Re: Midi interface in lilypond Re: Feeding a troll.

[Laura Conrad]

>>>>> "Eric" == jojo2  <charles> writes:

    Eric> Yes I have tried Lilypond but find that the process of visualisation 
of
    Eric> its output from only its input language is a long climb, not unlike
    Eric> writing in c++.
    Eric> Not nearly as difficult as Musixtex, but  still a long process.

I feel the same way (or, the way I usually put it, typing the input
from knowing what I want the output to look like is difficult).  In my
case, I've been working with lilypond long enough that just entering
notes isn't that hard, but all the stuff that goes around the note
entry to say how to arrange the staffs and the lyrics is still pretty
much greek to me.

In my case, the thing that most needs tweeking after I have made the
first cut data entry is usually the text underlay.  This is largely
because I do multi-part polyphonic music, often highly melismatic, so
the idea that there is one text that can be just entered and placed in
a separate part of the file is less helpful to me than it would be for
some other kinds of music.

The lilypond-based GUI's aren't as helpful for this problem as I had
hoped they would be.  Denemo doesn't yet do lyrics at all.  Noteedit
does, but uses a lilypond-like model of entering the text separately
from the notes.  And neither of them is good at importing real-world
lilypond -- Noteedit doesn't even claim to, and denemo doesn't for any
lilypond I've actually given it (that it didn't write).

So my solution is to use ABC, which was designed to make typing
one-line melodies easy, for my input, and fix the abc2ly converter so
that it writes the lilypond for me.  My system is fast enough that I
can run abc2ly, ly2dvi, and xdvi (from a script) whenever I need a
preview.  But there are also some fairly successful ABC GUI's (skink
is the one I've used) if you preferred to see the notes as you typed,
without having to request a preview.

As other people have stated; the MIDI output isn't really the problem;
if it is, just don't write a MIDI block and you won't get it.  And
most people I know who typeset already-written music wouldn't consider
using a system that didn't allow them to proofread their stuff by
listening to the MIDI.

-- 
Laura (mailto:address@hidden , http://www.laymusic.org/ )
(617) 661-8097  fax: (801) 365-6574 
233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139