Re: [LAU] A text-only environment for composing electronic music?

Hi. I am looking for a programmable (text mode) seuqnecer solution. I know that Linux has a few small languages for creating MIDI files, like MMA. Even LilyPond can be tricked into being a MIDI file generating language. However, none of the solutions I have seen so far could be easily integrated as the center/hub of a full composition. I am imagining a workflow where I do not need to click my way through a sequencer, setting up all the content and connections, but rather define a composition in terms of source code. For this to be useful, it should include conventional sample playback, as well as real time MIDI event generation. I am not sure if we have a sufficiently remote-controllable sampler without GUI requirements, but if we do, I might be able to get away by using that via OSC or MIDI, instead of re-inventing the sampler wheel. However, it feels like it would be good to have the sample definitions part of the composition source code file. After all, I finally want all the meta-data required to play my composition together in more or less one play (modulo include files). This composition compiler should ideally support JACK, with stuff like transport control. It should be able to support optional hardware synths, which will be controlled via MIDI messages and mixed back into the full result via an input JACK port. I am aware of the KISS principle and actually love it very much. So if anyone has suggestions on how to implement such a workflow/tool with existing tools and plumbing code, I am very open to ideas and suggestions. However, I get a feeling that what I want is only convenient if relatively tightly integrated, so that I do not have to tinker with too many individual tools while trying to be productive. Any hint on how to get such an environement going is very appreciated. This is actually a long-long-term project of mine: Since I have started to play with computers, I have always been frustrated by the lack of accessibility of tools to create electronic music. I have occasionally managed to get limited solutions working for me, and have always had very much fun creating content when it sort of worked for me. In the good old DOS days, there were (due to the limits in what a PC could do) still some people trying to implement pure text-mode solutions, which sometimes worked really good with a braille display. I remember creating several tracks with ModEdit on MS-DOS in one particular summer in the late 90s. Using that felt quite productive, but also limited (due to a 4-track limit). When I switched to Linux in 97, I had many new things to learn and was quite busy, not really caring about the sequencer thing. But later on, I had to discover that the situation for me has gotten a lot worse now: All the big Linux sequencers were purely graphical and not accessible through other means either. The same situation is mostly true for Windows and Mac OS X unfortunately. The obvious solutions like Reactor, Fruityloops or Abelton Live are all far from being even remotely usable for blind musicians. As far as I currently understand, the chances of finding usable support for some professional screen reading solution and music composition on Windows is relatively low, plus it might cost me a lot of money. So I might as well try once again, and stay on Linux, where I actually belong. -- CYa, ⡍⠁⠗⠊⠕ _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user