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203 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
203 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
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This is the initial doc file for the new ARIA track. The plan is to
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incorporate this into the main documentation once the command settles
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down. In the meantime I really do want feedback. Thanks.
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Purpose:
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The new ARIA tracks are designed to let MMA auto generate
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something resembling melody. Honest, this will never put real
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composers on the unemployment line (well, no more than they are mostly
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there already).
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You might want to use an ARIA to embellish a section of a song (like
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an introduction or an ending). Or you can have MMA generate a complete
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melody over the song chords.
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Theory:
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In a traditional song the melody depends on two parts: patterns
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(IE. note lengths, volume, articulation) and pitch (usually determined
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by the chords in a song). If you have been using MMA at all you will
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know that that chords are the building block of what MMA does
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already. So, to generate a melody we just need some kind of
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pattern. And, since MMA already uses patterns in most things it
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does, it is a short step to use a specialized pattern to generate a
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melody.
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It might serve to look at the two sample song files enclosed in this
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package. Compile them and play them. Not to bad?
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Now, let's get into the command set. In addition to the existing
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tracks, there is a new ARIA track defined. Just like other tracks, you
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can create as many ARIAs as you want. So, you can have the tracks
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Aria-1, Aria, and Aria-silly all at the same time.
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Most of the commands which you can apply to the other tracks also
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apply to ARIAs. This includes things like VOICE, RTIME, VOLUME, HARMONY, etc.
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A few things work differently:
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PATTERN - the pattern definition for an ARIA is <Offset Length
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Volume>. Much like a Scale pattern.
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RANGE - Just like scale tracks. A RANGE of 2 would let MMA work on a 2
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octave chord, etc.
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SCALETYPE: Much like a scale track. By default, the setting for this
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is CHORD. But, you can use AUTO, SCALE or CHROMATIC. AUTO and SCALE
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are identical and force MMA to select notes from the scale associated
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with the current chord; CHROMATIC generates an 11 tone scale starting
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at the root note of the chord.
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DIRECTION: As MMA processes the song it moves a note-selection pointer
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up or down. By default DIRECTION is set to the single value "1" which
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tells MMA to add 1 after each note is generated. However, you can set
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the value to an integer -4 to 4 or the special value "r". With "r" a
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random value -1, 0 or 1 will be used.
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To further confuse, you can have a list of values for direction. Note
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that this this has nothing to do with the sequence size! So, look at
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this:
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Aria Direction 0 0 1 2 4 -2 r r 1 -1
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Now, if we have a piece with only Cmajor chord the following notes
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would be generated:
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Event Offset Pointer Note
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1 0 c
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2 0 c
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3 1 e
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4 3 -> 0 c
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5 4 -> 0 c
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6 -2 -> 2 g
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7 random c,e,g
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8 random c,e,g
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9 .... etc.
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But, if you were to change the SCALETYPE to SCALE you would get a
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completely different series.
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Things to try:
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- use seqrnd in an ARIA for a less predictable pattern.
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- use HARMONYONLY with a 2nd voice.
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Other Changes:
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The 'z' notation has been expanded with a 'CHORDzR' (like 'zS', etc) to
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disable an aria for specific beats.
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PROBLEMS and CAVEATS:
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1. ARIAs are NOT saved or modified by GROOVE commands. Well, almost
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... the sequence size will be adjusted to match the new size from the
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groove. This might be unexpected:
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- load a groove. Let's say it has a seqsize of 4.
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- create a ARIA. Use 4 patterns to match the groove size (if you
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don't MMA will expand the sequence size for the ARIA stuff, just
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like other tracks).
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- Process a few bars of music.
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- Load a new groove, but this time with a seqsize of 2. Now, the
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ARIA will be truncated. This behaviour is duplicated in other
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tracks as well, but it might be unexpected here.
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2. DIRECTION can not be changed on a bar per bar basis. It applies to
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the entire sequence. Probably not an issue.
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3. The timing for the elements in the sequence are hard
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coded when you create the pattern. Example:
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Aria Pattern {1 1 90 * 4}
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will generate 1/4 notes on each beat. What if you want to have some
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1/4, some 1/8 and some 1/2? Well, right now you can do this by having
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3 different patterns and using a random selection. But, this is not
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ideal. Suggestions?
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3. The current method of doing all this is quite ugly. I have thought
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that it might make some sense to save ARIAs with GROOVEs ... but
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probably not. After all, the pattern _I_ think sounds great with a
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bossanova might just suit you idea of rock. So, saving ARIAs as part
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of a groove will probably not happen. I think it would limit things
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too much.
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So, how do I see these things being used? One simple way might be to
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have a ARIA directory. Easy to have this as a subdir in the existing
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"includes" directory. Now, for each aria you create, make a
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directory. So, let's assume you create something to sound like Joplin
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(Scott, not Janis). And, we'll further assume that the pattern has 4
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built in styles. First off, create a directory
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"includes/joplin". Next, create 5 files with some example code. First
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off the main file which sets the voicing, etc.
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FILE: include/joblin/main
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--------------
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seqsize 4
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Begin Aria
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Voice Piano3
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Volume f
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Articulate 120
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Harmony Open+8Below / / 8Below
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Octave 6
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Rskip 10
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Rtime 10
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Rvolume 20
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Direction r 0 0 1 -1 0 0 1 r
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ScaleType Chord / / Auto
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End
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-----------------
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Next, the specific stuff for pattern 1:
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FILE: includes/joplin/pat1
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-----------------------
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Include joplin/main /// this will load the aria voicing, etc.
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Aria Sequence {1.5 8 90; 2 8 90; 2.5 8 90; 3 8 90; 3.5 8 90; 4 8 90; 4.5 8 90} \
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{1 8 90; 1.5 8 90; 2 8 90; 2.5 8 90; 3 8 90; 3.5 8 90; 4 4 90 }
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-------------------
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Do similar stuff for patterns 2, 3 and 4.
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Now, in your song you can do something like:
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--------------
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Tempo 120
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Groove Swing
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Include joplin/pat1
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.....
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include joplin/pat3
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....
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Comments on this will be accepted!!! Better ideas will be gratefully
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accepted!!!!!
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NOTE: I thought that it might be handy to be able to copy an
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existing sequence/pattern (eg. the CHORD sequence) and use that for
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the aria sequence. Matter of fact, I got it running ... but it's quite
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useless since it just really duplicates the specified pattern and
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notes and doesn't add enough interesting notes to be worthwhile. Just
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a dead end. So, the code has been dumped.
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