looking for manual play software

[timothy42b]

That's my name for it, I don't know what it is really called.

I will have a performance soon where I will play some of the easy stuff myself and do some of the rest in software, played from a laptop to a midi interface on a digital piano. 

I have done this before, writing the music in a notation program (Noteworthy Composer) and playing it back live.  However this time it has to be interactive.

Rather than hitting start and letting the piece go, I need to hit "enter" for each beat, so that I can stay exactly with the other musicians in real time.  Playing a recording won't work. 

If NWC can do this I can't figure out how.  I also have Audacity and Rosoft available. 

What do I need? 

[ksnmohan]

As I understand your problem, you are playing not alone, but along with some other musicians (a live orchestra) + the midi music coming through the digital piano.

Best thing would be to run the recorded (midi) music from start - and the rest (viz. you and the other musicians) synchronize your playing to the beats of the midi. You alone trying to stop and start the midi to the beat of the rest is impracticable, especially  when you will be concentrating on your own playing.

[quantum]

I'm guessing you could program that into PureData or Max/msp

[timothy42b]

Best thing would be to run the recorded (midi) music from start - and the rest (viz. you and the other musicians) synchronize your playing to the beats of the midi. You alone trying to stop and start the midi to the beat of the rest is impracticable, especially  when you will be concentrating on your own playing.

I could just burn it to CD, true, and everybody can follow or fail. 

However, it isn't that hard to control the beat in real time.  A conductor does it with a baton.  I know that it can be done in software, because some musicals and operas now use a virtual orchestra, and the director follows the action exactly as I've described, pushing a button in time to a beat, but not necessarily a steady beat.  When well done this is almost indistinguishable from live music - you can even throw in a few wrong notes if you need to.  <g>  Contrast this to a typical high school musical production done to a pre-recorded CD.  Tempos are off, mistakes lead to train wrecks, etc. 

The trouble is I don't know what software would work.  Certainly nothing I've downloaded for free does what I want.