Professional

Composition Pro

Configuring the instruments view

Subjects covered:

• Why modifying the instruments view?
• The instruments view configuration dialog box

Why modifying the instruments view? [Professional] [Composition Pro]

In this lesson, we will learn how to personalize the aspect of the instruments view. We had seen that it has several aspects that one can reach via his configurations menu.

The objective here is to be able to establish a new configuration which will be added to the others and which will cuts your preference in your work with Pizzicato. Perhaps the way in which we presented this window will not be optimal for you, because as soon as one starts to know a software, one works according to his own practices.

Perhaps a user would like to have a display which shows at the same time the name, the synthesizer , the instruments family, the instrument and the sound volume, the whole in a unique display. The continuation of this lesson explains you how to execute that.

The instruments view configuration dialog box [Professional] [Composition Pro]

• Start Pizzicato and open the instruments view. In the Options menu, select the Instruments… item. The following dialog box appears:

The left list shows the names of the existing configurations. According to the Pizzicato version you have, there may be others than the one visible here above. The first is selected. To the right, you have the list of the elements contained in the selected configuration, in the order where they appear. To see the contents of another configuration, click on its name in the left list and the contents appears in other list.

• Select the first line and click the Add button located right under the first list. You get:

A new configuration appears after the selected one. The text box below the list is used to give it a name. Replace the three dashes with My configuration. The right list is empty because this new configuration does not yet any element to display.

• Click the Add button located under the right list. An element is added to it:

It is a Short name , i.e. it lets you see or modify the short name of a staff. It is usually the first element in a configuration, used to locate the staves.

• We would like to have the name of the synthesizer associated with the staff. Click a second time the Add button under the second. An identical element is added to it. To the right, a menu is entitled Item type. It is used to select one of the items to display in the instruments view. Click on this menu and select the Synthesizer item.

• The menu below is entitled Displayed by. It is used to select the type of graphic area used to visualize the selected item: slider, text box, menu, switch box or colour. According to the item, one or more choices will be possible. The synthesizer, for example, can be visualized only by a menu. If you select another choice, it will automatically return to Menu.

• We want to have two columns representing the family and the instrument. Click Add and select the Instruments family item. Click again Add and select the Instrument item. These two elements can be represented only by menus.

• To finish this personal configuration, we would like to have a volume slider. Click Add and select the Midi controller item. The volume is a Midi controller who bears number 7 (see the lesson about the Midi system). The text box named Parameter is used for this precise case. Fill in number "7" in it. Select a Slider display.

The controllers can also be visualized with a text box or a menu.

Our configuration is ready. Click OK. In the instruments view, click on the top left icon and select the My configuration item which was added in it. You can then contemplate the configuration just created:

• Go back to the Instruments item in the Options menu. Click on My configuration. You have two buttons named Up and Down. They are used to modify the elements of the list. By selecting a line of this list and by clicking for example on Down, this line goes one down position and the element which occupied this location goes up. To place the slider right next to the short name, click the last line of the list (Midi controller) and press 3 times on Up. Click OK and the instruments view becomes:

• Open again the Instruments item in the Options menu. Select My configuration. By clicking on the Delete button located under the second list, you erase the item selected in the list. To erase a configuration, select it in the left list and click the Delete button located under this list. The whole configuration disappears.

Erase My configuration in order to return to the situation you had before this lesson. Click OK to confirm the operation.

You are now able create your instruments view displays. Observe your working method and create one or more personal configurations which contain an effective setup of these elements.

Professional

Composition Pro