[Csnd] a new windows (and OS-X???) version of microcsound (Python script)
| Date | 2011-04-01 06:14 |
| From | Aaron Krister Johnson |
| Subject | [Csnd] a new windows (and OS-X???) version of microcsound (Python script) |
| I have a new Windows package for microcsound that needs some more beta testers. This script has been traditionally Linux-centric, but I always knew that being Python-based, it wouldn't be a major headache to port to Windows, although there are little 'gotchas' that are bound to pop up in any such endeavor.
I'd like to see what Windows folks could suggest as improvements. I typically avoid using Windows, but I happened to be able to snag my wife's laptop to test it out for a while, plus I have a colleague on a Windows box who is curious to try, so I finally became motivated to create a Windows-friendly package.
Any OS-X users willing to see how well the normal *nix package works on your system? You guys can try http://www.akjmusic.com/packages/microcsound20110329.tgz (I assume you know about tarballs)
Best,
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| Date | 2011-04-01 14:38 |
| From | Anthony Palomba |
| Subject | Re: [Csnd] a new windows (and OS-X???) version of microcsound (Python script) |
| Can you give us a brief synopsis of what this does or do you have documentation that can be reviewed. Thanks, Anthony On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 12:14 AM, Aaron Krister Johnson <aaron@akjmusic.com> wrote: I have a new Windows package for microcsound that needs some more beta testers. |
| Date | 2011-04-01 16:10 |
| From | Aaron Krister Johnson |
| Subject | Re: [Csnd] a new windows (and OS-X???) version of microcsound (Python script) |
| Hi Anthony and everybody, 'microcsound' is a score-producing front-end, and a realtime score event interpreter for Csound. It allows for ASCII format scores (which by convention have the '.mc' extension) where time-flow of an individual 'voice' of an instrument is presented in the horizontal traditional sense, making multi-part composition easier than raw .sco editing. In general, it is a more compact and legible format than the raw .sco file it produces.
Although it is a fine general purpose ".sco producing" script, it was designed for the specific domain of being able to compose music in any arbitrary tuning or temperament, specifically geared for both equal-divisions of the octave (EDOs, or any other acoustic interval) and for rational or Just Intonation (JI/RI). Under the hood, the symbolic or numeric pitch syntax of microcsound uses p5 consistently in the .orc file, sending any arbitrary desired pitch to Csound in HZ via p5, but from an easy to use front-end syntax. In addition, interpretation of the numeric or symbolic pitch notation can be turned off so that p5 can stand uninterpreted, should one desire to use p5 for other purposes, like triggering an instrument (e.g. a mixer or effect) or MIDI key for a non-microtonal instrument.
Another nice feature is the ability to render .mc files in realtime by use of the temporary directory on the OS, which allows 'on-the-fly' rendering. In addition, one can interact with an interactive real-time command line microcsound shell to do sketches and to test various microtonal sonorities. This also makes it useful as an acoustic instrument reference tuning tool. I've used it for instance to tune my kalimbas by.
It comes with an orchestra file that has a set of nice instruments to work with (far from complete, but great for many general purpose tasks) which have the advantage of being laid out in a consistent manner as far as p-fields are concerned. Microcsound reserves the use of p-fields 1-7, while 8 and up are used for extra parameters on a per instrument basis, and can be sent via a special double-quote syntax from the .mc source file or via the interactive shell.
a tutorial which explains the syntax and features is available at I am the sole developer of microcsound, however, I'm looking for feedback and feature requests from interested parties! AKJ
On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 8:38 AM, Anthony Palomba <apalomba@austin.rr.com> wrote: Can you give us a brief synopsis of what this does or -- Aaron Krister Johnson http://www.akjmusic.com http://www.untwelve.org |