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sequencer

Date1999-07-23 12:47
FromJames Andrews
Subjectsequencer
hello all

i was following the list for a while but i lost email functionality for a 
while recently so i don't know if this topic has come up at all...

does anyone know of or is anyone currently developing a sequencer for csound 
or dcsound?  I am astounded at the potential and power of csound, but i am 
almost completely stifled by the text based score format required to create 
compositions.  I understand that csound supports MIDI and that I could use a 
MIDI sequencer to compose, but as i see it, this is not a solution, because 
when using MIDI much of the functionality of the instrument is lost.  you 
are left with pitch, velocity, and a few limited MIDI capabilities like 
pitch bend, modulation, aftertouch, etc.  Unfortunately these functions are 
limited and are difficult to implement in a controlled and flexible way with 
a MIDI sequencer.

as a result, i propose a sequencer, similar to your average or below-average 
MIDI sequencer, except instead of keeping track of the song by MIDI data, it 
would drop MIDI entirely and focus on the design and flexilbity of csound.  
As an example of a key feature, one would be able to directly specificy 
things like instrument arguments for each note, while maintaining the 
visual, user-oriented environment of MIDI sequencers like cakewalk or 
digital orchestrator.  The ability to select a section of the sequence and 
render it alone, even with the ability to mute out or single out specific 
instruments or "tracks", would also be crucial, and is an unquestioned 
feature of any MIDI sequencer, yet is difficult to implement in csound 
without much modificaiton of text files, etc.  Imagine having all the 
standard tools of a MIDI-style sequencer *and* the standard flexibility of 
csound all at your disposal.  Change general volumes easily, transpose a few 
bars here or there up or down, move this part of the song over there, copy 
and paste this onto that, change a melody's instrument instantantly, adjust 
the reverb for this track, visually adjust the rhythm and pitch of your 
melodies, etc etc etc etc.

I am talking about software that molds the power of csound in a way that is 
more condusive and effective for the musical mind.   Csound is an extremely 
powerful tool for both the creative and rational mind, but it leaves the 
musician's mind in the waiting room while the rational mind changes this, 
tweaks that, etc., leaving so little room for the process of creative 
expression.  Many times i have devoted my csound time to thinking in and 
around csound, and not in and around my music.  If both the rational and 
musical minds can be accomodated comfortably, without either one having to 
make a big sacrfice, then csound as a medium would become immeasuarbly more 
powerful.

I would take the time myself to code such a sequencer, simply because i can 
forsee the benefits of it, unfortunately i am only familiar with DOS Turbo 
Pascal as a programming language, and coding a DOS-based application of this 
type would, i am sure, waste a lot of my time on things that windows and 
object oriented programming makes into a breeze.

whew.  any thoughts?

josh whiting
joshwhiting@hotmail.com


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Date1999-07-23 21:21
From"Matt J. Ingalls"
SubjectRe: sequencer
i shouldnt mention this, because it is a LONG way off still - but a while
back
i started a csound graphic score/digtal mixer app for mac (and now would
probably be for beOS too) -  i got to the point where you could drag i
cards around, launch "perf", and then mix resultant sound files.

its been on the "back-burner" for a while as it needs the obligatory
"strip-down and resturctured" stage now.  

also, my ideas have been moving more and more toward a new paradigm for a
mixer app and less and less interested in supporting csound.

is "rt" open source? i would think it would be a breeze to hack in a
csound score (instead of a sound file).

-matt


On Fri, 23 Jul 1999, James Andrews wrote:

> 
> hello all
> 
> i was following the list for a while but i lost email functionality for a 
> while recently so i don't know if this topic has come up at all...
> 
> does anyone know of or is anyone currently developing a sequencer for csound 
> or dcsound?  I am astounded at the potential and power of csound, but i am 
> almost completely stifled by the text based score format required to create 
> compositions.  I understand that csound supports MIDI and that I could use a 
> MIDI sequencer to compose, but as i see it, this is not a solution, because 
> when using MIDI much of the functionality of the instrument is lost.  you 
> are left with pitch, velocity, and a few limited MIDI capabilities like 
> pitch bend, modulation, aftertouch, etc.  Unfortunately these functions are 
> limited and are difficult to implement in a controlled and flexible way with 
> a MIDI sequencer.
> 
> as a result, i propose a sequencer, similar to your average or below-average 
> MIDI sequencer, except instead of keeping track of the song by MIDI data, it 
> would drop MIDI entirely and focus on the design and flexilbity of csound.  
> As an example of a key feature, one would be able to directly specificy 
> things like instrument arguments for each note, while maintaining the 
> visual, user-oriented environment of MIDI sequencers like cakewalk or 
> digital orchestrator.  The ability to select a section of the sequence and 
> render it alone, even with the ability to mute out or single out specific 
> instruments or "tracks", would also be crucial, and is an unquestioned 
> feature of any MIDI sequencer, yet is difficult to implement in csound 
> without much modificaiton of text files, etc.  Imagine having all the 
> standard tools of a MIDI-style sequencer *and* the standard flexibility of 
> csound all at your disposal.  Change general volumes easily, transpose a few 
> bars here or there up or down, move this part of the song over there, copy 
> and paste this onto that, change a melody's instrument instantantly, adjust 
> the reverb for this track, visually adjust the rhythm and pitch of your 
> melodies, etc etc etc etc.
> 
> I am talking about software that molds the power of csound in a way that is 
> more condusive and effective for the musical mind.   Csound is an extremely 
> powerful tool for both the creative and rational mind, but it leaves the 
> musician's mind in the waiting room while the rational mind changes this, 
> tweaks that, etc., leaving so little room for the process of creative 
> expression.  Many times i have devoted my csound time to thinking in and 
> around csound, and not in and around my music.  If both the rational and 
> musical minds can be accomodated comfortably, without either one having to 
> make a big sacrfice, then csound as a medium would become immeasuarbly more 
> powerful.
> 
> I would take the time myself to code such a sequencer, simply because i can 
> forsee the benefits of it, unfortunately i am only familiar with DOS Turbo 
> Pascal as a programming language, and coding a DOS-based application of this 
> type would, i am sure, waste a lot of my time on things that windows and 
> object oriented programming makes into a breeze.
> 
> whew.  any thoughts?
> 
> josh whiting
> joshwhiting@hotmail.com
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________________________
> Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
> 
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>