How to master Pizzicato Pro music composition and notation software.

1. Pizzicato
Professional Version
Full Printable Documentation - Version 3.5 for Windows & Mac OS X

2. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 2
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Table of contents
Table of contents.....................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction To Pizzicato......................................................................................................................................13
Versions of Pizzicato.........................................................................................................................................13
The user manual of Pizzicato............................................................................................................................15
Goals of Pizzicato..............................................................................................................................................15
The mouse.............................................................................................................................................................16
What is the mouse?............................................................................................................................................16
Buttons of the mouse.........................................................................................................................................17
Pointing ............................................................................................................................................................17
Clicking ............................................................................................................................................................17
Double-clicking ................................................................................................................................................18
Clicking/dragging..............................................................................................................................................18
Installing Pizzicato................................................................................................................................................18
Installing Pizzicato............................................................................................................................................19
Starting Pizzicato...............................................................................................................................................19
License registration...........................................................................................................................................20
Exit Pizzicato.....................................................................................................................................................21
The computer and its interface (1)........................................................................................................................21
What is a computer?..........................................................................................................................................21
Communicating with a computer......................................................................................................................22
The screen and windows...................................................................................................................................22
Menus................................................................................................................................................................27
Dialog boxes......................................................................................................................................................28
The computer and its interface (2)........................................................................................................................29
Buttons...............................................................................................................................................................30
Check boxes......................................................................................................................................................30
Radio buttons.....................................................................................................................................................31
Popup menus.....................................................................................................................................................31
Scroll bars..........................................................................................................................................................32
Sliders................................................................................................................................................................33
Lists...................................................................................................................................................................33
The computer and its interface (3)........................................................................................................................34
Using the keyboard............................................................................................................................................34
Text boxes.........................................................................................................................................................35
Using help..............................................................................................................................................................39
What is help?.....................................................................................................................................................39
The help menu...................................................................................................................................................40
How to use help?...............................................................................................................................................40
Reaching contextual help..................................................................................................................................41
What's new in version 3.5......................................................................................................................................41
Pizzicato Professional 3.5..................................................................................................................................41
8 new Pizzicato versions in 3.5.........................................................................................................................46
MIDI Setup............................................................................................................................................................47
What is MIDI?...................................................................................................................................................47
MIDI configuration...........................................................................................................................................49
Select a synthesizer...........................................................................................................................................52
Introduction to the music course...........................................................................................................................53
The purpose of this course.................................................................................................................................53
Material needed.................................................................................................................................................54
How to use this course?.....................................................................................................................................54

3. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 3
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Music notation.......................................................................................................................................................55
What is music?..................................................................................................................................................55
Characteristics of a sound..................................................................................................................................55
Music notation...................................................................................................................................................57
The staff.............................................................................................................................................................57
The measure......................................................................................................................................................58
Summary...........................................................................................................................................................60
Handling documents and windows (1)..................................................................................................................60
What is a document?.........................................................................................................................................60
The document manager.....................................................................................................................................61
Opening and creation of a document.................................................................................................................63
Opening several documents at the same time...................................................................................................64
Musical notation examples....................................................................................................................................65
Note pitch - example.........................................................................................................................................65
What is a clef?...................................................................................................................................................65
Note duration - example....................................................................................................................................66
Instrument timbre - example.............................................................................................................................67
Note amplitude - example.................................................................................................................................67
Handling documents and windows (2)..................................................................................................................67
Handling musical documents............................................................................................................................68
The various Pizzicato windows.........................................................................................................................68
The score view and the global view..................................................................................................................69
The instruments view........................................................................................................................................69
The sequencer view...........................................................................................................................................70
The piano roll view............................................................................................................................................71
The graphic view...............................................................................................................................................72
The musical effects view...................................................................................................................................73
Association of a comment.................................................................................................................................73
The scrolling score view....................................................................................................................................73
The lyrics window.............................................................................................................................................74
The chord progression window.........................................................................................................................74
The main view and the conductor view.............................................................................................................74
The windows management modes....................................................................................................................75
Measures and staves (1)........................................................................................................................................75
The measures and staves tool............................................................................................................................75
Adding and deleting measures and staves.........................................................................................................76
The linear mode.................................................................................................................................................80
Creating a score in linear mode.........................................................................................................................81
Measures and staves (2)........................................................................................................................................82
How to move a staff?.........................................................................................................................................82
How to modify the width of a measure?...........................................................................................................84
Notes and rests.......................................................................................................................................................85
The name and position of notes.........................................................................................................................85
Rhythmic values of notes..................................................................................................................................87
Rests..................................................................................................................................................................91
Summary...........................................................................................................................................................92
Introduction of notes and rests (1).........................................................................................................................93
How to introduce notes and rests?.....................................................................................................................93
How to delete a note or a rest?..........................................................................................................................94
How to move a note or a rest?...........................................................................................................................95
How to select tools with the keyboard?.............................................................................................................96
Automatic justification......................................................................................................................................96
Characteristics of music notation (1).....................................................................................................................97
Note stems.........................................................................................................................................................97

4. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 4
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Beams................................................................................................................................................................98
More than one rhythmic voice...........................................................................................................................99
Introduction of notes and rests (2).......................................................................................................................100
How to modify the stems orientation?............................................................................................................100
How to modify the beams?..............................................................................................................................101
Characteristics of music notation (2)...................................................................................................................102
Chords.............................................................................................................................................................102
Dotted notes and rests......................................................................................................................................103
Ties..................................................................................................................................................................105
Introduction of notes and rests (3).......................................................................................................................106
Introducing chords...........................................................................................................................................106
Dotted notes and rests......................................................................................................................................108
Changing the note head - Reducing notes.......................................................................................................109
The scale and the accidentals..............................................................................................................................111
The scale and the musical keyboard................................................................................................................111
Tones and half tones........................................................................................................................................112
The sharp and the flat......................................................................................................................................112
The natural.......................................................................................................................................................114
The double sharp and the double flat..............................................................................................................114
Introduction of notes and rests (4).......................................................................................................................115
Placement of accidentals.................................................................................................................................115
Position of an accidental..................................................................................................................................116
Ties..................................................................................................................................................................117
Adjustment of the stem length.........................................................................................................................118
Rhythmic voices..............................................................................................................................................119
Entering notes with a music keyboard................................................................................................................120
The keyboard window.....................................................................................................................................120
How you can introduce notes with the keyboard?..........................................................................................122
The music typing keyboard.................................................................................................................................126
Entering music faster.......................................................................................................................................126
Notes and rhythm............................................................................................................................................127
Other aspects of entering music......................................................................................................................128
Additional functions........................................................................................................................................130
Tuplets.................................................................................................................................................................132
Triplets.............................................................................................................................................................132
Other tuplets....................................................................................................................................................133
Introduction of notes and rests (5).......................................................................................................................134
Adding triplets and tuplets..............................................................................................................................134
The enharmonic tool........................................................................................................................................137
Using the arrow tool............................................................................................................................................138
Using the arrow tool........................................................................................................................................138
Deleting with the arrow tool............................................................................................................................139
Optimal use of tools........................................................................................................................................139
Graphic note entry tool on the staff.....................................................................................................................140
Graphic note entry tool....................................................................................................................................140
Intuitive chords entry.......................................................................................................................................142
Viewing note colors according to chords........................................................................................................145
Using clefs...........................................................................................................................................................145
Octaves numbering..........................................................................................................................................145
Using the bass clef...........................................................................................................................................146
The instrument range.......................................................................................................................................146
Other clefs.......................................................................................................................................................147
Writing conventions........................................................................................................................................148
Using clefs...........................................................................................................................................................149

5. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 5
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Changing the clef.............................................................................................................................................149
Clef characteristics..........................................................................................................................................150
Characteristics of music notation (3)...................................................................................................................152
Braces and groups of staves............................................................................................................................152
Measure numbering and rehearsal marks........................................................................................................153
Special staves..................................................................................................................................................153
Characteristics of staves......................................................................................................................................154
Changing the staff names................................................................................................................................154
Characteristics of staves..................................................................................................................................155
Braces and brackets.........................................................................................................................................157
Measure numbers............................................................................................................................................158
Miscellaneous..................................................................................................................................................159
Number of lines and size of a staff..................................................................................................................159
Cross staff beaming and grace notes...................................................................................................................161
Cross staff beaming.........................................................................................................................................161
Grace notes......................................................................................................................................................163
The document manager.......................................................................................................................................165
Configurations.................................................................................................................................................165
Customizing the displayed folders..................................................................................................................166
Files and folders operations.............................................................................................................................167
Adding configurations and areas.....................................................................................................................168
Using templates...................................................................................................................................................169
What is a template?.........................................................................................................................................169
Pizzicato Pro, Notation and Composition.......................................................................................................170
Automatic saving and backup.............................................................................................................................171
Automatic saving.............................................................................................................................................171
Automatic backups..........................................................................................................................................172
Restoring a backup..........................................................................................................................................172
The time signature...............................................................................................................................................173
Using time signature........................................................................................................................................173
Composite time signature................................................................................................................................174
Conventions and examples..............................................................................................................................174
Changing the time signature................................................................................................................................175
Changing the rhythmic content of a measure..................................................................................................175
Up beat and incomplete measures...................................................................................................................176
Key signatures.....................................................................................................................................................177
The major scale of C.......................................................................................................................................177
Tonality...........................................................................................................................................................177
The major scales..............................................................................................................................................178
The minor scales..............................................................................................................................................181
Arbitrary key signatures..................................................................................................................................182
Using key signatures...........................................................................................................................................183
Selecting a key signature.................................................................................................................................183
Changing the key signature during a music work...........................................................................................184
Arbitrary key signatures..................................................................................................................................186
Exercises..........................................................................................................................................................187
Selecting measures..............................................................................................................................................187
What is a selection?.........................................................................................................................................187
Copy and paste................................................................................................................................................188
Selecting several measures..............................................................................................................................189
Special paste function..........................................................................................................................................192
Specifying the items to paste...........................................................................................................................192
Merging staves................................................................................................................................................193
Split voices......................................................................................................................................................194

6. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 6
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Working in the sequencer and main views..........................................................................................................195
Selecting measures..........................................................................................................................................195
Adding/deleting measures and staves..............................................................................................................197
Creating and handling scores..........................................................................................................................197
Measure parameters.............................................................................................................................................200
Time and key signatures indication.................................................................................................................201
Measures numbering.......................................................................................................................................202
Multimeasure rests..........................................................................................................................................203
Free measures..................................................................................................................................................203
Justification and staff lines..............................................................................................................................204
MIDI....................................................................................................................................................................204
The purpose of MIDI.......................................................................................................................................204
MIDI messages................................................................................................................................................205
MIDI channels.................................................................................................................................................206
The instruments view..........................................................................................................................................206
The instruments view......................................................................................................................................207
Elements of the instruments view...................................................................................................................208
Modifying the staves order..............................................................................................................................215
The scrolling score view......................................................................................................................................215
The scrolling score view..................................................................................................................................215
Control of the scrolling score view.................................................................................................................216
How could you learn playing the keyboard ?..................................................................................................218
Global options and graphic copy.........................................................................................................................218
Advanced global options.................................................................................................................................218
Graphic copy...................................................................................................................................................219
Additional options...........................................................................................................................................220
Real time recording (1)........................................................................................................................................221
Real time recording.........................................................................................................................................221
The recorder and its options............................................................................................................................221
Start recording from the musical keyboard.....................................................................................................224
MIDI play options...........................................................................................................................................225
Real time recording (2)........................................................................................................................................227
Tracks and staves.............................................................................................................................................227
Transcription...................................................................................................................................................228
Quantization....................................................................................................................................................231
Recording multiple voices - Correcting the notes...........................................................................................234
Transposition.......................................................................................................................................................236
Transposition...................................................................................................................................................236
Intervals...........................................................................................................................................................237
Diatonic and chromatic transposition..............................................................................................................238
Transposing and justifying measures..................................................................................................................239
Transposing measures.....................................................................................................................................239
Justifying measures.........................................................................................................................................240
Justification options.........................................................................................................................................242
Page layout..........................................................................................................................................................244
What is page layout?.......................................................................................................................................245
Page setup structure in Pizzicato.....................................................................................................................245
Page layout dialog box....................................................................................................................................246
Page contextual menu......................................................................................................................................250
Modifying the layout of measures and systems..............................................................................................252
Printing the score.............................................................................................................................................253
Show or hide the staves of a system................................................................................................................254
Creation assistant and parts extraction................................................................................................................255
Creation assistant.............................................................................................................................................255

7. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 7
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Part extraction..................................................................................................................................................257
Measures versions...............................................................................................................................................258
Measures versions...........................................................................................................................................258
Duplicate / delete a version.............................................................................................................................259
The main symbols...............................................................................................................................................260
Why add symbols?..........................................................................................................................................260
Nuances...........................................................................................................................................................260
Tempo markings..............................................................................................................................................261
Ornament.........................................................................................................................................................262
Other various symbols ....................................................................................................................................262
Graphic and MIDI symbols.................................................................................................................................264
Palettes, tools and symbols..............................................................................................................................264
Adding a symbol in the score..........................................................................................................................264
Erasing a symbol.............................................................................................................................................266
Moving or resizing a symbol...........................................................................................................................266
The text tool.........................................................................................................................................................268
Creation of a text block...................................................................................................................................268
Moving, modifying and erasing a text block...................................................................................................270
Adding a title / Page numbers.........................................................................................................................271
Bar lines and repeats............................................................................................................................................273
The various bar lines.......................................................................................................................................273
Repeats............................................................................................................................................................274
Other repeat signs............................................................................................................................................274
Bar lines and repeats............................................................................................................................................276
Modifying bar lines.........................................................................................................................................276
Simulation of repeats.......................................................................................................................................277
Lyrics...................................................................................................................................................................278
Introduction of lyrics in the score....................................................................................................................278
Connecting or extending syllables..................................................................................................................280
Adjusting the position of lyrics lines - Note names........................................................................................281
The lyrics fast encoding window.....................................................................................................................282
The chords library...............................................................................................................................................284
Consulting the library......................................................................................................................................284
Modifying the symbols....................................................................................................................................285
Modifying the library......................................................................................................................................286
The chord tool.....................................................................................................................................................286
Adding, moving and erasing chords on the score...........................................................................................286
Adjusting chords globally...............................................................................................................................288
Converting chords into notes...........................................................................................................................288
The chords progression window..........................................................................................................................290
Fast encoding and visualization of chords......................................................................................................290
Chords analysis and search..................................................................................................................................293
Analyze the chords of a score..........................................................................................................................293
Searching chords for a melody........................................................................................................................295
The use of rhythmic voices and colors................................................................................................................298
Rhythmic voices..............................................................................................................................................298
Using rhythmic voices.....................................................................................................................................298
Using colors.....................................................................................................................................................299
Making a note or a rest invisible.....................................................................................................................300
The guitar tools....................................................................................................................................................301
Principles of fretted instruments......................................................................................................................301
The guitar fretboard window...........................................................................................................................301
Tablatures........................................................................................................................................................303
Using tablatures...............................................................................................................................................303

8. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 8
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Tablature parameters.......................................................................................................................................305
Chords diagrams..............................................................................................................................................306
The diagrams library.......................................................................................................................................308
The tablatures library.......................................................................................................................................311
Graphic options and automatisms.......................................................................................................................312
Graphic options...............................................................................................................................................312
Automatisms....................................................................................................................................................314
Reading and writing Midi files............................................................................................................................315
The Midi file....................................................................................................................................................315
Exporting a Midi file.......................................................................................................................................316
Importing a Midi file.......................................................................................................................................317
MusicXML and NIFF files..................................................................................................................................318
What is a MusicXML file ?.............................................................................................................................318
Import a MusicXML or NIFF file in Pizzicato...............................................................................................319
Export a score in MusicXML..........................................................................................................................320
Contextual menus and MIDI data modification..................................................................................................320
Contextual menu of a note...............................................................................................................................320
Contextual menu of a measures selection.......................................................................................................323
Modification of MIDI data..............................................................................................................................323
The musical effects view.....................................................................................................................................325
Musical effects................................................................................................................................................325
The musical effects view.................................................................................................................................326
Modifying the symbol effects..........................................................................................................................328
Creating free musical effects...........................................................................................................................329
The graphic editor...............................................................................................................................................331
The graphic note editor view...........................................................................................................................331
The use of colours...........................................................................................................................................335
Composing drum patterns...............................................................................................................................337
The global view...................................................................................................................................................338
How to open the global view?.........................................................................................................................338
The main header bar........................................................................................................................................339
The staff header bar.........................................................................................................................................344
Composition libraries (1).....................................................................................................................................348
What are the composition libraries ?...............................................................................................................348
Elements of the composition libraries.............................................................................................................349
Composing with the libraries..........................................................................................................................351
Composition libraries (2).....................................................................................................................................353
Creation of a rhythmic cell..............................................................................................................................353
Creation of a melodic cell...............................................................................................................................355
Measures calculation method..........................................................................................................................357
Composition libraries (3).....................................................................................................................................360
Creation of a theme.........................................................................................................................................360
Creation of a chord..........................................................................................................................................361
Combining a chord, a rhythm and a melody...................................................................................................363
Composition libraries (4).....................................................................................................................................365
Creation of a melody folder.............................................................................................................................365
Options of a melody folder..............................................................................................................................366
Multiplying combinations...............................................................................................................................369
Composition libraries (5).....................................................................................................................................372
Creation of a rhythm folder.............................................................................................................................372
Creation of a theme folder...............................................................................................................................375
Creation of a chord progression......................................................................................................................375
Arranging a melody on chords........................................................................................................................377
Composition libraries(6)......................................................................................................................................379

9. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 9
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Erasing, duplicating and moving elements......................................................................................................379
Library options ...............................................................................................................................................381
Libraries in the sequencer view.......................................................................................................................382
Copying libraries between two documents.....................................................................................................383
Summary - example of libraries......................................................................................................................384
Conclusions.....................................................................................................................................................386
Editing a synthesizer...........................................................................................................................................387
Access to synthesizers configurations.............................................................................................................387
Configuring the instruments view.......................................................................................................................395
Why modifying the instruments view?...........................................................................................................395
The instruments view configuration dialog box..............................................................................................395
Editing graphic and Midi symbols (1).................................................................................................................397
Graphic and Midi symbols..............................................................................................................................398
Tools palettes...................................................................................................................................................398
Creating a new palette.....................................................................................................................................400
Importing the tools created with a previous version of Pizzicato...................................................................402
Editing graphic and Midi symbols (2).................................................................................................................402
Creating a new tool - Assigning a keyboard shortcut.....................................................................................402
Bitmap graphic editor......................................................................................................................................405
Editing graphic and Midi symbols (3).................................................................................................................407
Creation of a symbol for the score..................................................................................................................407
The vectorial editor.........................................................................................................................................408
Editing graphic and Midi symbols (4).................................................................................................................419
Creation of a curve..........................................................................................................................................420
The graphic side of symbols............................................................................................................................420
Examples of symbols.......................................................................................................................................423
Editing graphic and Midi symbols (5).................................................................................................................424
Midi effects on the score performance............................................................................................................424
Examples of Midi effects................................................................................................................................430
Modifying a symbol locally................................................................................................................................433
Local modifications.........................................................................................................................................433
Examples of local modifications.....................................................................................................................436
Learning the musical keyboard...........................................................................................................................436
How to learn the keyboard with Pizzicato?.....................................................................................................437
Organizing the screen......................................................................................................................................437
Progressive exercises generator.......................................................................................................................440
Listening to the exercise and learning how to play it......................................................................................441
Fingering.........................................................................................................................................................442
Sounds.............................................................................................................................................................443
Learning progression.......................................................................................................................................443
Learning to play with an accompaniment.......................................................................................................445
Composing music (1)..........................................................................................................................................446
Using the composition libraries.......................................................................................................................446
Contents of the Pizzicato libraries...................................................................................................................447
Composing music (2)..........................................................................................................................................452
Using the accompaniment styles.....................................................................................................................452
Structure of a style...........................................................................................................................................457
Composing music (3)..........................................................................................................................................459
What is a chord?..............................................................................................................................................459
Tonality and chords.........................................................................................................................................459
Sequencing chords...........................................................................................................................................463
Composing music (4)..........................................................................................................................................466
Melodies and rhythms.....................................................................................................................................467
Generating melodies using libraries................................................................................................................469

10. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 10
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Instrumentation and effects.............................................................................................................................469
General rules of composition..........................................................................................................................469
Composition tools - The smart link.....................................................................................................................471
The composition tools.....................................................................................................................................471
The smart link..................................................................................................................................................472
The computed measure parameters.................................................................................................................476
Note parameters...............................................................................................................................................477
Rhythm parameters..........................................................................................................................................478
Chords influence..............................................................................................................................................478
Application example........................................................................................................................................479
Adding smart link templates............................................................................................................................483
Composition tools - The conductor view............................................................................................................485
The conductor view.........................................................................................................................................485
Using the conductor view................................................................................................................................488
Playing and grouping scores............................................................................................................................490
Composition tools - Instruments.........................................................................................................................497
Instruments......................................................................................................................................................497
Using the instruments......................................................................................................................................501
Managing the musical objects.........................................................................................................................503
The instrument colors......................................................................................................................................507
Composition tools - Harmonic spaces.................................................................................................................507
Basic principle.................................................................................................................................................507
Using the real time arranger............................................................................................................................507
Editing an harmonic space..............................................................................................................................512
Composition tools - Dragging and dropping scores............................................................................................514
Basic principles...............................................................................................................................................515
A practical example.........................................................................................................................................515
The musical objects and their icons................................................................................................................520
Creating, deleting and editing the musical objects..........................................................................................521
Using the objects in a document......................................................................................................................522
The drag and drop options...............................................................................................................................522
Composition tools - Music generators.................................................................................................................524
Basic principle.................................................................................................................................................524
The musical structure......................................................................................................................................526
A structure inside a structure...........................................................................................................................530
Parameters of a score.......................................................................................................................................533
The generated scores.......................................................................................................................................534
Composition tools - General scales and chords...................................................................................................535
Scales and chords............................................................................................................................................535
Chords and scales library................................................................................................................................536
Assigning chords and scales............................................................................................................................540
Composition tools - The score arranger..............................................................................................................541
Basic principle.................................................................................................................................................541
Using the score arranger..................................................................................................................................542
The harmonic rules..........................................................................................................................................544
The scales associated to the chords.................................................................................................................546
Composition tools - The music vectors...............................................................................................................547
What is a music vector?...................................................................................................................................547
Practical examples...........................................................................................................................................548
The structure of a music vector.......................................................................................................................550
The melodic part..............................................................................................................................................553
The melodic wave...........................................................................................................................................556
The rhythmic aspect........................................................................................................................................560
The velocity wave...........................................................................................................................................562

11. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 11
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Additional examples........................................................................................................................................563
The music vectors library................................................................................................................................566
Composition tools - Virtual keyboards...............................................................................................................567
Virtual keyboards............................................................................................................................................567
Composition tools - The music libraries.............................................................................................................572
The musical libraries.......................................................................................................................................572
A small example..............................................................................................................................................573
The content of the libraries..............................................................................................................................577
Composition tools - Using styles.........................................................................................................................582
What is a style?................................................................................................................................................582
Using the Pizzicato styles................................................................................................................................582
Interactive styles and chords exploration........................................................................................................585
Importing styles from the Internet...................................................................................................................587
Extract the instrumental patterns.....................................................................................................................587
Summary.........................................................................................................................................................589
Composition tools - The graphic vectors............................................................................................................589
Drawing a melodic curve................................................................................................................................589
Assigning a rhythmic structure........................................................................................................................592
Moving and transposing a melodic line..........................................................................................................594
Vectorization of an existing melodic line........................................................................................................595
Applying a rhythmic density...........................................................................................................................596
Changing the velocity......................................................................................................................................597
Audio tracks........................................................................................................................................................598
Audio or MIDI?...............................................................................................................................................598
What is an audio track?...................................................................................................................................599
Adding an audio track.....................................................................................................................................599
Multiple audio tracks.......................................................................................................................................601
Audio setup......................................................................................................................................................602
Creating an audio file..........................................................................................................................................603
Export a score to an audio file.........................................................................................................................603
The audio editor...................................................................................................................................................606
Accessing the audio editor..............................................................................................................................607
The various parts of the audio window...........................................................................................................607
Specifying the file area to play........................................................................................................................609
Selecting the working area..............................................................................................................................610
Modifying the selected area............................................................................................................................610
Zooming..........................................................................................................................................................614
File operations.................................................................................................................................................615
Recording an audio file...................................................................................................................................617
Modifying the wave directly...........................................................................................................................618
Miscellaneous options of the editor.................................................................................................................619
The spectral analyser...........................................................................................................................................620
What is an audio spectrum?.............................................................................................................................620
The spectral analysis window..........................................................................................................................621
Working on the harmonics of a sound.............................................................................................................623
The virtual instruments........................................................................................................................................624
What is a virtual instrument?...........................................................................................................................624
Using the virtual instruments..........................................................................................................................625
The virtual instruments library........................................................................................................................627
Importing SoundFont files...............................................................................................................................630
Tuning.............................................................................................................................................................631
Modular audio synthesis......................................................................................................................................633
Modular audio synthesis principles.................................................................................................................633
Generators.......................................................................................................................................................639

12. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 12
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Envelopes........................................................................................................................................................643
Modulators and other operators.......................................................................................................................646
Filters...............................................................................................................................................................649
Audio samples reader......................................................................................................................................653
Tips and advices..............................................................................................................................................658
© Copyright 1992-2010
ARPEGE-MUSIC
All right reserved.
29, rue de l’Enseignement
4800 Verviers - Belgium

13. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 13
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Introduction To Pizzicato
* Versions of Pizzicato
* The user manual of Pizzicato
* Goals of Pizzicato
Versions of Pizzicato
We thank you for buying Pizzicato and we wish you welcome in its new musical universe.
Pizzicato 3.5 is oriented around eleven versions. Pizzicato Professional contains every function you can find in this
manual. The other 10 versions contain only a specific set of these functions, oriented around a more specific use of
Pizzicato. Here is a short description of each version.
• Pizzicato Light
It is a basic version making it possible to learn music, make exercises, write small scores (1 or 2 pages) and use basic
MIDI and audio recording features. You may also start to learn music composition and the musical keyboard.
• Pizzicato Beginner
It is basically a general score editor, up to 16 staves (instruments). It comprises more functionalities than Pizzicato
Light, like the fast encoding of lyrics and chords, MIDI functions, the global editing view,.... It also contains the
music course.
• Pizzicato Professional
Contains a multitude of additional functions and possibilities, compared to the Beginner version. Among others, it
contains a whole set of innovative and intuitive tools to help compose your own music. It opens the door of music
composition to everyone, even with little or no music knowledge. The tools and options of this version give you a
very powerful score editor as well as many tools to refine the interpretation of a score in MIDI, as well as many
tools to practise music composition.
• Pizzicato Notation
This is the full featured music notation version. It contains all the tools of Pizzicato Professional oriented toward
music notation.
• Pizzicato Composition Light
This low cost version, as well as the next one, are designed specifically around music composition. Contains many
tools to help the beginner to start composing his own music.
• Pizzicato Composition Pro
Contains all the advanced intuitive composition tools of Pizzicato Professional. You can export your composition
as a MIDI file, a musicXML file or audio file, to be used by any other music notation or sequencer program.
• Pizzicato Drums and Percussion
This low cost version is designed specifically for music notation of drums and percussion instruments. Print and
hear your drums and percussion scores.

14. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 14
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• Pizzicato Guitar
This low cost version is designed specifically for music notation of guitar. Print and hear your guitar scores,
including tablatures and guitar chords diagrams.
• Pizzicato Choir
This low cost version is designed specifically for music notation for the choir. Print and hear your choir sheet
music, including lyrics.
• Pizzicato Keyboard
This low cost version is designed specifically for music notation for the keyboard. Print and hear your keyboard
sheet music, including cross-staff beaming and many advanced keyboard notation features.
• Pizzicato Soloist
This low cost version is designed specifically for music notation for one staff. Print and hear your solo sheet music,
including lyrics and chords. Fits any solo instrument written on one staff.
These versions are used under license, when you buy one of these versions of Pizzicato. These versions also exist in
evaluation and shareware and they may be used free of charge. Here are their limitations, compared to the licensed
versions.
• Pizzicato Shareware version
Free version of Pizzicato Light, during one month, starting with the installation of the program on a computer.
This version has all the features of Pizzicato Light. It nevertheless prints the scores with a Pizzicato mosaic
background. This version follows the guide lines of Shareware software and implies that if the user wants to
continue using it after the first month, he must buy the user license. With this version, you may save audio files that
are not longer than one minute. It does not contain the sound library.
• Pizzicato - Evaluation versions of the other 10 Pizzicato versions
• Does not allow to save your work, nor to export it in MIDI, audio, graphic or musicXML
• Does not allow to print
• Does not contain the sound library
• Does not permit chord finding for harmonization (if applicable).
When you install Pizzicato on your computer, whether from a DVD or after downloading it from the Internet, all
versions are installed at the same time. In other words, these multiple versions are in fact the same software. All
free version may be used. You can switch from on version to the other through the Program version / Updates... item
of the Options menu or directly through the Working mode menu of the Options menu.
This can help you to try out any of the version. You may buy multiple licenses (for instance, Pizzicato Guitar and
Pizzicato Drums) and by registering these two licenses, you will then be able to work with these two licensed
versions, as well as with the other 9 free evaluation versions.
By installing the evaluation version, you can use it also as a reader for Pizzicato documents. If someone sends you a
Pizzicato file, you can download the evaluation version for free and if you do not modify the document, you can
print it, export to MIDI, audio or musicXML.

15. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 15
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The user manual of Pizzicato
The instruction manual is designed as a progressive approach of music, computers and Pizzicato. It is divided into a
series of lessons each one treating a particular subject. Most of these lessons are made of a succession of practical
steps that you are asked to perform with Pizzicato. The attention is laid on a balance between practice and theory.
Each lesson covers music, computer or the use of Pizzicato. The tables of content contain the references of each
lesson. These divisions of the manual enable you to easily adapt your reading to your knowledge level. The
professional musician will skip the music lessons and the well-informed in computer will skip the pages related to
the computer.
In a general way, the lessons follow a progressive order. If you want to have a total control of Pizzicato, we advise
you to study them in the exact sequence. If you are initially only interested by certain subjects of Pizzicato (music
learning, score editor, Midi sequencer, composing or accompaniment), you can skip the lessons specific to the other
fields. The introduction of a lesson shows each time the subjects covered and helps you estimate if the lesson is
interesting for you or not.
You will also find a glossary that includes most of the words relating to music, computer or Pizzicato. Use it each
time you don't fully understand the meaning of a word. Continuing to study the course without understanding the
words can only create problems. Therefore, use the glossary abundantly! In the text of the lessons, the new
introduced words are directly related to the glossary by a link. When dragging the mouse over it, the cursor
becomes a hand. Click it and you get access to the definition of the word in the glossary.
According to the Pizzicato version you bought, a paper manual contains the main lessons required to learn to used
the program. The screen documentation nevertheless includes all the lessons for each version. According to the
consulted manual, you only access the lessons concerning the version you have. Many lessons are common to all
versions and some indicate differences between versions. You will find for instance, a list of the Pizzicato versions
relevant to each main division of a lesson.
Goals of Pizzicato
The design and creation of Pizzicato began in 1992. With Pizzicato, our goal is to create a software to approach
music and computer without any preliminary knowledge of these subjects, while offering a maximum number of
musical features to the professional. The future releases of Pizzicato will continue in that direction.
In order to be informed on the evolution of Pizzicato and to be able to access our technical support, we kindly
request you to register yourself as an official user of Pizzicato. You can do so by returning the registration card
included in your software package or directly register on our Web site.
For any question regarding Pizzicato, you can contact our international technical support:
Arpege - Music
29, rue de l'Enseignement
B-4800 VERVIERS
Belgium
Tel/Fax ++32 87-26.80.10
or consult us on the Internet. Our site is: www.arpegemusic.com Our E-mail address is
support@arpegemusic.com
If you are resident in the USA or Canada, you can directly contact our official and local partner at:
Aunyx Productions, Inc.
Blair Ashby

16. Pizzicato 3.5 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 16
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4051 Creek Drive
Broomfield, Co 80023
Tel 303-252-1270
Site www.music-composing.com
E-mail info@music-composing.com
Announce your license number to the support staff. If your question concerns an installation problem or is related
to the use of the program, please be in front of your computer while calling. We will help you as best as we can.
The best way is an e-mail with full description of the problem. We usually answer within 24 hours in working days.
Do not hesitate to report to us in writing all the improvements and new functionalities you can think of. We will
take your remarks into account for the development of future releases of Pizzicato. Our goal is to transform
Pizzicato into your ideal work platform for computer-assisted music. To this end, your point of view is important
to us.
All this being said, you are now ready to get to the heart of the matter: music on your computer. We wish you much
pleasure in your discovery of the musical and software universe of Pizzicato!
Dominique Vandenneucker
Designer of Pizzicato
The mouse
* What is the mouse?
* Buttons of the mouse
* Pointing
* Clicking
* Double-clicking
* Clicking/dragging
What is the mouse?
The mouse is a small object attached to your computer or your keyboard by a cable. Its structure is made to easily
slide on a plane surface, next to your keyboard. In its lower part, it has a small ball which makes it possible to
collect the changes of position.
When you slide it from left to right or backwards and forwards, the ball collects your movements and transmits
them to the computer through the connecting cable . The computer then interprets these movements to move a
small picture on your screen. This picture is called the mouse cursor. Most of the time, it is represented by an
arrow, but according to the context, it can have various appearances: