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Ability to specify notes which last longer than a quarter note. #75
Description
The string-based API for specifying rhythm and timing of notes is awesome, but the maximum unit of time being a quarter-note makes complex rhythms difficult to construct. I suggest adding additional characters and structures for note lengths greater than 1/4 notes.
Activity
crazy4groovy commentedon Oct 3, 2018
I'm no expert! But I just noticed in the tidal.js example this
pattern: '[xxx]'and
[]makes it sound faster, maybe 1/8 notes? The docs don't mention this.rain-sk commentedon Oct 3, 2018
walmik commentedon Oct 6, 2018
Thank you for the comments.
The functionality to extend note lengths is a must have for the browser clip method of scribbletune. It already exists in the node module which exports MIDI files as outlined here https://scribbletune.com/documentation/core/clip Basically adding underscores to a
xwill increase its length. So ifxis a quarter notes, a single underscore like this,x_makes it as long as 2 quarter notes and 2 underscoresx__makes it as long as 3 quarter notes. One can even set the default duration of eachxthus making it possible to extend those notes exponentially.However, for the browser we need to add this. I m open to PRs for this.. if no PR comes in I ll add it myself once I get some time.
rain-sk commentedon Oct 12, 2018
Thanks for clarifying!
This begs the question (for me at least): what about dotted notes (beats that last 1.5 times the specified note length)? Would it be something like this? [x__] aka one note lasting the length of three eighth notes?
I've been messing around with some ways to make the clips editable in-browser, but understanding the notational restrictions will make it easier to design something that works!
walmik commentedon Oct 12, 2018
Hey HI @spencerudnick For those you can just mix and match.
so something like
x[xx]is a quarter note followed by 2 eighth notes. If you dont want play one of the eighth notes then simplyx[-x]You can keep subdividing further if you like.. for instance something like thisx[x[xx]]. Here we have one quarter note followed by another quarter note which is chopped up into a eighth notes followed by 2 sixteenth notes.rain-sk commentedon Oct 12, 2018
@walmik I believe you're still referring to methods of subdividing quarter notes. Check out this video for an example of what I'm referring to.
Dotted notes instruct the instrument / musician to play a note which lasts for 1.5 times the length of the note specified. So a dotted quarter note lasts the length of a quarter note plus an eighth note.
Specifying these types of notes is pretty imperative for creating a visual clip editor, otherwise users will be limited to a constrained visual grid.
This also begs the question of how to specify notes spanning beats (tied notes), so a quarter-note could begin one eighth-note length from the beginning of the measure.
rain-sk commentedon Oct 12, 2018
Based on your syntax, I could see something like: 'x[_-]'
Thoughts?
walmik commentedon Oct 13, 2018
I think this is definitely a new feature.
A hacky, unwieldy way that can be explored at least as a POC in the node module version (not the browser js) is to use the HDR speed and construct 2 clips and concat them before exporting. Basically you'd need to add a prop here for the required HDR speed (comments here have the description of what is HDR) https://github.com/scribbletune/scribbletune/blob/master/src/clip.js#L30
If that works out then we can put a new character in the pattern lingo for
.Currently pattern only acceptsx-_[]Some thought must be invested while developing this as it needs to also subsequently support the same in the browser along with Tone.js (which is a primary dependency for running Scribbletune in the browser)
All in all i believe this a great feature to have.