JRC FAQ and JRC HELP ! by Leon Kerkstra


1. I'm using AOL, why am I having trouble viewing the JRC pages ?
2. Can't you supply your transcriptions in .pdf format ?
3. Can't you supply your transcriptions in .mid, finale or any other musical notation format ?
4. What are .mp3 files and how do I play them ?
5. What are .mid files and how do I play them ?
6. How come I can't get the search engine to work and can you add me to the engine ?
7. I have send you several emails, but I get no feedback ?
8. Is it ok to request for a certain transcription and what are the chances it will be granted ?
9. I have troubles printing the transcriptions!


If you're question isn't listed, you can send a mail to our webmaster.

1. I'm using AOL, why am I having trouble viewing the JRC pages ?

You are having trouble viewing our pages because the AOL software cannot handle our very large pictures, which are the transcriptions. The images have a width of 750 pixels and this is too much for the AOL software. You could download the .gif files and view them offline or you could use a normal webbrowser like the internet explorer.



2. Can't you supply your transcriptions in .pdf format ?

Other sites supply their transcriptions in .pdf (Adobe acrobat format), We are using .gif files for our transcriptions so that everybody can view our pages without any external viewers, plugins or whatever. We wanted to make this page available for all our viewers and not only for the ones who are computer freaks as well.



3. Can't you supply your transcriptions in .mid, finale or any other musical notation format ?

We realise that many people would like to have the transcriptions in a musical notation format, for instance midi or Finale. But it takes a great deal of time and experience to make transcriptions at a level like those of Christiaan. We provide the transcriptions for free, but to make sure we keep the original transcriptions and to make sure they can't be altered, we provide them as a graphical image.



4. What are .mp3 files and how do I play them ?

mpeg3 or .mp3 files should be played with
WinAmp. It requires a pentium cpu, and a 16-bit soundcard. If you cannot download the .mp3 files, keep shift pressed while clicking (netscape users) or click your right mouse button (MS Explorer users). Notice that the audio clips are included for educational purposes only, we encourage you to buy the recommended jazz albums. Therefore, the clips are low quality and very short.



5. What are .mid files and how do I play them ?

Midi files should be played with for instance the mediaplayer of windows. It requires a soundcard that supports midi-data. Because the midi-data only controls a sound generator inside your soundcard, the files are very small and the soundquality depends on the quality of your soundcard. A wavetable soundcard will very much improve the sound quality. With a older soundblaster using the FM synthesizer, you might not hear the right voicings because this technique has limited simultaneous notes. A soundblaster containing AWE, or any other wavetable will not have this problem with our MIDI files.



6. How come I can't get the search engine to work and can you add me to the engine ?

The JRC Seach engine works just like any search engine (for instance
Alta Vista or Webcrawler). Tips and explanation can be found at our search. I cannot add your site to it, because the JRC search engine searches pages on our site only.



7. I have send you several emails, but I get no feedback ?

Though we read all your emails, we sometimes do not have the time to answer each one separately. We welcome all comments and suggestions, and they might be realized on our site in the future. Please read our
guidelines.



8. Is it ok to request for a certain transcription and what are the chances it will be granted ?

Sure, you can always ask for a transcription, but for the time being I'm providing solos I've already transcribed or solos I'm transcribing for my own study.



9. I have troubles printing the transcriptions!

In some cases your browser might not be able to print the entire width of the transcription when you are printing it with your webbrowser. You might want to try printing it in landscape mode (setting is available in the printersettings dialog). Otherwise, you could save all the images of the transcription, load and print them using a DTP application.



©1998 Leon Kerkstra. JRC.  JAZZ RESOURCE CENTER