Helpful Files

These are an assortment of files and accessory programs which may be of use to the budding NoteWorthy Composer.

[Fonts] [NWC2 ITrees] [Soundfonts] [NWC Files] [Explanations] [VST with NoteWorthy] [Macros] [MIDI Utilities] [Harmony Utilities] [Converting between NWC and ABC] [SBLive! info] [Soundcard Volume] [Templates]

Several NoteWorthy Composer fanciers have written utilities to expand the usefulness of NWC, or to manipulate midi files in various ways. In the true spirit of the web, several packages are created by more than one author, often from different continents. These proggies are provided for your use and enjoyment, and are believed to be bug-free, but carry no warranty as to suitability for any given purpose. The authors believe them to be free of viruses, but we suggest you should always scan any executable file with an up-to-date virus scanner before running it.

[NWC mpc's] [GM Controllers] [SB Live! info]

With the addition of new multi-point controllers (MPC's) in NoteWorthy Composer V1.70, several individuals contributed information which will be useful in implementing these in your work. The NWC mpc table gives the controller numbers accessed by the various mpc's, and the GM Controllers tables give the function of all the General Midi Voice Messages and Controllers. The SB Live! info link will be useful to owners of this popular sound card. We hope to publish similar tutorials for other cards as users supply them.

Fonts

• David Palmquist has provided a really handy nwc file Font Settings that will help you to identify required text symbols
• BoxMarks.zip, Barry Graham's famous font (updated Dec. 98) containing all the work-around characters that we've been using for the last year. Trills, mordants, glissandi, arpeggio marks, rehearsal marks (hence the name), they're all here, and many more. The zip file includes installation instructions and an example NWC file.
• Boxmark2.zip: Beta 1 of the latest update to Boxmarks, by marsu (aka Dominique Portier). All the symbols in the original Boxmarks font were retained, and several new user-requested glyphs have been added. We suggest installing Boxmark2.ttf beta 1 in addition to the original Boxmarks, until such a time as the font reaches final release. Any comments, requests for additional symbols, or other correspondence should be addressed to marsu.
• Geoff Walker has provided a really handy reference sheet for users of Boxmarks and NWCV15. Best if you print this one out.
• NWCJazz.zip: Is a replacement of the standard NWC15 font from Robert Morris, using a style more appropriate to jazz charts. A cute way to freshen up your engraving!
  NB: Because it has the same name as the standard NWC font, you will probably have to install it in Fonts before you can see it. Comes with installation and removal instructions.
• cresc.zip: Pierre Schmidt wrote this often-requested font to insert "hairpins" (crescendo and descrescendo symbols) into your NWC files. Several different sizes are provided.
  This version updated by Robert Allgeyer.
• nworn3.zip, NWC Extra Ornaments, was created by D.G. Catt to augment a few ornaments found in some early works. (Unzip it into your Windows Fonts folder). Now version 3.02 - Updated by Robert Allgeyer
• If you are peeved at the numbers used by NWC to make time signatures, grab this updated version of nwcv15.ttf, modified by Joshua Day to include more common looking numbers. (Close NWC and save the font to your Windows Fonts folder).
• Bach31pc.zip, is Dr. Yo Tomita's very useful Bach font. It combines a standard Times-Romanish text font with many extra characters to help create musical examples in-line with standard text. It may also be of use for some NWC files. The Bach font is shareware. If you use it, please pay for it.
• tocfug.zip, is a pair of fonts, Toccata and Fughetta, by Blake Hodgetts. Click here to obtain more information about them, as well as ordering information. The fonts, designed for Finale but quite usable with NWC, are shareware. This package is shareware. If you use it, please pay for it.
• Times New Roman Unicode - these fonts contain many more international characters, and are needed to properly display lyrics and other text in some middle-Eastern ethnic NWC files. They can safely replace your existing fonts, or rename them so that you can install/uninstall them as needed. Warning: large file (680k).
• Timeital font - This is a TrueType font supplied by Stan Takis that allows you to use both regular and italic letters in the lyric tool of Noteworthy Composer. It also gives Noteworthy Composer the ability to use breves, or double whole-notes. Full details and example in the file.
• xfonts.zip, how to print or electronically publish band arrangements with drum parts that have X - style noteheads. An auxiliary font and directions as to how to use it. Courtesy of Al Stevens.
• Romital.zip This font solves the problem of how to put both regular and italic characters as lyrics in NWC, using only a single font. It would be useful when a song has lines in different languages. The font achieves this by tossing out characters little-used in the Western languages from the upper codes, and replacing them with italicized versions of the alphabetic characters. The most common accented characters from Spanish, French, Itlian, and German have been retained as italics. The ZIP file contains the font, a GIF character map, and a text description. The font is offered with free public license. Courtesy of Robert Allgeyer.
• Bongos20.zip The ZIP file contains an original, free font "Bongos." Look at the GIF image contained within the ZIP, and it will be apparent what "Bongos" does. This font depicts X-head notes, with or without horizontal connecting line. Although one could use it within NWC as text, its primary intention is as free-standing text in a word processor. Export NWC as WMFs, place them, and add "Bongos" at the bottom.I created this font because some contemporary church hymns (particularly Latino style) have a hand drum accompaniment. "Bongos" does the job, without having to hack NWC.It might also be useful for rap, to the limited extent that rap is useful for anything at all.The font is offered with free public license. Courtesy of Robert Allgeyer. This latest update also has stems in the opposite direction.
• NWslur.zip This font may be used as text within NWC, to place ties and TILTED slurs at various jumps and lengths. There are also some "dashed" ties. From time to time in SATB choral, a slur or tie on the Alto or Tenor line (which must be placed between the staves) interferes with the lyrics, and you may not want to increase the inter-stave spacing. This font allows free placement of the tie or slur. But it would be too tedious to use this approach throughout a composition. (Real NWC slurs and ties must be used if the music is exported to MIDI.) The font also contains pre-made notes sized to NWC, as well as 75% size notes (for use when lyric lines have alternative syllable counts).The font is offered with free public license. Courtesy of Robert Allgeyer.
• fretqwik.zip version 4 A font from Robert Allgeyer for creating guitar tablature diagrams. Virtually any fret diagram can be created, and used as text within NWC or anywhere.
• NoteHedz.zip A font from Robert Allgeyer who writes : This is an updated (version 1.70), original, free public license True Type font. As with my other music fonts, anyone can use it. But portions have been specifically scaled for use with the NWC2 program (portions also work in NWC1).
  Purpose: From time to time, a user requests "shaped notes." These notes use up to 7 different symbols depending on the scale degree (do, re, mi ...) and are part of the 19th century American hymn tradition from the south (formerly known as Dixie).
  NWC2 allows notes to be placed with empty notehead. Symbols from NoteHedz can be placed as text, and are designed to merge with the NWC stems. Robert has also written a number of scripts nwc2-replacescript-pages.zip that would assign the correct symbol depending on scale degree and stem direction.
  Also in NoteHedz are fully-formed text notes at 75% of standard NWC size, for use as lead-ins, and a number of other symbols that are not useful in NWC.
• Mus6.zip, Here is a font, from Kevin O'Brien, with 90 slurs that closely match the NWC ones. The are moveable and are designed to fit close to note heads. These are needed when trying to fit 4 part choral works onto 2 staves.

NWC2 ITrees

Instrument trees are used to create and select predefined instruments, with full control over all instrument properties, including bank select, transpose, and default dynamic note velocities. Instrument Tree files are added to a dedicated folder that is controlled from Tools|Options|Folders, so you can override the default location of these files.

• Jeux Itree Provided by Andrew Purdam
• Roland Edirol Orchestral VSTi/DXi instrument Itree Provided by Ertuğrul İnanç.
• Stefan's Cathedral Pipe Organ Instrument Itree Provided by Cliff Bohnson.
• English Organ Instrument Itree Provided by Cliff Bohnson.
• Jeux d'Orgues 2 Organ Instrument Itree Provided by Cliff Bohnson.
• A collection of Itrees for different organs provided by Tony Smedley.
  The following are available:
  AWE Organ, Cinema Organ, English Chamber Organ, English Organ, Jeux d'Orgues, Jeux.
  If you need the associated soundfont files, then search the Internet for the following names: aweorgan.sf2, cinema_organ_c102.sf2, english_organ_102.sf2, Jeux14.sf2, JJs_Eng_Chamber_Organ1.sf2 and Orgue.sf2

Soundfonts

Soundfonts are palettes of (generally) musical sounds that can be uploaded into any soundcard that supports them, eg Soundblaster AWE-32 and AWE-64. They are normally used to provide special sounds not well supported by the General Midi sound set, and are generally selectable within NWC using bank select. Consult the soundfont's and your sound card's documentation for more directions on how to do this.

• Church Organ Eax configuration file, supplied by Paul Beelen, can be used by Soundblaster Live! owners. You can import the 'church organ.ea2' via the Audio-HQ options. Once this file is installed, you can select this audio-effect; every song you play (it doesn't matter if you play them with nwc-player or with the browser plug-in) will be played with the church organ soundeffect. Note - You may need to right click the link and select "Save Target As"
• Hammer Sound is one of the best libraries of Soundfonts on the net. Have a look for other General Midi and special libraries.

How to use Jeux and AWEOrgan soundfonts in NWC.

1. Using your favourite text editor, find and edit the file NTWPatch.ini, it will be in your NWC program folder. Have a look, and you'll see how to insert the info from the attached NTWPatch-Jeux.txt (and/or NTWPatch-AWEOrgan.txt for AWEOrgan soundfont). You'll only need to do this step once, or repeat it if later NWC installations clobber this file (in which case, make a copy).
2. Using your soundcard software, load Jeux into user bank 42 (this will also load bank 43 if you are using the latest version of Jeux, which includes Jeux Romantique). This is the standard for Jeux soundfonts.
   Typically, AWEOrgan uses bank 1, but this sometimes clashes with other banks provided by General Midi soundfonts.
3. 1. In NWC, select instrument, for a staff. Check "Select a patch bank". For some soundcards, set controller 0 to 42 for Jeux, 1 for AWEOrgan. In other soundcards, you may need to set controller 32. This is a real pain, as this makes files less portable? (Can someone confirm this? - I use Controller 0).
   2. Choose Jeux (or AWEOrgan) from the Patch Type, and choose whichever organ stop takes your fancy.

NWC Files

• Various Utilities Warren Porter has a suite of webpages to create or modify nwctxt or NWC clipboard data. Included are tools to convert from abc notation, create guitar chords and twelve tone rows, modify dynamics or duration of a NWC file, and assist with user tips on n-tuplets and triplets.
• Channel Test.nwc A file submitted by Warren Porter which will test each midi channel
• Patch Test.nwc A file submitted by Warren Porter which will give you an example of each of the 128 GM sounds that your sound card can produce.
• Partial Layering A file submitted by Tony Hyman which gives you an example of partial layering. Instructions :
  1. Copy 2nd stave into a new 3rd stave.
  2. Delete sections not to be layered.
  3. Edit note stems accordingly.
  4.Layer staves 1 and 2
  5.The part should now read and sound as a layered piece using Nwc.
• Multibar_rests.nwc supplied by David Palmquist. Instructions are in the file info but just keep it open, and copy the appropriate hidden bars and visible text-based multi-bar rests into your song file. Needs Lawrie's SwingDings font set up as UserFont 3, size 16
• GuitarStrum.zip An easy way to achieve an otherwise difficult and time-consuming effect, namely, natural-sounding strummed guitar chords in NWC files. Submitted by Milton Orgeron
• reset.nwc, NWC file that performs as many MIDI controller resets as is useful (most recently tinkered with by Fred Nachbaur).
• Blanks.zip, various blank score forms and templates contributed to the newsgroup by Ertuğrul İnanç and Jeff Adlon using the new "hide anything" features of V1.70. Further corrections and refinements Jan. 2001 by Grant Hicks.
• Compasses.zip, two NWC files which describe the compasses (ranges) of many popular instruments and voices. These were definitely a group effort! The compasses are intended as a guide only, and are not definitive.
• Fontmaps.zip NWC files containing font maps that can be used to insert rests, accidentals, and other objects from the native NoteWorthy Composer font (NWCV15.TTF) into your scores. (Submitted by Fred Nachbaur)
• Chordcharts.zip NWC files containing chord charts in treble and bass clef. (Files by Carl Fritsche, submitted by Jan Hjelm)
• drum.nwc NWC file containing names of drum sounds on percussion channel (with several different patches). (Files originally by Howard Starks, expanded and submitted by Andrew Purdam)
• drumkit1.zip ZIP file submitted by Geoff Walker, a combination of an NWC file "palette" of where the normal drumkit sounds are on the MIDI percussion channel, and an Excel file of pointers and reminders.
• rhythms.zip ZIP file of over 800 rhythms and riffs as midi files for importing into NWC. Collected and donated by Barry Graham.
• drumpatterns.nwc Some examples from the above collection, compiled into an NWC file by Andrew Purdam.
• gliss.nwc is an example of how to do a long smoothe glissando, by Fred Nachbaur. You will need to inspect the hidden staves to see how it is done.
• scatriad.zip A summary of major and minor scales in all keys, along with the triad chords and arpeggios, for educational and reference use. Submitted by Tony Wilson.
• xg-full.nwc and xg-cond.nwc are NWC "toolbox" files of sounds available in various banks on Yamaha XG systems. These are as implemented by the DB50XG card and SoftSynths; more advanced devices such as the SW1000XG will support additional sounds not included here. xg-full.nwc is the complete version, one bank per staff, and is therefore easily customizable to your particular implementation. xg-cond.nwc is a condensed version more suited for toolbox use; on both you can use the Goto Bar function to check out the available sounds for any given patch number.
  xg-drums.nwc is a similar file for channel 10 percussion sounds on XG systems (again, as implented on the DB50XG). Not included in any of these files are the TG300B sounds available on many XG systems; these may be provided at a later date. . See also xg.xls below, for a summary in Excel format.
• reset5!.nwc NWC file that performs Midi Controller resets on the first five midi ports. The controllers reset are : Volume, Pan, Patch, Expression,Mod-wheel, breath, reverb, chorus, detune, phaser and pitch-bend. Supplied by Ertuğrul İnanç
• newjazz.zip contains 24 NWC tempo tracks that give a more natural jazz feel than the tracks that use a formula to divide the beat into 2 tempos. The tempos range from 68 to 160 beats per minute. I couldn't get the formulas to work, so these are the result of a lot of trial and error. Each one has "Joe Turner Blues" also included so you can hear for yourself whether they have the right jazz feel. Enjoy! Submitted by Milton Orgeron.
• Jazzyquavers.zip Here is a "helpful file". It's a little spreadsheet that implements Marsu's formula for calculating swung notes in jazz or in other styles. Submitted by Geoff Walker

Explanations

• If you want some help with running the user tools found in the Scriptorium,
  then why not download Lawrie Pardy's invocation instructions available accessed from each user tool information page
  and also, for ease of access, here : Invocation Instructions.
  Please note that these instructions Please note that these instructions have been updated for NWC Version 2.75.
• Harald Mueller has produced extremely useful keyboard templates for use with NWC version 2.75
  Cheat Sheet in English fomatted A4
  Cheat Sheet in English formatted Letter
  Cheat Sheet in German formatted A4
• Lead Sheets in NWC2.pdf, Need to know how to put together a lead sheet? This instructional document from Lawrie Pardy will show you on a step by step basis
• Dynamics.pdf, Tina Billett's instructional document containing all you ever wanted to know about dynamics, velocity and volume.
• MPC Guide, Tina Billett's instructional document containing a very good introduction and grounding to the use of Multi Point Controllers in NoteWorthy
• brasband.txt, Fred Nachbaur's condensation of useful points by Jonathan West, Matt Johnson, Neeraj Mathur and Carl Fritsche about brass band instrumentation and orchestration.
• scoreorders.txt A very useful couple of lists of how to order parts in a full score.
• neut1316.txt An explanation of "Neutral Thirds and Sixths in 17/33 System" ("Notes on Eastern Tone System III") by Ertuğrul İnanç. With example nwc file.
• The Scriptorium has put together an excellent "Ranges of Musical Instruments" spreadsheet which will be indispensable for anyone writing orchestral or band pieces. Available in the original Excel 2000 format, also readable using Excel 97. If you don't have a recent version of Excel, download the PDF version (requires Acrobat Reader.)
• XG.xls A table of available sounds for Yamaha XG users, The first column gives the standard GM sounds, the other columns give the sound produced in different banks. In NWC, set Controller 0 to 0, and Controller 32 to the desired bank number.
• Anndra MacEanruig's Orchestration Notes, parts One and Two (PDF files).
• Complements of Geoff Walker Transposing Instruments There are two files included : A file that gives the written note when the sounding note is middle C. It will help you to set up the correct transposition when writing for transposing instruments. A File that shows the keys to be written for various transposing instrument groups, with the tonic in each key.
• Jonathan Bel. has supplied a file containing the ranges of many different common instruments.

VST setups with NWC

• Thanks to Lawrie Pardy for a very useful introduction to VST. VST for Dummies Like Me This is in pdf format.
• Rich Nagel has supplied this document that explains how to set up the BASSMIDI Driver with NoteWorthy Composer. Twelve steps to NoteWorthy Composer Midi Music Goodness (Updated August 2012) This is in pdf format.
  
  Also he has provided a BASSMIDI SoundFont Compatible MIDI Synthesizer Driver MIDI Implementation Chart and System Exclusive Messages Chart.
  
  Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth
• The Web Master, Richard, has provided a tutorial pdf document that will take you through setting up Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth on your computer so that you can enjoy Soundfonts.
  
  The document has many worked examples and there is a resource pack that goes with the tutorial containing all you need to get started and to work through the examples.
  Nearly Everything you wanted to know about Setting up and using Soundfonts within the NoteWorthy family using Coolsoft’s VirtualMIDISynth.

Macros to use with NWC

• Ntworthy.rec is a macro file to use with Windows 3.1's RECORDER.EXE program (which also more or less works with Win 95). The macros are for use with Noteworthy Composer (though only tested on NWC 32 bit version - NB: window names may change between versions, rendering the macros useless), and include "single" (Ctrl-Shift-letter) key commands to: "tripletise" triplets imported from midi files, enter octaves quickly, change accidentals in chords, change enharmonic spellings, move non-notes up and down, enter chord and inversions, double sharps and double flats. More details and instructions are available in the Property part of each macro. (Submitted by Andrew Purdam)
  Sometimes these macros look as if the computer has hung for 10 seconds. That normally indicates that the cursor was incorrectly positioned and the conditions weren't correct for the macro to work. When the system returns from limbo, click on the Recorder button on the task bar, read the explanation as to why the macro failed, read the Properties part of the macro to make sure you were positioned correctly, and try again.
  Microsoft no longer ship recorder.exe with Windows, making Windows 95 and 98 no longer backward compatible with Win 3.1. I guess it is no longer "supported" by them. To make Win 95/98 more functional, you will need recorder.exe, recorder.dll and recorder.hlp (37k). Simply extract them to your system directory. Use of recorder.exe - like all Microsoft software - is at your own risk, but we haven't had any big problems with it.
• RecEdit.zip (147k), is a free utility written by Greg Wolking and provided by Ziff-Davis (PC Magazine October 1995). It allows you to edit MS recorder.exe macro files, making macro recording a much more useful option.

MIDI Utilities

• gm_reset, is a sysex-based midi file to reset the soundcard (useful for getting rid of lingering controller settings). NB: May unload soundfonts.
• Chord Splitter is a Visual BASIC program for Win9x by Drake Donahue, which allows you to split a staff containing chorded notes into several monotonic staves. Export the desired staff as a Type 0 midi named chordmid.mid and run the program; it will generate a new midi file called splitmid.mid which you can then re-import into NWC for further editing, etc. Also available are a Q-BASIC version, a Win3.x version (needs VBRUN300.DLL), as well as a stand-alone Self-executable DOS version, all compiled by Richard Woodroffe.
• Drumkit.zip This is what you need to do standard drumkit notation in NWC. This zip file contains a Qbasic utility written by Barry Graham, to convert a midi drum track to notation - or - notation to a midi drum staff in NoteWorthy Composer. The destination notes are customizable through data statements in the program. The file also includes a Visual Basic version written by Drake Donahue. (Win9x only.) There are several NWC score files showing how to use the programs including a description of how to set up the Windows 3.x Midi Mapper to play your written drum notation.
• Drum Conversion Another superb conversion kit (Version 1.10) from Barry Graham. This zip file contains the entire Drum Convert program including exe, dll and data files. The contents of the zip file should be extracted to a suitable folder - Drum Convert (for example). It does a one-way conversion from MIDI sound to MIDI notation that can be imported into NWC as a drumkit track. The original MIDI file must first be prepared by importing then saving as a MIDI file from NWC. The Help text file explains all - and is available "on-line" when running the program.
• MidiExp-V.2 is a little QBasic program (and converted DOS executable for those without QBasic) which takes music (not percussion tracks) and expands and/or inverts notes to provide very easy (and often interesting!) counterpoints for reimporting back into NWC. Also available is BRUN45 which is the runtime package needed for the standalone exe. Contributed by Barry Graham.

Harmony Utilities

• harm24b.exe (V2.4b) by Fred Nachbaur is a Harmony Analyzer package (including harmonic.exe, miditemp.exe and pianotun.exe) which lets you design your own N-tone scales, experiment with different tempers, compare scales against the harmonic series, and even give the required notes and pitch-bends to make your new scales work with NWC Midi.
  VERSION 2.4b FEATURES:
  • Direct import from Manuel Op de Coul's database of over 2000 scale temperaments, or load *.scl files directly. Get the full database from the Scala Home Page.
  • Adjust centre frequency (tone centre) from A=392 to A=494.
  • Improved editor accepts decimals, fractions or cents input.
  • Fully usable with Windows 3.x or 9x (ico and pif files included).
  • Insert, delete or re-order scale tones.
  • Play individual scale tones or the entire scale via the PC speaker.
  • Midi note "shift" option.
  • Self-extracting executable installs into C:\HARMONIC by default.
  • "Midi-Temper" tempers midi files with single notes (no overlaps or chords) according to .dat file exported from Harmonic Analyser.
  • "Piano-Tuner" tempers single-voice (e.g. piano, harpsichord) midis by mapping each note to a separate channel. Chords allowed.
  • Either tempering program can now be called from within the Harmonic Analyser environment, using current data.
  • Read harmonic.txt, miditemp.txt and pianotun.txt for full instructions
  Options for how to temper a NWC file are discussed by Andrew Purdam.

Converting between NWC and ABC

• Warren Porter has a webpage to convert abc clipboard data to nwctxt and it includes links to shortcuts which finish the conversion to a nwc file.
• Bryan Creer has created a means for converting between NWC and ABC formats. This allows you to access the huge number of ABC files on the net, as well as "publishing" your NWC file in another form. Go to http://www.abacusmusic.co.uk/.

NWC Multi-Point Controllers

Each of the controllers shown below is used in the example file MPCs.nwc so you can easily check which controllers your midi card supports.

Significant General Midi Controllers

(Not all are implemented on your soundcard. see your Midi Implementation Chart)

SBLive Effect Settings

In the Environmental Audio applet, click on the Source tab. You can specialize what effects you want for Wave/DirectSound, CD Digital, SPDIF, and whatever analog source (such as CD Audio or Microphone) you have set as the Recording Device. For instance, if you do not want your wave files to have any reverb or chorus, set them to 0% on the Source tab."

What this means:

For those of you with SBLive, there are three tabs in the Environmental Audio control: Master, Source, and MIDI. MIDI tab is where you specify what effect is to be assigned to each MIDI controller (reverb and chorus by default to 91 and 93). In the Source tab, you specify what sources OTHER than MIDI should receive effects (WAV, MIC, CD analog, etc.).

Finally, the MASTER tab is the key here. If the master tab is set to 0%, no source or MIDI will exhibit the effects. The Master tab is the "final say" on how much effect will take place on the other sources and on MIDI.

For example, you set WAV to 60% reverb on the SOURCE tab. On the MASTER tab, you set reverb to 50%. The WAV playback will have 30% reverb -- 50% of the original 60% you asked for on the WAV source.

With MIDI, it seems you set the % amount with the Controller command itself. But the MASTER tab still controls how much of that % will be realised.

For more information on using the SB Live! to the fullest, be sure to visit Lars Ahlzen's Live! Center page. Included on the site is a midi page from a Live! perspective, as well as midi information of a more general nature.

Soundcard Volume and Velocity

Fred has done a mini-study on the velocity response (loudness vs. dynamics setting) of various common sound cards and synthesizers. The results are summarized in a PDF document, sndcards.pdf. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader 4 or 5, and have the browser plug-in enabled, just click on the link to view online. Or download, and view/print offline.

Templates

• Template for using percussion on a standard key size synth keyboard Provided by Shawn Harvey. Print it, cut it out, then slide it behind the keys of a standard key size synth keyboard as a reminder to the drum sounds