MITSYN

A Player and Choral Scores for Singer Note Learning

The MITSYN Score Player/Editor contains commands which are useful for singers learning their part in multi-part choral music. It can synthesize/play from scores while allowing the user to adjust parameters such as the tempo and relative amplitude of each voice.

The Player may be used to play in the background while working on other tasks, e.g., e-mail correspondence, or more actively while learning difficult passages. In the latter active involvement mode one is usually reading from one's own copy of the score, using the shortcut keys to pause and restart and to repeat difficult passages, and perhaps using the voicing controls to emphasize/de-emphasize particular parts.

Go to download Player, and platform requirements.

Go to sources of scores.

Tooltips

A primary component of usage information consists of help balloons called "Tooltips" which popup when the mouse cursor is hovered over each control (button, slider, scroll bar, textbox, music keyboard, etc.) of the many toolbars. To learn what any control does hover the mouse cursor over the item, and a tooltip will popup which describes the function of that item. If a keyboard shortcut is assigned to the command activated by the control the key(s) will also be shown at the end of the tooltip.

Basic Player Controls

To play a file open a MITSYN score or a MIDI sequence file in the MITSYN Score Player/Editor (File menu, Open command, usually denoted as File→Open), and then click the Play button. Playing may be controlled using these basic controls on the "player toolbar".

These player "transport control" buttons also have associated shortcut keys, and the particular key is shown in parentheses in the Tooltip for that button. These buttons may be clicked, or the equivalent shortcut key pressed, to restart playing at desired locations or to facilitate the repetitive playing of difficult passages. When learning parts it is usually easier to use the shortcut keys for these commands, rather than using the mouse to point to and then click the desired button.

An augmented listing of the function and Tooltip shown for each button or control is as follows, listed as shown from left to right.

• Play from the top -- Set the cursor to the beginning of the score and start playing there.
• Play from where the most recent or ongoing play was started. This is useful when you have just played a segment which you wish to repeat a few times -- just double-click once on the score where the segment begins, and then use this button (or shortcut key 'B') to start playing again from that spot as many times as you wish.
• Back up -- Set the cursor back a few beats and start playing there.
• Play/Pause (the big button, or shortcut key 'spacebar') -- Start playing at the cursor (shown as a yellow bar in the score view). Double-clicking on a score also starts playing from the spot clicked.
• Fast Forward on/off toggle -- Pushing this button multiplies the tempo times 10. This is sometimes useful to rapidly scan a section of score "by ear" when searching for a particular passage.
• Play the currently selected segment -- The easiest way to select a segment is to click and then drag through the desired range, exactly as you would select a segment of text in your word processor. The currently selected segment is shown with a light yellow shading.
• Loop (Repeat) Play the currently selected segment. This "loop play" feature may be useful in learning or debugging specified passages. Pushing this button, i.e., turning on the Loop mode, causes the currently selected segment to be played and then repeated until some other action cancels the loop play mode.

The next controls and readouts shown on the toolbar areas follows:

• Tempo slider --The Tempo slider may be used to adjust the tempo to slower or faster than that indicated in the score. When centered the score is played at the scored tempo. The number shown to the right of the Tempo slider is the current tempo in beats per minute, which is the scored tempo as adjusted up or down by the Tempo slider.
• Show/hide the Voice Mixer, which is discussed below.

In addition to Fast Forward Play there are many other ways of quickly jumping around in a score. "Bookmarks" may be easily added to scores (using the Bookmarks toolbar) to facilitate the quick return to desired locations (using the same toolbar). Additional navigation techniques are discussed at Finding Locations or Items in a Score.

Most of the first controls in the top toolbar are the usual ones. The first (left arrow) button is the Go Back button, and the next button is the usual File→Open button which is handy for switching to a different score. The Zoom buttons provide quick adjustment of the view -- see the tooltips on the buttons for a full explanation.

The scroll bar immediately below the Player toolbar shows where the current view is located within the whole score. A fast way to move to a different section of the score is to simply drag the slider (sometimes called the "thumb") in the scrollbar.

Clicking anywhere on the score view sets the cursor at that position, and double-clicking starts playing there. To jump forward quickly in a score drag the slider in the score scroll bar or use the paging keys to move the view to the desired region, and then click at the desired position.

Bookmarks

As an aid for fast navigation it is often useful to put bookmarks in a score at places of interest. Scores imported from MIDI files will have MIDI markers imported as bookmarks. The Bookmarks toolbar (left sidebar) presents commands for using bookmarks and a list of the current bookmarks. "New" is used to add a bookmark at the current cursor location. "Goto" moves to cursor to the location of the bookmark currently selected in the list, and "Play" moves the cursor and starts playing there. Double-clicking on a list entry also starts playing from the selected bookmark. The number shown following each bookmark name is the position in the score in units of beats.

Voice Mixer

Clicking the Voice Mixer button on the Player toolbar (or Toolbars→Voice Mixer) brings up the voice mixer toolbar, which may be used to adjust attributes of each voice such as the its volume, position, and sound. These attributes are often useful while learning a part to either emphasize or de-emphasize one's own part in the mix. Depending on data in the score, the part number (note class) in the score which the voice is rendering often includes a name for the part assigned to the voice, e.g., tenor or piano.

The Volume controls set the volume for each voice, and the Pan controls set the left to right position for each voice. These controls can also be set by "commands" in the score as it is being played, so if you adjust them and they subsequently are changed to different values it it because they are being set by the score. If you wish to remove such score items search the score for commands (do a "Find" command with a find filter item type of "command") and delete those score commands which begin with "SetNPan" and/or "SetNVol".

Clicking a Solo button mutes all voices except the chosen voice. Individual voices may be turned on and off (muted) by clicking their Mute checkbox. Another technique is to set the instrument rendering the selected voice to a brilliant sounding instrument.

Clicking the Tutti button turns on (un-mutes) all voices. Clicking an "All Vols" arrow increases or decreases the volumes of all the voices, and the "Reset" button resets all the mixer controls to the same nominal values (this is useful to get back the "usual" mixer settings after grossly distorting the mix for some particular purpose).

The current settings of the Voice Mixer are also reflected in the visual display, i.e., only speaking (not muted) voices are shown. Using the aural and visual renderings together is often helpful in the process of debugging a score, i.e., finding and fixing wrong notes in a score. Another way to visually separate individual parts is to assign them to different view rows (View→Setup View Layout (Part assignments, etc)).

Synthesizer Keyboard

Clicking the Keyboard button on the top toolbar (or Toolbars→Keyboard) brings up a synthesizer keyboard toolbar.

This keyboard has several functions (see its Tooltips for the keys and buttons). A key may be pressed at any time to set the cursor level and sound pitches. The other tools can be used for inserting new notes into the score by "playing" them in using the keyboard keys. For more information on inserting items into a score see the MITSYN Score Editor page. Indicators may be shown on its keys while the player is playing a score to show which keys would produce the current sound, rather like a player piano whose keys are operated by the piano roll (Player->Options->Show Note Playing Indicators).

Player Voicing Assignments (Instrumentation)

The part that a voice renders, and the "instrument" assigned to a voice may also be easily changed. Clicking the Voices toolbar button (or Player→Assign Voices (instrumentation)) brings up the following dialog box. The most common application of this dialog is to simply change the instrument assigned to each voice.

If you wish to change the number of voices adjust the Change To field and then click the associated button. Then change the attributes for any voice by double-clicking on a particular voice which brings up the following dialog.

As shown in the above dialog boxes, each voice can be assigned to render any particular "part" (note class number) in a score. Several voices may be assigned to render the same part, e.g., using different tunings or instruments. In this way interesting sounds may be realized.

The assignment of voices to parts in the score (note classes), and the assignment of instrument names to voices, is kept with each score. Also kept with each score is the name of an "Instrument Definition database" file which assigns attributes to each instrument name. It is easy to add instruments. For example, you could record yourself as a sound sample and use that as an instrument. Instrument definition is really of more interest to the sound craftsman, however, and not usually fussed with for part learning purposes. Hence it is documented on a separate page.

Licensed versions of MITSYN support the playing of up to 92 voices. Evaluation (unregistered) versions support fewer voices. If the score contains more parts than the maximum number of supported voices these dialogs can be used to specify which parts are to be rendered.

We would be pleased to receive your suggestions for enhancements.

Synthesis Parameters

Note levels are interpreted using an octave representation, with a level of zero corresponding to the musical pitch of C0 which is 4 octaves below middle C. The tuning is normally such that A4 (A above middle C) is at 440 Hz, although this may be adjusted using the Player→Player Options command.

The synthesis sampling rate may also be adjusted using the the same command. A higher sampling rate yields higher quality sound, but will result in gaps in the sound if your machine is not fast enough synthesize in real time. Decreasing the number of voices allows a higher sampling rate to be achieved. However, recent vintage machines are so fast that this should never be necessary.

Scores

Many scores may be obtained by using the MITSYN Score Player/Editor to import them from standard MIDI sequence files (Score Editor File→Open command). MIDI files for musical scores are popular items on many Web sites. Extensive collections of choral music MIDI files may be found at www.GASilvis.net and Cyberbass.com.

A few sample scores are included in the downloaded MITSYN installation composite file. They are included to illustrate some of varieties of setting up the aural and visual renderings. These particular sample scores were imported from MIDI files, and then tweaked in minor ways to be a bit more "user friendly". These sample scores, in ready to play format, are included in the user's "My Documents\MITSYN" folder when the single MITSYN download file is installed, and hence do not need to be downloaded separately.

• Schubert Mass No. 6 in E-flat Major. Separates the choral and accompaniment parts into separate view rows, and instruments the accompaniment with harpsichord voicing.
• Poulenc -- Gloria. The whole score in included which includes about 90 voices. Bookmarks have been added for each of the movements, along with rehearsal numbers (for one particular edition). The visual rendering shows the chorus and solo voices in the top view row, and the orchestral voices in a second view row.
• JS Bach -- Cantata No. 50. This is a double chorus, and illustrates using the "Pan" controls to spatially separate the sound of the two choruses, and the use of two view rows to visually separate the parts of the choruses.
• Palestrina -- O Magnum Mysterium. A separate view row is shown for each of the 6 choral parts. Also of interest is that the MIDI file this was imported from contained lyrics for each of the 6 choral parts, and the lyrics are shown.
• Handel -- Several selections from Sampson, Judas Maccabaeus, and Saul.

Using the Synthesizer Keyboard toolbar the keyboarding of notes one at a time into a MITSYN score proceeds quite expeditiously. Hence entering a score from scratch may be a viable option for works for which an extant file MIDI or MITSYN score file cannot be found.

MIDI sequence files may be played immediately after opening in the Score Editor. However, if you are going to be working extensively with a score it may sometimes be useful to change it with playing and viewing attributes specialized for your particular situation. You may wish to change the instrumentation (assignment of particular instruments to each voice) to something more appropriate and/or pleasing for your use. As another example, in the case of a double chorus it might be helpful to adjust the "Pan" control of the Voice Mixer so that one chorus sings in the left channel and the other chorus is in the right channel, and that the parts of the two choruses be displayed in separate rows. Or for a chorus with accompaniment the chorus parts could be viewed in a primary row, and accompaniment parts shown in a smaller secondary row. Following such changes and/or additions to a score the score may be saved as a MITSYN score which includes such playing and viewing attributes. (This means that current mixer settings are saved in MITSYN scores, along with voicing instrumentation parameters.) MITSYN scores have a filename extension of ".mscore". (The Score Editor does not save in MIDI file format.)

Implementation and PC requirements

The actual synthesis is realized using a MITSYN stream processing configuration, which may be accessed for viewing or editing through the Player→Player Options command.

The implementation of the player does not require any special purpose hardware other than a normal sound card for output. In particular, no MIDI hardware or support is required in as much as the sound samples are synthesized directly by the PC's CPU chip. The implication of this is that a faster CPU allows the playing of more voices and at a higher quality (i.e., sampling rate). A 800 MHz CPU can easily synthesize up to 40 simple voices with high quality.

Last updated 06-May-2009