Pizzicato is a music composition and notation software. In this guide you will find all its features explained.

1. P i zzicato
ProfessionalVersion

2. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 2
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Full Printable Documentation - Version 3.6 for Windows & Mac OS X

3. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 3
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Table of contents
Table of contents.....................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction To Pizzicato......................................................................................................................................13
Versions of Pizzicato.........................................................................................................................................13
The user manual of Pizzicato............................................................................................................................14
Goals of Pizzicato..............................................................................................................................................15
The mouse.............................................................................................................................................................16
What is the mouse?............................................................................................................................................16
Buttons of the mouse.........................................................................................................................................16
Pointing ............................................................................................................................................................17
Clicking ............................................................................................................................................................17
Double-clicking ................................................................................................................................................17
Clicking/dragging..............................................................................................................................................17
Installing Pizzicato................................................................................................................................................18
Installing Pizzicato............................................................................................................................................18
Starting Pizzicato...............................................................................................................................................19
License registration...........................................................................................................................................19
Exit Pizzicato.....................................................................................................................................................20
The computer and its interface (1)........................................................................................................................20
What is a computer?..........................................................................................................................................21
Communicating with a computer......................................................................................................................21
The screen and windows...................................................................................................................................21
Menus................................................................................................................................................................26
Dialog boxes......................................................................................................................................................28
The computer and its interface (2)........................................................................................................................29
Buttons...............................................................................................................................................................30
Check boxes......................................................................................................................................................30
Radio buttons.....................................................................................................................................................30
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..............................................................................................................................................................38
What is help?.....................................................................................................................................................38
The help menu...................................................................................................................................................38
How to use help?...............................................................................................................................................38
Reaching contextual help..................................................................................................................................39
What's new in version 3.6......................................................................................................................................40
Pizzicato Professional 3.6..................................................................................................................................40
8 new Pizzicato versions in 3.6.........................................................................................................................45
MIDI Setup............................................................................................................................................................46
What is MIDI?...................................................................................................................................................46
MIDI configuration...........................................................................................................................................48
Select a synthesizer...........................................................................................................................................51
Introduction to the music course...........................................................................................................................52
The purpose of this course.................................................................................................................................52
Material needed.................................................................................................................................................52
How to use this course?.....................................................................................................................................53

4. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 4
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Music notation.......................................................................................................................................................54
What is music?..................................................................................................................................................54
Characteristics of a sound..................................................................................................................................54
Music notation...................................................................................................................................................55
The staff.............................................................................................................................................................55
The measure......................................................................................................................................................56
Summary...........................................................................................................................................................58
Handling documents and windows (1)..................................................................................................................58
What is a document?.........................................................................................................................................58
The document manager.....................................................................................................................................59
Opening and creation of a document.................................................................................................................61
Opening several documents at the same time...................................................................................................62
Musical notation examples....................................................................................................................................62
Note pitch - example.........................................................................................................................................62
What is a clef?...................................................................................................................................................63
Note duration - example....................................................................................................................................64
Instrument timbre - example.............................................................................................................................64
Note amplitude - example.................................................................................................................................64
Handling documents and windows (2)..................................................................................................................65
Handling musical documents............................................................................................................................65
The various Pizzicato windows.........................................................................................................................66
The score view and the global view..................................................................................................................66
The instruments view........................................................................................................................................66
The sequencer view...........................................................................................................................................67
The piano roll view............................................................................................................................................68
The graphic view...............................................................................................................................................69
The musical effects view...................................................................................................................................69
Association of a comment.................................................................................................................................70
The scrolling score view....................................................................................................................................70
The lyrics window.............................................................................................................................................71
The chord progression window.........................................................................................................................71
The main view and the conductor view.............................................................................................................71
The windows management modes....................................................................................................................71
Measures and staves (1)........................................................................................................................................72
The measures and staves tool............................................................................................................................72
Adding and deleting measures and staves.........................................................................................................72
The linear mode.................................................................................................................................................76
Creating a score in linear mode.........................................................................................................................77
Measures and staves (2)........................................................................................................................................78
How to move a staff?.........................................................................................................................................79
How to modify the width of a measure?...........................................................................................................80
Notes and rests.......................................................................................................................................................81
The name and position of notes.........................................................................................................................81
Rhythmic values of notes..................................................................................................................................83
Rests..................................................................................................................................................................86
Summary...........................................................................................................................................................88
Introduction of notes and rests (1).........................................................................................................................88
How to introduce notes and rests?.....................................................................................................................88
How to delete a note or a rest?..........................................................................................................................89
How to move a note or a rest?...........................................................................................................................90
How to select tools with the keyboard?.............................................................................................................91
Automatic justification......................................................................................................................................91
Characteristics of music notation (1).....................................................................................................................92
Note stems.........................................................................................................................................................92

5. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 5
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Beams................................................................................................................................................................93
More than one rhythmic voice...........................................................................................................................93
Introduction of notes and rests (2).........................................................................................................................94
How to modify the stems orientation?..............................................................................................................94
How to modify the beams?................................................................................................................................95
Characteristics of music notation (2).....................................................................................................................96
Chords...............................................................................................................................................................97
Dotted notes and rests........................................................................................................................................98
Ties....................................................................................................................................................................99
Introduction of notes and rests (3).......................................................................................................................100
Introducing chords...........................................................................................................................................100
Dotted notes and rests......................................................................................................................................102
Changing the note head - Reducing notes.......................................................................................................103
The scale and the accidentals..............................................................................................................................104
The scale and the musical keyboard................................................................................................................104
Tones and half tones........................................................................................................................................105
The sharp and the flat......................................................................................................................................105
The natural.......................................................................................................................................................107
The double sharp and the double flat..............................................................................................................107
Introduction of notes and rests (4).......................................................................................................................108
Placement of accidentals.................................................................................................................................108
Position of an accidental..................................................................................................................................109
Ties..................................................................................................................................................................110
Adjustment of the stem length.........................................................................................................................111
Rhythmic voices..............................................................................................................................................111
Entering notes with a music keyboard................................................................................................................113
The keyboard window.....................................................................................................................................113
How you can introduce notes with the keyboard?..........................................................................................115
The music typing keyboard.................................................................................................................................118
Entering music faster.......................................................................................................................................118
Notes and rhythm............................................................................................................................................119
Other aspects of entering music......................................................................................................................121
Additional functions........................................................................................................................................123
Tuplets.................................................................................................................................................................125
Triplets.............................................................................................................................................................125
Other tuplets....................................................................................................................................................126
Introduction of notes and rests (5).......................................................................................................................126
Adding triplets and tuplets..............................................................................................................................126
The enharmonic tool........................................................................................................................................130
Using the arrow tool............................................................................................................................................131
Using the arrow tool........................................................................................................................................131
Deleting with the arrow tool............................................................................................................................132
Optimal use of tools........................................................................................................................................132
Graphic note entry tool on the staff.....................................................................................................................132
Graphic note entry tool....................................................................................................................................133
Intuitive chords entry.......................................................................................................................................135
Viewing note colors according to chords........................................................................................................137
Using clefs...........................................................................................................................................................138
Octaves numbering..........................................................................................................................................138
Using the bass clef...........................................................................................................................................138
The instrument range.......................................................................................................................................139
Other clefs.......................................................................................................................................................139
Writing conventions........................................................................................................................................140
Using clefs...........................................................................................................................................................141

6. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 6
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Changing the clef.............................................................................................................................................141
Clef characteristics..........................................................................................................................................142
Characteristics of music notation (3)...................................................................................................................144
Braces and groups of staves............................................................................................................................144
Measure numbering and rehearsal marks........................................................................................................145
Special staves..................................................................................................................................................145
Characteristics of staves......................................................................................................................................146
Changing the staff names................................................................................................................................146
Characteristics of staves..................................................................................................................................148
Braces and brackets.........................................................................................................................................149
Measure numbers............................................................................................................................................150
Miscellaneous..................................................................................................................................................151
Lines, size and drums map..............................................................................................................................151
Cross staff beaming and grace notes...................................................................................................................154
Cross staff beaming.........................................................................................................................................154
Grace notes......................................................................................................................................................156
The document manager.......................................................................................................................................158
Configurations.................................................................................................................................................158
Customizing the displayed folders..................................................................................................................159
Files and folders operations.............................................................................................................................160
Adding configurations and areas.....................................................................................................................161
Using templates...................................................................................................................................................162
What is a template?.........................................................................................................................................162
Pizzicato Pro, Notation and Composition.......................................................................................................162
Automatic saving and backup.............................................................................................................................163
Automatic saving.............................................................................................................................................163
Automatic backups..........................................................................................................................................164
Restoring a backup..........................................................................................................................................165
The time signature...............................................................................................................................................165
Using time signature........................................................................................................................................165
Composite time signature................................................................................................................................166
Conventions and examples..............................................................................................................................166
Changing the time signature................................................................................................................................167
Changing the rhythmic content of a measure..................................................................................................167
Up beat and incomplete measures...................................................................................................................169
Key signatures.....................................................................................................................................................169
The major scale of C.......................................................................................................................................169
Tonality...........................................................................................................................................................170
The major scales..............................................................................................................................................170
The minor scales..............................................................................................................................................173
Arbitrary key signatures..................................................................................................................................174
Using key signatures...........................................................................................................................................174
Selecting a key signature.................................................................................................................................174
Changing the key signature during a music work...........................................................................................176
Arbitrary key signatures..................................................................................................................................177
Exercises..........................................................................................................................................................178
Selecting measures..............................................................................................................................................178
What is a selection?.........................................................................................................................................179
Copy and paste................................................................................................................................................179
Selecting several measures..............................................................................................................................180
Partial selection of measures...........................................................................................................................183
Special paste function..........................................................................................................................................185
Specifying the items to paste...........................................................................................................................185
Merging staves................................................................................................................................................186

7. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 7
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Split voices......................................................................................................................................................187
Working in the sequencer and main views..........................................................................................................188
Selecting measures..........................................................................................................................................188
Adding/deleting measures and staves..............................................................................................................190
Creating and handling scores..........................................................................................................................191
Measure parameters.............................................................................................................................................194
Time and key signatures indication.................................................................................................................194
Measures numbering.......................................................................................................................................195
Multimeasure rests..........................................................................................................................................196
Free measures..................................................................................................................................................196
Justification and staff lines..............................................................................................................................197
MIDI....................................................................................................................................................................197
The purpose of MIDI.......................................................................................................................................197
MIDI messages................................................................................................................................................197
MIDI channels.................................................................................................................................................198
The instruments view..........................................................................................................................................199
The instruments view......................................................................................................................................199
Elements of the instruments view...................................................................................................................200
Modifying the staves order..............................................................................................................................207
The scrolling score view......................................................................................................................................207
The scrolling score view..................................................................................................................................207
Control of the scrolling score view.................................................................................................................208
How could you learn playing the keyboard ?..................................................................................................210
Global options and graphic copy.........................................................................................................................210
Advanced global options.................................................................................................................................210
Graphic copy...................................................................................................................................................211
Additional options...........................................................................................................................................212
Real time recording (1)........................................................................................................................................213
Real time recording.........................................................................................................................................213
The recorder and its options............................................................................................................................213
Start recording from the musical keyboard.....................................................................................................216
MIDI play options...........................................................................................................................................217
Real time recording (2)........................................................................................................................................219
Tracks and staves.............................................................................................................................................219
Transcription...................................................................................................................................................219
Quantization....................................................................................................................................................223
Recording multiple voices - Correcting the notes...........................................................................................225
Transposition.......................................................................................................................................................227
Transposition...................................................................................................................................................227
Intervals...........................................................................................................................................................228
Diatonic and chromatic transposition..............................................................................................................229
Transposing and justifying measures..................................................................................................................230
Transposing measures.....................................................................................................................................230
Justifying measures.........................................................................................................................................231
Justification options.........................................................................................................................................233
Page layout..........................................................................................................................................................235
What is page layout?.......................................................................................................................................235
Page setup structure in Pizzicato.....................................................................................................................236
Page layout dialog box....................................................................................................................................237
Page contextual menu......................................................................................................................................241
Modifying the layout of measures and systems..............................................................................................243
Printing the score.............................................................................................................................................244
Show or hide the staves of a system................................................................................................................244
Creation assistant and parts extraction................................................................................................................246

8. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 8
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Creation assistant.............................................................................................................................................246
Part extraction..................................................................................................................................................247
Measures versions...............................................................................................................................................249
Measures versions...........................................................................................................................................249
Duplicate / delete a version.............................................................................................................................250
The main symbols...............................................................................................................................................250
Why add symbols?..........................................................................................................................................251
Nuances...........................................................................................................................................................251
Tempo markings..............................................................................................................................................252
Ornament.........................................................................................................................................................252
Other various symbols ....................................................................................................................................252
Graphic and MIDI symbols.................................................................................................................................254
Palettes, tools and symbols..............................................................................................................................254
Adding a symbol in the score..........................................................................................................................254
Erasing a symbol.............................................................................................................................................256
Moving or resizing a symbol...........................................................................................................................256
The text tool.........................................................................................................................................................258
Creation of a text block...................................................................................................................................258
Moving, modifying and erasing a text block...................................................................................................260
Adding a title / Page numbers.........................................................................................................................261
Bar lines and repeats............................................................................................................................................263
The various bar lines.......................................................................................................................................263
Repeats............................................................................................................................................................263
Other repeat signs............................................................................................................................................264
Bar lines and repeats............................................................................................................................................265
Modifying bar lines.........................................................................................................................................265
Simulation of repeats.......................................................................................................................................266
Lyrics...................................................................................................................................................................268
Introduction of lyrics in the score....................................................................................................................268
Connecting or extending syllables..................................................................................................................269
Adjusting the position of lyrics lines - Note names........................................................................................270
The lyrics fast encoding window.....................................................................................................................272
The chords library...............................................................................................................................................273
Consulting the library......................................................................................................................................273
Modifying the symbols....................................................................................................................................274
Modifying the library......................................................................................................................................275
The chord tool.....................................................................................................................................................275
Adding, moving and erasing chords on the score...........................................................................................276
Adjusting chords globally...............................................................................................................................277
Converting chords into notes...........................................................................................................................278
The chords progression window..........................................................................................................................279
Fast encoding and visualization of chords......................................................................................................279
Chords analysis and search..................................................................................................................................282
Analyze the chords of a score..........................................................................................................................282
Searching chords for a melody........................................................................................................................284
The use of rhythmic voices and colors................................................................................................................286
Rhythmic voices..............................................................................................................................................287
Using rhythmic voices.....................................................................................................................................287
Using colors.....................................................................................................................................................288
Making a note or a rest invisible.....................................................................................................................289
The guitar tools....................................................................................................................................................289
Principles of fretted instruments......................................................................................................................289
The guitar fretboard window...........................................................................................................................290
Tablatures........................................................................................................................................................291

9. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 9
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Using tablatures...............................................................................................................................................292
Tablature parameters.......................................................................................................................................293
Chords diagrams..............................................................................................................................................294
The diagrams library.......................................................................................................................................297
The tablatures library.......................................................................................................................................299
Graphic options and automatisms.......................................................................................................................300
Graphic options...............................................................................................................................................300
Automatisms....................................................................................................................................................302
Reading and writing Midi files............................................................................................................................303
The Midi file....................................................................................................................................................303
Exporting a Midi file.......................................................................................................................................304
Importing a Midi file.......................................................................................................................................305
MusicXML, NIFF and PDF files........................................................................................................................306
What is a MusicXML file ?.............................................................................................................................306
Import a MusicXML or NIFF file in Pizzicato...............................................................................................307
Export a score in MusicXML..........................................................................................................................308
Export to PDF..................................................................................................................................................309
Contextual menus and MIDI data modification..................................................................................................309
Contextual menu of a note...............................................................................................................................309
Contextual menu of a measures selection.......................................................................................................311
Modification of MIDI data..............................................................................................................................312
The musical effects view.....................................................................................................................................313
Musical effects................................................................................................................................................313
The musical effects view.................................................................................................................................315
Modifying the symbol effects..........................................................................................................................317
Creating free musical effects...........................................................................................................................318
The graphic editor...............................................................................................................................................319
The graphic note editor view...........................................................................................................................319
The use of colours...........................................................................................................................................323
Composing drum patterns...............................................................................................................................325
The global view...................................................................................................................................................326
How to open the global view?.........................................................................................................................326
The main header bar........................................................................................................................................327
The staff header bar.........................................................................................................................................331
Composition libraries (1).....................................................................................................................................336
What are the composition libraries ?...............................................................................................................336
Elements of the composition libraries.............................................................................................................337
Composing with the libraries..........................................................................................................................339
Composition libraries (2).....................................................................................................................................341
Creation of a rhythmic cell..............................................................................................................................341
Creation of a melodic cell...............................................................................................................................343
Measures calculation method..........................................................................................................................344
Composition libraries (3).....................................................................................................................................347
Creation of a theme.........................................................................................................................................347
Creation of a chord..........................................................................................................................................348
Combining a chord, a rhythm and a melody...................................................................................................349
Composition libraries (4).....................................................................................................................................351
Creation of a melody folder.............................................................................................................................351
Options of a melody folder..............................................................................................................................352
Multiplying combinations...............................................................................................................................354
Composition libraries (5).....................................................................................................................................357
Creation of a rhythm folder.............................................................................................................................357
Creation of a theme folder...............................................................................................................................359
Creation of a chord progression......................................................................................................................360

10. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 10
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Arranging a melody on chords........................................................................................................................361
Composition libraries(6)......................................................................................................................................363
Erasing, duplicating and moving elements......................................................................................................363
Library options ...............................................................................................................................................365
Libraries in the sequencer view.......................................................................................................................366
Copying libraries between two documents.....................................................................................................366
Summary - example of libraries......................................................................................................................368
Conclusions.....................................................................................................................................................369
Editing a synthesizer...........................................................................................................................................370
Access to synthesizers configurations.............................................................................................................370
Configuring the instruments view.......................................................................................................................377
Why modifying the instruments view?...........................................................................................................377
The instruments view configuration dialog box..............................................................................................377
Editing graphic and Midi symbols (1).................................................................................................................380
Graphic and Midi symbols..............................................................................................................................380
Tools palettes...................................................................................................................................................380
Creating a new palette.....................................................................................................................................381
Importing the tools created with a previous version of Pizzicato...................................................................383
Editing graphic and Midi symbols (2).................................................................................................................383
Creating a new tool - Assigning a keyboard shortcut.....................................................................................383
Bitmap graphic editor......................................................................................................................................386
Editing graphic and Midi symbols (3).................................................................................................................387
Creation of a symbol for the score..................................................................................................................387
The vectorial editor.........................................................................................................................................388
Editing graphic and Midi symbols (4).................................................................................................................397
Creation of a curve..........................................................................................................................................397
The graphic side of symbols............................................................................................................................398
Examples of symbols.......................................................................................................................................400
Editing graphic and Midi symbols (5).................................................................................................................401
Midi effects on the score performance............................................................................................................401
Examples of Midi effects................................................................................................................................407
Modifying a symbol locally................................................................................................................................410
Local modifications.........................................................................................................................................410
Examples of local modifications.....................................................................................................................412
Learning the musical keyboard...........................................................................................................................413
How to learn the keyboard with Pizzicato?.....................................................................................................413
Organizing the screen......................................................................................................................................413
Progressive exercises generator.......................................................................................................................415
Listening to the exercise and learning how to play it......................................................................................416
Fingering.........................................................................................................................................................417
Sounds.............................................................................................................................................................418
Learning progression.......................................................................................................................................419
Learning to play with an accompaniment.......................................................................................................420
Composing music (1)..........................................................................................................................................421
Using the composition libraries.......................................................................................................................421
Contents of the Pizzicato libraries...................................................................................................................422
Composing music (2)..........................................................................................................................................426
sing the accompaniment styles........................................................................................................................427
Structure of a style...........................................................................................................................................430
Composing music (3)..........................................................................................................................................432
What is a chord?..............................................................................................................................................433
Tonality and chords.........................................................................................................................................433
Sequencing chords...........................................................................................................................................437
Composing music (4)..........................................................................................................................................439

11. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 11
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Melodies and rhythms.....................................................................................................................................440
Generating melodies using libraries................................................................................................................442
Instrumentation and effects.............................................................................................................................442
General rules of composition..........................................................................................................................442
Composition tools - The smart link.....................................................................................................................444
The composition tools.....................................................................................................................................444
The smart link..................................................................................................................................................445
The computed measure parameters.................................................................................................................448
Note parameters...............................................................................................................................................449
Rhythm parameters..........................................................................................................................................450
Chords influence..............................................................................................................................................451
Application example........................................................................................................................................451
Adding smart link templates............................................................................................................................455
Composition tools - The conductor view............................................................................................................456
The conductor view.........................................................................................................................................457
Using the conductor view................................................................................................................................459
Playing and grouping scores............................................................................................................................460
Composition tools - Instruments.........................................................................................................................466
Instruments......................................................................................................................................................466
Using the instruments......................................................................................................................................469
Managing the musical objects.........................................................................................................................472
The instrument colors......................................................................................................................................475
Composition tools - Harmonic spaces.................................................................................................................475
Basic principle.................................................................................................................................................475
Using the real time arranger............................................................................................................................476
Editing an harmonic space..............................................................................................................................479
Composition tools - Dragging and dropping scores............................................................................................482
Basic principles...............................................................................................................................................482
A practical example.........................................................................................................................................482
The musical objects and their icons................................................................................................................487
Creating, deleting and editing the musical objects..........................................................................................488
Using the objects in a document......................................................................................................................489
The drag and drop options...............................................................................................................................490
Composition tools - Music generators.................................................................................................................491
Basic principle.................................................................................................................................................492
The musical structure......................................................................................................................................493
A structure inside a structure...........................................................................................................................497
Parameters of a score.......................................................................................................................................499
The generated scores.......................................................................................................................................500
Composition tools - General scales and chords...................................................................................................500
Scales and chords............................................................................................................................................500
Chords and scales library................................................................................................................................501
Assigning chords and scales............................................................................................................................505
Composition tools - The score arranger..............................................................................................................507
Basic principle.................................................................................................................................................507
Using the score arranger..................................................................................................................................507
The harmonic rules..........................................................................................................................................509
The scales associated to the chords.................................................................................................................511
Composition tools - The music vectors...............................................................................................................512
What is a music vector?...................................................................................................................................512
Practical examples...........................................................................................................................................513
The structure of a music vector.......................................................................................................................515
The melodic part..............................................................................................................................................518
The melodic wave...........................................................................................................................................520

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The rhythmic aspect........................................................................................................................................524
The velocity wave...........................................................................................................................................526
Additional examples........................................................................................................................................527
The music vectors library................................................................................................................................529
Composition tools - Virtual keyboards...............................................................................................................530
Virtual keyboards............................................................................................................................................530
Composition tools - The music libraries.............................................................................................................534
The musical libraries.......................................................................................................................................534
A small example..............................................................................................................................................535
The content of the libraries..............................................................................................................................538
Composition tools - Using styles.........................................................................................................................543
What is a style?................................................................................................................................................543
Using the Pizzicato styles................................................................................................................................544
Interactive styles and chords exploration........................................................................................................546
Importing styles from the Internet...................................................................................................................547
Extract the instrumental patterns.....................................................................................................................548
Summary.........................................................................................................................................................549
Composition tools - The graphic vectors............................................................................................................550
Drawing a melodic curve................................................................................................................................550
Assigning a rhythmic structure........................................................................................................................553
Moving and transposing a melodic line..........................................................................................................554
Vectorization of an existing melodic line........................................................................................................555
Applying a rhythmic density...........................................................................................................................555
Changing the velocity......................................................................................................................................556
Audio tracks........................................................................................................................................................557
Audio or MIDI?...............................................................................................................................................557
What is an audio track?...................................................................................................................................558
Adding an audio track.....................................................................................................................................559
Multiple audio tracks.......................................................................................................................................560
Audio setup......................................................................................................................................................561
Using an ASIO driver......................................................................................................................................561
Creating an audio file..........................................................................................................................................562
Export a score to an audio file.........................................................................................................................563
The audio editor...................................................................................................................................................566
Accessing the audio editor..............................................................................................................................566
The various parts of the audio window...........................................................................................................567
Specifying the file area to play........................................................................................................................568
Selecting the working area..............................................................................................................................568
Modifying the selected area............................................................................................................................569
Zooming..........................................................................................................................................................573
File operations.................................................................................................................................................573
Recording an audio file...................................................................................................................................575
Modifying the wave directly...........................................................................................................................576
Miscellaneous options of the editor.................................................................................................................577
The spectral analyser...........................................................................................................................................577
What is an audio spectrum?.............................................................................................................................578
The spectral analysis window..........................................................................................................................578
Working on the harmonics of a sound.............................................................................................................580
The virtual instruments........................................................................................................................................581
What is a virtual instrument?...........................................................................................................................581
Using the virtual instruments..........................................................................................................................582
The virtual instruments library........................................................................................................................584
Importing SoundFont files...............................................................................................................................586
Tuning.............................................................................................................................................................587

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Modular audio synthesis......................................................................................................................................589
Modular audio synthesis principles.................................................................................................................589
Generators.......................................................................................................................................................594
Envelopes........................................................................................................................................................598
Modulators and other operators.......................................................................................................................601
Filters...............................................................................................................................................................604
Audio samples reader......................................................................................................................................608
Tips and advices..............................................................................................................................................612
The purpose of the audio/midi/score window.................................................................................................614
Audio conversion - Example 1 - Guitar..........................................................................................................615
Audio conversion - Example 2 - Guitar..........................................................................................................620
Audio conversion - Example 3 - Flute............................................................................................................621
Audio conversion - Example 4 - Piano...........................................................................................................623
Audio conversion - Example 5 - Polyphony...................................................................................................624
Importing a MIDI file......................................................................................................................................626
Selection of an audio or MIDI section............................................................................................................628
Conversion parameters....................................................................................................................................628
© Copyright 1992-2011
ARPEGE-MUSIC
All right reserved.
29, rue de l’Enseignement
4800 Verviers - Belgium

14. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 14
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Intr oduction 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 3.6 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.

15. Pizzicato 3.6 Pizzicato Professional User Manual – Page 15
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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.
The user manual of Pizzicato