The main part of this software consists icons, and they are so common musical signs that musically-trained people would easily understand how to use this software. The only barrier to enjoy (?) music with Ongaku Tukoolu is Japanese language. I'll explain mainly about the verbal part of this software, or all what I can do is explaining about it. I'm MUSICALLY ILLITERATE. My knowledge about music is very limited. So I won't speak of music itself in this document.
After pressing "A" or "Start" key at the title, what you see on the middle of the screen is a bar of a track. At the upper part, you can recognize switches, some values, and menus in enigmatic letters. The self-explainatory icons at the bottom wouldn't need unnecessary words. You can move a cursor anywhere on the screen with allow keys. Leaving "B" key pressed accelarate the movement of the cursor à la Super Mario Bros ( This function consoles you a bit for the irritating interface ). According with the custom, "A" key takes charge of a determination of a choice.
Anyway, let's be practical. Move the cursor to the table of the musical signs at the bottom, and choose a musical sign with "A" key --- a whole note, a half note, a quarter note, a eighth note, a sixteenth note, and a thirty-second note ( Are they right? ). After getting a note choosed (colored an icon with pink), move the cursor on the lines. And put it anywhere you like, any times you want up to the limit that the bar permit. If a bar is full, a warning window opens like this.
Finally, press "A" key on the "Play" switch at the upper part of the screen ( You may understand easily where it is as its form is very likely ). And IT SOUNDS. When the cursor is on the lines, you can change the focus with "X" and "Y" key. "X" key moves it foward, and "Y" key dose backward.
According with SNES specification, you can play up to eight tracks simultaneusly, and manage 128 bars maximum in each track. Pressing "A" key on an 1 to 8 icon changes the current track. As work with this software is forced to be done separately by each track, managements of a chord will be laborious.
Each track can have just one instrument. This instrument property holds on through a tune. Pressing "A" key on the right field to the track indicator opens the instrument window. You can set an instrument there. It's a friendly user interface without the language barrier.
| Piano 1 | Electric bass 1 |
| Piano 2 | Electric bass 2 |
| Electric piano | Slap bass |
| Clavinette | Synthesized bass |
| Organ 1 | Pizzicato strings |
| Organ 2 | Harp |
| Steel guitar | Timpani |
| Strings | Trumpet |
| Slow strings | Brass |
| Attack strings 1 | Alto sax |
| Attack strings 2 | Baritone sax |
| Analog pad 1 | Oboe |
| Analog pad 2 | Flute |
| Chorus | Koto |
| Sine wave 1 | Sawtooth wave 4 |
| Sine wave 2 | Square wave 1 |
| Sine wave 3 | Square wave 2 |
| Sine wave 4 | Square wave 3 |
| Sawtooth wave 1 | Square wave 4 |
| Sawtooth wave 2 | Square wave 5 |
| Sawtooth wave 3 | Square wave 6 |
| Square wave 7 |
| Square wave 8 |
| Drum kit |
You can proceed a bar with three methods:
The current bar is indicated on the field right to the switches, and you can also change tempo here with "A" key. As for the time of the score, see SCORE menu section.
When you want to put a dotted note, falatted one, or sharped one etc., press "A" key on the icon that you want to put after choosing a naked musical sign.
You can delete a musical sign ( and a letter: see further ) with toggling on the eraser icon with "A" key. A red line indicates which to delete.
Toggling on the letters icon with "A" key let you put letters under the lines instead of musical signs. Pressing "A" key on the icon rotates character tables ( Japanese 1 --- Japanese 2 --- Alphabets ). You can assign letters in the same way as musical signs. You can go back to the usual state with toggling the note icon right to the eraser icon. The lyrics that you put here makes sense in the JUKEBOX menu.
Additionally, after choosing the arrow icon right to the musical sign table, you can appoint the height of a note --- with the length of a choosed note --- with the keyboard at the bottom instead of putting a note on the lines with the cursor... but who uses this stupid function?
Before a composing work, you should check out the SCORE menu section. Because general configurations of a tune is permitted only in the menu and you can't change them once you begin to compose a tune ( Changing configurations of a score in the middle of composing means to abandon a whole score ).
The menus are at the top of the screen. They takes charge of other than the assignment of musical signs. Move the cursor on the "SCORE" written in Japanese. Pressing "A" key opens the SCORE menu window.
| (1) Initialization of a score |
| (2) Tempo in a bar |
| (3) Gate time configuration |
| (4) Loudness of a note |
| (5) Cut bars |
| (6) Copy bars |
| (7) Paste bars |
| (8) Clear bars |
All properties except "g clef / f clef " switch affect a whole score. If you toggle on the "four tracks for chord" property, you can use only four tracks freely. But the chord track automatically make a chord and accompanies your free four tracks. I don't have clear idea about "auto rest adding" function.
(3) Gate time configuration
These three functions have a similar interface. The gray horizontal
lines mean the default value (32) except in the "Gate time" function.
And the red vertical lines mean each value ( 0 to 63 numerically ).
These functions target only the current bar by default, but pressing
"A" key on the "-" icon let you fix a range by bars. I don't know what
the "Gate time" function exactly means. It seems to decrease the delay
of a sound. The "END" icon quites the functions and goes back to the
composing screen.
I don't think that the clever readers need any explanations about the
difference between the "Cut" function and the "Copy" function, or about
how to use them. They work as you suppose .
This function has the same interface as the "Cut bars" function or the
"Copy bars" function. The difference is the action: This function just
delete all components of the choosed bars.
I hardly have anything to explain in this section. It's just like what you see. But I note just a thing: You can't change the properties accordingly with this menu. What you set here holds on from the begining of a tune to the end.
You can save and load your tune data with this menu. You would find gray warning windows flicking some times through this menu. They are just claiming like "Checking devices", "Now loading", "Now saving", "Did you save the current tune before the new load?". So you don't need to pay much attention to them.
| (1) Load |
| (2) Save |
| (3) Convert data |
| (4) Delete a tune |
| (5) Initialization of a storage |
(2) Save
You can load not only your tune data but also the preset tunes in the cartridge ( not in the SRAM ). They are sample data which demonstrate the performance of this software. As optional storage devices, you can choose two external devices here, but they won't work unless you have the minor devices or an emulater available for them. I guess you will end up ignoring them.
(3) Convert data
You must give a name your tune data before a new save. Pressing "A" key on the blank field opens the naming window. The available characters in the naming window are very limited, and most of them are Japanese. You should name your tune data only with numbers in spite of funniness, kind of cyber though ( I do not have any intentions to stop anyone cracking the name of his own tune data written in an unfamiliar language the night before after sleeping on his bed, waking, eating up breakfast, dumping a thing to dump, and brushing his teeth etc. But ... ).
You should ignore the external devices here again.
This function seems to concern one of the external devices. you should ignore it again.(4) Delete a tune
You can delete a tune data in a storage with this function. You should ignore the external devices again.
(5) Initialization of a storage
You can initialize a storage with this function, namely you can delete all the contents in the storage. You should ignore the external devices again.
This menu serves you just as a player with lyrics function. I don't explain further as this menu is not essential to your composing.
You can load four tunes maximum with the rightest menu on the top of screen, and drag a picture to a blank slot ( a black field ) with leaving"A" key pressed. Finally pressing "A" key on the "Play" switch like playing the current tune in the middle of composing starts the appreciating mode.
