Click on the question to get the answer.
Will there be a Bagpipe Music Writer for the Mac?
There are no plans to develop Bagpipe Music Writer for the Macintosh.
Will Bagpipe Music Writer Gold support tunes written with the old DOS version?
Yes, BMW Gold will handle your old BMW files with absolutely no problem. It will open a BMW file and convert it to the new format, which you then save as a BWW file. You can print your music document directly from BMW Gold, and/or BWW files can be exported as BMP, PCX, or midi files.
BMW Gold does have different codes than the earlier BMW format for a few items, such as ties and triplets. Although the old codes for these items still work, you should “hand convert” them to the new codes after the automatic conversion has been completed; the result is a better looking output.
BMW Gold will not convert BWW files to the old BMW format, but then why would you?
Will Bagpipe Music Writer Gold work with my printer?
If your printer works with windows, it will work with BMW GOLD.
Can I pay by credit card?
Yes. You can either order online through our store and pay by paypal or send us an email and we’ll send you the necessary details to complete the transaction.
Where can I find a list of stores that sell Bagpipe Music Writer Gold?
I’ve entered a tune from scratch. It prints, it plays, but when I try to save it, it does not save. Why?
When you enter a tune from scratch and then try to save it, BMW Gold takes the Title of your tune and inserts it into the File Name for saving the tune. If your tune title contains a character that is not permitted in file names (illegal characters shown on page 71 of the manual), the tune will not save.
The most common example is a tune such as “P/M Bigshot of Smalltown”, where the / character is not permitted in the file name.
To solve the problem, just remove the illegal character from the file name (not the tune title), then save the tune again.
When I include a tie which extends from one line of music to the next, it does not work properly — the tie shows up in the wrong place.
Ties across lines do not work in printing or in playing. This will probably be corrected in a future release. For now, try rewriting the tune in such a way as to keep the tie all on one line.
How can I include an extra space between two particular notes?
Oops! The code for a space is built into the BMW Gold program but it was missed in the documentation. The code is: space
The space is useful for putting separation between notes and for pushing notes around inside a bar, especially when you are using Align Bars.
How can I include quote marks in the tune title?
The BMW Gold title code uses the normal quote marks to start and end the title of the tune (example: “Bonnie Dundee”), so you cannot include these quote marks within a title. If you do wish to include quote marks in the tune title, (example: The March of the “Champion Supremes”) you can. At the point where you wish to open quotes, type Alt-0147 (hold down the Alt key while you type 0147 on the numeric keypad — not the keyboard — then release the Alt key) and where you wish to close quotes, type Alt-0148. Bonus! …these quote marks look better than the regular keyboard quote marks!
How can I change the default settings in BMW Gold?
In BMW Gold version 1.0 you can’t change the default settings, but you can set up one or more templates of your preferred settings. Here’s how:
- Setup a tune with the Title, Type, Composer placements and font settings that you want.
- In the Code Window, select the codes from the start of the file down to just before the first music code. Press Ctrl-C to copy it to the clipboard.
- Click on File, New to open a new tune window. Select the codes in that
window and press Ctrl-V to paste your settings into the new code window
over the existing codes.
- Save these codes in a file, such as: “Title Centered 18 point.bww”. You
can build up several templates of your preferred settings using this method and open one
of them when you start a new tune (just remember once you start entering music symbols
that you must Save As to a new file name).
We will consider adding a “template” feature to the next release of BMW Gold.
If I click on the Help icon (arrow with a question mark beside it) then click on something, I get an error message. Why?
Because Context Sensitive Help is not part of the Help file for BMW Gold Version 1.0x. To access the help topics, click on Help, Help Topics.
Is there a hot-key to update the display screen after making additons or modifications in the music codes screen?
Yes, there is. You can simply press the F5 key which is a generic ‘Refresh’ key in Windows — another undocumented feature in BMW Gold.
Why can’t I place a !I followed by a I! on the same line of music and have them printed that way?
Because it is not the contemporary style of writing pipe music. BMW Gold starts a line of music when it encounters an End of Part symbol to ensure that a new part starts on a new line. While old pipe music books printed music this way (because of typesetting limitations), it is not an accepted method now.
How do I get the whole Page Setup dialog box to appear on the screen?
This problem occurs on some computers when the Display configuration is set for Large Fonts and a small screen resolution. This dialog box will be reduced in a later version however, here are some steps to fix this now.
- At the main Windows screen, click on Start, Settings, Control Panel.
- Double click on Display icon then click on the Settings
tab.
- In the Font Size area, change to “Small Fonts” from “Large Fonts” OR in the Desktop Size area, increase it to 1024 x 768 (if your monitor can operate at that resolution) or higher.
- Click OK then click File, Close.
My music is running off the right-hand side of the page. How do I fix that?
Click on File, Page Setup, and adjust one or both of the Space (under Spread Tune to Fit)and X Scale Symbols(under Scale Options).
Space: Decreasing the percentage will push the melody notes closer together.
X Scale Symbols: Decreasing the percentage squishes the symbols horizontally.
Reference: pages 77-79 of the user manual.
I don’t seem to be able to print out any tunes that are more than 9 lines of music. I thought selecting “To Fit Print Area” would do that for me.
In Page Setup, change the staff height from a fixed value to 0.0″. This causes the staff height to automatically adjust to whatever is needed to make the tune fit the page. This works for either Portrait or Landscape page orientation.
Which version’s of Windows is BMW Gold compatible with? Is there 64-bit support?
Yes, Bagpipe Music Writer Gold works on all Windows Operating systems from Windows 95 to Windows 7. Yes, Bagpipe Music Writer Gold is also 64-bit compatible.
In a file with more than one tune, if “Align Bars” is selected in Page Setup, the staff widths of the tunes do not stretch across the page, even though “Spread Horizontally” is selected. Why?
This is a bug that will be fixed in a later version. This can be easily demonstrated by bringing up the sample tune “The High Road to Linton, Kate Dalrymple, Jock Wilson’s Ball.bww”, selecting Align Bars in Page Setup and then doing a Print Preview.
Can I print multi-line footers or fixed text?
No. You would have to do that with several “Fixed Text” tags.
The ‘224 timeline code does not play the second time of the fourth part at all.
This is a bug that will be fixed in a later version. In the meantime, if you want it to play correctly, you will have to duplicate that passage as ‘2 in the 4th part.
I have a tune file that causes BMW Gold to lock up and I have to restart my computer. What is the problem and how do I fix it?
There is a bug in the error processing of incorrectly placed tie start and end symbols (for example: ^ts C_4 ^te C_4 instead of ^ts C_4 C_4 ^te will cause the program to lock up). This situation is most likely the cause.
To fix this problem:
- Click on Start, Programs, Accessories, NotePad.
- Click on File, Open. Change Files of Type to “All files *.*“
- Navigate to find the problem BWW file and open it.
- Correct the placement of the tie codes and File, Save the tune.
- Click File, Exit, run BMW Gold again, and open the fixed tune.
What brand of sound card do I need to get real Bagpipe Sounds?
As of January 20, 2010 you don’t need a specific sound card to get Real Bagpipe Sounds, any computer with a sound card will work. To find out how to get Real Bagpipe Sounds working on your computer, Click on the question below called “How do I get Real Bagpipe Sounds working on my computer?”
Any sound card which support EMU SoundFonts® will allow you to produce Real Bagpipe Sounds (professional piper quality chanter and drones sound) when playing tunes.
Creative Labs® AWE32, AWE64, Soundblaster LIVE!, and Soundblaster LIVE! Value cards support Real Bagpipe Sounds. We understand that EMU-8710 or EMU-8710PS PCMCIA sound cards, produced by E-MU/Ensoniq® will allow you to get Real Bagpipe Sounds out of your notebook computer.
When using Real Bagpipe Sounds, adjusting the bass drone volume has no effect.
Currently in using Real Bagpipe Sounds the bass drone and tenor drone sounds are integrated into the Tenor Drone volume control. The bass drone volume control has no effect. This will be corrected in a future release.
The program will only play the Real Bagpipe Sounds when you have the Note Mapping set to ‘Low A at B flat’ ?
This will be corrected in a future release.
How do I get Real Bagpipe Sounds working on my computer?
To let us use Real Bagpipe Sounds on any computer we are using a program called “Synthfont”. It basically emulates the Real Bagpipe Sounds sound file. Listed below are the steps from listening to it in BMW and listening to it in Synthfont as Real Bagpipe Sounds.
Step 1 – Download Synthfont
• Go to http://www.synthfont.com, Click “Downloads” and download the “Full Installation Package”
Step 2 – Install Synthfont
• Once the download has finished, launch the setup. The setup is fairly simple and doesn’t require any instructions.
Step 3 – Using Synthfont
• Once the installer has finished installing Synthfont, it will ask you before it closes if you want to open Synthfont, check the box and click Finish.
• Synthfont is now open. First, click the box in the middle of the program named “Synth Options”
• At the top you should see some text that says “Set various options (in “Synthfont.ini”), right below this text there is a tab called “Files and Folders”, Click on that tab.
• Once your inside the tab you should see a section that says “Default Soundfont File”, click the Select button inside this section.
• A finder window should now open up, please navigate to the following folder depending on your operating system.
If you have a 32 bit Operating System:
“C:\Program Files\Bagpipe Music Writer Gold”
If you have a 64 bit Operating System:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Bagpipe Music Writer Gold”
• You should see a file named “bagpipe.sf2”, Click on the file and Click Open. Now that you’ve selected the file, Click the OK button at the bottom of the window.
Step 4 – Exporting a tune in BMW
• Now that you have Synthfont setup, it’s time to export a tune so that you can play it in Real Bagpipe Sounds.
• Open any tune in BMW Gold. Click Configure -> Set Play Options. Make sure that your note mapping is set at Low A at B flat, if your not sure if it is or not just click the Set button to the right of “Low A at B flat”
• Once you’ve set the note mapping at “Low A at B flat” click the OK button in the top right corner of the window. Now click File -> Save as MIDI. You can save the MIDI anywhere you want just make sure you’ll remember where your saving it. Saving it to the Desktop is always a good idea.
• Once you’ve exported your tune as a MIDI, go back into Synthfont.
• Once your inside Synthfont, click File -> Open MIDI/Arrangement File and find the MIDI Tune you just exported from BMW.
• Once you’ve found the file, click on it and click Open. To play the file just click the play button in the middle of the screen.
• That’s it. Just follow these simple instructions each time and you’ll be listening to Real Bagpipe Sounds every time!
Synthfont also allows you to save your tune in Real Bagpipe Sounds as a WAV File, to do this just click the “Play to file” button at the top of the screen.
How come when I launch BMW Gold the music window is black?
This basically means that the BMW Gold fonts were not installed. You must manually install them on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Each version of BMW Gold from January 20, 2010 onwards has a special supplement inside that will step you through the entire install process.
How come I can’t view the help file in Windows Vista/Windows 7?
Microsoft has changed the way they view help files but provided a stand-alone installer to get programs like BMW Gold’s help file up and running again. Each version of BMW Gold (as of January 20, 2010) will have these stand-alone installers for Windows Vista (32bit & 64bit) and Windows 7 (32bit and 64bit) built into the setup. They must be run after the installation of BMW Gold.