[linux-audio-dev] XAP status : incomplete draft

Steve Harris S.W.Harris at ecs.soton.ac.uk
Sat Dec 14 05:21:01 UTC 2002


On Sat, Dec 14, 2002 at 02:44:48 +0100, David Olofson wrote:
> > Right, so dont allow plugins to talk notes... I still dont think
> > its necceasry, its just programmer convienvence.
> 
> It's actually more *user* convenience than programmer convenience. 
> Programmers that work with traditional theory will have to work with 
> <something>/note regardless, but users won't be able to tell for sure 
> which plugins expect or generate what, since it just says "PITCH" 
> everywhere. Is that acceptable, or maybe even desirable?

Er, well, most people will just let the host do the wiring for them. So it
will all work fine.

If they do the wiring themselves then they will wire pitch outut to pitch
input and it will all work. Theres no possibilities of a pitch data
mismatch, because theres only one format.
 
> Fine, it works for me, but I'm not sure I know how to explain how 
> this works to your average user.

It wont need explaining, its blatatly obvious, unlike if you have pitch
and note pitch when its not obvious if they will be compatible or not
(even to the host).
 
> > If you dont have it there cant be any compatibility problems.
> 
> How can you avoid compatibility problems by sending two different 
> kinds of data, while pretending they are the same?

There aren't two kinds of data, theres just pitch.
 
> Useful when you think only in terms of linear pitch, yes. When you do 
> anything related to traditional music theory, you'll have to guess 
> which note the input pitch is supposed to be, and then you'll have to 
> guess what scale is desired for the output.

This is true of all the systems we've discussed.
 
> Nothing more sophisticated than autocomp plugins (rhythm + 
> harmonizer, basically) and other plugins based on traditional music 
> theory. Things that are relatively easy to implement if you can 
> assume that input and output is note based, and disregard tempering 
> of the scale, within reasonable limits. They still work with non-ET 
> scales, because that translation is done elsewhere. (In the synths - 
> but not many of them actually support it, AFAIK... *heh*)

Right, and none of this stuff is any harder if you just support pitch. In
either case you need to know what scale its in.

- Steve



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