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Pizzicato Drums and Percussion

Here is a unique software, specifically designed for music notation of drums and percussion instruments.

Everything you need to write your own drums and percussion sheet music, up to 8 staves.

An extensive and easy to follow tutorial helps you mastering every aspect of Pizzicato.

You can define custom drums and percussion maps so that each line of a staff will play the instrument of your choice.

Without being an expert, you can easily create and edit a drum pattern. Pizzicato can play the pattern in a loop while you edit it, so you can intuitively modify it until you like it.

Staves can have from 1 up to 16 lines so that you can create custom presentations of drum sheet music.

Description

1 - User manual and tutorials

2 - Music Notation

Entering music
Fast entry of notes and chords
Clef, key and time signatures
Chords and text
Page layout of the score
Other notation features
Audio to Midi to Score conversion window

3 - Playback of the score

Playing the score
Audio track
Quality sound library
File exchanges

4 - Your advantages - Why choosing Pizzicato?

User Manual and Tutorials

The detailed and progressive tutorials help you to use the software.

Display the on-screen contextual help with a single key.

The detailed music tutorial helps you to understand music notation or review music theory.

Display the note names automatically.

Pizzicato will help you to read a score. Play your instrument while Pizzicato is playing the score as a reference for rhythm. Change the tempo according to your progress.

Music Notation

Just like you create a letter with a word processor, Pizzicato gives you the tools to write, print and hear your music, for the drums and percussion, including timpani, xylophone,...

Entering Music

You can enter the music with combination's of mouse clicks, tool palettes, keystrokes, the virtual piano keyboard, or directly through a MIDI keyboard, step by step or in real time.

The music notation is automatically spaced correctly. You can then zoom in and adjust any aspect of the music notation at any time.

You can add accidentals, tuplets, chords as well as many other standard symbols and hear their influence on the playback of the notes.

Select measures and use the copy/paste function, for instance to duplicate measures or to transpose a melody without the need to rewrite it manually.

You can use and manipulate up to 8 voices per measure.

You can enter music by playing the notes in real time at your tempo, on a music keyboard connected through a MIDI interface (for instance MIDI/USB interface).

Pizzicato displays the score and you can make any correction you want.

You can edit the notes graphically as on a piano roll editor. Music notation is adapted accordingly on the staff.

Fast entry of notes and chords

Using this entry mode, you can select the rhythmic value of a note just by moving the mouse to the right for longer duration or to the left for shorter duration.

You can encode simple music with only the mouse. There is no need to select tools on a palette or to use the keyboard.

A similar mode is used to enter the notes of an existing chord progression, on one or more staves. A simple but powerful note entry mode to translate chord symbols into real notes.

Clef, key and time signatures

You can use the G, F and percussion clefs, standard or transposed (8). Change the clef anywhere in the score.

Select the key signature (number of flats or sharps at the beginning of the staff) and change it anywhere in the score.

You can transpose the score from one tone to another, just by changing the key signature or by selecting an interval.

Specify the number of beats of the measure with the time signature (4/4, 3/4, 6/8,...) and change the time signature anywhere in the score.

Create composite time signatures (3+4/8), advanced key signatures (mixing flats and sharps), free measures (with no time signature), multi-measure rests, and customize the measure appearance and content.

Chords and text

Add chord symbols and convert them automatically to notes on the staff.

Add a title, the composer name or any free text associated to a page or a measure.

Page layout of the score

Adjust the page layout, customize the number of measures for each staff or more generally, layout the music as you want it to look on the page.

Add page and measure numbers, brackets, instrument names, bars and repeats.

Specify the global printing size.

Other notation features

Pizzicato provides all the tools needed for drum notation. Note heads, staves with 1 to 16 lines, the percussion clef and MIDI mapping of instruments are combined to create nice looking drum parts.

Pizzicato will import MIDI files and can split the individual drum instruments so that you can easily edit the parts and print nice drum sheet music.

Without being an expert, you can easily create and edit a drum pattern. You can use the standard notation or the visual piano roll editor. Pizzicato can play the pattern in a loop while you edit it, so you can intuitively modify it until you like it.

Assign colors to notes, based on the note names, the pitches, or individually.

Audio to Midi to Score conversion

Pizzicato can now convert an audio file (WAV) into a score. Play a melody on a flute, guitar, piano,... through a microphone and Pizzicato can help you to transcribe it into music notation.

The Audio/Midi/Score window helps you to adjust the conversion at each step and offers you several features, like for instance:

Adjusting the start of audio notes

Delete, edit and add notes manually

Adjust the measure and beat positions

Work on several voices and staves, based on different colors

Import a MIDI file or record freely in MIDI, without the metronome, and convert it to a nice sheet music by setting the measures and beats intuitively

Record in real time the starts of measures and intermediate beats, by clicking with the mouse

Listen at any time to the audio and/or score version of the music

Record an audio file in real time with a microphone

This new function also helps you to transcribe audio polyphonic files (several notes together), even if it is more delicate to work such files.

Playback of the score

Playing the score

While entering or editing the notes, you can hear them.

You can play the full score or any part of it, starting at any measure. You can even play a section in a loop and still continue to edit the score while Pizzicato is playing it.

You can watch the notes colored as they are played.

The playback takes into account the tempo, accents, nuances, and special effects.

Select the sound you want for each staff of the score, in the percussion instrument families.

Add sound effects by drawing a curve in the effects view, for instance to add the precise shape of a glissando or a crescendo.

If you have a MIDI synthesizer, you can connect it to the computer through a USB/MIDI interface and Pizzicato can play the score by using the sounds of your synthesizer.

Audio track

You can add one audio track and synchronize it with the score.

You can record an audio track to add an acoustic instrument, voices or sound effects.

With the audio editor window, you can directly edit audio tracks. Operations like copy, paste, mix, echo, fade in & out, insert, remove, time inversion, and many others are available to edit the sound itself.

Quality sound library

Pizzicato includes a licensed version of the PapelmediaTM Sound Library, with 1.2 GB of audio samples for a realistic sound rendering of your music. This library is not included with the demo version.

You can assign the percussion sounds to any staff of your composition.

File exchanges

You can create a standard MIDI file from any Pizzicato score and import MIDI files from the Internet or from any other music software and edit or print the score, up to 8 staves.

You can also export MusicXML files to exchange music scores with other music software.

You can export a page or a few measures to a graphic file (BMP) and use this image in a word processor or graphic software.

You can create an audio WAV file from any Pizzicato score, using the full quality of the integrated sound library. You can create an audio file for the full composition and also a separate audio file for each instrument.

You can use these audio files to create a CD with your music compositions.

Your Advantages - Why Choosing Pizzicato?

Whether you are a beginner or professional musician, Pizzicato offers you an easy and user-friendly approach to creating music with a computer.

The music course and software tutorials do not require any music or computer knowledge. They are surprisingly simple to read and apply. It contains a full music theory course, with many examples that combine with the discovery of the tools to enter music. You can then directly apply what you learn in practice. With it, you will be able to understand music notation.

The step by step tutorials show you how to write a score, with many examples. You learn how to use each tool so as to be efficient and save time.

Pizzicato offers free and unlimited technical support through the Internet or email for any question you may have while installing or using Pizzicato.

You can always email technical support from the editor of the software. This guarantees clear, efficient and customized answers within 24 hours during business days.