Reply to Arthur Nichols [030417 MMDigest]:  Arthur is speaking out
for the vast majority of people who want to use Cakewalk for their
organ music.  They are mostly old and past their mental prime,
computer bumbling at the best, but desperate to be able to do just
a few of the simple things that Cakewalk is capable of.  I know,
because I am one of them.

Finding out the practical answers to the questions Arthur asks is
almost as impossible as getting an organ builder to tell you how to
make an organ.  As for CAL routines, well, this took me twelve months
of trying and asking; eventually it was another amateur organ builder
who gave me the instructions to do the simple tasks I required.

What is needed is "John Smith guide to Cakewalk for the amateur organ
Builder": no technical junk, just a step-by-step list of the buttons
to press, remembering that most of us do not even know where the shift
button is.

No, this is not my latest offering.  I would do it but my eyesight at
the computer is so limited that it is not possible any more.

So who of you out there is going to produce this booklet?  When you do
put me down for a copy.

Apart from any financial reward that may come from such a booklet
there can be other unexpected bonuses.  When I published my last
booklet, "Making Mechanical Music for your own Amazement," I only
intended to do a few sheets giving the equipment needed to make rolls,
but knowing that a lot of the potential customers would have no musical
knowledge I started the book with a bit of simple basic musical theory.

One of my first customers for this booklet, who indeed knew nothing at
all about music, quickly made a couple of rolls of music for his busker
organ and then realised that the principles he had learnt were the same
for pinning barrels.  In his first conversation with me had mentioned
the "barrel organ" he had made, years before, by attaching a barrel
above the keys of an old harmonium, only to find that nobody could or
would pin it for him.   So the phone call about the two rolls of music
he had made went on to say that he had also pinned ten hymn tunes on
his "Barrel Harmonium."  So come on, someone out there: we need a
booklet on how to make our MIDI music for our amateur organs.

Bye the way, why is there not an "International Club for Amateur Organ
Builders?"

John Smith