Since the MMD got going again, I've been avidly following the
discussion of organ scales, need for chromatic notes, etc.  Someone
mentioned the value of computers to modern arrangers, so let me
describe a useful feature that I added to my LINUX music composition
program a few months ago, to help me arrange tunes for my monkey
organs.

If I click on the "Legalize" menu button, my program silently "plays"
the score currently in memory, and remembers which of the 128 possible
MIDI note pitches got played.  These are the "legal" notes.  The
"score" I use is just a musically notated scale of the organ.

Then I read in another score and punch "Check", and again the program
silently plays it, but verifies that each pitch that would have been
played is in the "legal note" list.  If not, the program puts up a
warning window and highlights the offending note, one at a time.  That
way I know which notes are out of range or missing.

For years my program has been able to transpose a piece to any key,
so I can try the music in 3, 4, or 2 flats (the natural keys of a
31-note Raffin organ).

Do any commercial composition programs have the "legal check" feature?
I doubt the makers of Cakewalk or Finale would recognize a street organ
if they got run over by one in downtown Amsterdam :-)

Mike Knudsen

 [ I use "Strip Data" in Master Tracks to selectively cut the
 [ notes within the "legal" range and paste them into another track.
 [ Anything leftover is "illegal".  -- Robbie