Buddha Buck wrote:
> At 10:44 AM 06-04-2002 -0700, Don Parrish-Bell you wrote:
> >I haven't had the opportunity to try to encode anything yet, but I look
> >forward to doing
> >so. I'm saving the tons of posts from everyone so I can go back through
> >for hints on
> >various things when I do get to that point.
>
> One thing to keep in mind is that ABC is not a program, but rather a
> notation for music that is text-based. There are various programs out
> there that interpret that notation and can generate printed scores or play
> music, and there are several people who use ABC directly when playing music
> (rather than first converting it to some other notation and playing from
> that). Most of your complaints are with specific programs or combinations
> of programs, not with ABC itself.
>
----I understand the distinction -- that abc is a file format. My complaints are with
the
tools that format abc ... at least for the moment.
>
> >I have downloaded various things and used abc2Win and whatever behind the
> >scenes tool that
> >runs on one of the sites to create printable sheet music. The minor
> >complaint that I have
> >is that the measures seem to be awefully cramped together.
> >So I have been re-entering the sheet music into a program called MusicTime
> >(I know ...
> >blasphamy!). Is this cramping due to how the tune was originally encoded
> >in abc format or
> >is it just how the formatting tools work under Win98?
>
> The only part of ABC that I could see that would affect how "cramped"
> together a peice of music would look in staff notation is the length of
> individual lines. Most ABC to Staff converters I know of do not break
> lines of ABC into multiple lines of staff notation. Obviously, the same
> piece of music is going to look more cramped if written as 2 lines of 8
> measures than 4 lines of 4 measures.
>
---Actually I was referring to the horizontal spacing for each measure. Even in PDF
format, the sheet music seems a bit cramped when you print it out. I suppose what I'm
really after, then, is a formating tool with "preferences" I can tinker with.
>
> If that doesn't seem to be the problem (i.e., MusicTime is using the same
> number of measures/line as abc2win), then it seems like a deficiency with
> the converter.
>
> > Platform independence is a good
> >thing for those using UNIX-based and whatever other things the rest of the
> >world might be
> >using (what are you guys in Europe using?), but maybe a bit better
> >formatting tool could
> >be developed for Windows. The note shapes tend to be very "low-res",
> >too. If the
> >graphics-based ones can printout clean-looking sheet music, seems like a
> >formatting tool
> >for abc could do the same thing.
>
> There are formatting tools for abc that can do the same, and some even work
> in both Unix and Win environments. One tool I use is abc2ps and its
> derivatives, which generates sheet music in PostScript from abc
> notation. PostScript is resolution-independent, so you should be able to
--- I believe that abc2ps is what is running "underneath" my browser to put the sheet
music up on the screen.
>
> get very crisp, high-res note shapes when printing to a laser printer, or
> when viewing onscreen. Other tools, like Muse, are full-fledged
> score-editing programs like I assume MusicTime is, but will read and write
> abc as well.
>
--- Acrobat allows you to scale a PDF file in the overall sense (height and width), but
that's about all it can do with it. As far as I know, there isn't anything that allows
you to edit a PDF file.
>
> >I read a few of the posts today talking about how quickly things can be
> >entered in abc
> >text. I can see how that might be true. Yes it takes a ridiculous amount
> >of time to have
> >to use the mouse to go grab the proper duration note each time and some
> >keyboard
> >short-cuts would be very handy for the GUI-based tools. Are there
> >keyboard short-cuts for
> >abc? Will there be if there aren't any now? "weirdPerfect" had all
> >those funny CTRL-xx
> >and ALT-xx things, but in many ways it was faster than MSWord for those of
> >us who learned
> >all the little quirky control strings.
>
> Since abc is a text-based format, any text-editor is suitable for entering
> and editing ABC. There is no reason for your fingers to leave the keyboard
> if you don't want it to. For instance, I am typing in a text-editor
> attached to my email client (Eudora) and I can, easily, simply write a tune
> in ABC like so:
>
> X: 1
> T: C-Scale, once up and down
> M: 4/4
> K: C
> cdef|gabc'-|c'z2c'|bagf|edc2|
>
> This isn't a very good tune, I'll admit, but it is ABC, and easily typed at
> that.
>
--- Maybe it's just that the devil's in the details. After I get into encoding in abc,
maybe I will see that it does all I need as far as entry convenience goes. Does anyone
have a good recommendation for a tool that can do the following (preferably all in one
package):
1. Enter guitar TAB, tool creates sheet music and TAB as you go.
2. Ability to add lyrics and guitar chords (text and chart format) and/or text notes to
the score
3. Ability to strip out just lyrics or lyrics and guitar chords from an existing tune
(the
tune could have been written in whatever format is native to the tool)
4. Enter sheet music, tool attempts to create guitar TAB (obviously you'll need to do
some
touch ups here and there to make it actually playable)
5. MIDI IN/OUT (pretty standard feature, from what I see)
6. Actually knows what the heck a repeat is!! A lot of things I've tried ignore the
repeats.
7. Doesn't require taking out a second mortgage on your house to buy it!
8. Has some keyboard-shortcut method of selecting note duration instead of having to
always use the mouse.
9. Outputs in abc, PDF, etc. format.
--- As I mentioned before, Guitar Studio was close. I would have had no problem paying
the author for it, but it needs some major help because it is very "wounded". I
haven't
gone on a very extensive quest for something like this, I'll admit, because the sales
people at most of the music stores have little or no knowledge about the software they
sell. And what I've seen there is a bit too pricey for me at the moment ($300 -
$1000).
I don't know how it is in the rest of the world, but most places here in the US have
the
policy that if you open up software you can't take it back.
--- MusicTime was a neat little program I bought for my wife to do some vocal
arrangements. It turned out to be a very nice tool, but the company that developed it
went out of business. I'd say it would be an excellent starting place if it were
possible
to get a hold of the source code somewhere. It has its quirks to be sure, but it is
easy
to use and takes care of a lot of my wish list items. But it doesn't have any means of
entering both TAB and standard music notation on the same score. In a perfect world
I'd
have tons of time to practice and would learn to sight read guitar music in no time at
all. And the "problems" would just go away. In my real world, though, I still need to
write things up in TAB and would like the ability to use the tool not only for music
entry, but music training as I go.
>
> >I like the little community of abcusers. Seems like you are all really
> >trying to make it
> >a decent tool. I'm sorry I can't contribute much to that effort other
> >than a few
> >suggestions for the wish list. Keep up the good work!
>
> We are creating several tools centered around the format, and several of us
> (myself included) simply make suggestions for the "wish list" and critique
> other suggestions for the wishlist without contributing any code. If you
> like what you see, hang around and have fun!
>
--- Its good just to see that this is a work that is actually in progress and not some
"you'll take what we give you and pay us dearly for it" commercial package with a FAQ
list! I have to deal with enough of those in the CAD world.
Don
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