Playback

NotePad can play your score back using your computer speakers and its integrated SmartMusic SoftSynth SoundFont sound library. When NotePad plays back, it responds to some musical markings you’ve placed in the score, such as staccato or accent marks using Human Playback technology. For details, see Articulations.

To play back a score

1. If the Playback Controls are closed, while pressing the SPACEBAR, click the measure at which you want to begin playback. It doesn’t matter which tool is currently selected.
2. Click on the screen to stop the playback. NotePad may take a moment to respond.

Playback Controls reside on a movable window. They give you several additional controls over the way your score plays back—for example, they contain Play, Stop, Rewind, and Fast Forward buttons.

To use Playback Controls

1. From the Window menu, choose Playback Controls. Playback Controls appears.
2. Adjust the Measure control, if necessary. This text box shows the first measure to be played. To change this number, either type in a new one, click the up or down arrows, or click one of the large buttons on Playback Controls. The | button (Rewind to Beginning) enters 1 in the Measure text box. The << and >> buttons quickly decrease or increase the number in the Measure text box, and the | button (Fast Forward to End) puts the last measure’s number in the text box.
3. Click Play. The music plays. To Stop, click Stop; to pause, click Pause; when you’re ready to go on, click Play.

If, while you’re listening, you catch something you’d like to hear again, click the << button for a few seconds; NotePad will suspend playback, the Measure text box number will decrease (as the program "rewinds"). Release the << button, and playback will begin again (with the number in the Measure text box). Similarly, you can click the >> and | (Rewind to Beginning) buttons at any time during playback.

Percussion playback

When NotePad assigns sounds to Instruments, it reserves channel 10 on bank 1 for percussion to accommodate MIDI devices that require channel 10 for percussion sounds. If, for example, you added a percussion Instrument in the Setup Wizard, and then attempted to play through an external MIDI device that reserves channel 10 for percussion, the percussion Instrument would play correctly. The second percussion Instrument added to bank 1 is assigned to the next consecutive available channel. Banks other than 1 do not reserve a channel for percussion automatically. If NotePad's automatic channel assignments for percussion, or any instrument, do not work for a device, you can change the channel manually in the ScoreManager.

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