TuneFinder for Windows (TFW) F R E E W A R E Version 1.7 23 October 2010 DISCLAIMER! PLEASE READ BEFORE CONTINUING. ========================================== TO ANYONE WHO WISHES TO INSTALL AND RUN THIS SOFTWARE: YOU MUST BE AWARE THAT I CAN ASSUME NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYTHING THAT MAY GO WRONG WITH OR CAUSE HARM TO YOUR COMPUTER(S). You must assume that any software may contain bugs. While TFW is a simple program and should work without any problems, I cannot be present when persons unknown make use of it and therefore I cannot second-guess all potential scenarios. You indicate your acceptance of this disclaimer by installing and using the software. NB: This software has been tested on Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000 and XP. File List ========= TuneFinder comprises the following files packaged into a ZIP file TFW32-17.ZIP: TFW32.EXE TFW32.INI COMPOSERS.DAT KEYS.DAT TITLES.DAT README.TXT (this file) You should not require any additional files as modern Windows PCs have all supporting files as standard. To install the application, simply create a folder and unzip the files into it. Create a shortcut on the desktop to the main program TFW32.EXE. What is TuneFinder for Windows? =============================== TuneFinder for Windows is a Visual Basic 6 application that allows you to identify a melody from ten notes, or sometimes a lot fewer than ten. You "play" the notes with the mouse on a virtual keyboard on your computer monitor, click a button, and then the program searches its database for a matching melody. If found, the name of the melody is displayed in a list box. The database currently contains an index of almost 16,000 melodies, ranging from classic to jazz to folk music. You may play fewer than 10 notes, but you must play at least three. NB: A much more detailed description of TuneFinder and its concept is available from its originator, Elbert G. Smith, who invented the original system that has been running on Apple Mac computers and who owns the copyright on all the data. See the link to the Mac version: http://www.karelia.com/tunefinder/ This page includes links to further information about the original concept. Run the application =================== Click on the shortcut you made. When the application has loaded you will see a virtual piano keyboard. IMPORTANT! First, go to the drop-down list on the right marked "MIDI Output Device" and click the arrow to expand the list of available MIDI devices. Look for something like "MIDI Mapper", or "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth" in the list of devices. Select an appropriate device (I select Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth). This should be all that is required. Now make sure your speakers are switched on, then click the mouse pointer on one of the virtual piano keys. If you hear a sound, then you have got it working! Play a few notes and then click the "Find tune" button to see if the melody is one that TuneFinder knows about. Click the "New" button to start again. You can play a maximum of ten notes, but you have to play at least three. You can click the button marked with an arrow "<--" to "backspace" one note at a time in case you wish to correct the phrase you played. For example, you may have played c d e f g but wanted to play c d e f d Click the arrow button once to remove the last note, then play your preferred note instead. You can click the arrow button several times. If a melody is found, you can click on its title in the list box to see what the index number looks like for that melody. The intervals between the notes you played will be underlined and in bold. The index number is a list of the intervals between the notes in the identifying phrase. A more extensive explanation of the index number system is available separately from the originator of TuneFinder (see URL above). If you check the box marked "Play Tune Fragment" you will hear the theme when you click on a title. Hit the space bar to stop playback. Once you have played ten notes, further input is disabled until you click the "backspace" arrow button or the "New" button. Notice the option buttons on the right of the application's mainscreen. These are: - Match from start of key - Match anywhere in key (default) - Match at end of key You can control how the search proceeds by selecting one of these options. The default is "Match anywhere in key", which is the setting I usually choose. Alternatively, if you choose the first option button, a tune will only match if it starts with the notes in your search fragment. A few trial searches should quickly demonstrate what the differences are. You can select a different option button at any time to see what tunes your search fragment will find. However, you can expect to get many hundreds of matches when performing partial searches "anywhere in key" with only a small number of notes. You can add a note or two, then search again to narrow down the search as desired. (It is interesting to see how various composers have included the same phrases in their compositions.) If you check the box marked "Find Tunes Dynamically", then every time you add or remove a note the search engine will see if any titles match. The note counter has additional features. If you have played at least one note you can hold the left mouse button down in the note counter box and a list of the MIDI notes you've played will pop up. If you click the right mouse button in the note counter box, a small window will pop up, showing you a mini musical score that displays the notes represented by the index number for the musical phrase. You can click anywhere on the score to hear the notes. To hear only the notes you played (the red notes), hold the shift key down before clicking on the score. You can also display the score window by clicking on the button marked "Show score". * Special thanks goes to Arthur Edstrom, who allowed me to base part of this program on sections first published in Visual Basic Multimedia Adventure Set, 1994. To exit the program, click the X in the top right-hand corner. Troubleshooting =============== If the program does not work, please check the following: 1. Does your PC have at least one MIDI output device? This is an essential requirement. 2. Has another music-based program (CD player, DVD movie viewer,sequencer etc) currently got control of your MIDI output device? If so, exit from the other program and try again. 3. Make sure your speaker output is not on mute! If the program crashes with an error message, please report it, along with a brief description of what action(s) were being performed when the error occurred. Email: kylix_is at yahoo dot co dot uk