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Harmony
Assistant
Short
overview
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Harmony Assistant includes in a single program what
is usually
found by owning several.
It is both:
- A powerful score
editor, including page and engraver
mode support
- A digital
synthesizer,
providing quality music rendering, even without
expensive
hardware
- An arranger,
that
creates automatic accompaniments
- A drum
pattern manager,
enabling rhythm to be related to your tunes
- A digital
sound editor,
to insert recorded instruments and digital
tracks into your
work.
- A tablature
editor
- etc
The exceptional versatilities make Harmony Assistant
an extremely
flexible and easy to use tool.
Score editor
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Harmony manages a wide range of music
symbols, and above all takes
account for you to hear them as well.
Thus, grace notes, glissando, trills,
mordants, vibrato, pedal,
ottava, dynamics, etc, are played.
A powerful editor lets you insert, delete
and move notes easily on
staves.
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Engraver mode
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Harmony Assistant enables two different note
spacing modes:
arithmetical
and
engraver
mode.
In arithmetical spacing mode, notes and
rests are separated by a
distance that is proportional to their
duration. For example, there
is twice more distance after a half note
than after a quarter. In
engraver mode, distance between symbols can
be freely adjusted.
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Arithmetical mode
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Engraver mode
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For example, here is how an half
and series of shorter notes
are displayed in arithmetical mode.
As you can see, there is a wide
empty space after the half, and
sixteenths are highly compressed. |
Here is the same bar in engraver
mode. Spacing is now automatic
to settings and proportional for the
eye. |
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Multi-windowing
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Document
window can be split
into several parts, in order to see
and edit several areas of the
same score at the same time.
Each part has its own scale and
display mode.
For example, you can have a window
split in two, showing you the
same document in scroll mode and
page mode.
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Views
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Harmony Assistant manages the notion of "views".
Views are a
different way of displaying a same score,
completely or partially.
They let you display and work on some staves only,
and to select
a different page setup in each view.
For instance, if your document contains a whole
orchestral score
(conductor score), you can define a view for each
instrument in the
orchestra so that each performer could receive
only the music sheet
that matches their instrument.
Album
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In
the Album window, objects or
music patterns can be pasted to be
retrieved later.
These objects can be sounds, parts
of a song, graphics,
text... |
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Digital synthesizer
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A complete digital instrument sound
database is included in
Harmony Assistant, which provides a very
good quality of sound to
playback your music, even if you do not
own professional
hardware.
Very elaborate digital effects (Reverb,
Chorus, Distortion,
Wah...) can be applied at any location on
score.
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Audio space mixer
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It
is a special palette to
manage the volumes and stereo
panning positions of each
instrument.
A special mode, called "live mode",
memorizes the changes you make
in real-time.
Replay these edits right away; edit
segments again for accuracy,
save file to keep changes for replay
anytime later.
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Accompaniment and drum generator
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 Automatic
accompaniments will be harmonized with
your
tune and played in it.
Create your own accompaniments as easily
as you insert notes on a
staff.
You can edit drum or percussive patterns
and use them in your tune,
just by placing them at the required
position on score.
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Chord grid calculation
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Harmony can calculate automatically the
chords that match notes
on your score, then show the chord grid.
You can then apply changes
to this grid and rearrange your score.
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Security
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You can limit access to your document by
a password, and doing
so protect your work. For example, your
score can be played but not
modified.
When working on a file, its different
versions can be kept on your
hard disk so that you can cancel your
changes in case of
mistake. |
Quick start
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Many document templates, covering the
most usual needs, are
provided. You can also define your own
templates.
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Digital sound editor
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It is possible to record your own sounds
from a CD or a microphone
(or to import a sound in WAV or AIFF
format), and use them as
instruments in your tune.
You can also record complete digital
tracks from a CD or a
microphone (or import a sound in WAV,
AIFF, OGG or MP3 format),
then work on it using the software. These
digital tracks can be
mixed with regular or MIDI staves.
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Compatibility with other
programs
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Your tune files can be played either on
Windows, Mac OS or
Linux, since Harmony Assistant exists on
these three platforms.
Harmony Assistant can also to import and
export music in MIDI,
Rich Midi, ABC, TAB, bTAB, Tabledit, KAR,
Yamaha PSR format as well
as in digital audio formats like AIFF,
WAV, Vorbis Ogg or MP3.
Scores can be used in word processors,
picture editors or
publication software through the PICT, BMP
or EPS export.
Harmony Assistant can also read MOD and
S3M files.
For example, you can then convert easily a
MIDI file to MP3.
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Lyrics
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 You
can add lyrics to your
tune, then play it in Karaoke mode: words
scroll while you are
singing.
Of course, Harmony Assistant imports and
exports in MIDI Karaoke
format (.KAR).
Harmony Assistant manages karaokes with
several sung voices, ideal
for choirs.
You can also record a complete piece from
a CD, then soften the
singer's voice and sing in place of him.
"Shape note" notation is also managed.
Using Virtual
Singer, lyrics will even be
automatically sung.
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Real-time MIDI input
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If you own a MIDI keyboard, you can
perform real-time MIDI
input. Above this, because Harmony
Assistant also manages digital
tracks, you can record at the same time a
digital audio track. You
can then record your voice with the
microphone while you play on
keyboard.
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Tablature and chord diagram
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 Guitarists,
bassists and
harmonicists haven't been forgotten:
Harmony Assistant calculates
tablatures and displays the guitar chord
diagrams. You can even
define your own stringed instrument and
calculate tablatures for
it!
Harmony Assistant can also compute
tablatures for all fretted
string instruments (Banjo, Balalaïka,
Ukulele ...) but also
for Harmonica, Appalachian Dulcimer,
Baroque Lute and many
wind instruments like Recorder, Penny
Whistel, Ocarina, Galoubet,
Shakuachi, Concert flutes, Piccolo, Tuba,
Irish Iullean, Scottish
and Bretonne pipe, Clarinet, French Horn,
Xaphoon.
A complete library of chord diagrams is
included in Harmony. You
can complete this library by defining
easily your own chords.
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Graphics and colors
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 Pictures, in black and
white or color (in
BMP or PICT format) can be inserted at any
point on
score.
All music symbols can be colorized,
globally or individually, in
order to enhance the attractiveness of
your document.
For example, you can set all "C" to blue,
and "D" to green...
Useful if you're learning musical
notation.
You can drop texts and comments where you
want on the score, and
define your own background patterns.
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External music fonts
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A font other than SToccata can be used
for printing music
symbols.
It is possible to define "charsets". Each
staff in a document can
be related to a different charset.
A charset can be made of characters from
different fonts.
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Printing
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Printing is widely user-definable. You
can define what staves
you want to be printed or not, whether you
want the ruler, tune
name, or the complete lyrics below the
score.
You can also print the complete sorted
list of guitar chord
diagrams to make a very useful customized
handbook.
You can even print cards for street
organs.
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MyrScript
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 MyrScript
is the
embedded programming language of Harmony
Assistant. It enables the
user to add his own features to the
program.
MyrScript includes a text editor, an
interface editor (Interface
Composer) a step-by-step debugger with
breakpoints.
With Harmony Assistant, more
than
80 scripts are provided by default.
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And many other features
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Like drum staff editing (grid or
standard), multi-voice staves,
multi-instrument staves, floating
palettes, user-defined palettes,
Gregorian notation, video tutorials...
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