Tutorial 1b: HyperScribe - Notate As You Play

One of SongWriter’s most useful features is its ability to record and transcribe a live performance in real time. To do this you’ll be using the HyperScribe tool, which notates your performance almost as fast as you can play it. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to get notes on the page by playing on your MIDI keyboard, a method SongWriter calls HyperScribe.

If you don’t have a MIDI keyboard or microphone, skip ahead to Tutorial 2.

Introduction to HyperScribe

Each time you play a note on your MIDI keyboard, the computer receives certain information via the MIDI cable: which key you struck, how hard you hit it, and how long you held it down. But to convert your performance to standard notation, the computer needs to know how each note’s duration relates to the beat and the measure.

To address this issue, SongWriter produces a metronome click while you play.

HyperScribe, by the way, isn’t just for keyboard virtuosos. No matter how slowly you go, HyperScribe is still an excellent means of entering music—single-line or simple music in particular— into a score. Even non-keyboardists often come to prefer HyperScribe for quick, accurate note entry.

In the following sections, you’ll give HyperScribe a try. For a more complete discussion of various settings and how you might use them, see the User Manual under HyperScribe tool or the Quantization Guide in the Appendix. To prepare for this section, do the following:

• From the File Menu, choose New, then Lead Sheet. SongWriter presents an untitled document.
• From the View Menu, choose Zoom, then select Zoom to 75%.Now we need to make sure the settings are correct for our experiment.

Transcribing a Scale (with a Click)

• Click the HyperScribe tool . A new menu appears on the menu bar called HyperScribe, where you’ll make your transcription settings.

• From the HyperScribe Menu, choose Recording Tempo and Click. In the Recording Tempo and Click dialog box, you specify a start signal, set a tempo for recording by default (shown on the Playback Controls). In the Tempo box, enter the desired tempo. If you are fairly proficient at the keyboard, you might want to try a tempo of 96. Beginner keyboardists might prefer a tempo closer to 60 for the following example. Your default setting for Beat should be a quarter.

• Click OK. That’s it! SongWriter is now ready to provide you with a metronome click.
• From the HyperScribe Menu, choose Record Mode. Make sure Record into One Staff is selected.
• Click the first measure. A dotted frame surrounds the measure you clicked, indicating that SongWriter is ready for you to begin. It doesn’t matter whether you play staccato or legato (short or connected notes); HyperScribe expands any note you play to the beginning of the next note (or beat), so that you won’t find scattered sixteenth rests cluttering your music when you’re finished. SongWriter is waiting for you to send a signal that you’re ready. Because we set the Start Signal to Any MIDI Data, it doesn’t matter which key or pedal you hit.
• Play a note on the keyboard. SongWriter begins to click, giving you two measures countoff to get a feel for the tempo. If you don’t get a click, you may wish to review Installation for Windows or Installation for Mac for information on setting up your MIDI system. You may also wish to consult the MIDI Setup dialog box.
• When the two countoff measures are up, play a two-octave C scale, in quarter notes, starting on middle C, as shown below.

As you play each measure, it fills up with notehead-like dots; only when you’ve completely filled a measure (and moved on to the next) does the full-fledged notation appear.

• When you’re finished, click your mouse anywhere on the screen. The editing frame goes away. Take a look at what SongWriter did: did you get your C scale? If you didn’t, try entering a slower tempo in the Recording tempo and Click dialog box. Now let’s try a real melody instead of a scale.

Transcribing a Melody

• From the MIDI Menu, choose Quantization Settings. The Quantization Settings dialog box appears.
• Under Smallest Note Value, click the eighth note. SongWriter’s sense of rhythm is much finer than ours; in fact, it perceives subdivisions of rhythm down to 1024ths of a quarter note. (These very small rhythmic increments are called ENIGMA Durational Units, or EDUs.) Because SongWriter’s perception of time is so precise, the program must round off, or quantize, each note in your performance to the nearest eighth note (or whatever rhythmic value you specify), in order to produce readable notation. The following example has eighth notes in it, so we selected the Eighth Note button under Smallest Note Value.
• Click OK. You return to the score. You’ll try a slightly more ambitious HyperScribe experiment this time — “Ode to Joy.”
• Click the HyperScribe tool and click the first measure. You don’t need to erase your C scale; a new HyperScribe pass overwrites whatever was there before.
• Play “Ode to Joy” as shown here.

• When you’re finished, click the mouse. Scroll back to the first measure. Look over your piece and see how you did. Feel free to try it again; anything new you record will simply overwrite whatever music is there now.

Setting the Time Signature and Beaming Patterns

In the previous experiments, you used SongWriter’s default setting of quarter-note key taps. In the next experiment you’ll be trying a piece in 3/4 time, which will require you to change some of HyperScribe’s settings.

• Click the Time Signature tool  .  

• Double-click the first measure. The Time Signature dialog box appears.
• Using the upper scroll bar, click the left scroll bar arrow once. We have just specified there are three quarter notes per measure, which puts our piece in 3/4 time.
• Select Measure 1 through End of Piece (if it’s not already selected).
• Click OK.

Two-handed HyperScribing

• From the File Menu, Choose New, and then Document with Setup Wizard. For this example, we’ll need to start a new default document with a grand staff.
• Click Next, and then on page 2, choose Keyboards in the left column, and then double-click Piano so it appears in the right column.
• Click Next, Next, and then Finish to open the new document.
• Click the HyperScribe tool . The HyperScribe Menu appears.
• From the HyperScribe Menu, choose Recording Tempo and Click. Since you’re playing a 3/4 piece, you have to tell SongWriter that each click should equal a quarter note.
• Click the quarter note icon. You’d click the same button for a piece in 4/4 or 2/4 meter.
• Click OK.
• From the MIDI Menu, select Quantization Settings. The Quantization Settings dialog box appears.
• Under Smallest Note Value, click the eighth note. SongWriter’s sense of rhythm is much finer than ours; in fact, it perceives subdivisions of rhythm down to 1024ths of a quarter note. (These very small rhythmic increments are called ENIGMA Durational Units, or EDUs.) Because SongWriter’s perception of time is so precise, the program must round off, or quantize, each note in your performance to the nearest eighth note (or whatever rhythmic value you specify), in order to produce readable notation.
• Click OK. You’ve told SongWriter that each click represents a quarter note, and you’ve specified a quantization value. One other parameter has changed since your first HyperScribe efforts: You’re using two staves now. HyperScribe can split your performance onto two staves (to be played by right and left hands), but it needs you to specify a split point—a key on the MIDI keyboard, below which all notes will be transcribed onto the lower staff; the note you play and all higher notes will be placed on the upper staff.
• From the HyperScribe Menu, choose Record Mode, then Split into Two Staves. Now, choose the point between the two staves you want notes to split between the left and right hand staves. If you’re familiar with MIDI key numbers (middle C = 60), you can type a key number into the text box in the Fixed Split Point dialog box that appears. It’s easier, however, to define a split point simply by playing the key.

• Click Listen. SongWriter asks you to play the key you want to use as a split point.

• Play the B just below middle C. SongWriter enters the key number into the text box. Now, notes played on or above the B below middle C will be placed into the top staff.
• Click OK. At this point, you’re ready to go.
• Click the first measure of the upper staff. After the two countoff measures, play this excerpt from Bach’s Minuet in G Major.

• When you’re finished, click the mouse. Scroll back to the first measure. If all went well, you should have a fairly clean, correctly beamed transcription.
• Play back your performance (click Play 1 on the Playback Controls). SongWriter plays back your transcription complete with your dynamics and rhythmic feel.

When You're Ready to Continue

Feel free to experiment with HyperScribe. For further information on quantization, consult the Quantization Guide. Close your file, saving it if you want.

In the next tutorial, we’ll add more details to our score with key and time signatures, lyrics, repeats, and guitar chords.

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