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Topic: Piano.exe revisited (Read 12014 times) previous topic - next topic

Piano.exe revisited

There is persistent interest in using a "virtual piano", allowing the computer keyboard to function as a piano keyboard for real-time performance entry into NWC. This has been covered, albeit somewhat confusingly, in earlier threads; particularly http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/ but here is a step-by-step installation and usage procedure for Win9x (tested with Win95 OSR2.5 and Win98SE):

1: Get the program. Two available download sites are:
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/packages/ultrasound/util/windows/00Index and
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/packages/ultrasound/util/windows/piano21.zip Note: it must be the 2.1 version, the earlier one won't work properly.

2: Create a directory (folder) somewhere on your hard drive, e.g. c:\Program Files\Piano and unzip the contents of the Piano2.1 zip file into it.

3: Create a shortcut on your desktop, in a desktop folder, or in your Start menu to point to piano.exe.

If you just want to play your virtual piano without necessarily importing the performance into NWC, that's all it takes. Double-click on the piano icon, and you should hear music. Click OK and away you go. If it doesn't work, check Options to insure that local echo is on. Also check that you have a device assigned in your midi mapper (Control Panel -> Multimedia -> Midi).

But assuming that you want to use piano with NWC, you'll also have to install the piano.drv driver. A tried and true method is as follows:

4: Control Panel -> Add New Hardware. Click NEXT as needed to get to "Search for hardware?" Check NO (Windows can't possibly find it by itself, since it's virtual not actual hardware), click NEXT.

5: Click "Sound, Video, Game controllers", NEXT. Select "Standard Game Device", click HAVE DISK. Click BROWSE, browse to your piano directory. It will find oemsetup.inf as the only available entry; select it, click OK, OK.

6: It will now show "Piano MIDI In Port". Click OK, Finish.

7: Restart your computer for good measure.

Using Piano with NWC:

In NWC's Tools -> Record, select Piano In port. Turn local echo ON.

Create a click track however many bars long. A good choice is the side-stick sound, low C# (second leger line at the bottom) in bass clef.

Launch piano. In Options, set local echo OFF. (unless you have a multiple midi driver such as Hubi's Midi Cable or Multimid installed. Otherwise there will be conflicts as both programs try to use the port).

Start NWC recording. Shift the focus to piano (by clicking on the NWC icon in the bozo bar), and play your tune along with the click track. When done, shift focus to NWC and hit stop. Your performance should now appear in a new window.

Have fun with your virtual pianie!

Fred

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #1 –
PS:

To uninstall piano, go to Control Panel -> Multimedia -> Devices. Expand the Midi Devices and Instruments tree. Select Piano Midi In, click Properties. Click REMOVE, OK, OK. Delete the piano directory and everything in it, delete any shortcuts you've made to piano.exe. That's all there is to it, no registry entries are made by this program except those associated with the driver install (which are removed when you remove the device driver). Restart, delete pianodrv.drv from your Windows/system directory, done.

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #2 –
This is -also- a "user tip", don't you think so?

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #3 –
I followed the steps described exactly, but nothing happens
in NWC when I play in the Piano program.
I have checked and repeated the installation stèps and settings. NWC does not receives the output from the Piano program.
Is there any way to find out what is happenning ?

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #4 –
I just checked Fred's instructions and all worked OK. (Only one correction -

Shift the focus to piano (by clicking on the piano icon in the bozo bar) NOT NWC ICON.
If this is not working for you, are you are sure that you are 1. using a click track? 2. Clicking on the record button in NWC 3. Have the Piano Midi In port selected as the input device in Noteworthy.

Rich

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #5 –
Good catch, Rich. The only other error AFAIK is that the first URL given for downloading piano.exe is in fact just a directory listing of the files at that site. The correct URL is the second one, repeated here in the new URL format:

Get Piano here

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #6 –
I am a new user, and have difficulties to understand the instructions.
I couldnt find in HELP how to create a "click track", what is the "side-stick sound" neither what is the "bozo bar".
Can any of you explain me ?

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #7 –
Hi Gabriel,

A "click track" is simply a staff containing only metronome clicks. There are two reasons for needing this: 1) it allows you to play in time, greatly reducing your need for editing later, and 2) NWC requires that a file by played simultaneously while recording.

The "side stick sound" is a drum sound, such as is made by hitting the stick onto the rim of the snare drum. It makes a great metronome sound. Set a staff to channel 10 (the percussion channel), with bass clef, and a whole long series of low C# notes (on the second leger line below the staff). Easiest way (assuming 4/4 time): enter the four notes, sharp the first one, enter a bar line after the last one. Select (highlight) the four notes and the barline, press CNTL C to copy, then CNTL V as many times as you like to make a whole series of them. Set your tempo as desired... you have a click track.

"Bozo bar" -sorry- is computer geek-speak slang for that bar at the bottom of the screen, where your start button is located and where all the icons of actively loaded programs show up. I'm not even certain what it's supposed to be called, maybe "Start menu"?

Hope this helps...

Fred

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #8 –
"Taskbar".

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #9 –
Perhaps NOTEWORTHY could consider adding an option to automatically do a click track when you click the RECORD button? I am too lazy to create a metronome track - my time is valuable - so this would be an excellent feature

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #10 –
The Rhythm templates in File | New are there for just this purpose.

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #11 –
Fred,

Is there any glossary for that computer geek? Well, I learn alongside but I still don't know, say, AFAIK or the "h" in IMHO. (Remember the cu18r thingie?)

;)

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #12 –
Humble. (Often not meant literally.)

I entered the phrase "glossary of internet terms" into altavista (http://www.altavista.com ) and got a whole bunch of hits. Some of the glossaries thus found are more complete than others.

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #13 –
Other than Grant's suggestion, I don't know of any one site that has these arcane bits of knowledge. I do as you do, either figure them out or ask someone.

AFAIK is "As far as I know"
OTOH = "on the other hand"
YMMV = "your mileage may vary"
ROTFLMAO = "rolling on the floor laughing my adenoids off" (or other body part starting with 'a')

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #14 –
re: ROTFLMAO -

One of the glossaries I found yesterday renders this as "Rolling on the floor, laughing my aft off", which is mildly clever.

The most elaborate version of this that I've encountered is ROTFLMAOSTC, which is "Rolling on the floor, laughing my a** off, scaring the cat."

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #15 –
> YMMV
Sounds like the cat meowing. :)

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #17 –
Piano 2.1 is still alive, but the virtual driver does not work in XP :-(
Sincerely,
Francis Beaumier
Green Bay, WI

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #18 –
Has anyone succeeded in making this work with Windows 2000 or XP?

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #19 –
Just now, I downloaded piano21 from the SAT archive, and it worked first time, no problem, on Windows XP (with SP1). My computer is a laptop with built-in Sigmatel sound system.

One possibility, if it didn't work for you: Did you bury the program deeply in folders? There is the off-chance that if the full path name is too long, the program (originally written for Windows 3.1) gets lost. Remember that XP full path names are often more involved than you think.

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #20 –
Further information for XP users: Although piano21 did indeed work the first time for me on XP, there is a problem if the program is closed then re-opened in the same session. I have seen this behavior before, with other programs that deal in one way or another with the MIDI mapper, and were written pre-XP.

Apparently, the first time the program is opened in a session, everything is fine. But when the program closes, it leaves some process in memory, or fails to release control of something or other. In other words, it does not clean up after itself. If you attempt to re-open the program (or another program that uses the same resources) in the same session, then the garbage gets in the way.

Specifying the program to be Windows-95 compatible does not help.

It is possible to clear the garbage by (a) terminating the interfering process with the task manager, or (b) re-start the computer, or (c) attempt to re-open the program more than once.

The first if these is recommended only if you know what you are doing, or like to live a risky life, as terminating the wrong process can cause problems. Being the sole user of a system with no critical applications in use (and having adequate knowledge), I do it this way.

The second works, but is a nuisance.

The third apparently works because repeated attempts to re-start the program with interferences cases XP to do something or other. After the resulting error message is cleared, the program can be used again. But this is also a nuisance, and may have unknown effects on other programs using the resources.

Moral: The piano21 program works on XP. But using it can cause problems.

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #21 –
I wasn't very precise in my question. Playing the piano in itself works for me on a Windows 2000 PC, but installing the pianodrv.drv does not. I suppose that you, Robert, has been successful with both?

Sven

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #22 –
Ah, now that you have clarified your question...

Indeed, I was unable to install the piano.drv file into XP using the "Add new hardware" wizard. Although XP gives a nasty warning message when driver files are not digitally signed for XP, the driver may still work. When I persisted through the wizard, it attempted to install piano using its oemsetup.inf installation file. But the installation failed, supposedly because the wizard could not find piano.drv.  Of course, piano.drv is there.

This leads me to believe that perhaps the file location path, as given in the oemsetup.inf file, is incorrect for XP (and 2000). But I would have no idea what to do about it. I looked into the  oemsetup.inf file, and (not being a programmer) have no idea what I would need to edit.

Merely dropping pinao.drv into the windows/system or windows/system32 folder does not help, even if the wizard is later told to look for it.

Thus, the goal of playing the virtual piano, so that its MIDI can be used as input to NWC, has not been achieved. But the piano plays sound even if the installlation is not run. It just won't serve as a MIDI source.

It seems that the problem regarding failure to *re-open* piano, once it was opened and closed, is due to a task called wowexec left in the memory. Ending that task allows piano to re-open. But unless you are your computer's administrator and don't mind risking a reboot, it would be better to forget about piano.
 

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #23 –
I finally got something to work here.
First download Virtual Piano and install it. Then get MIDI Yoke and install it. This is the link to the NT version. Now you can select one of the ports it gives as the output for Virtual Piano and the input for NWC. Yay!

Still can't get step notation to work...

Re: Piano.exe revisited

Reply #24 –
Don't forget to download and install MIDI-OX before you install Midi-Yoke.  Go to www.midiox.com for free downloads for both of these.  If you use MIDI-OX you don't need any other program (like Virtual Piano) because there is a button in MIDI-OX that lets you play your synth from the computer keyboard.