Paul Hawthorne's Web Site

How to Use the MusEdit Viewer

The MuseEdit Viewer is no longer available.

The MusEdit Viewer is a tool to allow the music scores written with the MusEdit notation software to be viewed, played as MIDI, and printed out. The Viewer does not have any capabilities for editing the scores. It is compatible with Windows 95, 98 and NT/2000 operating systems. Macintosh, W3.x., Linux and other O/S users will have to view the *.gif files.

Note: Some downloading software renames the MusEdit file to a *.exe extension. If the program refuses to open the file you may have to rename the file with a *.med (mus edit document) extension.

How to Install

MusEdit Viewer Logo Download the Musedit Viewer here (360Kb).

The MusEdit Viewer is contained in a self-extracting file called MEView_Z.exe. Double clicking on this file will cause all the necessary files for the MusEdit viewer to be installed on your hard drive in a folder called:

C:\MusEdit Viewer

The files installed in this folder will be:

and sample MusEdit scores to view, print, or play as MIDI sound. These can be discarded if you wish.

plus a copy of this instruction file without my added comments.

Once the ME Viewer is installed, I suggest you make a backup copy of the downloaded file on a 3 1/2" floppy disc. You can then either drag the MEView_Z.EXE file to the folder with the rest of the files or delete it.

How to Remove

To remove the MusEdit Viewer, simply delete the "MusEdit Viewer" folder from your C: drive. All files associated with the viewer are located in this folder - there are no other related files installed anywhere else on your system.

How to Use

After you have extracted the Viewer files onto your system you can go to the C:\MusEdit Viewer folder and find the MEViewer file. If you double click on this icon the Viewer will start. You can then use the File|Open command (or click on the open folder icon) to open MusEdit files, or you can simply drag MusEdit files onto the MEViewer icon, or the open MEViewer window.

NOTE: You may want to create a shortcut to the MusEdit Viewer on your Desktop. To do this, simply drag the MEViewer icon from the MusEdit Viewer folder onto your desktop. Windows will automatically create a shortcut to the MEViewer. You can then double click on the shortcut to start the viewer, or drop MusEdit files onto the shortcut to open them.

The MusEdit Viewer is written with a certain amount of backward compatibility to scores generated in early releases of MusEdit. Because of this, the stems may occasionally not perfectly intersect the beams, because of a different beaming parameters. The ME Demo and the shareware program do not have this quirk.

The MusEdit Viewer may be copied, distributed, or posted on web sites without any restriction.

About MusEdit

MusEdit is a very powerful, reasonably priced (not to mess around, it's $79) music notation program which is especially useful for banjo, guitar, bass, and other stringed instrument players. MusEdit enables you to create and edit tablature, treble, bass, and many other kinds of music, including chords and chord diagrams and rhythm notation. You can also enter text practically anywhere in your score, in any font available on your system. The built in chord dictionary has nearly 9,000 (guitar) chords to choose from, or you can design any chord diagram in any tuning, with four, five or six strings spanning up to 7 frets.

Of special interest to 5 string banjo players is that the 5th string is handled properly in all respects, including translation and playback. The 5th string is even separately capo-able, both up and down from the normal 5th fret position. The MIDI playback can be selected to be one octave below the treble score, playing the correct pitches. This program does what a music editor needs to do and gives you great control over the printout, resulting in professional looking scores. The MIDI playback also supports chokes, slides, etc.

Why am I so sure about MusEdit's capabilities for banjo? It is because I have been consulting with the programmer to get it really right. I know the banjo and am very tab fluent; Doug Rogers is a very clever and responsive programmer. I have asked for some very ask for weird corners of tab writing, and have gotten them included in the program. In a way it has been like having a gourmet chef to make my breakfast sandwich. The result is a very flexible and complete program, and not just for banjo players.

There is a whole lot more to MusEdit. If you would like to learn more about the program, check out the MusEdit web site or send specific questions to (email address no longer available). The program may be purchased online there.

 

Last Updated 15 Jul 2006 by PJH

Edited 11 Mar 2015 by WF