The Main Window

As an example piece of music we use a song by the com­poser Gustav Mahler, whose is famous for his “color­ful” orchest­ra­tion; normally the MidiCond main window looks some­what more sober.

Click on this screen­shot to see it in full size in an­other brows­er window. There you can study in de­tail the features marked red on the follow­ing re­duced images.

Not the most important, but the most conspicuous feature of MidiCond is the notation, whose look can be influenced in various ways. Some settings can be made in option dialogues, others are available on the main window directly, for quick access. For example, the color can be set for each instrument or track separately.

To ensure your having the future firmly in sight, the left half of the display is renewed as soon as the cursor leaves it. A double vertical line in the middle will mark, so to speak, the separating line between future and past.

Moreover: an overlap area of adjustable width at the end of each line is repeated at the beginning of the future part, so that you do not miss anything during line change. Whenever the cursor enters this area, as on the screenshot, it will be displayed in both copies. The right half, of course, will be renewed as soon as the overlap is used up.

Various number fields show you, at what position you are and what you conducted. The size of each display you can choose according to your interests.

For this you may want to read the bar numbers as they are counted in your sheet music. By repetitions, upbeats etc. these often do not coincide with the simple numeration of the bars from the file. In a dialog window, you can inform MidiCond about this, then you will see both ways of counting.

At rehearsals it is vital to set any start position as quickly as possible. Positions you have given a name to, e.g. “tenor cue”, can be selected directly. Furthermore you can enter a distance such as “2 bars before”. Alternatively, click on the desired place in the (scrollable) notation graphic.

Singers love transposing, accompanists rather less so hitherto. With a couple of clicks the matter is now settled, even in the midst of a session, if necessary.

For instruments, on the other hand, MidiCond offers tuning notes, but it can also be tuned itself! Thus at last the accompaniment of a piano concerto can be a pleasure to the ear, likewise with an accordeon or organ etc.!

The look (“… and feel”) of the MidiCond windows can be changed in a number of respects. Here we chose a Java design and music lines of equal dis­tance. Also, some sizes have been altered drama­ti­cally, as may be desired for dis­tance kara­oke. Each syllable of the lyrics starts, with re­spect to the hori­zon­tal dimen­sion, where it is due, using additional rows if necessary.

As the cursor happens to be in the left half, here no sepa­rating line between future and past is to be seen. The over­lap area is dis­played only at the right end, since the whole session began at bar 14.

The horizontal dimension is not necessarily proportional to the metric progress; if you prefer, it represents the physical time as the file would have it (of course, you will conduct what you want!). Here the cursor is in a ritardando passage covering bar 15, which is therefore displayed much wider than the others, at bar 16 applying “a tempo”.

Key assignment

• select the desired effect, e.g. a time value as symbolized by a note value
• select a type of key or switch
• click the pushbutton “Assign”
• operate the exact key or swich you mean

This should suffice as a first impression. Since you have read until here, you are likely to download the demo version. Continue your reading with the help texts and try everything out immediately.