TECH: New Windows DT Midi problem

Subject: RE: TECH: New DT Midi problem
From: Giac
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 12:58 PM

Yeah, me too. I un-installed QT, un-installed the DT, re-installed each, tried suggestions -- nothing. It's neat to watch the words turn blue, though ~;o).

Subject: RE: TECH: New DT Midi problem
From: Davetnova
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 04:18 PM

Well I've just had to restore my XP since my abortive Quicktime installation so I'll try again while my systems bare.

Subject: RE: TECH: New DT Midi problem
From: mheiman
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 04:50 PM

I'm sorry if I created a red herring by posting those particular file names -- it seems they're different for different versions of Quicktime on different versions of Windows. Don't worry if you don't have them.

To answer an earlier question -- the application is taking the SongWright data, parsing it with some reverse-engineered algorithms, and sending the data as note events to the Quicktime library. Why this generates sound for some people and not for others is a mystery. It was tested on the various versions of Windows without any problems.

I'm doing some research on it now. If you have something new to report, please share it, but "me too" postings probably won't help at this point.

Subject: RE: TECH: New DT Midi problem
From: Davetnova
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 05:37 PM

I've just reinstalled over a fresh installation of Xp and quicktime6 and if works perfectly with no tweaking. So it looks like the fault does not lie with Dtspring.

Subject: RE: TECH: New DT Midi problem
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 07:27 AM

Mark - If you're sending the data to QuickTime as note events then I assume that Filetype associations don't matter. Are there any QT6 settings that might make a difference ?

Subject: RE: TECH: New DT Midi problem
From: Ed.
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 08:34 PM

I don't know if this is helpful information or not.

I've tried the new DT on a number of different Win98 systems.

It works with those with Win98 SE but not with the first Win98 release.

All machines have Quicktime 6.

My 'test' only involved 10 machines, so it may be a fluke, but I thought you may be interested

Ed

Subject: RE: TECH: New DT Midi problem
From:
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 09:48 PM

I don't seem to have QuickTime. I have Windows '98 Second Edition 4.10.2222A. I get the Music to sound.

Subject: RE: TECH: New DT Midi problem
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Sep 02 - 05:56 AM

A quick-look at Mickey$ Knowledge Base indicates:

The "native" music machine for recent versions of Windows is the Windows Media Player.

Early versions of Media Player could read all file formats produced by early versions of QuickTime.

Later versions of Media Player cannot read some file formats produced by QuickTime unless the current Media Player was installed as an upgrade to a version that could read those file formats.

I haven't gone into the QuickTime sources at Mac, but there appears to be something of the same succession where QuickTime is used alone. It is not enough to say what version you installed last - you apparently have to have the complete history of all previously installed (and "uninstalled") versions to know what you've got. (And a complete uninstall is virtually impossible if attempted by human based lifeforms.)

I can't, and won't (for now), install QuickTime because of known problems (mostly relating to hijacking of file extensions) that it would cause my business use of my machines. That will have to wait until I can "sequester" a machine for a while.

I am a little surprised that the new DigiTrad doesn't have an obvious way to "extract" the tunes (Midi maybe) - like you can the lyric and score. The data files look (in Hex/Text) pretty much like ABCs(?) but it will take a little closer look to see what I can do with them. It is also not apparent that there is any easy way to tell which tune file goes with what lyric - but I think I can probably crack that code.????

A vast new world of joy to comprehend and understand...

John

Subject: RE: TECH: New DT Midi problem
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 30 Sep 02 - 06:47 AM

The data files are in SONGWRIGHT format. SONGWRIGHT is an early DOS based score writing program which DT has used since the beginning. MusicEase can also handle the format. The full version of SONGWRITE can produce MIDI files and you can convert ABC format to MIDI.

I still can't get my version of the new DT to play tunes here at work where I have WIN95 and QT6, but no trouble at home with WIN98SE and QT4 - I'm deliberately not updating to QT6 at home.

Subject: RE: TECH: New DT Midi problem
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Sep 02 - 07:08 AM

The possibility of getting SongWright (for use on an o-o-o-l-l-d-d machine) was mentioned today in another thread. I think it's been discussed fairly recently, but either didn't get "answered" or my short term memory rejected the answer:

Is SongWright available anywhere now?

The best I could find with Google was a "review" - several years old. MusicEase pops up in any search for SongWright, so it's easy to find.

John