Microsoft KB Archive/107766

= MAC Musical Instruments: README Contents =

Article ID: 107766

Article Last Modified on 11/8/2001

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Musical Instruments 1.0 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q107766



SUMMARY
The following is the complete text of the README file file that comes with Microsoft Musical Instruments for the Macintosh. This document has not been edited or modified by PSS. ======================================================================= Microsoft Musical Instruments Version 1.0 README File

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This README File contains information on the following topics:

Section  Description - 1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR RUNNING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS What you need to run Musical Instruments 2. SCREEN SIZES AND COLOR CONFIGURATION What makes Musical Instruments look best 3. SOUND PROBLEMS Common problems playing sounds, and how to fix them 4. RUNNING IN LOW MEMORY OR RUNNING SLOWLY Make Musical Instruments run on low-memory machines 5. PRINTING AND COPYING How to print and copy Musical Instruments screens 6. DEMONSTRATION MODE How to make Musical Instruments run a slide show

1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR RUNNING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

To install and run Musical Instruments you need:

- a Macintosh computer with a Macintosh-compatible color monitor - System 6.0.7 or later - 4 MB of memory - at least 1 MB of available hard disk space - a CD-ROM drive

You can run Musical Instruments directly from the compact disc. To play the sounds, certain files must be in your system (QuickTime is the most important). You can drag these from the System Files folder on the CD into your System Folder. If Musical Instruments can't find these files, it will prompt you to run the Installer.

The Installer will add any necessary files to your System Folder. It will also copy the Musical Instruments program files to a folder on your hard disk; this makes the program load a little faster when you start it. The sounds and pictures remain on the CD, so you still need to insert the CD to play Musical Instruments.

2. SCREEN SIZES AND COLOR CONFIGURATION

On startup, Musical Instruments checks your monitor and displays the images as best it can on your Macintosh. If your setup can be adjusted to make Musical Instruments run better, the program will prompt you to do so.

Musical Instruments will run on a 12" or 13" monitor, as found on a Macintosh LC or Performa; the program will also run on all larger monitors. Musical Instruments looks best in 256 colors (8-bit mode), although it can run in 16 colors. If your monitor is set to 16 colors or less, but is capable of running in 256 colors, Musical Instruments will offer to change the monitor setup for you (this is the equivalent of using the Monitors control panel) to get the highest-quality images. Using more than 256 colors (16-bit or 24-bit mode) will not improve the images and will slightly slow down display. If you are using one of these modes, Musical Instruments will prompt you to switch to 256 colors. Running Musical Instruments in another mode will cause no damage, but will not provide the best performance.

Musical Instruments is not designed to run in black and white.

-- 3. SOUND PROBLEMS --

If you do not hear any sound at all, make sure that you have QuickTime in your System Folder or run the Installer from the Musical Instruments CD. After adding system files, you may need to choose Restart from the Special menu to make them active.

Sound may be inaudible if the sound level is turned down. To set the sound level, use the Sound control panel, and experiment with the speaker volume setting until you get a comfortable sound level. If you set the sound level to maximum, you may get sound distortion just as you would on a stereo system.

If your Macintosh is running in Virtual Memory mode, you may find that sounds are interrupted: when Virtual Memory is turned on, sounds are sometimes placed on the hard disk rather than into real RAM. For best performance, turn off Virtual Memory. To do this in System 7, bring up the Memory control panel, choose the Virtual Memory Off option, and then restart the computer.

Macintosh computers have built-in speakers. The speakers vary in quality and loudness depending on which Macintosh you have. The quality has improved in later models, so a Quadra will give you better sound quality than an early Mac II.

If you have a sound card installed in your Macintosh, you will get high-quality sound. Musical Instruments sounds are recorded in 16-bit audio, and playback quality is adjusted to your Macintosh capability.

--- 4. RUNNING IN LOW MEMORY OR RUNNING SLOWLY ---

Musical Instruments needs to use a reasonably large amount of your computer's system memory (RAM) to display pictures and play sounds. It should run on any Macintosh with 4 MB of memory.

If Musical Instruments runs slowly or displays out-of-memory messages, it probably does not have enough memory. Here are some things you can do to help:

Run only one application at a time. If other applications are running, close them, then start Musical Instruments again.

Do not run in 24-bit display mode; allow Musical Instruments to change the mode.

Reduce the amount of memory being used by your system software. In the Finder, choose About this Macintosh from the Apple menu to see how much memory your computer has and how much is being used by the system. If, for example, the dialog box displays "Total memory 4,096K" and the line underneath displays "System Software  3,500K," this indicates that you have 4 megabytes of RAM, but the Macintosh is using 3.5 of those for its operating system. In this case, a number of applications will have problems running. Any applications that are running will also be listed in this box.

You may be able to reduce the amount of memory used by the system. The process for doing this will differ depending on whether you are running a version of System 7 or System 6. In either case, you may have many fonts or DAs (Apple menu items) installed, and could remove those you are not using. For instructions on removing fonts or DAs, refer to your Macintosh documentation. Desktop goodies such as screen savers and desk pictures also occupy RAM. Under System 7, you may have system extensions you do not need, such as printer drivers for printers you don't have. If you remove items like these to free memory, make sure to keep copies somewhere on your hard disk or on a backup disk so that you can re-install them if you need them later.

Musical Instruments is pre-set to its preferred memory size. You can change the amount of memory the program uses by choosing Get Info from the File menu in the Finder, and then changing the memory allocation. If your computer has spare RAM, you can set Musical Instruments to use more memory, which will improve performance by keeping more of the sounds in memory. If you have trouble with running out of memory, you can set Musical Instruments to use less memory. Be warned that a low memory setting may cause the program to perform poorly. For example, it will not play sounds or display pop-up windows if it runs out of memory. If you allocate Musical Instruments less than 1.5 MB, problems are likely to result.

--- 5. PRINTING AND COPYING ---

The screens in Musical Instruments are stored and displayed as large color pictures, which are optimized for best screen reproduction rather than for print reproduction. You can, however, print screen images, which will be of the same quality as a screen shot made with a screen-capture function.

If you have only a black-and-white printer, Musical Instruments will not print very well. Musical Instruments can print better grayscale images--if you have a laser printer, choose the Color/grayscale option for better quality. You can also print in color if you have a color printer. Depending on the type of printer you have, printing a picture may take several minutes. Because the pictures can be quite large, you may have difficulty copying or printing in low-memory conditions. In this case, close all other applications and then try again.

The Print and Copy commands affect only the active window.

-- 6. DEMONSTRATION MODE --

Musical Instruments has a demonstration mode that begins an automatic random "slide show" when the computer has been idle for a certain period.

To activate demonstration mode, hold down the Shift key while you click the Random button. This displays a dialog box. Check the "Start random automatically" box and specify the number of idle minutes that must elapse before starting the slide show, then click OK.

To stop the slide show and use Musical Instruments at any time, move the mouse or press a key.

Demonstration mode will remain active until you turn it off: to do this, hold down Shift again and click the Random button, clear the "Start random automatically" box in the dialog box, and then click OK.

Additional query words: kbhowto 1.0 multi media multimedia multi-media read me text

Keywords: kbhowto KB107766

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