Frequently Asked Questions

Click on any question to see the answer.

Every software support site needs a FAQ page.  But, truth to tell, none of these questions have been asked 'frequently' for some years now.  Questions which are asked tend to be asked in our thriving chat/discussion/support group, and if your question is not on the list here, or if you need more detail, we recommend you go there. It is a friendly, sometimes whimsical, place and all are welcome.

 

MIDI playback

There are number of possibilities.

Important background: Mozart uses MIDI synthesis for playback.  This is quite different from audio playback of CDs and various kinds of sound file.  MIDI comprises a set of instructions to a synthesiser which creates the sound.  There is no "recording" as such.  It is possible that your computer is properly configured for audio but not for MIDI.  MIDI is not used by your computer in the normal run of events, and so it is quite possible that you wouldn't know if this were the case.

1)  Is the MIDI output port already in use by another program?  If so close the other program.  (Note that the MIDI port can sometimes be apparently in use if any program has been incorrectly shut down while playing a MIDI file.   In this case the MIDI port will be freed if you restart the computer.)

2) Go to Mozart's GlobalPreferences command and select the Playback tab in the dialogue.   The drop down list at the bottom indicates where Mozart's MIDI output is directed.  It can be one of

  • A hardware synthesiser
  • A software synthesiser
  • The MIDI mapper
  • An external Midi port

but the precise names depend on your computer.  Either of the first two is fine.   The MIDI mapper was once an important component of the Windows control panel but is now simply an option which selects Windows' default synthesiser.  [Note: earlier versions of Mozart do not have this drop-down selection: they always use the MIDI mapper.]   Using an external MIDI port will result in silence unless an external synthesiser is connected (and switched on!).

Nowadays you may be better selecting an actual synthesiser rather than the MIDI Mapper.

3) Check that the volume on your computer is not set to zero!

Mozart's play-back mechanism sends MIDI signals to a MIDI synthesiser via its MIDI-IN port. This message results when signals are sent to a non-existent port.

(This message was extremely rare until the upgrade to Windows 10 came out, since when a few people have experienced it. We believe it results from a bug in the Windows 10 upgrade procedure.)

The solution is to direct Mozart's MIDI output to a genuine port.

In Mozart 9 or later:

  • Use Mozart's preferences command.
  • In the ensuing dialogue box, go to the MIDI ports tab.
  • Select a MIDI-OUT device from the drop-down list at the bottom right. (See below.)
  • Press OK

Important: the first item in the drop-down list will be 'MIDI Mapper'. This is a virtual port: the choice just means "Use Windows's default MIDI device.". The problem is almost certainly happening because the Windows 10 upgrade has not set up the Windows default output port correctly. Choosing another item from the list - a real device - should by-pass the problem.

Versions of Mozart earlier than Mozart 9 always send their MIDI output to the MIDI Mapper, and the above option is not available. (In earlier versions of Windows, users could define the default port in the Control Panel, but this is apparently no longer possible in recent versions of Windows.) And so, if you're using an earlier Mozart than Mozart 9 (which came out in 2006) the only options may be to wait for Microsoft to fix the bug, or upgrade to the most recent version of Mozart. There is an attractive upgrade offer.   But please do check that all is well with the evaluation copy before investing!

Select a block of music and press F2. Only the selected part will play, up to and including the last completely selected measure. If no block is selected, the whole piece plays.

Alternatively use the command which starts playing from the bar containing the insertion point. This command is available from Mozart 5, and in recent versions is managed by the play-back toolbar.

Method 1: Launch the play-back toolbar, select "current part", and press the "play selected parts" button.

Method 2: Select the single part as a block and press F2. (To select a single part, note that Ctrl+Home sends the caret to the start; Ctrl+Shift+End selects to the end; F9 toggles the selection between the current part and all parts.)

Method 3: Create a new window containing just one part using the Duplicate command. Play that and then close the window.

Method 4: Put a MidiMute control character at the start of each strand you wish to be silent.  (See "mute" in the help system.)

This problem does not occur in versions Mozart 7 or later.   If you are using Mozart 6, then installing the latest Mozart 6 service pack will fix it.   It may be a problem in Mozart 5 specifically.

When Windows XP came out, there were some subtle differences (from earlier versions of Windows) in the way that some sound card drivers interpreted MIDI instructions.  This is the underlying cause of this problem.  Mozart 5 predated Windows XP and could not anticipate it.  (Earlier versions of Mozart didn't have the cursor which follows play-back and, because of that, don't encounter this problem.)   All subsequent versions of Mozart have been redesigned to overcome this problem.

The problem can sometimes be avoided, partially at least, by inserting a bar's rest at the start of the piece (thus separating the first note from the initialisation events), or of course by taking advantage of the upgrade offer!

[Mozart is programmed very "conservatively" and because of this there have been very few instances of problems using older versions of  Mozart on newer versions of Windows, but unfortunately this is one of them.]

There is now a page devoted to the basics of MIDI which may help with this question.

There is now a page devoted to the basics of MIDI which may help with this question. It now also gives some details on how to produce different percussion sounds - with a table of instruments available on sound cards conforming to the General MIDI standard.

From Mozart 6 onwards there is much improved percussion support and this topic is covered in the help system

If you have a CD-writer, then the software which comes with it will almost certainly allow you to compile an audio CD from a collection of .wav or .mp3 files.  These "audio" files can be created from Mozart's playback with the aid of various third party accessories available for Windows.  There has been a lot of interest in this and  methods for doing it are given on the relevant knowledge base page of this site.

Music editing

Mozart has a full range of 8 octaves spanning, the range of a piano. The limit for entering notes directly on a score is dictated by the stave spacing, allowing up to half way to the neighbouring stave. If you want higher or lower notes than will currently fit, then, within this very broad constraint, you only have to make room for them. Do this by increasing the gap between staves using the PageFormat command. (NB it is not sufficient to increase the gap between score lines even when the score has only one stave: the stave gap still controls how far from the stave you may place a note.)

Note: you can enter a note within range and move it up or down by steps or by octaves. The stave spacing constraint does not prevent this.

A "chord" in Mozart is a vertical collection of notes of the same duration in a single strand (melodic line). They share a stem.   There may be an arbitrary number of notes, but (as is standard in music notation) they must all be of the same duration.

To have parallel notes of different durations on the same stave, they must be in different strands.    Use the ScoreLayout command to add a second (or further) strand to a stave.  When editing a piece with more than one strand on a stave it is often convenient to split the strands temporarily on to different staves (to see more clearly what you are doing) and recombine them on the same stave when you've finished.  This is done with the ScoreSeparate and ScoreCombine commands.

For more information see the topic "Techniques for editing complex scores" in the on-line help.  

Mozart selects MIDI assignments independently of most other features.  The chances are, if this is happening, that a strand on your percussion stave is playing on a MIDI channel other than the special percussion channel (usually channel 10).  Use the View/MidiOptions command to set it to the percussion channel.  Do not set a voice.

This has been reported on one or two computers and has been traced to a bug in the video drivers.   Such bugs can cause problems in random places in any program.  To check if it is a video driver problem reboot your computer in safe mode, or disable all acceleration features in the video driver, and repeat the operation which caused the problem.  If all is well, then a video driver problem is indicated.  Either download debugged video drivers from the video card manufacturer's web site or use your computer with a lower level of video acceleration in the control panel.

Since the advent of the ribbon bar in Mozart 13, Mozart has rather few actual tool bars. But occasionally, for reasons yet to be discovered, they are saved in a position off screen. They can be recovered usint the Troubleshooting/Interface command on Mozart's Help tab.

Alternatively, if a toolbar is lost,    there is a general solution for recovering it.    Just run mzReset.exe   (download it or run it from here) which restores the factory settings, including toolbar positions, on all versions of Mozart from Mozart 3 onwards.

Mozart's print-out should be scalable over a wide range of music sizes. If this isn't happening for you, then it may be because Mozart's scalable TrueType music symbols font has failed to install correctly or has been removed.

If you look at the fonts installed in Windows then you should see, according to the version of Mozart in use:

Mozart Version Font name File name
5 Mozart 5 mozart5.ttf
6 Mozart 6 mozart6_.ttf
7 Mozart 7 mozart7_.ttf
8, 9.0, 9.1 Mozart 8 mozart8_.ttf
9.2, 9.3 Mozart 9 mozart9.ttf
10 Mozart 10 mozart10.ttf
11 Mozart 11 mozart11.ttf
12-15 Mozart 12 mozart12.otf

If the appropriate font has not installed correctly then download it from the music font downloads page and install it manually (while Mozart is not running).

Notes:

  • These fonts are copyright and licensed freely only for use with Mozart.
  • Each version of Mozart requires its corresponding font.

Method 1: To repeat from an anacrusis (up-beat/pick-up/...) at least one extra barline often has to be introduced.  (See "extra barline" in the Mozart help system.)   The examples below show this (by highlighting the extra bars in blue for the purposes of illustration only).   This method shows an extra bar at the repeat:

anacrusis

Method 2: Sometimes it is more convenient to add a start of repeat bar, and use 'proper' bar lines, as here:

anacrusis

Method 3: if all else fails, then Mozart has 'truncation' and 'anacrusis' objects which remove beats from a bar, but have zero duration on play-back.  They are designed for complicated repeat scenarios, but in fact can be used anywhere. They're shown on screen as non-printing objects below the staff:

anacrusis

Use them as sparingly as possible.

In Mozart 9 onwards, there is one underlying reason why clefs can change unexpectedly.

1. In general:

Each instrument (and that includes human voices for Mozart) has its favoured clef and transposition. So a Bb clarinet for example knows it likes treble (G) clef and is written a tone higher than it sounds. Mozart has the ability to show parts at "written pitch" or at "concert pitch" (ie at the sounding pitch). At concert pitch the part has no particular preferred clef. Thus for example a Bb clarinet part which only contained its bottom few notes (written EFG, concert DEbF) might be more conveniently shown on bass clef on a concert pitch score. But if you change that to "written pitch" the proper clef will be restored automatically (as no sane clarinettist wants to read from bass clef).

That is just one example of a case where a clef can change as if by magic. But there are consequences of this mechanism which are less obvious.

2. Some instruments have different alternative conventions.

Take tenor voice as an example. It can be written on treble (G) clef an octave higher than it sounds or bass (F) clef at the sounding pitch.

The two options are implemented in Mozart as separate instruments. This has consequences. If you just change the clef at the start of the piece, then Mozart will let you, but it also remembers the preferred clef of the 'instrument' and may change it back at inopportune moments. To change it 'permanently', go to the menu item Score/Score Layout, and on the Instrumentation tab, replace the tenor voice with one clef to the tenor voice with the other clef.

3. Just making notes

You may not have wanted to bother with instrumentation at all, but just be making notes. However from Mozart 9, instrumentation is very strongly associated with scores an parts and, internally, cannot be entirely divorced from them. There are numerous advantages of this, but the implications for clefs require care. If you want a specific clef at the start with no instrumentation, then go to the menu item Score/Score Layout, and on the Instrumentation tab, set the 'instrument' to "<Treble staff>" or "<Bass staff>" and show your notes at "written pitch".

Service packs

Occasionally someone reports a problem with the latest version of Mozart, which appears to be a bug in the program.  If we can reproduce it, then we fix it, and issue the correction free of charge to everyone in the form of a Service Pack.  This is a small program which you can download  and run to make the appropriate corrections to your Mozart installation. (See the service packs page.)

To Check whether you have the latest Service Pack installed:

  • Use Mozart's Help/About Mozart command which will tell you which version is running.
    It is a number with 4 components separated by points - for example 7.0.5.0
  • The first part gives you the major version number.
    Independent service packs are issued for different major versions.  (In the above example the service pack will be found under the heading "Service Packs for Mozart 7"
  • Go to the  service packs page and thence to the page for the service pack for the appropriate version.
  • If the service pack has a higher version number - eg 7.1.2.0 in the above case - then you should download and install it.

NB Service Packs do not apply to the Evaluation Copy which is kept fairly up-to-date independently.

Just the latest.    For example Mozart Service Pack 4.0.5 will update any of versions 4.0.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2, 4.0.3, 4.0.4 to 4.0.5 in one step.

So if you miss one, don't worry - just use the latest.

Note:  The free service packs work on the purchased "Virtuoso Edition" only.  If you are trying an evaluation copy, an updated evaluation copy is usually made available for download each time a service pack is issued.

Platform support

There are currently no "native" versions of Mozart for operating systems other than Microsoft Windows.

However,  various Mozart versions have been successfully run under Windows emulators under both Linux and the Apple Mac. if you're contemplating this, please visit our support/discussion/chat group and ask for users' experiences there.

One thing is pretty certain: if the free Mozart evaluation copy works for you under a Windows emulator, then the full version will work just as well.

Installation problems

Mozart itself comes with its own "Mozart classic" and "Mozart jazz" musical symbols fonts.  Mozart's installers put the fonts in your Windows Fonts folder and register them as available for use.

Ocassionally, however, Windows becomes very protective of its Fonts folder and the installation fails. If this happens, you need to reinstall the appropriate font. See the answer to the question "Mozart will only print very small" above.

Other problems

With the default settings, Mozart auto-saves your work to a file in the Windows Temporary Files folder at regular intervals.  If there is a system crash while Mozart is open, the auto-save file will be left there.

After restarting, to open the file...

  • ...use the Global Preferences command and go to the "AutoSave" page of the dialogue box.  There, there is an "open AutoSaved file" button.   This opens the folder containing auto-saved files.
  • The auto saved file will have a name typically of the form ~name~.mz where "name" was the name of the file you were working on.
  • Open it and, using Save As, save it in the folder of your choice under a more standard name before continuing work on it.

Alternatively you can find the auto-saved file manually.

  • Use Mozart 's File/Open command.
  • Type %temp% into the File Name field and press the Open button.
    This will show you the Windows Temporary Files folder.
  • Type *.mz into the File Name field
    This will show you the Mozart files in this folder.
  • The auto saved file (see above) will be there.

For further information look up "autosave" in the index of Mozart 's help system.

From time to time it is advisable to go to the temporary files folder and delete unwanted files (from Mozart and many other programs) which may accumulate there.

1. Service Packs: First check that the latest Service Pack is installed.  For information see Service Packs above.

2. Video Card Hardware Acceleration: If the problem persists, then it may well be due to Video Card Acceleration and easily curable.

The Video Card - the component in your computer which drives the display monitor - is designed to be able to refresh the picture on the screen very rapidly indeed.  To get the absolute maximum in speed (a benefit mainly for fast-moving games) it can by-pass various internal safety checks which most programs are required to make as a matter of course.  This can lead to severe problems for many programs (including Mozart ) in seemingly random places.   This is recognised by Video Card manufacturers, who therefore provide a way to adjust the "hardware acceleration" of the video card.

It is characteristic of problems due to video card acceleration that they may appear on one computer but not on another, or in completely different ways on different computers.

The solution to all sorts of problems may simply be to turn down the acceleration.

The details of how to do this may differ slightly from one video card manufacturer to another.  Turning it down part way or all the way may cure various problems without having a noticeable effect on the performance of your computer.

3. Audio Hardware Acceleration is also a possible cause of problems, in particular if they occur on using the play-back command.   Audio Hardware Acceleration can also be turned down.

 

= Mozart pages copyright © 1995-2024 David Webber. =

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