It doesn't take much effort to memorize the keyboard equivalents of Braille music symbols. The thing that takes some getting used to is typing something that appears to be complete nonsense. If you use Braille music often, it is worth the effort to have it in the form of files that can be edited.

TRANSLATING MIDI TO PRINT -- Translating MIDI files into print or Braille music is difficult because so many symbols in even an uncomplicated musical score represent qualitative, not quantitative, factors of time and loudness. Refer to the Resources section (Chapter 10) for brief descriptions of some of the more well-informed music translation projects and the addresses of researchers involved in their development.

Here are some concepts to keep in mind when preparing a MIDI file for conversion into a written score. An instrument responding to MIDI instructions doesn't "think" of notes in terms of specific note values and how they are articulated. The instructions tell the instrument which notes to play, when to turn them on and off, and the value of the upward and downward velocity of the keys.

To get the best results many programs determine the printed note value from the distance between the "note-on" commands for successive notes. The time between the note-on and note-off commands of a given note can be used to determine the articulation marks such as staccato or legato. This works fine for a single melodic line, but what's a program to do when a chord is played as an arpeggio -- when the notes follow in rapid succession instead of being played all at once?

Notes and rests can be confusing. How would a translation program discern note values and the length of time they are actually held? If the program looks only at the starting times of the notes you will likely get a good approximation of the notation you intend. However, if you wanted the score to show three staccato quarter notes with a quarter rest between two of them, the program would likely show the note-rest combination as a half note.

If you plan to print music from a MIDI file that was generated by a "real time" performance, bear in mind that seldom, if ever, is a note played to its correct written length. The MIDI file should be treated to the "quantization" feature in a sequencer or a music-printing program. It filters out the deviations from standard note values inherent in a performance. Without quantization the print-out would be cluttered with dotted- and double-dotted note values. The quantization feature rounds the notes off to the nearest conventional value of your choice such as quarters, eighths, and sixteenths.

If the printing program responds to both velocity and volume-controller data, the resulting score will indicate loudness.

A music-printing program will not glean much information about vibrato, portamento, glissando or certain timbral factors from a MIDI file. MIDI commands can tell a synth to perform the functions, but the data that assigns values to these functions is programmed into the instrument's system setup.

This data can be modified either from the instrument's control panel or from the computer via special controller commands or "system-exclusive" (sys-ex) commands within the sequencer.

Among the tasks that occur frequently in music production is the integration of the words of a song into the score. The MIDI format provides a way to do this, but very few application programs can make use of it.

Some printing programs will play the music back through your synth after they have translated the MIDI file into their own formats. Most programs will play the music through the computer's speaker, but this rendition will present just one note at a time. Nevertheless, you can still get a good idea of how accurately your score is being realized, and if you quantized the data sufficiently.

In some music-printing programs a MIDI file can be converted into an ASCII file before it is converted into the data used for printing. These ASCII files can be edited in any standard word processor. Once you have mastered the particular code you can correct translation errors and add the appropriate dynamic and articulation marks. In some ways music written in these codes is easier to read than is conventional Braille music, but they are far less compact.

MUSIC-PRINTING PROGRAMS -- Music-printing programs are complicated. Even sighted people take workshops to learn how to use those that will print a thoroughly annotated score.

A totally blind user can successfully run those programs whose command structure and data are presented in ASCII format. Of course, sighted assistance is required for setting up the printing format and determining that the printed music appears as expected on the page.

If you have some usable vision you can decipher much of the screen activity, particularly with the help of software that enlarges the images on the screen.

Programs range in price from $50 for "Quickscore" from Dr. T. to nearly $900 for "Score" from San Andreas Press. The more expensive programs yield print-outs suitable for publication. Most programs print dynamic and articulation markings. For most musical activity the programs in the $300 to $500 bracket are suitable.

Whenever possible, obtain a demonstration copy of the program and try running it in conjunction with your screen access system. It should be able to respond to both "hard" and "soft" cursors.

In many programs the pointer for the application cursor -- hard cursor -- remains stationary even when you access another menu. This change in menus may be indicated by either highlighting the text or by changing the foreground and background colors of the text.

There are several programs that will print music from MIDI data as well as data entered from the computer's keyboard. They vary in the degree to which they will derive dynamic and articulation markings from a MIDI file.

Music Manuscriptor from Erato Software can be instructed to derive a great deal of such detail. Unfortunately, this program presents all of its text in DOS graphics and it requires a "Digitizer Tablet" for much of its navigation. In short, it is not accessible through conventional screen readers.

"Note Processor," a program from Thoughtprocessor, converts MIDI data into an ASCII-based code called "DARMS" and then into the data used for printing. It does not interpret dynamic and articulation marks from the MIDI file, but these can be inserted into the DARMS file before printing it.

"SCORE" also accepts data from an ASCII file that looks similar to DARMS. It will also accept MIDI data.

TRANSLATION SOFTWARE -- At this writing, Score is the only program of which I am aware that can be used to produce Braille music. However, it must run in conjunction with an additional translation program to do so.

Bill McCann is president of a firm called Dancing Dots. He is developing a program called "Feelgood" that translates MIDI files into Braille music notation. He expects to have it beta tested within a year. His future plans include designing software to translate data from both PC- and Mac-based programs into Braille.

Tim Kolosick at the University of Arizona in Tucson is developing a Macintosh package that converts the ASCII equivalents of Braille music symbols to Nightingale, a notation format that runs on the Macintosh. It is intended to work with Outspoken, Berkeley Systems' speech program for the Mac. He expects to demonstrate a working model within a year or two. He suggests that the "Power Mac" may make additional Mac-based music software accessible.

MUSIC TYPEWRITER -- Another option is a music typewriter. The Music Print Company in Boulder, Colorado in conjunction with IBM, produces an electronic typewriter that can function either as a conventional typewriter or as a music typewriter. Its music printing is of very high quality. It includes separate print wheels so that words can be inserted into a musical score. It also contains 60K of memory and an interface for an optional disk drive so you can save your files and "retype" as many copies as you need. The music typewriter costs about $2,000.

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