Congratulations! You now have a demo of the latest in music notation technology. We hope you enjoy using this demo of Encore and thank you for your support. Encore is a music composing and printing program that brings the ease and performance power of sequencing to music publishing.
GENERAL FEATURES-
The Encore™ program is not Copy Protected.
This means that we hope that you will abide by the law and not give away our software! We can continue to provide unprotected software only if you are honest and care enough about your fellow musicians.
Encore can handle 64 parts with multiple key signatures, voices, meters, clefs, staff types, smooth slurs, slanted beams, lyrics or almost anything else you can throw at it. Enter music in real-time or step-time using a mouse or a MIDI keyboard; and perform your composition on any MIDI gear. Place musical symbols anywhere on the page. In addition to notes, rests, ties, slurs and other symbols, you can input text and lyrics. Encore is exceptionally easy to use, and you can work on four different files simultaneously.
Commands such as cut, paste, mix and copy make composing a breeze. You can also change key, tempo and meter, as well as duration, velocity and scale time. Because Encore displays your music during playback, you can quickly spot mistakes and correct them.
Encore intelligently transcribes and prints out Master Tracks Pro™ and Master Tracks Jr.™ sequences, reads and writes standard MIDI files, and can print entire scores or single parts using the Sonata™ music font.
Page Layout Features:
• Compose anything from a simple song to a full blown orchestration.
• Notate up to 64 staff systems with up to four voices per staff.
• Elegant user interface design patterned after Master Tracks Pro.
• Page oriented display gives you complete control of the look of the music.
• Insert/delete measures, pages, systems or staves anywhere in the composition.
• Open four files at once and cut and paste between them.
• Staff sheet lets you view, rearrange, orchestrate and transpose staffs.
• Automatically numbers pages and measures.
• Create Title page, headers and footers with mixed fonts
• Automatically breaks up large vertical compositions into "tiles".
• Show staff names on all pages or first page only.
• Show or hide staves as desired.
• Show or hide rulers for alignment.
• Save composition as score, MIDI file or Master Tracks Pro sequence.
Editing Features
• Place any object anywhere on the page using mouse.
• Edit or Change sections of the music at will with great control.
• Multiple key signatures, meters, and clefs can be freely mixed.
• Nested repeat structures including variable barlines and multiple endings.
• Symbols supported include notes, rests, accidentals, slurs, ties, grace notes, tuplets, accents, marks, ornaments, octava, and dynamics.
• Enter text or lyrics anywhere on the page in any font, size or style.
• Automatically beams music using slanted beams which can be user adjusted.
• Automatically justify music.
• Transform any group of notes into a chord.
• Change number of measures per staff system.
• Split one staff into two by note or voice.
• Change stem height, shift accidentals and select note head types.
• Create Transposable Chord symbols.
Transcription Features
• Directly transcribes live input from MIDI in real time.
• Directly transcribes Master Tracks Pro, Pro 4, Trax and Jr. sequences or Standard MIDI Files.
• Notes appear on screen while recording.
• Use sync capabilities to transcribe any MIDI sequence.
• Preserve the feel of the performance even after converting to notation.
• Sophisticated tools help you guess note durations and transform your performance into beautiful printed notation.
Performance Features
• Watch the music as it plays to quickly find mistakes.
• Assign up to 4 separate voices on each staff for playback over different MIDI channels.
• Syncs directly to MIDI and generates MIDI clocks.
• Plays back on up to 32 MIDI channels with MIDI Transport Interface.
Printing Features
• Print out your sequences in standard music notation.
• Uses Sonata™ music font and Postscript™.
• Print entire score, pages or extract parts.
• Preview the page on screen before printing.
• Print reduced or enlarged images using standard page setup dialog.
• You control how the page will look with computer assisted page layout.
• Automatically prints pages in "tiles" for large compositions.
• Use Encore to write music directly with or without a Postscript device.
• Multifinder Compatible.
Requirements:
Macintosh Plus, SE, Macintosh II, IBM PC (286/386/PS2), Atari 1040, Mega ST .
Optional:
Passport MIDI Transport or compatible MIDI Interface. MIDI Cables, Compatible MIDI software, Any MIDI equipped Synthesizer(s), Drum Machines or other MIDI equipment capable of sending and / or receiving MIDI data. For printing: Imagewriter™, Laserwriter™ or Postscript™ compatible printer, with the Adobe Sonata™ font.
Encore for the Macintosh works best with Apple’s System 6.0.5 or later. If you do not have a current system you can get it from your Apple dealer.
HOW TO USE ENCORE:
Entering Notes:
Step Time - Enter notes with the pencil tool-click on note pallete to choose duration. Click on the staff to place note or play pitch with the MIDI Keyboard.
Real Time - Select insertion point, click on Record button or Enter Key to start recording. Click on Record again (or Spacebar) to stop. "Raw" data will appear on screen. Select the area, then choose "Guess Durations" from the Notes Menu. With area still selected, choose "Beam on Beat" to beam notes.
Editing Notes:
Important notes about Cut, Copy, Paste and Mix.
Copy and Paste work based on the timing and durations of the notes and rests, not on the placement of the graphics. That means that objects may tend to move around the measure during a paste if the measure has not been previously aligned before copying and pasting. This should not be a problem as long as you keep this rule in mind when copying, cutting, pasting and mixing. Also note that you should only Cut, Copy, Paste or Mix data that has been Guessed or step input via the mouse or MIDI keyboard. Performing these operations on raw data will yield unpredictable results.
Recommended procedure for importing a file:
• Import the file as a MIDI file or Master Tracks file.
• Save the file as an Encore file
• Look at the music and play the parts to get familiar with it.
• Voice the piece if required.
• Work on the song in sections, either a voice at a time or a staff at a time. (Try to resist the tendency to “Select All” and “Guess” all at once - this is possible, but it is better to guess each part right than to have to go back and redo sections.)
• Determine quantization values for each part and set them in Transcription Options.
• Guess Durations, Flip Stems and Beam in voices and/or sections and check your work.
• The program will do its best to shape the music, but you will have to make minor adjustments and decisions as to how you want it to appear.
• You can always undo and try something different if you mess up the score.
• Save the file often! This way if you mess up a section, you can always go back (Revert) to the last edit without losing a lot of work.
• If you mix transcribed with real time and step entered data, you may have to align the measures to get things to look and sound right.
• Get the music transcribed, voiced, guessed and beamed before addressing the page layout, text, chords or lyrics.
MIDI File Support:
Encore is designed to work with MIDI sequencers that support “Standard MIDI Files" - Type 1 only. These include most of the popular MIDI sequencers.
Type 0 MIDI files will not work with Encore.
Palettes:
To move from one palette to the next, click on the right side of the existing palette to move forward, click on the left side to move back. The different Palettes can now be selected using the Palette Item in the Windows Menu.
The Marks Palette:
•To place a mark below a note, hold down the Option key when placing the mark.
•To move a mark up, place it, then hold the Shift key as you click the mouse on it. Each time you click, the mark will move up (It will cycle around to the bottom after reaching maximum height.)
•To remove a mark, enter the same mark on the note again.
Automatic Part Extraction:
Automatic part extraction will create a file containing all the staffs of only the part you choose. Simply double click the staff you wish to extract and select “Extract Part” from the File Menu. Encore will automatically create a new file with only that part. You can now transpose the part into a different key if necessary, and change the page layout of the part to your liking.
Transposable Chord Font:
Encore allows you to place chord names into a file and transposes the text of their names when you transpose the music in the measure under them.
To enter chord name symbols:
• Select the “C” icon from the Graphics menu and click where you want a chord symbol. (The "G" Icon is being reserved for future use - it is currently inactive.)
• The cursor will change to a cross and a black arrow will appear in the left margin, indicating the initial horizontal position of the chord symbol.
• Click where you want to place a chord symbol. A dialog box will appear with a matrix of chord types:
• Select the proper chord type and bass note & click OK. Repeat to enter more chords.
• The baseline position of the chord symbol can be moved up or down before or after entry by dragging the black arrow. Chord symbols can be moved horizontally by clicking on them with the arrow cursor and dragging them right or left to a new location.
• After the chords are entered you can transpose them by selecting the measure they are in and choosing Transpose from the Edit Menu. The chord names will be transposed by the interval you select.
Please note that Encore does not create the notation under the chord, in fact, it is up to you to place the proper symbol above the notes. Also, Encore will not currently play the Chord Symbol - this is being considered for a future version.
Memory Display:
A memory display dialog that shows Score Size, Clipboard Size, Free Memory and a bar graph of Total Memory Usage can be viewed by holding down the Shift Key while you select "About Encore" from the Apple menu in the top left corner of the screen.
MIDI "Thru":
The MIDI Setup Dialog allows the Thru channel to either follow the channel set in the Staff Sheet or to always send Thru out a specific channel. The Thru Icon has been on the Main Window allows you to turn Thru On and Off by clicking on it. When the "Always Send Out" box is checked in the MIDI Setup dialog, the Thru channel/port can be changed by double-clicking on the Thru icon. If the "Follow Staff" box is checked in the MIDI Setup dialog, then Thru will follow the most recently clicked in staff and cannot be changed by double-clicking the icon. Please Note: The Thru channel can be changed during playback, but the Port (A or B) cannot be changed while playing.
Beat Value:
The number of metronome clicks per measure can be set in the Time Signature... item in the Change Menu. You can set the beat click to be the same as or fewer than the beat value of the time signature. Note that the beat click must evenly divide into the measure beat value. For example, you may want the time signature to be 12/8 but want the click to be on every dotted quarter note, you would set the # of clicks per measure to 4.
Other Features:
Encore plays notes over MIDI when step input from the mouse. Encore also plays the MIDI note at the cursor position when the command key is held down when clicking. MIDI plays out on the channel the staff is set to.
Manual:
Complete, indexed manual written by Tim Tully and Denis Labrecque.
Printing:
Encore uses the Sonata™ music font from Adobe Systems, Inc. The screen fonts are provided with Encore as a separate file on the disk. You must install the Sonata screen fonts in your system using Apple's Font D/A mover or a program like Suitcase II.
For printing on an Imagewriter, Encore uses the screen fonts to draw on the paper. For printing on a Laserwriter, you will need to purchase the Sonata printer fonts from Adobe and place them in your System folder. Encore will automatically download the Sonata font to your Laserwriter.
The Sonata printer font can be purchased at your local Apple or software retailer, or through mail order. Encore will create bit mapped images of the Sonata font for printing on a Laserwriter if no printer font exists. These bit maps will be useful for most types of printing, but will not be as clean as the printer fonts.
Encore has a suggested retail selling price of $595. Encore was developed by the same people who developed Master Tracks Pro™, Master Tracks Jr.™ and Pro 4™ and works very well with these programs. Encore also requires a MIDI interface such as Passport’s MIDI Transport™, or a Passport MIDI Interface™. If you are interested in any of these products, contact your local music or computer dealer or Passport for more information.
