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How
do I emphasize specific beats other than the first?
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What you want is the Custom
setting. Just choose "Custom" and type in a measure definition
into the box to the right. For every numeral you put into the box, the
metronome will play one beat. The sound it uses will be the number of the
tick sound that you typed in. For instance, if you put a "2",
it'll play Tick Sound 2. You can choose which sound you want to play for
each one by choosing an instrument from the corresponding dropdown list.
Entering a "0" will make the metronome not play anything for that beat
(i.e. a rest).
As an example, say you wanted to make a
measure that has five beats, with emphasis on the first and third beats.
For this you would set Tick sound 1 to be a basic beat sound (I like "Side
Stick") and Tick Sound 2 to a more emphasized sound (I use "Bass Drum
1"), and set your custom measure to read "21211".
As a more complicated example, one of the
meters I play in sometimes is 11/16. It has beat groups of 2, 2, 3, 2,
2. I usually set it up with the first note of every group emphasized and
the first note of the measure extra-emphasized: "31212112121".
Another way to set up that meter would be something more like a Tupan player
would play it: "30112012010" (Tupan players, please correct me if I'm
wrong).
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Can I
get a copy of the source code?
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Yes! The only thing I ask is that you not distribute changes that you
make. I'd rather not have to deal with people emailing me about
features/bugs that I didn't write. Just email
me and I'll be happy to send you a copy of the source code.
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Some
of the sounds seem weird / have bad timing / sound bad / play forever. Why did
you make it like that?
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Weird Metronome uses MIDI to create sound. MIDI made it easier for me to
write the program and deliver it in such a small package and still have it sound
pretty good. Unfortunately, there were also some trade-offs. The way
MIDI works is that your computer knows how to make sounds that sound like
certain instrument. There's a standard called General MIDI that says which
instruments it should know how to play. I took advantage of the fact that
most sound cards use that standard to set up a list of the fifty percussion
instruments that are available in General MIDI. That way all my program
has to do is tell the sound card to "play Mute Cuico at volume 77" and
the sound card does so to the best of its abilities. I don't have direct
control over what actual sound is produced.
The point I'm trying to make is that some
sound cards may have weird MIDI setups. Some instruments may never stop
playing or may have a little delay before the sound starts that makes the beat
not fit in right or any number of other problems. Alas, I can't help
it. To use a different technique than MIDI would have sacrificed a lot in
other parts of the program. Stuff like this always calls for compromises
and Weird Metronome is the result of my decisions on which compromises to make.
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What
about getting some other instrument sounds in there?
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I included all the percussion instruments available in the General MIDI
standard. I'm sorry to say that it's beyond the scope of this program to
include any other sounds. To be able to play any WAV file that the user
provides would have made this project be a lot more work for me.
Sorry about that....
For more information, see the previous
question.
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How
do I save a rhythm and recall it later?
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Once you have your settings to a way you like for a particular song or meter or
whatever, you may want to save that setup so you can recall it later without
having to set everything by hand again. To do this, just type a name into
the box at the bottom of the window and press the "Save" button.
All the current settings will be saved to a "preset". To call it
up again, use the dropdown box into which you originally entered the name.
Click the little down-arrow at the right of the box, find your preset, and
select it. All the settings from when you saved the preset will be loaded.
If you decide that you don't like one of
your presets, just call it up and press the "Delete" button.
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Why
do I have to set the tempo so high to make it play fast enough?
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Weird Metronome deals with Beats per Measure. It doesn't differentiate
between quarter notes, eighth notes, etc. If you've got a song that's in,
say, 13/16 then it's probably supposed to be played pretty fast. You may
be used to seeing things on sheet music such as "quarter note = 75",
but keep in mind that a quarter note at 75 beats per minute is the same as four
sixteenth notes at 300 beats per minute.
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The
beats don't play back evenly for me. What's up?
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This is an unfortunate problem with Windows. Timing just doesn't work as
perfectly as I'd like it to. I've got the program set up to use the most
precise timer available in the system, but Windows still messes things up
occasionally.
You could try turning off all the programs
that run in the background, such as virus scanners, instant messenger clients,
task schedulers, and so on. Apart from that I don't really have any better
advice than to get faster hardware. This could include more memory, faster
hard disk, faster processor, faster motherboard, better sound card, and so on.
Another thing that might impact
performance is if you're running a software MIDI emulator. You'll probably
get the best results from using the MIDI hardware on your sound card.
Unfortunately this may sound like the pings and pops of an old fashioned arcade
game. A more recent and/or expensive sound card would probably sound
better....
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I
started the program and I see the button in the taskbar, but the window's
missing!
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Unfortunately that's a known bug. I'm currently working on a fix for
it. In the mean time, here's what you can do. The problem is that
the window has relocated itself somewhere off-screen. In order to get it
back again, right click the taskbar button for Weird Metronome. A menu
should pop up. Choose "Move". Now press any arrow
key. Finally, move your mouse. The window should now be attached to
the mouse pointer. Just click wherever you want to set it down.
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It's so big!
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Why... thank you for noticing.
If you'd like to make the window smaller
you can drag its edges. This'll make some of the tick boxes disappear to
make room. The corresponding number will still work, though, in the custom
measure box. Thus, one strategy is to choose the instruments you like and
then resize the window down to its smallest size so your eyes won't be pestered
by all that clutter.
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