Hear It See It Music
editHear It See It Music is a free to use format designed to deliver written music and recorded music online via a single web page utilizing a software which is often pre-installed on modern personal computers. The format provides for independent control of both elements of the web page (written music and recorded music). Delivery is via HTML and uses a frameset, dividing the web page into two sections: The upper section, which contains the musical notation, defaults to 80% of the web page window. The lower section, which contains the recorded music audio controls, defaults to 20% of the web page window. These sections may be resized and scroll bars are configured for optimal window usage.
The music notation (file) is displayed using Adobe Reader plug-in (which provides many visual controls). The digital recording is provided via a Flash media player (Adobe Flash Player). The music notation has time code indicated at the beginning of each stave. The Flash media player (example: Flowplayer - Free Software, GPL 3+ license) provides a scrubber bar and time code display so the user may position the music notation relatively to the audio playback. The Flash media player also provides for volume control. The web browser provides some of the visual control of the web page by the Zoom feature as well as shortcut keys, 'up arrow', 'down arrow', 'page up', 'page down' and 'spacebar', though the each section needs to be pre-selected to utilize these shortcut keys.
Links to a web page containing the Hear It See It Music format usually open a new web browser window.
Preparation
editMusical notation (upper section) is often produced using scorewriter software (example: Finale) and exported to pdf format for Adobe Reader. Other means to produce the music notation include scanning handwritten or printed music with time code written at the beginning of each stave then exported to pdf format. Converting files to pdf format may be achieved using appropriate software (example: PDFCreator GPL-licensed free software).
Digital recording (lower section) is often converted from an unprotected audio file format (example: MP3) to Flash Player format (example: FLV). Converting files to pdf format may be achieved using appropriate software (example: Ultra Flash Video Converter - AONE software).
Comparison / Contrast
editOther online delivery systems: Sibelius Scorch and similar systems utilize a synchronized marker in the music notation corresponding with the audio playback that requires a web browser plug-in. These systems only generate audio via a MIDI file. MIDI does not provide for recordings with vocals or acoustic instrument recordings.
Delivery systems using a single Audio / Video formatted file (examples: MPEG, AVI, FLV) present graphics and/or audio constraints not found with the Hear It See It Music format.
Legal Considerations
editThough Hear It See It Music format is free to use, any music used with the format may have applicable copyrights. Applications of the Hear It See It Music format are often restricted (not available the general public) in order to control distribution. Also, the pdf file (musical notation) may be password protected and the HTML code encrypted.
Hear It See It Music format was developed by Dave Myers Music Services, 2010.