Reached from: Main Menu -> Select Dances -> Play Button
This is where you get to see the cues for the selected dance, set the speed, set the volume and balance, and actually play the music. It is where DanceMaster really "gets down to business", and has a lot going on. We'll take it a little at a time. You can click on the picture below to jump right to a particular explanation.
Note: If you are using a scrolling cue card that doesn’t fit in the window you can scroll it by pressing the up or down arrow keys on the keyboard. This is usually easier than using the mouse...
These buttons are used to move from screen to screen in DanceMaster, and are explained in more detail here.
Information about this dance is shown in the upper left part of the screen. The name, phase, rhythms, choreographer, figures, etc. are shown there, and the names of the cue card and sound files, as well as any comments you entered, are shown above the cue card.
You can change the playback speed of the sound file by typing a number in the speed box or by clicking on the up or down arrows to the left of the box. Or by holding the <Ctrl> key while pressing the up or down arrow on your keyboard. (Up or Down without the <Ctrl> key scrolls the cue card.) Unless it is told otherwise, DMP will assume that the song was recorded at 45 RPM and will display that as the base speed. If you change the speed, “Save” and “Don’t Save” buttons will appear on the left part of the screen. If you want DMP to remember the new speed for this dance, click “Save”. If you click “Don’t Save”, DMP will forget this new speed as soon as you load another dance.
There are several gaily-colored buttons in the middle of the left side of the screen, many of which can be operated by pressing a key on the keyboard, as well as by clicking with the mouse.
Play / Stop ("P" and "S" keys)
The green PLAY button causes the current dance to start playing. If the “Start” bookmark is set, it will start there. Otherwise it will start at the beginning of the song.
The STOP button will become enabled when the song is playing or paused (i.e. when there is something to stop doing). It will reset the position slider to the beginning of the song, so the next time you press “Play” it will start over. (If you have set a “Start” bookmark it will start at the bookmark.)
Pause ("P" key)
Suspends the playing of the song. When you click on the Pause button it turns into a “Resume” button. Clicking on that will continue playing the song from the point where it was paused.
Next In Program ("N" key) (not shown above)
This will load the next un-played dance in the “Tonight’s Program” playlist into the player. It won’t advance the “Next” pointer until you actually play the dance. (See the Program Screen for more details.) The Next In Program button won’t be visible unless there are un-played dances in the playlist to be retrieved.
This button will open the Bookmarks Form, so you can see the current bookmarks for this dance. This is where you set the start and stop points, too.
Clicking this button adds the current dance to the bottom of the “Tonight’s Program” playlist.
Clicking here will add the current dance to the list of dances that you want to be reminded to cue every so often. It will cause a form to pop up and ask you how often to review this dance here.
Use this button to open a menu from which you can:
| • | Set the timing for the Karaoke Cue Cards |
| • | Make temporary adjustments to the font (size, bold, etc.) |
| • | Open your editor (Word, Word Perfect, etc.) to make permanent changes to the cue card. |
As you might expect, this turns the Karaoke Cues on or off. Clicking 'most anywhere on this button will switch the state from On to Off or vice versa. Clicking near one of the check boxes will force it to the appropriate state. This button won't appear unless the cue card has been timed.
Technical note: When you time a cue card (say, "Milika") (using the "Adjust Cue Card" button), DanceMaster stores the timing information in a file with the same name as the dance (Milika.SCT) in the Cue Card folder. When you load a dance in the Play screen, DM looks for that SCT file. If it finds one, it turns on the Auto Scroll and Scroll Timing buttons, and changes the cue card background to light yellow.
Use the Scroll Timing Buttons to make the cues on the cue card highlight earlier or later. The "E" and "L" buttons will make the highlight earlier or later by 1/10 of a second with each click.
If you have voice cues recorded for this dance, this button will appear. To make it obvious what state it is in, when cues are on, the button will be green, when off, it will be gray. Clicking on the button changes it's state. When voice cues are on, either a second volume control or a balance control will appear below.
If voice cues are ON, and your cues are in a separate voice file, the Voice Timing Window will appear. This is where you can adjust the timing of the cues in relation to the music. Clicking "E" or "L" will make the cues Earlier or Later by 1/10th second with each click. Or you can enter an offset directly in the timing window if you prefer. If your cues are in the left or right channel, the balance control will appear instead.
Some folks like to record introductions to their dances ("This is a phase IV + 1 waltz, the plus figure is a..."), but you don't always want to play the introductions. (When you're teaching the dance, for instance, by the third time, they know what it is!) This button turns the introduction on or off.
You can get a few more details (like how to set them) here.
Balance control: (not shown above)
If you have recorded your cues in the left or right channel of a stereo sound file, and marked this dance "Cues on left" or "Cues on right", this control will appear to let you adjust the balance between the music and the voice. You can click on the line on either side of the slider to move the slider one notch. If you adjust this setting, DMP will offer to save the new setting for use next time. (It is important to tell DM which channel the cues are in - use the Dance Details screen to do that.)
If your cues are in a separate Voice File, you will see two volume controls instead of volume and balance controls.
Playback position indicator (The Needle):
This slider moves as the song is playing to show you the current position in the dance. Rather like the tone arm on a turntable. And just as you can start playing a record at any point by dropping the needle, you can start playing the dance at any point by clicking on the slider and dragging it with the mouse. You can also jump ahead or back by 10 seconds by clicking on the track the slider moves in while music is playing.
If you have set Start and/or End bookmarks, the portion of the dance that will be played is shown in blue, and the names of the start and end bookmarks are shown beside the slider. In this illustration only part of the dance (part B, up to the Back Box) will be played.
Save / Don’t Save buttons:
When you make a change in the playback speed, volume or most other dance settings, the Save / Don’t Save buttons appear in the left part of the screen. Click one or the other to make them go away. Reasonably enough, if you click "Save", whatever changes you have made will be saved and reloaded the next time you load this dance. Otherwise, they will be forgotten as soon as you load another dance. You don’t have to decide right away whether to save or not, just sometime before you load the next dance.
The cue card window is actually three separate windows on top of each other. One shows graphics (.BMP) files, one shows Word documents (.DOC files), and the third shows .RTF files. The BMP window, for scanned cue cards, doesn’t do much but display the card. The Word window will display the cue card and, if you double-click on the card, will open Word with the cue card file loaded. You can then edit the card and save your changes. The RTF window is the most talented.
It will display the cue card, scrolling it automatically as the music plays. (See Karaoke Cue Cards, below). Even if Karaoke Cue Cards are turned off, pressing the down-arrow on your keyboard will cause the cue card to scroll. (If it doesn't, click in the cue card with the mouse once.)
The example in the picture above shows that we started the music at the Spin Turn and have played through the Hover Fallaway. We can tell that by the fact that the cues turn gray as they are cued, and also by the fact that Spin Turn is shown as the starting figure below the cue card. The currently playing figure is Slip Pivot to BJO (it is blue). The blue bar under the "needle" shows that we skipped the first quarter of the dance, and the needle shows that the music is about a third of the way into the dance.
For lots more details about Karaoke Cue Cards, click here.
More information is available here about BOOKMARKS and about the MENU at the top of the screen.