Music Construction Set is an MS-DOS program for editing sheet music. It can play back songs via the PC beeper, the PC/PCjr datasette port, or the PCjr/Tandy 4-channel soundchip. A cursor-driven interface with many keyboard shortcuts is used to control the program and edit the music.
| cursor keys | move the cursor |
| enter | pick up/drop/select that which is below the cursor |
| escape | drop that which is held |
| space | place another object of the type last placed |
| u | invert stem of held note |
| = | move forward one bar |
| - | move back one bar |
| h | move cursor to "home" icon |
| q | move cursor to crotchet rest |
| p | preview note under cursor |
| ctrl-s | toggle constant preview on/off |
| ctrl-p | print song |
| 1 | semiquaver |
| 2 | quaver |
| 3 | crotchet |
| 4 | minim |
| 5 | semibreve |
| 6 | semiquaver rest |
| 7 | quaver rest |
| 8 | crotchet rest |
| 9 | minim rest |
| 0 | semibreve rest |
| t | treble clef sign |
| b | bass clef sign |
| s | sharp sign |
| f | flat sign |
| n | natural sign |
| d | dot |
| o | octave up (+8ve) |
| i | tie |
| left arrow | scroll left (will be fast on fast hardware) |
| piano | play song from current position |
| right arrow | scroll right (will be fast on fast hardware) |
| hand | cancel operation |
| house | scroll to beginning of song |
| floppy disc | scroll to beginning of song |
| house | enter load/save menu |
| scissors | cut measures - cursor over measure and press enter to cut a single measure, press 2-9 to cut multiple measures |
| glue | paste measures - cursor over measure and press enter to insert cut measure(s) before it |
| plug | hardware configuration menu (see below) |
| Sp | tempo - lower = slower |
| So (left) | top stave instrument - does nothing with beeper, might work with datasette/PCjr |
| So (right) | bottom stave instrument - does nothing with beeper, might work with datasette/PCjr |
| Vo (left) | top stave volume - does nothing with beeper, might work with datasette/PCjr |
| Vo (right) | bottom stave volume - does nothing with beeper, might work with datasette/PCjr |
Select the plug icon to configure your hardware. First you must choose your input device. Use the left and right cursor keys to select an input device (I have chosen Keyboard). Press enter. Now you must choose your sound hardware. Use the left and right cursor keys to select your sound hardware - "Speaker, 4 notes" will only work if you have a PCjr/Tandy. "Cassette" will only work if you have an IBM Datasette port. Press enter again and select your printer. If you don't have a printer, select "No printer". Press enter again to finish.
| (blank line) return to MCS | |
| DIR | list files |
| LOAD EXAMPLE | load EXAMPLE.MCS |
| SAVE EXAMPLE | save EXAMPLE.MCS |
| NEW | start new song |
| HELP | list commands |