Re: [Denemo-devel] MIDI note input by rhythm?

[Richard Shann]

Hi Angel,

I think I have a good idea now what you are trying to do, and I am now
sure that what you want (a MIDI file to play along with, and as a bonus,
a score of the music) is very nearly already there in Denemo.
I think the best entry method would be to start as you did already,
rhythm first then notes. Then there already exists a command to enter
tempo - it sets the tempo per measure as you beat the measures on the
space bar. The present script plays back an audio recording which you
listen to beating the start of each bar. You could actually do this
(make a recording first using audacity and loading it into Denemo) or
you could adapt the script to just obtain the timing and enter the tempo
at the start of each bar.
Then you would play through again with a version of the Check Pitches
command which would record the velocity of each note and apply that to
the note at the cursor (you would not need to play accurately in time
when you do this, it will not advance if you play a wrong note). You
could also record the time-off and modify the duration of the note
inserting an (invisible) rest to take up the duration.

I think this will need some scheme - Denemo has a scheme window in which
you can do things like get the MIDI input, change the duration of the
current note etc. There is, however, no good documentation on the set of
commands available, only examples. And some of the examples were written
a few years back in very crude looking scheme. I am thinking of the
Educational->Midi Keyboard->Check Pitches script here. You load the
script into the scheme window by right clicking on the command and
choosing Get Script. Then you can edit it and save it as a new command.

At the moment I am busy trying to make a really solid release 1.0 of
Denemo so cannot do the programming, but I am happy to guide you through
setting velocities on individual notes (a d-DirectivePut-note-midibytes
command IIRC) and changing the durations etc.

An alternative, if you can hack C, would be to use the built-in Check
Pitches code (if you press Control while playing it will advance the
cursor each time you press the correct note). This could easily be used
to change the velocity and duration of the note.

Richard



On Mon, 2013-01-21 at 10:07 +0000, Angel de Vicente wrote:
> Hi Richard,
> 
> Richard Shann <address@hidden> writes:
> > I wrote the email (below) with only a short while to consider what it
> > was you wanted to do. Afterwards, I started to wonder...
> > Is it the case that you want to create a performance by inputting the
> > notes first (slowly and out-of-time because of the difficulty of playing
> > the piece) and then add the rhythm by tapping (avoiding the difficulty
> > of finding the notes at the speed desired)?
> 
> yes, that's what I want. Having it incorporated in a notation editor
> would be great..
> 
> In the meantime, I experimented with PureData, and I got a
> proof-of-concept little program. A little demo can be seen in:
> https://vimeo.com/57762697 (in the first step I enter the pitches, and
> in the second step I just press any keys and the output is the
> combination of the notes from the first step plus the durations and
> velocities from the second step).
> 
> Some more explanation is in:
> http://angel-de-vicente.blogspot.com.es/2013/01/adding-dynamics-to-midi-files.html
> 
> If you could incorporate this into Denemo, I think it would make a
> difference with respect to other notation editors. At least for me this
> is a much easier way to get decent sounding MIDI stuff in the computer
> that the other methods I have tried.
> 
> Thanks,