Reasons: I made an error in presuming that my job was over after giving the notations and the mp3 produced using them.
It is not over. This failure, I noticed, when a reader asked me how to convert the notations into audible music.
The 50 notations and mp3 given by me are based on abc notation I used in Tunescript.
I made another erroneous presumption that abc notation practices will be uniform among all abc notation conversion softwares/packages. I, now, find that there are some differences, which can lead to errors and non-generation of midi when used in different packages.
The next 50 notations of the next phase, my notations, you will find, be based on 'abc2midi'. Before shifting into experimentation with abc2midi, I present below the pecularities of the notation used in Tunescript be me, and which worked.
PECULIAR FEATURES OF THE TUNESCRIPT ABC NOTATION CONVERSION
1. Very simple to use, once the python IDE and Timidity player are installed and tunescript folder is copied.
2. No need of giving header information. (In abc2midi, header info is compulsory).
3. Tunescript editor allows immediate "play" of the notes entered. (In abc2midi, we have to save a midi file and play it.)
4. In tunescript editor, We have to enter notes/paste notes from a text editor and click play/save button. (In abc2midi editing is done in a text editor such as notepad, wordpad, gedit, geany.).
5. Tunescript does not check rhythm calculations. (Abc2midi counts and checks rhythm count (Indian equivalent: tAL or tALam).) In Tunescript, we have to do counting manually.
6. Length of notes in Tunescript. To make notes long in time, we have to add commas. E.g.
c = 1 unit length of time (India: kAla pramANam).
c, = 2 units.
c,, = 3 units
c,,, = 4 units. (Each comma is one unit. The letter is one unit.)
c,,,, = 5 units.
c,,,,, = 6 units. so on. so forth.
Higher speed items:
/c/ = half time of c.
//c// = 1/4 time of c.
Hence examples:
/c/ /c/ = c.
//c// //c// //c// //c// = c.
//c// //c// //c// //c// //c// //c// //c// //c// = c,.
(This notation will not work in abc2midi. In abc2midi "," does not indicate time or length of the note. It represents the octave. ,c= C of the lower octave. How we write notation in abc2midi, I shall write a separate post.)
In tune script # indicates a sharp note.
E.g. c# is sharp. Its Indian equivalent = kOmal ri in North Indian Hindusthani Music and suddha rishabham in South Indian CarnAtic Music. In abc2midi ^c= c#.
7. Tunescript allows simultaneous playing of two instruments. We have to use ">>" at the start of a line. E.g.:
(voice 1 'pizzicato strings')
(voice 2 'timpani')
>>cdef gabc'
--should be no line-gap here.
>>cdef gabc'
The first line will play with pizzicato. The second line will play with timpani. There should not be a line gap between the two >>sets.
Change of instrument is possible in abc2midi also, but I believe that two instruments cannot play at the same time. This area I am checking up again and experimenting. abc2midi for change of instrument: %%MIDI program 44 (This 48 number denotes the program number of the instrument 'timpani'.).
8. -- is the comment indicator in Tunescript. % is the comment indicator in abc2midi.
E.g.
--This is a comment in Tunescript editor.
%This is a comment in abc2midi.
9. Tunescript is not line-gap sensitive. There can be blank lines between two lines of code. Abc2midi does not allow this.
9. Tunescript is case insensitive. Abc2midi is case sensitive. Higher case letters indicate lower octave.
E.g. in Tunescript
c_d_e_f_g_a_b_ cdefgab c'd'e'f'g'a'b'
E.g. in abc2midi.
,c,d,e,f,g,a,b,C -- say one octave.
CDEFGAB -- one octave higher than above.
cdefgab -- higher than CDEFGAB.
c'd'e'f'g'a'b' -- further higher.
10. Both the notations allow free use of spaces. They mean nothing. Spaces can be used for a better presentation of the notation.
11. Tunescript does not allow multiplication of note lengths by numbers.
Example: a,,, (in tunescript) = a4 in abc2midi.
12. Tunescript does not generate play sound or make a midifile, if there are irrelevant letters. It continues to give an error message till the error is corrected.
E.g. cdefghab --This tunescript will not allow, because we cannot have h.
Same code in abc2midi will give an error message. But we shall get a midi with cdefgab. The letter 'h' will be ignored.
13. Tunescript needs no installation. It is sufficient, if we have the tunescript folder. Abc2midi needs installation. Linux and Windows have separate versions. But tunescript needs python. abc2midi does not need. I understand that it is programmed on C language.
There are some more differences which I shall explain in my future posts.
In the meantime, if you wish to experiment with the notations already given by me, I suggest that you may use tunescript, as they are tunescript compatible. Or else, paste them in a text-editor and change them into abc2midi, following the abc2midi rules.
Summary; Both tunescript and abc2midi are equally comfortable. For those who cannot change shift keys for changing octaves, tunescript seems more comfortable. Using simultaneous play of two instruments is convenient, as one instrument (voice 1) can be used as main line and the second instrument (say voice 2) can be used as percussion.
No comments:
Post a Comment