new software--microcsound20090707

Hi all,

If you've been reading the yahoo tuning list(s) for years you may remember
some time back I wrote a program initially called 'et_compose' which became
'micro_composer'...well, now I have an application designed for the specific
purpose of avoiding the channel and micrtonal limitiations of MIDI
altogether by using CSound as an engine.

Since it uses typing of characters, it made sense to move away from MIDI,
b/c one didn't need the physical MIDI equipment anyway, thus it made sense
to also do away with it's built-in limitations in other areas.

Csound is known for it's steep learning curve, hopefully, this makes things
easier not only for the general user but the microtonal composer as well.

One particularly useful feature of this program is the ability to audition
musical passages, chords, etc. in realtime, using the -i command line option
(see the docs below for other features and more info)

Links:

Actual application script:
http://www.akjmusic.com/packages/microcsound20090707.tgz

Online tutorial w/examples (included in .tgz package):
http://www.akjmusic.com/microcsound_tutorial.txt

README file w/install instructions, etc (included in .tgz package).
http://www.akjmusic.com/microcsound_README.txt

One needs, as prerequisites:

Csound, of course
Python

.....It's designed for Linux/Unix, which means it ought to work well for Mac
OS-X well (beta testing anyone?)...I haven't tested on Windows, but you can
try it out...I assume it wouldn't need much modification other than
directory pathname conventions using backslashes instead of forward slashes,
but one never knows what hidden bugs are there with cross-platform
development.

Let me know what you think, and if the documentation is clear/complete
enough for you.....

Aaron Krister Johnson
http://www.akjmusic.com
http://www.untwelve.org

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Cool, Aaron! I plan to give this a try, though I will probably not be able to get to it right away.

- Dave

Aaron Johnson wrote:
> Hi all,
> > If you've been reading the yahoo tuning list(s) for years you may remember
> some time back I wrote a program initially called 'et_compose' which became
> 'micro_composer'...well, now I have an application designed for the specific
> purpose of avoiding the channel and micrtonal limitiations of MIDI
> altogether by using CSound as an engine.
> > Since it uses typing of characters, it made sense to move away from MIDI,
> b/c one didn't need the physical MIDI equipment anyway, thus it made sense
> to also do away with it's built-in limitations in other areas.
> > Csound is known for it's steep learning curve, hopefully, this makes things
> easier not only for the general user but the microtonal composer as well.
> > One particularly useful feature of this program is the ability to audition
> musical passages, chords, etc. in realtime, using the -i command line option
> (see the docs below for other features and more info)
> > Links:
> > Actual application script:
> http://www.akjmusic.com/packages/microcsound20090707.tgz
> > Online tutorial w/examples (included in .tgz package):
> http://www.akjmusic.com/microcsound_tutorial.txt
> > README file w/install instructions, etc (included in .tgz package).
> http://www.akjmusic.com/microcsound_README.txt
> > One needs, as prerequisites:
> > Csound, of course
> Python
> > .....It's designed for Linux/Unix, which means it ought to work well for Mac
> OS-X well (beta testing anyone?)...I haven't tested on Windows, but you can
> try it out...I assume it wouldn't need much modification other than
> directory pathname conventions using backslashes instead of forward slashes,
> but one never knows what hidden bugs are there with cross-platform
> development.
> > Let me know what you think, and if the documentation is clear/complete
> enough for you.....
> > > Aaron Krister Johnson
> http://www.akjmusic.com
> http://www.untwelve.org

Hi Aaron,
thanks for sharing the software.

Few remarks to Linux installation:
1. Install script is install.py not install.sh as stated in README.
2. tgz does not include examples.txt needed in line 13. It causes warning message.
But the manual installation is straightforward.

When running the program:
1. /home/akj/audio_and_midi/csound_files/ does not exist, microsound should be edited.
2. Campbells_Harpsichord_tuned_1.sf2 required by default general_orchestra.orc is missing. Disabling i8 helps.

After these little modifications the demo mary.mc works fine.

I hope the Microcomposer will help to create some of my algorithmic compositions. Thanks again.
Best
Milan

Aaron Johnson wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> If you've been reading the yahoo tuning list(s) for years you may remember
> some time back I wrote a program initially called 'et_compose' which became
> 'micro_composer'...well, now I have an application designed for the specific
> purpose of avoiding the channel and micrtonal limitiations of MIDI
> altogether by using CSound as an engine.
>
> Since it uses typing of characters, it made sense to move away from MIDI,
> b/c one didn't need the physical MIDI equipment anyway, thus it made sense
> to also do away with it's built-in limitations in other areas.
>
> Csound is known for it's steep learning curve, hopefully, this makes things
> easier not only for the general user but the microtonal composer as well.
>
> One particularly useful feature of this program is the ability to audition
> musical passages, chords, etc. in realtime, using the -i command line option
> (see the docs below for other features and more info)
>
> Links:
>
> Actual application script:
> http://www.akjmusic.com/packages/microcsound20090707.tgz
>
> Online tutorial w/examples (included in .tgz package):
> http://www.akjmusic.com/microcsound_tutorial.txt
>
> README file w/install instructions, etc (included in .tgz package).
> http://www.akjmusic.com/microcsound_README.txt
>

Milan,

Thanks for catching the soundfont thing and the 'examples.txt' issue--I had changed the name of to 'tutorial.txt' without changing in the install script, my mistake...

I can make the harpsichord soundfont available in the package, perhaps...or at least on my site.

I did note, on line 69 and following or the README file, that one would have to change the variables at the top of the 'microcsound' script itself to fit your system paths...maybe you didn't catch that!

Glad you liked it, hope you can do some cool things with and and share them with us!

Best,
Aaron.

PS I'm releasing an update today, which I'll announce...I've fixed non-octave scale use, there was a bug; I hadn't tested it extensively enough.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, aum <aum@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Aaron,
> thanks for sharing the software.
>
> Few remarks to Linux installation:
> 1. Install script is install.py not install.sh as stated in README.
> 2. tgz does not include examples.txt needed in line 13. It causes
> warning message.
> But the manual installation is straightforward.
>
> When running the program:
> 1. /home/akj/audio_and_midi/csound_files/ does not exist, microsound
> should be edited.
> 2. Campbells_Harpsichord_tuned_1.sf2 required by default
> general_orchestra.orc is missing. Disabling i8 helps.
>
> After these little modifications the demo mary.mc works fine.
>
> I hope the Microcomposer will help to create some of my algorithmic
> compositions. Thanks again.
> Best
> Milan
>
>
>
> Aaron Johnson wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > If you've been reading the yahoo tuning list(s) for years you may remember
> > some time back I wrote a program initially called 'et_compose' which became
> > 'micro_composer'...well, now I have an application designed for the specific
> > purpose of avoiding the channel and micrtonal limitiations of MIDI
> > altogether by using CSound as an engine.
> >
> > Since it uses typing of characters, it made sense to move away from MIDI,
> > b/c one didn't need the physical MIDI equipment anyway, thus it made sense
> > to also do away with it's built-in limitations in other areas.
> >
> > Csound is known for it's steep learning curve, hopefully, this makes things
> > easier not only for the general user but the microtonal composer as well.
> >
> > One particularly useful feature of this program is the ability to audition
> > musical passages, chords, etc. in realtime, using the -i command line option
> > (see the docs below for other features and more info)
> >
> > Links:
> >
> > Actual application script:
> > http://www.akjmusic.com/packages/microcsound20090707.tgz
> >
> > Online tutorial w/examples (included in .tgz package):
> > http://www.akjmusic.com/microcsound_tutorial.txt
> >
> > README file w/install instructions, etc (included in .tgz package).
> > http://www.akjmusic.com/microcsound_README.txt
> >
>