Copyright: Visual Help Copyright® 1993 Firas Bushnaq


INTRODUCTION
The MIDI Machine

From Window Ware, Inc.

Introduction

The MIDI Machine is a midi "juke box" that can queue your midi files and play them in the background while you work.  You can choose to play them in the order that they were added to the queue, or in random order.  The queue can "loop" so that after a midi file plays it is added to the bottom of the queue again, or it can be removed from the queue after playing.

 Song List

 Queue List

 Controls


Song List

Click on the "Dir" button (or press ALT+D) to open a dialog box for choosing the midi directory.  Select ANY midi file (.mid) to change to that directory.  The Song List will then be filled with the names of the mdi files in that directory.  Note that you can ONLY change the midi directory if midi files are located there.

Press the "<" or the ">" buttons to "turn pages" in the Song List.

Click on a song in the Song List to add it to the queue.  You can add the same song several times if you like.

Click on the "Add All" button (or press ALT+A) to add all songs in the Song List to the queue.

The first song added to the Queue List may suddenly "disappear" as it is immediatley pulled from the queue and played.  Subsequent additions to the queue will "stack up" and appear in the Queue List.


Queue List

Songs that have been selected from the Song List appear in the Queue List.  Songs wait in the queue until it is their turn to play.  As they are played, the songs are either removed from the Queue List entirely, or they are added to the bottom of the list, depending on how the Loop option is set.

Songs can be added to the Queue List or removed.

Songs can be played randomly or in the order in which they were added to the Queue List.

 A song that is playing can be skipped, stopped, or paused.

Songs will continue to play and be removed from the Queue List even when the program is minimized and you are running other applications.  If you are running in 386 Enhanced mode the queue will continue to function even if you are performing another task in a full screen DOS window.


Controls

The following details the purpose and use of each control.

Loop

Shortcut Keys: ALT+L
Checking this option will prevent songs from being being removed from the Queue List as they are played.  Instead, songs will be added to the bottom of the Queue List. Want to really drive someone crazy? Check the Loop check box and add a single annoying song to the queue, and go away. It will play forever (or until your family or co-workers destroy your PC).

Random

Shortcut Keys: ALT+M
Checking this option will cause songs to be played randomly from the Queue List, rather than in the order in which they were queued.

Add All

Shortcut Keys: ALT+A
This adds all songs from the Song List to the Queue List. If no songs are in the queue, the first song added will be removed for playing, and the remainder of the Song List will be appear in the Queue List.

Remove All

Shortcut Keys: ALT+V
This button removes all songs from the Queue List.  It does not stop the currently playing song.

Remove

Shortcut Keys: ALT+R
Removes the currently selected song(s) from the Queue List.

Skip

Shortcut Keys: ALT+K
This stops the song that is currently playing and advances to the next song (if any) in the Queue List.

Help

Shortcut Keys: ALT+H
You're looking at it!

Exit

Shortcut Keys: ALT+X
Stops the song that is currently playing and exits the program.

Dir

Shortcut Keys: ALT+D
Open a dialog box to selects the MIDI directory for the Song List. Select ANY MIDI file (*.mid) to change to that directory.  Note that you can ONLY change the MIDI directory if MIDI files exist in that directory.

<  (Page Backward)

Shortcut Keys: ALT+SHIFT+<
Turns back one page in the Song List.  If the current page is the first page, it "rolls over" to the last page.

>  (Page Forward)

Shortcut Keys: ALT+SHIFT+>
Turns ahead one page in the Song List.  If the current page is the last page, it "rolls over" to the first page.