Welcome to the DVIICE instructional page. Here, you'll learn the features of the DVIICE for Chrome/Safari and for other browsers, along with some tips.

Mouse over a note to see all enharmonic (equivalent) notes. Mousing over middle C on the piano, for example, will highlight every middle C in all displayed instruments. It will not, however, highlight all C notes on every octave. Click a note to play it (see side-by-side comparison, below).

To select a new instrument, simply click the appropriate button and it will immediately be loaded into the adjacent instrument. Instrument 1 is limited to diatonic 10-hole harmonicas, in any key, selected from the column of buttons to the right of Instrument 1. For Instrument 2, load the instrument, selected from the column of buttons to the right of Instrument 2. For Instrument 3, load the instrument, selected from the row of buttons below Instrument 3.

Instrument 3 can also load instruments from the column of buttons to the right of the staff diagram. These are alternate guitar tunings. The following tunings are available:

 
Tuning name:
Scientific notation:
 Helmholtz notation:
Open A
Open B
Open C
Open D
Open E
Open F
Open G
Dobro
All fourths
DADGAD
Low D
Drop D
Eb
Double Drop D
DADGAD Drop C
E2-A2-C3#-E3-A3-E4
B2-F3#-B3-F4#-B4-D5#
C2-G2-C3-G3-C4-E4
D2-A2-D3-F3#-A3-D4
E2-B2-E3-G3#-B3-E4
F2-A2-C3-F3-C4-F4
D2-G2-D3-G3-B3-D4
G2-B2-D3-G3-B3-D4
E2-A2-D3-G3-C4-F4
D2-A2-D3-G3-A3-D4
D2-G2-C3-F3-A3-D4
D2-A2-D3-G3-B3-E4
D2#-G2#-C3#-F3#-A3#-D4#
D2-A2-D3-G3-B3-D4
C2-G2-C3-F3-G3-C4

E-A-c#-e-a-e'
B-F#-b-f#'-b-d#'
C-G-c-g-c'-e'
D-A-d-f#-a-d'
E-B-e-g#-b-e'
F-A-c-f-c'-f'
D-G-d-g-b-d'
G-B-d-g-b-d'
E-A-d-g-c'-f'
D-A-d-g-a-d'
D-G-c-f-a-d'
D-A-d-g-b-e'
D#-G#-c#-f#-a#-d#'
D-A-d-g-b-d'
C-G-c-f-g-c'

 

The diatonic harmonica uses a plain number for a blow, a "-" for a draw, "b" for each half-step of a bend, and a "+" for overblows and overdraws. For example, the standard C diatonic produces a middle C on the button labeled "1": on an actual harmonica, this would simply mean blowing into hole 1. "6+" would be an overblow on hole 6, "-7+" would be an overdraw on hole 7, "-3bb" would be a draw bend (one whole step) on hole 3, and so on.

The chromatic harmonica is labeled similarly to the diatonic, with the omission of bends, overblows, and overdraws, and the addition of the slide, denoted by a "<". "1" is a simple blow on hole 1, "-5" is a draw on hole 5, "<3" is a blow on hole 3 with the slide pushed in, and "<-9" is a draw on hole 9 with the slide pushed in.

Piano notes are laid out with an octave per row. Buttons with a black background correspond to a piano's black keys (sharps/flats), and buttons with a white background correspond to a piano's white keys (whole notes). The labels (C3, F5, and so on) correspond to the actual names of each note: the button labeled "C4 (Mid)" is C4, the middle C.

The guitar buttons with a silver foreground and white background correspond to guitar frets labeled with a dot. The buttons with a silver foreground and silver background correspond to the frets labeled with a pair of dots (these are the frets located one octave above the open string note). Each button is labeled with the name of the string (row) and the fret number, with "0" meaning an open string. Thus, a guitar tab with a "5" on a row labeled "B" means the fifth fret of the B string, or "B5" on the DVIICE's guitar.

The compatibility version can be used on any modern browser, such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera. Notes are played using audio clips half a second long, or one beat, as soon as you click the button.

The compatibility version plays audio with HTML5, using pre-recorded clips created with Audacity's tone generator.



  

The Chrome/Safari version can only produce sounds on Chrome or Safari. However, you can click on a note and hold down the mouse button to draw it out, and it will stop when you release the mouse button. If you accidentally move the mouse to another note before releasing the mouse button, it may get stuck - simply click any note to unjam it.

The Chrome/Safari version plays audio with the Web Audio API, generating tones of the specified frequency in real time.

 

The DVIICE is laid out and organized with CSS styles and tables. Notes are highlighted with Javascript, and instruments are loaded with jQuery/AJAX. As AJAX loads require server-side technology and thus will not function if the page is saved and launched locally, I will not be providing a zip file for offline use of the DVIICE V2.