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WEIRD METRONOME
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Version 1.2
Released August 8th 2002
Home Page: http://www.pinkandaint.com/weirdmet.shtml

I wrote this program because I haven't found any good metronome 
programs out there for Windows that can have an arbitrary number of 
beats per measure and can have custom note groupings and don't cost any 
money.  Okay, so I'm a cheapskate.  But it's understandable that these 
features might not be present in the currently available programs -- 
they aren't needed for most western music.  I don't usually play 
western music, though.  I play gajda (Bulgarian bagpipe), and it's not 
uncommon for me to play pieces in weird meters such as 11/16 (2+2+3+2+2 
beat groups).  It's kinda hard to play that unusual meter when learning 
a new song!

So I wrote Weird Metronome to do just about anything.  Well, sort of.  
There's actually lots it can't do, but it's certainly more flexible 
than most metronome programs out there.

If you find any bugs or if you have any suggestions or requests, please 
send email to david@pinkandaint.com.

Keep in mind when requesting features that one of the biggest issues 
for me is how to implement the user interface.  Programming the sound 
and all that is easy in comparison.  So if you have a suggestion for a 
new feature, please also make a suggestion on how it should look in the 
interface (for instance, how do you turn that feature on?  How do you 
configure it?).

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USAGE
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For the most part the program should be self-explanatory.  If you hold 
the mouse cursor over most buttons or other controls then a little 
message will pop up to give a hint of what that control's for.

The "custom measure" feature might be a little arcane, though....  To 
define a custom measure, enter a numeral from 0 to 9 for every beat in 
your measure into the custom measure edit box.  A zero (0) represents a 
silent beat (i.e. no sound will be played on that beat).  Any other 
number indicates that the corresponding tick sound should be played on 
that beat.

For instance, to have a measure that has four beats and has strong 
emphasis on the first beat and weak emphasis on the third beat, enter 
"3121" into the custom measure edit box (assuming that you've selected 
instruments in boxes 2 and 3 that sound more emphasized than the one in 
box 1 -- see below).  To have a measure that has four beats and a 
pickup, you could do something like "20202021" and play it at double 
the speed you normally would for a 4/4 measure.

You can change the instrument used to play each tick sound.  The 
defaults can be used right out of the box with 1 through 3 having 
progressively stronger emphasis, but you may find that you like 
different settings.  You can also change the volume of each tick sound 
by moving the slider on the right of the selection box.

One thing to note is that when you define complex measures you may have 
to put the beats per minute slider up farther than you'd expect.  For 
instance, when I program in a Kopanitsa (a Bulgarian dance rhythm in 
11/16) I turn the Beats per Minute up to about 300.  Keep in mind, 
though that 300 16th notes per minute is still only 75 quarter notes per 
minute.

If you'd like to save your settings so you can recall them later, just 
type a name into the preset box at the bottom of the program and press 
"Save".  Your settings will be saved into a named preset that can be 
accessed any time you want by choosing it from the dropdown box that 
you typed the name into in the first place.  If you decide that you 
don't like your preset, select it and press the "Delete" button.

You can make the Weird Metronome dialog box smaller than how it starts.  
If you click and drag the edges, the program will gradually eliminate 
tick box entries as it gets smaller.  This way if you don't want to use 
all nine entries you can just make them disappear.  What I like to do 
is set all the tick boxes to instruments I like then drag the window as 
small as it'll go.  I only rarely change the instruments, so it's 
worthwhile for me to save the space on my display.

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MIDI
----

Weird Metronome uses the General MIDI standard to produce sound.  That 
means that you can't use your own WAV files as the metronome ticks.  
Sorry, that's just the way the program works.  There are other 
metronome programs that will let you use your own sounds as ticks.  I 
suggest you check out www.freewarehome.com.

The way MIDI works is that your computer (or other MIDI device) defines 
how each note sounds.  All the programmer has to do is tell the device 
to play instrument #23 at 44% loudness.  It makes my job really easy.  
The General MIDI standard defines a standard set of instruments for 
MIDI devices.  Most computers that have sound cards support General 
MIDI.  Thus I can be pretty sure that any computer that tries to run 
Weird Metronome has the standard set of about fifty percussion 
instruments that I use to make the tick noises.  It also gives you a 
wide choice of sounds to choose from without having to download several 
megabytes of sound data.

Since the sounds are defined by the MIDI device, I don't have any 
control over what they sound like.  If you choose "Mute Cuica" and it 
doesn't sound like a mute cuica to you, I'm afraid I can't do anything 
about it.  Some sound cards just do a better job at producing MIDI 
music than others.  Usually you get what you pay for with sound cards.

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MONEY
-----

This software is free.  You may use it however you like.  If you'd like 
the source code I'm happy to share it. Just send me an email and I'll 
send you the source toot sweet.

If you like this software and want to encourage me (the author) to 
continue development, why not send me a postcard?  I like getting mail 
:)  My contact information is at the bottom of this file.

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LEGAL STUFF
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I make no guarantees about the usability or safety of this software.  
I've made every effort to make sure it won't do nasty stuff like crash 
your system, smoke your hard drive, or give you pimples, but no one's 
perfect.  All software has bugs, and I can't take any responsibility 
for any damage Weird Metronome might do to your data, computer, 
property, dependants, descendants, eardrums, pets, building foundation, 
etc.

The Weird Metronome software, source code, and accompanying 
documentation is copyright 2002 by David Johnston.  I grant you the 
right to use this software as you see fit.  You may request the source 
code from me and modify it as you like, but I ask that you not release 
it to the public.  I don't want to have to deal with email about bugs I 
didn't write!

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KNOWN BUGS
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There are a few bugs that I'm already aware of:

- Timing is an issue if other stuff is running in the background.  I'm 
not sure how to fix the fact that other processes can interrupt the 
metronome program.  Unfortunately, timing just seems to be a difficult 
nut to crack in Windows.  The best advice I can give is to not use the 
computer for other stuff while the metronome is on, or you're asking 
for trouble.

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FUTURE FEATURES
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There are also some features that I might implement if I get enough 
positive feedback (feedback is the freeware programmer's meat and 
potatoes):

- The ability to define more than one custom measure, and to define how 
many times each custom measure gets played and in what order.  This 
would be useful for songs like Jove Malaj Mome that have different time 
signatures during different parts of the song.
                                                                               
- A blinking icon thingy to visually designate the beat.

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QUESTIONS?
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  If you still have questions it may be useful to look at the Weird 
Metronome FAQ.  You can get to it through the Weird Metronome home page 
at http://www.pinkandaint.com/weirdmet.shtml.

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RELEASE HISTORY
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February 10th 2002: Version 1.0.
Initial public release.  Thanks to all my beta testers on the EEFC 
mailing list!

April 7th 2002: Version 1.1.
Added the ability to use up to nine different instrument sounds in a 
single custom measure definition.  Added the ability to resize the 
window (allowing it to get smaller, making tick boxes disappear in the 
process).  I may have fixed a few minor bugs along the way, too :)

August 8th 2002: Version 1.2.
I finally got around to fixing a bug that caused the program to crash 
(and sometimes halt the whole computer) if the default MIDI device was 
busy when WM tried to open it.  Also, there are now some more-
descriptive error messages in this situation to help you figure out why 
WM wasn't able to open the MIDI device.


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CONTACT INFO
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David Johnston

david@pinkandaint.com
http://www.pinkandaint.com

1302 S Saltair #5
Los Angeles, CA 90025
USA
