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Music Factory V0.1

Author: Gerry Kennedy © March 2001 – Computer Consultant and Trainer in Education : Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy

Music Factory from Widgit Software Ltd

At last a music program that suits users of all ages who enjoy listening to and experimenting with different forms of music! Teenage children in particular (with disabilities and without) will thoroughly enjoy spending time with Music Factory. The program provides opportunities to listen to sounds and more importantly, build your own music from pre-defined sound clips. Music Factory comes with a range of interesting sound clips that will suit young and older users alike. It is an ideal program in inclusive settings and mainstream classes as well as being extremely useful in special settings for classroom use and in musical therapy sessions.

Users can use mouse, trackball, touch window or switches as inbuilt access has been made available for everyone. Several alternate access options are built into the program, including operation of all program features via single switch or two-switch access. The switch control menu allows you to set the switch connection, number of switches and the scanning rate. A bonus for users of IntelliKeys is that the overlay files are provided on the Music Factory CD. These are ready to be printed out immediately after installation. Overlay Sender and Overlay Printer are also supplied with the program, so you are able to fully control all features of the program from an IntelliKeys keyboard without needing to own the full Overlay Maker program. If you do possess Overlay Maker, you can customise and make your own overlay files to suit users who are very young or who are vision impaired by making cells larger, more widely spaced or colour coded.

Most people enjoy making music. Most users enjoy using their computer. Now you can develop skills and invite participation with this new ground-breaking music package that does so many fascinating things. Music Factory provides melodies, riffs and rhythmic patterns that can be combined in thousands of ways from simple to complex; and they always sound terrific! Programmers at Widgit Software in the UK have ensured that any combination of riffs and patterns in the software will always work together. A variety of music styles includes blues, cheeky, reggae, spooky, salsa, waltz, techno and the sounds of the 60’s. These are all available in the release version. Others will be available later from the Widgit website. For each style there are six instruments available. Each instrument can play a number of two-bar musical patterns.

Students of all abilities can create and make their own music collaboratively or independently. You can assign one or two instruments and play patterns sequentially or add different types of sounds by choosing your instruments and build up parts at a time. Students can listen to how the different sounds and instruments fit together. You can also choose different combinations of instruments. It is easy to make chord changes and program your own chord sequences alongside the music. You can also alter the tempo and introduce drum fills. Students will especially enjoy building and recording compositions whilst flipping between real-time mode and composition. The capacity to listen and then record music will delight and motivate students. They can easily choose the music they want from several styles including Reggae, Blues, Techno and Salsa. Depending on musical taste, age and preference, you can choose the instruments or sounds to suit your mood and then select the sound elements for each instrument. One of the fascinating features is where you can watch your composition scroll in real time as it is played!

How It Works

After installing the program, you click on ‘play’. You must have the Music Factory CD in the CD ROM drive in order to use the software. A menu finally appears after a few introductory screens. You can choose to Load one of ten ready made Setups (each with a choice of six instruments); Load a Composition (7 choices); Manage a Composition where you can Save, Load, Clear and Delete a Composition; Edit Music Sets where you Load, Create, Delete or Edit a Music Set; and change the Program Options – and choose your input method and video mode (8-bit or 16-bit).

Load a Setup

This option allows you to select one of ten pre-programmed setups, each with six instruments that when selected, play two bars of music. You can add and delete instruments to create a unique piece, and change the tempo at any time. You first select the type of music required from a vertical list, then choose it again to confirm. A new screen appears. Depending upon the setup chosen, you are presented with anything from 3 to six instruments. By selecting an instrument, it starts playing. You can see that an instrument is playing and active because the volume indicator LEDs flash. You can add other instruments but you have to wait for the full two bars for the next one or more instruments to play. This means that you cannot make a mistake and that the music always sounds great! You can start with percussion. Then add two instruments. You can then change the chord and their pitch by clicking on the coloured chord icons along the bottom of the screen. A ‘drum-fill’ can be introduced by selecting the white star icon.

Load Composition

This screen acts similarly to Load a Setup. After selecting a composition (e.g. Techno Demo) and then choosing it again to confirm the selection, another screen is displayed. The full composition is displayed horizontally. It will scroll from left to right when it is played. You can change the tempo at any time. There are cassette/video style buttons on the bottom right of the screen that provide functions such as play, stop, step forward and step backward a bar as well as skip to the end or to the start of the composition. Two buttons provide options to change the mode and return to the main menu. A progress bar clearly shows you where you are in the music and a pattern counter indicates how many have been played. As the graphical representation of the music scrolls, the yellow frames are moved. The column in the yellow frame is the current line. You can readily see when an instrument plays or stops playing in relation to the rest of the music.

Manage Composition

You can load an existing composition, then add to it or edit it. You can move to any part of the music and change the ‘pattern’, denoted by numbers from 1 to 8. You can completely change the piece or just individual instrument parts. It is very easy to perform an edit or addition. The software is easy to use and even if you are not musically inclined, you can achieve wonderful results in just a few clicks! After editing, you can save your new composition by typing in a name for the piece. You can load it later to listen to or re-edit. Music can be cleared as well so that you can compose afresh. File management options also allow you to delete old compositions or ones that you are unhappy with and wish to erase permanently.

Edit Music Sets

Similar to Compositions, you can load a setup and then edit it. You can also create a setup of your own and define a new setup. You can choose the style, instruments and patterns used in your custom setup. Students and staff alike will thoroughly enjoy creating their own individual setups. You can delete and clear them as well. A setup can have up to six instruments. You select from eight pre-defined patterns and after choosing these patterns for each instrument you save your setup. It can be edited at any time and altered. Your new setup will appear as a menu item for others to play and enjoy.

Input Devices

In Mouse Options, you can elect to have the mouse cursor hidden or made visible. In Keyboard Options, the Space Bar can emulate Switch 1 and Enter key emulate Switch 2. The number keys are assigned to instruments from 1 to 6 with the 7 key selecting the chord. The Tab key toggles an instrument on or off. In Switch Options, you can enable Switch Scanning. You can then have the keyboard input used as a switch (ideal for programming external keyboards) or as two switches. If you choose one switch, you set the scan rate (the default is 0.6 with the longest delay being 4.8 seconds). You can save your user settings for a group or individual and then load them when they have the next turn at the computer. This saves time and frustration and is a great inclusion in this software. You can also make a default, with the current settings loading at start-up. This is ideal for setting up an individual user on his or her own notebook or desktop computer. If a group is using the package, it will also serve to save time getting the ‘jam session’ started.

At A Glance

Music Factory is targeted at all ages. It is a music program that can be accessed with a number of assistive devices. Music Factory allows you to play and compose music with pre-defined setups, compositions and ‘patterns’ of music in different styles. It is an ideal program to foster development in the areas of Switch Use, Cause-and-Effect, Switch Timing or Choosing with a Switch in creating and playing music. Users can access Music Factory using a mouse, trackball or joystick, standard or enlarged keyboard (e.g. BigKeys), IntelliKeys, Touch Screen, Single Switch or Multiple Switches or Concept Keyboard. Navigation about the program is very well designed and is intuitive.
Music Factory offers a whole new experience for many users, especially for children and adults who enjoy music but find other packages too involved or difficult to master. The package will provide hours and hours of entertainment as well as providing scope for musical interpretation and creation. Users can work independently or in pairs and small groups to play and enjoy musical pieces or edit them and thereby be composers! Widgit has always been an innovative software company, and this wonderful software is testimony to their long-term commitment to quality programming for users who have special learning, leisure and access needs.

Installation Requirements

Music Factory is written using Microsoft DirectX Technologies. For optimum speed and appearance it requires the following recommended computer specifications. You will need a Multimedia PC with a Pentium (or compatible) processor running at 200MHz (preferably higher) with at least 32MB RAM minimum. The Microsoft DirectX Version 8 software utility comes packaged with Music Factory as this is required together with a compatible sound card on your desktop or notebook computer running MS Windows 95 or higher. The video card must be at least 1MB although a 2MB card is recommended. You can switch the program between 8-bit colour (256) or 16-bit. The higher the screen display setting, the more it taxes your video card. And good quality computer speakers will enhance the sound and complete the experience! A Network Version of the program is in the early planning stages – but at this stage, Music Factory needs to be installed individually on the machine of each user. The CD-ROM is required in the computer in order to run the program.

NOTE: Additional music styles will be available for download from the Widgit site later in 2001. All you will need is your Music Factory registration number to download them. A demonstration version of the exciting new Music Factory is available for download from the Widgit website – http://www.widgit.com/html/downloads/demo/demos_index.htm . It clearly gives you a feel for this fun program – but you only have one of the music sets (i.e. reggae) that is in the full program. You will also require a copy of DirectX (Version 7 for the demo) and this can be downloaded from the Microsoft site.

Author: Gerry Kennedy © March 2000 – Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy: Computer Consultant and Trainer in Education