Home Page of Virtual Composer for Macintosh

1. Description
2. Features
3. Requirements
4. Screenshots
5. Manual
6. .mp3 Projects
7. .mov Projects
8. Download
9. Registration
10. Contact

Virtual Composer is a multiple track graphical music sequencer acting as a QuickTime Musical Instruments (QTMI) interface for the Macintosh, designed for perfect execution of complex polyphonic music using either QuickTime's Musical Instruments libraries or using custom SoundFont libraries.

Virtual Composer is intended mainly for performers who want to generate high quality musical executables acting as a musical renderer and sequencer. It is thus predominantly performance-oriented. It is not intended as a musical notator as it contains only a minimal (but sufficient) set of notation capabilities, but can be used as such for simple scores.

Playing is effected via QuickTime's Musical Instruments synthesizers or via SoundFonts so you don't need MIDI cables or external devices. All upsampling and downsampling is done automatically by QuickTime.

Features

1. Sophisticated playback using QuickTime or SoundFonts.
2. Asynchronous animation during playback.
3. Linear channel editor with chords.
4. Channels can be disabled individually both in editor and during playback.
5. Local and global QuickTime controllers.
6. Baroque and modern ornaments with alternate durations.
7. Advanced channel heuristics.
8. Temperaments: Equal, Pythagorean, Modified Pythagorean, Ptolemaic (Just), Mean-Tone, Kirnberger III, Werckmeister III, Kellner Wohltemperirt, Custom.
9. Exports in: AIFF, MIDI, Abc, TEXT, Executable, QuickTime Movie, Disassembly dump, MusicXML.
10. Help window and balloon help.
11. Debugger.

Requirements

1. A fast color Macintosh (clock speeds higher than 120 mHz strongly recommended).
2. MacOS 7.x-9.x or OS X.
3. At least 5 Megabytes of RAM.
4. QuickTime version 2.1 or later (QuickTime 4.1.2/6.x/7.x recommended).
5. The font Petrucci (provided in the distribution package).

Screenshots

You can view program screenshots here.

Manual

The program manual is included with the download in .pdf format and describes the program's more elaborate program functions. You can also read it here.

.mp3 Projects

The projects below have been created by exporting Virtual Composer scores into .aiff's and then encoding them as .mp3's at 128/112 kbits and 44.1 kHz, using QuickTime's Musical Instruments version 4.1.2. Click on an project to download:

1. Crux Voudon by Aeon Music Productions (128 kbits, 0.9 MBs).
2. Don Juan by Aeon Music Productions (128 kbits, 1.2 MBs).
3. Etude No. 5, opus 25 by F. Chopin (128 kbits, 2.6MBs).
4. Gigue from Partita No. III by J.S.Bach, (128 kbits, 1.2 MBs) (arranged by the author).
5. Prelude & Fugue No. 2 from the Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S.Bach (128kbits, 3.6 MBs).
6. Prelude & Presto from Lute Suite BWV 996 by J.S.Bach (128 kbits, 1.6 MBs).
7. Same Prelude (as above) from Lute Suite BWV 996 by J.S.Bach, using a custom Lute-Harpsichord instrument, created by Virtual Composer with samples extracted and multisampled from a Hungaroton commercial CD, featuring Gergely Sarkozy's own Lute-Harpsichord (128 kbits, 0.8 MBs), (consult section on CD Multisampling for details).
8. 3 Part Sinfonia No. 9 by J.S.Bach (112 kbits, 3.4 MBs) (arranged by the author).
9. 3 Part Sinfonia No. 14 by J.S.Bach (128 kbits, 1.1 MBs) (arranged by the author).
10. Goldberg Variation No. 5 by J.S.Bach (128 kbits, 1.2 MBs).
11. Nighfall - Starfall - Abyss by Aeon Music Productions (128 kbits, 3.8 MBs).
12. Fugue No. 4 from the Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S.Bach (112 kbits, 2.6 MBs) (arranged by the author).
13. Fugue No. 5 from the Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S.Bach (128 kbits, 1.2 MBs), using a coupled harpsichord custom sample.
14. 3 Part Sinfonia No. 7 by J.S.Bach (128 kbits, 2.7 MBs) (arranged by the author).
15. Sonata K 224 by Domenico Scarlatti (128 kbits, 1.3 MBs).
16. 3 Part Sinfonia No. 15 by J.S.Bach (128 kbits, 0.9 MBs), using a coupled harpsichord custom sample.
17. Walz No. 11 by Johannes Brahms (128 kbits, 1.3 MBs).
18. Fugue for Prelude BWV 999 by the author (128 kbits, 1.3 MBs) (the score for this fugue can be downloaded here in .pdf).
19. Fugue for Prelude BWV 999 by the author on Church Organ (128 kbits, 1.4 MBs) (the score for this fugue can be downloaded here in .pdf).
20. Four Voice Orchestral Fugue by the author (128 kbits, 1.9 MBs) (the score for this fugue can be downloaded here in .pdf).
21. Four Voice Organ Fugue by the author (128 kbits, 2.1 MBs) (the score for this fugue can be downloaded here in .pdf).
22. Source Unknown, opus 4 by the author (QTMI 4.1.2, MacOS 8, 128 kbits, 1.2 MBs).
23. Source Unknown, opus 4 by the author (QTMI 7.6.6, Win, 128 kbits, 1.2 MBs).
24. Echoes from the Deep, opus 5 by the author (QTMI 4.1.2, MacOS 8, 128 kbits, 1 MB).
25. Echoes from the Deep, opus 5 by the author (QTMI 7.6.6, Win, 128 kbits, 1 MB).
26. Soli Deo Gloria Fugue, opus 6 by the author (128 kbits, 2.3 MB). (the score for this fugue can be downloaded here in .pdf).

.mov Projects

The projects below have been created by exporting Virtual Composer scores into QuickTime movies, hence are playable on any system that has QuickTime installed, with its version of QuickTime Instruments. Click on a project to download:

1. Fugue-Sonate III by P. Hindemith.
2. Fugue No. 10 from the Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach.
3. Don Juan by Aeon Music Productions.
4. Prelude from English Suite No. IV by J.S. Bach.
5. Complete Lute Suite BWV 996 by J.S.Bach.
6. Complete Set of 3 Part Sinfonias by J.S.Bach.
7. Sarabande & Coupled by J.S.Bach.
8. Sarabande & Coupled by G.F. Haendel.

Depending on your System, you must download and install:

^[1]: The table above assumes that you are booting into the indicted OS. The Virtual Composer applications are not guaranteed to work if you are booting into a different OS or if you use the applications in Classic mode emulation from OS X.

^[2/3]: Downloading the application and fonts without the supporting files or the opposite (the supporting files without the application and fonts) will be an exercise in futility/frustration. You need to download both, for the corresponding version of your OS.

^[4]: You may need to install a different QuickTime version depending on your System configuration. For more details, consult the program manual.

^[5]: The fat application is basically identical to both 68k/PPC versions and is provided for people who don't know if they are running on a 68k or a PPC machine (it will run on both). If your machine is a PPC, download the PPC version to minimize download times.

Latest version is 3.5.9, build #0 for MacOS 9 and 3.6.1 for MacOS X.

Registration

The Classic version, Virtual Composer, is freeware. Contact the author of the Classic version for a free registration number. If your system can still run MacOS 7-9, you can edit with the free Classic version and play with the OSX version and vice versa, since files are interchangeable between both versions.

The OSX version, Virtual Composer X is $50 shareware. The unregistered version is fully functional except that you cannot save files in the program's internal format, but you can still save in all other supported formats. You can register online, through Kagi. Please make sure you specify the correct version of Virtual Composer when you are ordering on Kagi's ordering page, because the Classic and OS X versions have different registration numbers. After you register, you will immediately receive a registration number by email from Kagi which you can use to activate the saving function.

Contact

The author of the Classic version can be contacted here. The author of the OS X port can be contacted here.