Mazzika  Overview

 

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Overview

Getting Started

Using Mazzika
   Playing Music
   Maqam Control
   Recording
   MIDI Replay

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What is Mazzika?
Mazzika is a program that lets the computer keyboard act as a piano keyboard for playing a variety of musical instruments. Mazzika supports Middle-Eastern Music (aka "Arab-Music" and "Arabic Music") via providing 1/4 tones and allowing the definition and selection of “maqams”. The selected “maqam” reflects visually onto the piano keyboard, highlighting the “maqam” notes and indicating 1/4-tone shifts.

Mazzika allows recording the played pieces and saving them as MIDI files. When replaying a recorded piece or any midi file, the piano keys are automatically animated as if the piece is being played on the piano. The user can control the replay speed.

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Mazzika Features

  • 5-octave piano keys and 128 musical instruments
  • Allowing 1/4 tones
  • 21 predefined maqams, with all their possible transpositions (different “tonic” notes)
  • Support for bi-directional maqams where the maqam notes depends on whether the musical movement is ascending or descending
  • The piano keys visually reflect the selected maqam via highlighting the maqam keys and indicating 1/4-tone shifts
  • Recording the played music and saving it as MIDI file
  • Replaying recorded music and MIDI files, with key animation, maqam changes, and channel filtering
  • 2 independent aspects of channel filtering: sound and key animation
  • On-the-fly speed control during replay for slowing down the replay or speeding it up
  • Minimal screen area to allow playing while reading sheet music from another program
  • Sample melodies from classical Arab-music in different maqams