Denemo lets you create musical scores. You can type music in using the keyboard or play it in using a MIDI contoller or the microphone input. You can edit your music - the display shows you what you are working on in music notation - and you can playback to check how it sounds. You can preview and print the score or parts to the highest standards used in the music publishing industry - thanks to the Lilypond music typesetting program.

Denemo does not attempt to show the appearance of the finished score, it just shows you enough to enable you to enter the music efficiently. To see the finished score you press Print Preview.

Dependencies

To build Denemo from a source package, the following dependent packages should be installed first. Remember to install the development packages as well (check your distribution for the specific package name):

	For Debian Users
	Type apt-cache showsrc denemo at a command line to determine what are the package names for Denemo dependencies. Type apt-get build-dep denemo to build the dependent files or use apt-get to install the packages individually by copying and pasting there names to the command line.

• g++ 2.95 or higher

• flex 2.5.4a or higher

• bison 1.35 or higher

• cdbs

• gettext

• libgtk2.0-dev

• gtk+ 2

• libglib2.0-dev

• libxml2

• libxml2-dev

• LilyPond 2.4

• autoconf 2.59 or higher

• automake1.7

• libaubio

• libfftw3-dev

• libportaudio

Most people will start with playing around with Denemo via the pc keyboard. The default setup means that keys a-g represent the note names and 0-6 the different durations (whole note, half note etc). When the cursor is on blank space pressing key "0" then key "a" will append a whole-note A, pressing "1 b" will append a half-note B etc. If the duration is not changing you can simply type the note name, it will use the last entered duration. There are commands to set sharp/flat/double-sharp/double-flat for the next entered note and to sharpen or flatten using the keys +/- with the shift key for editing.

When the cursor is moved on to a note (with the arrow key right or mouse) then a-g edits the note name. To insert a note before a note at the cursor use A-G. When the cursor is on a note the keys 0-6 change the duration of the note, while Shift-0 6 insert a note before the cursor. (If you use the numeric keypad you can use Shift-KP 0-6 for this). The arrow keys move the cursor around, the period key adds a dot while Alt-a-g add notes to the chord at the cursor.

Note

When in the appending position the cursor shows as a large blue or red rectangle on a note-position. Blue indicates a note can be appended at that point without overflowing the measure. Red indicates that the measure is already full. When the cursor is a smaller green rectangle it indicates that you are not in the appending position: you can edit the note/object at the cursor or insert before it. The vertical blue line indicates the insertion point.

You can find more shortcuts by exploring the menu system - e.g. under the Notes/Rests menu the Select Duration submenu gives Remove Dot with the shortcut Control-period shown next to the command.

What Happens at Startup

On starting a Denemo up to two music scores (called init.denemo) are loaded, and any actions associated with them are run. The first of these is provided with the system and does essential initialization, the second you can provide yourself in the file ~/.denemo/actions/init.denemo (where ~ means your home directory).

In addition, on startup a set of keyboard and mouse shortcuts, and a selection of optional menu items are loaded. You are offered a choice on startup. Once you have settled on the set you wish to use, and perhaps started to customise it you can save it for next time using "Save as Default Command Set" in the command set manager.

	Note
	You should exit and re-start Denemo after creating a new command set to be sure of getting your keybindings to work.

	Note
	The "Score Titles, Controls etc" checkbox is undocumented, unfortunately. What it does is to show/hide a button bar where Titles and such can be displayed. The menu items you need are under Score->Titles etc and Movement->Titles etc. When you set a title, composer, etc the Titles etc button bar will become populated.

	Note
	The Playback Controls are undocumented, unfortunately. Mostly obvious commands, the lerft/right arrows move the start and end playback point forwards and backwards, while the up/down arrows set the start and end playback points to the current cursor position. See the links from the features list "To-do List" on the website.

Denemo is used via the computer keyboard, MIDI controller or playing in via a musical instrument. Quite a few mouse operations are also included by default. Clicking on the score will select items, and the status bar at the bottom will describe the item clicked. Right-clicking on items in the score allows you to edit any special attributes, (called Directives, see the section called “Denemo Directives”), that they may have. Clicking on the initial clef, key or timesignature lets you edit these, clicking to the right or left of the measures visible moves you forwards and backwards in the score. Selections can be made by dragging with the mouse from one note to another. And right-clicking any menu item gets help and the opportunity to set a shortcuts for the menu item. Furthermore, scripts are available in the menu system that give the mouse further uses.

Figure 1. Main Window

The main window has menus and toolbars at the top. The Titles Etc appear next, along with any extra menu items which you may have placed there (e.g. the Print Part button). With View->Score View checked there is next the drawing area where the music input is displayed. When zoomed out you see just the few measures you are working on. By dragging the red bar at the bottom of the score upwards you get space for more of the music. If you have many staffs they may not all fit: you can still drag the red bar upwards to see several lines of just one or two staffs for instance. With View->Print View checked there is another pane showing the print preview of your score. Below this is a "Console Pane" showing any LilyPond messages while typesetting the music. At the bottom is a status line showing which movement you are in and what sort of object the cursor is on. If there are any MIDI filters that active they will be noted at the right in the status bar. The small colored rectangle is the Denemo Cursor , which shows where notes etc will be added/edited next - the insertion point is marked as a blue vertical bar. Selected music is indicated by a blue background.

The menus in Denemo are unusual: they not only let you do some particular action, but also each menu item lets you enquire what the action does in more detail and lets you set keyboard/mouse shortcuts for the actions. A single keystroke can be set as a shortcut simply by pressing the key while the menu item is selected. You are warned if you are stealing this shortcut from something else. All the extra functionality of menu items can be accessed by right-clicking the menu item, while the usual left click is for executing the action itself. The menus can always be torn off for working with particular items (e.g. working with different movements or with measures, dynamics etc.). Also available by right-clicking is creating new actions - often by modifying ones that are already there.

The print preview window is shown by checking View->Print View. Right clicking in this pane allows you to refresh the print preview (the program hangs waiting for LilyPond to finish). The mouse scroll buttons enable vertical panning and with Control pressed, zooming. Use Ctrl+Shft for finer control zoom

Right clicking in this pane also allows you to choose offsets to apply to items that LilyPond has positioned badly. Or you can select an amount of padding to apply to some object. This is generally a better way of indicating that it is too close to something else, since other objects will move away from it as needed - that is, if you later edit something it will behave more intelligently. The actual editing is always done in the Score View pane, choosing Edit Object while the cursor is on the offending object and then dragging in the Print Preview window to indicate the amount of change required.

The Main Menubar has submenus for overall control of the program. It contains the following submenus:

File

	Note
	This menu has been re-organized, so the following is only a rough guide.

Use the File menu to perform global operations related to storing and retrieving from file systems. The File menu contains the following Menu Items:

Menu Item	Description
New	Create score from scratch.
Open	Open an existing Denemo file.
Add Staffs	Open an existing Denemo file and append the staffs from the (first) movement of it to the staffs in the current movement.
Add Movements	Open an existing Denemo file and append the movements from it to the current score.
Open Recent	Open a file recently edited.
Open Standard Template	Create score from a stock template.
Open from Gallery	Create score from an example in the Gallery.
Open Custom Template	Create score from a template you have saved.
New Window	Open another instance of Denemo.
Open in New	Open an existing Denemo file in a new tab (or "page") so that both can be used at once.
Save	Save the current file.
Save As	Save the current file with a new name.
Save Parts	Saves a set of parts (staves) in LilyPond format.
Export PDF	Run LilyPond on the current file to create a PDF.
Print	Displays the score in a pdf view, from which it can be printed.
Print excerpt	Displays only the selection in image viewer, from which it can be saved.
Print Current Part	Displays one part taken from the score in a pdf view, from which it can be printed.
Score Wizard	Open a Score Setup Wizard.
Close	Close the current score but keep other Denemo scores open.
Quit	Close the current scores and exit Denemo.

Use the Toolbar to access common Denemo commands quickly. The Tool Bar contains the following icons:

Icon	Description
	Creates a new document.
	Creates a new document using the score wizard.
	Opens the Open File dialog box.
	Saves the current file
	Runs LilyPond to convert the current file to PDF and sends it to the printer for printing
	Undoes the last action. (Currently Undo only works for adding notes)
	Redoes the previous undo action. (Currently Redo only works for adding notes).
	Cuts the current selection to the clipboard.
	Copies the selected notation to the clipboard.
	Pastes the current clipboard item at the cursor position.
	Jumps to the first measure of the movement.
	Jumps to the last measure of the movement.

Use this frame to control MIDI playback of the current movement. It has the following controls:

Icon	Description
	Runs DenemoFirst script.
	Runs DenemoGoBack script.
	Moves the start playback position backwards. Runs DenemoGoBack script.
	Sets start playback position to cursor. Runs DenemoStartToCursor script.
	Moves the start playback position forwards. Runs DenemoNext script.
	Runs DenemoRewind script.
	Runs DenemoStop script.
	Runs DenemoPlay script.
	Starts playing back while recording from MIDI-in.(Runs DenemoRecord scriptto do this).
	Moves the end playback position backwards.Runs DenemoGoForward script.
	Sets the end playback position to the cursor.Runs DenemoEndToCursor script.
	Moves the end playback position forwards. Runs DenemoLast script.
Loop	Runs DenemoLoop script.
Conductor	When you press Play the music advances past the cursor only while the mouse is moving.
Reset	Internal Synth only. Performs a reset on the synth. Also resets the start/end play positions to whole piece (the visual display shows just a red bar at the start)
Panic	Jack only. Emits jack panic.
Set from Selection	Sets the selection to be the start/end. Note first use in a session is buggy.
Tempo	For movements with a single tempo this tempo is changed for rest of the playback. If the movement has an embedded MIDI tempo change, the change will be altered proportionally. The movement tempo setting itself is not altered - you are just altering the playback.(See next button or Movements->MIDI Tempo for setting that)
Set Tempo	Sets the overall tempo of the movement to the value fixed by the Tempo slider
Volume	Reduces the current volume by the % set. Again, this applies only to playback and proportionally affects embedded dynamics.
Set	Calls the DenemoSetPlaybackIntervalToSelection script.

Use this frame to control MIDI input to the current movement. It has the following controls:

Icon	Description
	Sets the end sharps and flats to use.
MIDI->Score	Directs the MIDI in to the score or to a MIDI recorder. The MIDI recorder is active when Record button is pressed. When you wish to return to score editing, this button re-directs MIDI-in to the score.
Delete	Deletes your MIDI recording.
Convert	Converts your MIDI recording to Notation. Not yet at all practical!
MIDI status	Tells you how MIDI in will be treated. Press Control/Shift/Alt keys to modify
Switch to Play Along Playback	With this set, when you press Play the music will not advance past the cursor until you play the note. (Mute the current staff to prevent double sounding of notes)

The object menus give you actions (such as insert, delete ...) ordered by the objects (notes, staffs, measures ...) that they act on.

Score

In the score properties dialog things that affect the whole piece can be set, as well as the titles of the current movement. In the score properties dialog you can include directives to apply to all the movements.

	Note
	When a file is loaded it opens with the final movement set as the current movement.

Adding Markings

Dynamics, Slurs, Trills, Tempo Indications, and much more a found in the Markings menu

You can collect together your favorite ones, either by assigning shortcuts, or creating a menu of favorite commands which just invoke the action you use.

Procedure 4. Adding Markings using the Articulation palette

Some ornaments and articulations have been collected together as a palette.

Example 1. 

The Music Snippet toolbar lets you keep a number of snippets of music for pasting into your score. You can enter notes following a rhythmic pattern of a snippet. If you have a pattern in your music that appears many times you only need to type it once. By selecting it and clicking Create Snippet you install that snippet on the toolbar. Then as you enter notes (in Insert Mode) the notes follow the rhythmic pattern chosen. Pressing a duration key goes back to adding notes of the prevailing duration. You can have several snippets like this and switch between them using the space bar (or other keybinding of your choice). Another (more musical) way of entering rhythms is to "drum" them in using the keys on the computer keyboard for quarter-note, eighth-note etc, a curious sort of "musical instrument" where you change key for different durations. Use the numeric keypad for this. Drumming in is quickly learnt and, by playing in the notes rhythmically you can keep your place in the music. Use the immediate feedback option for this, so that you get a bell to confirm when you have completed a measure.

The snippets toolbar is also where "special" notes such as Breve, Longa will appear.

Using Input->Midi or Audio allows you to enter pitches directly. If you have entered your piece of music as pure rhythm you can overlay with the pitches using a MIDI controller or musical instrument with mic, headphones out or pickup attached to your soundcard.

Denemo can take pitches directly from MID input. Select Input->Midi Input. The control panel allows you to choose the enharmonic range. Under Input->MIDI are various "MIDI filters" that allow you to control how the MIDI input is used: with none active the behavior is as if you had entered the notes using the pc-keyboard, but with the following advantages

The MIDI filters are scheme scripts, so they can be tailored to do whatever you wish. One example is a filter that enables you to enter Figured Bass figures by playing the notes corresponding to the figures while holding down the bass note. Another is the "AngryDelete" filter. With this filter on notes are entered normally with the cursor advancing automatically, but if you make a mistake and press the wrong note just hit the next one much louder and it will make the correction for you! MIDI filters are found under Input->MIDI

Denemo can listen for, and detect the pitch of notes on the mic input of the computer; it doesn't attempt to guess the rhythm - such systems do not work well - but you will find that playing the notes in time will help you to play them in, as well as make playing them in a musical experience rather than a chore.

Playing the notes in can be much quicker than using the keyboard since the note octave and accidental are all given just by playing the note. If you are able to play a musical instrument then this will probably be much faster for you than typing note names, octave shifts and accidentals at the computer keyboard. Using the headphones out of an electronic keyboard avoids "noises-off" interfering with the pitch detection. Many microphones and pickups benefit from some pre-amplification - it is worth getting the level right before you begin.

When you select the Input->Audio on the Main Menu the Pitch Recognition window pops up. While the mouse pointer is inside the score drawing area the score is sensitive to pitches heard via the microphone input. The background colour of the score changes to show that the notes will be entered into the score.

There are two ways of using the pitch entry - Overlay mode (default) and Insert mode. The button marked Insert causes notes to be entered into the current measure in the prevailing rhythm - the mode is set to Insert for this. The button marked Overlays overlays the notes already present with the pitches you sound. There is a third button, marked Tuning, which is a state-of-the art musical instrument tuner.

Music is entered into the measure which holds the cursor. If you are overlaying a rhythm already entered, then the first un-overlayed note in the measure is overlayed by the note detected. You can delete the overlay using the regular delete keys, or clear them altogether if you want to start over in a measure. If you are in Insert mode then the notes detected will be inserted at the cursor position.

Use the enharmonic shift to select whether Bb or A# should be entered when you enter the given pitch - you can usefully go as far as B# and Fb.

Use the transpose control to shift up or down by octaves.

Most of the other settings would require study of the Aubio documentation to understand, but the one marked threshold may be useful to make the detection less sensitive to ambient noises if using a microphone with an acoustic instrument.

The best set-up is to plug the headphones-out socket of an electronic keyboard into the mic input, and choose a piano setting on the electronic keyboard.

If you don't have any musical instrument that you can plug directly into the mic in, then you can use an acoustic instrument with a microphone, in which case move your microphone closer or further from your instrument to get reliable detection. Too close and you get double detections, too far and you get missed ones. To check for good detection open a piece of music, set Overlay mode and put the cursor in the first measure and play the piece in – the notes should all turn blue if you have perfect detection. It is worth while getting perfect detection – more than one or two miss-detects per piece of music and you may want to use the Insert rather than the Overlay method.

The Audio Input button introduces a special entry mode where the pitches you play in will overlay the rhythm, appearing as blue notes. You can delete any wrong pitches using the usual delete keys, without deleting the rhythm. In fact if you have an "interloper" (an extra spurious note) you can delete it and the other pitches will all move along to their correct places.

Another method of playing music in acoustically doesn't involve entering the rhythm separately. For this select Input->Audio and then choose Insert instead of Overlays on the Pitch Recognition Panel that pops up. With Insert the sounded notes are entered as in the prevailing rhythm. The same applies if you have MIDI, only you just need to select Insert mode to enter the notes in that case. So by choosing a rhythm (e.g. half-note, quarter-note, or a custom rhythm pattern) and playing in the pitches you can enter the music into a blank score.

Denemo provides different ways to set up scores:

Using Templates to Setup Scores

Denemo comes with a few preinstalled templates. You can also design your own templates as well.

1. Navigate to File, New From Template, The Open dialog box appears.

2. Double click on a template name from the list of templates. The dialog box closes and the template appears.

	Note
	Adjust the clef, key and time signatures as needed.

Denemo allows you to choose which keys activate which commands. It also allows you to choose Mouse press/release gestures (in combination with keys such as Shift, NumLock, CapsLock etc).

To choose a shortcut for a menu item, right-click on the item and choose the Create Mouse Shortcut, or the Edit Shortcuts option. The Set Mouse Shortcut Dialog requires you to set which button and action you want to use and then to hold/lock the keyboard modifier while clicking on the big button. The setting you have chosen is shown, and you click ok to accept it.

To set a keyboard shortcut, and to delete any sort of shortcut, use the Edit Shortcuts menu item. This dialog also allows you to choose a cursor to show while certain mouse actions are underway.

If your choice of keyboard shortcut already belongs to another command, you are warned about this, and given the chance to change your mind or steal the shortcut. Also, you can choose whether to distinguish between keypresses with, say the NumLock down and those without or to ignore it. If the NumLock is set but no command for that key specifically requires it then the setting of NumLock is ignored and the keypress is treated as if the NumLock was off.

The menu item that activates the command shows the shortcuts that exist in bright blue lettering. PrsL-CapsLoc, for example, is the Press action on the Left mouse key while the CapsLock light is on. In the default command set this is linked to the BeginSlur command, so that together with the RlsL-CapsLoc for the release of the left mouse button, you can "draw" slurs by using the mouse. Similarly, Shift with left mouse button (MveL-Shift) is set to allow you to drag notes up and down the staff. (This is using Command MoveNoteToCursor, which is found under Notes/Rests/Edit/Edit Note/To Cursor)

Standard Denemo commands that pop up dialogs will work as usual if no argument is passed to them from Scheme. In general if a string consisting of strings of the form "name=value\0" is passed these will be used and no popup will occur. The field "name" will be given the value "value". The \0 is a NULL character that separates the assignment strings. As a shorthand if there is only one value being passed you can just pass the value. The names of the fields depend on the action being called. So for example

will open the file "myfile.denemo".

This feature is being rolled out, and currently works for