setup menu. When you associate MidiNotate with .mid files, the previously associated MIDI program will be saved; and when you un-associated MidiNotate with .mid files, the previously associated MIDI program will be restored.

This improvement has a flaw in that the previously associated MIDI program might have in the mean time been uninstalled on the user's system. That case is much more rare, however, than the case where the previously associated MIDI program is still on the user's system and thus makes sense to be re-associated.

I'm not aware of other programs doing this for .mid files and other types of files, but I have often wish they would. At least MidiNotate will now (in the next release).

Cheers
-- Mark

Hello David,

I was able to reproduce the problem with the wrong page size initially displaying in Page View. It turns out that I had fixed only part of the problem you previously reported.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

There is also a functionality difficulty with the way Player handles MIDI devices. Player seems to assign all parts to one MIDI port, even if the file loaded is set for multiple ports. With a fully orchestrated score, there are more than 16 channels required to cover all the instruments, therefore playback on more than one port is required. Although Player can load such files, it can't play them back properly if only one MIDI port is used. Without the Track Setup dialogue box, this can't be changed.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>Please try this quick investigation. I assume you followed Sherry's advice and installed Player under a different parent MidiNotate directory than the MidiNotate parent of Composer. In Player's parent directory, rename MidiDev.cfg to MidiDev.bak. Then copy the MidiDev.cfg from \Program Files\MidiNotate (parent of Composer) to the parent of Player. Then run Player and see if this problem goes away.

Thanks!
-- Mark

Sherry,

At any time, you can bypass an application's self-association with a file extension (such as .mid) by setting Control Panel / Tools / Folder Options / File Types / Registered File Types / MID. MID is the .mid file extension for MIDI files. This is a way you can check up on which application has the official last claim to a particular file extension.

There is also a way to see and change this information in the Windows Registry; but there is no good reason I know of for bypassing the Control Panel.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi, Mark:

Yes! Copying Composer's MidiDev.cfg to the Player directory (I did as Sheri had suggested) seems to have fixed the problem with using multiple midi devices.


I looked a little further at the Page size problem I detailed above and I think that it's happening in Composer as well ! -- at least, the first time that Page View is called when running Composer. I've tried it several times, with different files and it seems to happen each time, that is, with a page size other than 8.5 X 11 -- the first attempt at page view always seems to come up 8.5 X 11. Resetting the Page Size in Page Setup fixes it for that and subsequent uses of Page View during the same session.

Now all of the files that I've used are older files, created before Composer 1.0, but I've not noticed any problem before now.

David,

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Yes! Copying Composer's MidiDev.cfg to the Player directory (I did as Sheri had suggested) seems to have fixed the problem with using multiple midi devices.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>That confirms understanding of the problem, and will help me to fix it more efficiently. Thanks for the report.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

I looked a little further at the Page size problem I detailed above and I think that it's happening in Composer as well!<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>This does not surprise me. Other parts of the page setup problem that I fixed a few days ago were also present in all versions of MidiNotate. At that time, though, I was surprised as you are now that we didn't observe this problem before. Maybe the bug is only a few months old rather than a few years old.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi David,

I'd appreciate your sending me the two versions of the MidiDev.cfg file: (1) the version that was missing the MIDI port for the second set of 16 channels for Player, and (2) good version that you borrowed from Composer to get Player to work correctly.

Thanks!
-- Mark

David,

The problem with the page size is now fixed for the next releases of MidiNotate Player, Composer, Composer Pro, and Musician. This is the problem you reported, that if a non-default page size was saved in the .not file, that page size was not correctly restored when you reopened the file and went to Page View.

Thanks again for reporting the bug.

Cheers
-- Mark

Clyde, David, and Sherry,

I did what I thought was a pretty thorough test for the conflict between MidiNotate Player and MidiNotate Composer in the area of MIDI device configuration, and everything worked fine. I'd appreciate your doing the following test, and letting me know whether you run into a problem on your system. If you don't, then our next task is to discover what is different about my test versus the circumstances of the bug you're running into.

Here's the test I followed successfully, and which I hope one of you will try. It won't take long if you still have the setup programs for Player and Composer on your system:

1. Install both MidiNotate Player and MidiNotate Composer underneath a new common parent directory, such as \Program Files\MidiNotateTest.
2. Confirm that there is no MidiDev.cfg file in this \Program Files\MidiNotateTest directory. The MidiDev.cfg is automatically created the first time you run one of the MidiNotate programs.
3. Run MidiNotate Composer for the first time.
4. Use the Setup / Quick MIDI Device Setup command in Composer, and set the playback device to one that you commonly use.
5. Exit Composer.
6. Run MidiNotate Player for the first time.
7. Use the Setup / Quick MIDI Device Setup command in Player. Confirm that the playback device is set to the one that you set above in Composer. This should happen because all MidiNotate programs under the same common parent directory will share the same MidiDev.cfg file.
8. In Player's Quick MIDI Device Setup dialog, change the playback device to another one that you commonly use.
9. Exit Player.
10. Run Composer a second time.
11. In Composer's Quick MIDI Device Setup, confirm that the current playback device is now the one you most recently set above in Player.

Thanks!!!

-- Mark

Howdy Mark,

I forgot to mention that when I did the installations above, Player indeed installed a desktop icon when I checked the box, whereas Pro did not install an icon, even though I checked the box during installation for it to install a desktop icon. I tried it again (uninstalled, then reinstalled) just to be sure it was not installing an icon. I thought that was a bit weird.

ttfn,
Sherry

Sherry,

Thanks for testing the conflict between Player and Composer (Pro) in the area of MIDI device configuration. I read back through this entire thread and now see that you didn't ever report the MIDI device configuration conflict that Clyde and David have reported. You reported a different problem, regarding the .mid file association. So, I'm hoping that Clyde or David will do this same test you did, since they were the one's, not you, that ran into the problem.

Other things...

GPO does not need to be running for MidiNotate to detect the GPO devices. The GPO devices (ports / drivers) are registered with Windows when GPO is installed.

The Player setup program was recently fixed to correctly install the desktop icon, as you discovered. This fix for Composer Pro's setup has not been made yet.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Sherry

I couldn't find my way through the FAQ's and thanks for your respond. I indeed did remove the Harmony font in Windows Control Panel / Fonts folder. Installing from its location didn't work: CProgram Files Notation Software, IncMidiNotateharmony_.ttf. In my case installing the harmony font gave: C Program Files/MidiNotate/Composer and Composer Pro and MN Player but I couldn't locate IncMidiNotateharmony_.ttf.

Cheers
--Erwin

Thanks Mark and Sherry, now it works but I still got a problem concerning the association to .mid and .kar files.
The player wouldn't open when activating a midifile. The first release of the Player did it, the newer version doesn't.

Could there be a problem too.

Cheers
--Erwin