Re: How to connect Midi keyboard to Lilypond?

[Richard Shann]

On Thu, 2013-09-26 at 19:16 +0200, David Kastrup wrote:
> Richard Shann <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > On Thu, 2013-09-26 at 11:52 +0200, David Kastrup wrote:
> >
> >> Anway, my point is: the currently available tools are not good enough
> >> right now to save time.
> >
> > This very much depends on the sort of music you are working with. Try
> > typing in the LilyPond syntax for the Vivaldi sonata movement
> > (https://vimeo.com/62188678) that was generated in 10 mins using
> > Denemo working straight from an original print and you will be
> > convinced (I hope).
> 
> I haven't tried Denemo, certainly not in the last few years.  I probably
> need to do so.  It's probably impolite to use it just as a glorified
> Midi input tool, but if it does that job better than, say, Rosegarden...
> 
> Now here's the deal: my main Midi device is a rather simplistic midified
> accordion.  Accordions have chord buttons and bass buttons.  The chord
> buttons deliver three-note chords, the bass buttons single-note bass
> notes.  The actual chords are composed from 12 different notes (only a
> single octave) of which three are selected by a mechanical lever system.
> If you tell the Midi electronics to be "chord-accurate", it will only
> report a chord note when at least three levers have been detected.  So
> unless you use more than one chord button at a time (actually perfectly
> feasible, for example for getting Cmaj7 you'd use Cmaj+Amin), the chords
> will be delivered and released perfectly simultaneously.
> 
> So if I'm doing the full deal, I'll be getting material on three
> channels (bass, chords, melody) where the chords at least are nicely
> synchronized.
> 
> Is that something that Denemo is supposed to be able to deal with well?

Denemo completely ignores the time-stamps on the midi input stream. The
midi events are serialized into a buffer by a separate thread, and
Denemo just picks them up in the order they appear in the queue. If you
want to generate a LilyPond chord you need to hold the Alt key down or
press the sustain pedal. And then, as with all other rhythmic matters,
you can play the chord as raggedly or as simultaneously as you like.

Richard