Performance

Performance is the stage after derivation, that turns Derive.Score.Events into the final output format. There are two major backends so far, MIDI and lilypond.

General instrument details are in instrument.md.

MIDI

At the derive level, a Derive.ScoreT.Instrument is simply a text string, but the first step in performance is to look up all those instruments in the instrument db, and in the per-score configuration, which is Ui.UiConfig.config_allocations, which maps instruments to Perform.Midi.Patch.Configs.

The main feature of the Config is the allocation, which says which Addrs, (MIDI device, channel) pairs, the instrument is allocated to. If there are multiple Addrs, the instrument will be multiplexed across them.

The backend-indepndent per-allocation configuration is in Instrument.Common.Config.

controls

As an example, one of the basic things that most all instruments set is Perform.Midi.Patch.patch_control_map. This is just a mapping from symbolic control names to MIDI CC numbers. As a special rule, you can always name controls like cc15 or cc23 and they will be mapped directly to MIDI CC numbers, but if the instrument has a control map, you can write names like filter or bow-speed.

The dyn control (Derive.Controls.dynamic) has special support. If the instrument has the Pressure Perform.Midi.Patch.Flag set, it is mapped to the breath control, otherwise it’s mapped to vel.

multiplexing

If an instrument is allocated to more than one channel, it will be multiplexed across them to try to keep pitch bend and controls from interfering with each other. Any overlapping notes that are compatible will be merged into the same channel. Compatible means they have the same control signals, compatible pitch signals (in parallel 12TET intervals), the same instrument, and the same keyswitch, and is implemented by Perform.Midi.Perform.can_share_chan.

If a note can’t be shared, it will get its own channel. If all channels are in use, it will simply reuse the one that was used longest ago.

The result is that if you allocate multiple channels, you should be able to give notes independent tunings, controls, or keyswitches. This is especially important for scales which are not 12TET, since every note will be retuned (unless Perform.Midi.Patch.config_scale is set to the same scale). But if you have more overlapping notes than channels, they will start to share and you’ll hear artifacts. This can happen easily if you have an instrument with a long decay.

attributes

Another basic configuration is Perform.Midi.Patch.AttributeMap. The deriver keeps an attribute set in Derive.EnvKey.attributes. These are used to select a particular articulation or playing style for the instrument, which will then map to a keyswitch or a key range, or what have you. Attributes are additive, so while you may add +pont to a whole section to switch all instruments that understand to sul pont, a specific note may add +cresc to swell. It will wind up with +pont+cresc, which, if you have a sufficiently expensive sample library, will select a specific sample.

There is a standard vocabulary of attributes in Derive.Attrs, but generally they’re instrument-specific adjectives.

There are lots of other kinds of configuration, see the haddock for details.

lilypond

Per-score lilypond configuration is in Ui.UiConfig.config_lilypond. Unlike MIDI perforance, lilypond “performance” is always initiated manually, via the functions in Cmd.Repl.LLily.

Lilypond output is significantly different from MIDI output, and needs a fair amount of tweaking to look good. This is because Karya’s score notation is more flexible and powerful than staff notation, in addition to being lower level (and is also much simpler in terms of layout). Ultimately this is why I designed my own sequencer in the first place, instead of just using a staff notation program, so it’s hardly a surprise if a perfect translation is not possible.

However, being more general and lower level, Karya’s notation doesn’t represent aspects of tonal European music as well as staff notation does, especially vertical harmony and binary rhythms. Also, musicians generally read staff notation.

You probably won’t be able to get very far without understanding lilypond’s own score format.

Notes are written as non-overlapping events on tracks at the Karya level, but they are grouped by instrument (and then hand and voice, as documented below) at the lilypond level. So the track structure is not reflected in the staff structure, though of course you may want to lay them out similarly.

calls

One problem is that the events emitted by derive are sometimes too low level. For example, the +staccato attribute may shorten a note’s duration, or apply a keyswitch, depending on the instrument. But +staccato in staff notation does neither, and applies a staccato marking to the notehead. A tuplet note parent might normally emit a triplet by setting start times and durations, but in staff notation emits a larger duration and puts tuplet brackets around them. To deal with this, lilypond derivation replaces a number of standard calls with ones that instead either attach an attribute that the lilypond performer understands (e.g. +staccato), or attaches a bit of lilypond code to insert into the lilypond score (e.g. tuplets).

In addition, some concepts exist only in staff notation, such as “mf” or hairpin dynamics, or special markings like cross-staff notes or cautionary accidentals.

While some calls are replaced outright with lilypond-emitting versions, others change their behaviour when they notice they are being derived in lilypond mode. Which is which is just a question of code modularity. Other calls exist only to emit lilypond. The library of lilypond-specific calls is in Derive.C.Lily, and are in the Derive.Call.Module.ly module. You can search for them call doc with m:ly.

Sometimes the differences between lilypond output and MIDI output are too great to be reconciled by the calls. For instance, you may want to write notes as simply being slurred together, but on playback you actually want to emit a combination of keyswitches to get the details of the phrasing right. Or a four-note violin chord should be written as one chord, but played broken into two dyads. In this case, you can substitute an expression with the if-ly call, or substitute an entire track with the ly-track and not-ly-track calls. In the example to the right, there are a total of four note parent tracks applying to two note tracks. Two of the tracks apply to both lilypond and normal derivation, one applies to only when in lilypond mode, and the other applies only in normal mode. (TODO: screenshot should use up to date names, a dyn track, and be shorter)

In addition, there are calls whose sole purpose is to emit staff-level lilypond commands, rather than being attached to a specific note. For example, clef changes, dynamic changes, instructions to performers, or in fact any arbitrary bit of lilypond code you might want to insert. To avoid cluttering other tracks, you can put them on their own track as zero-duration events. Normally you’d then put ly-track on it so normal derivation can skip it entirely.

voice, staff

One of the concepts that exists in staff notation but not Karya notation is voice and staff. These are handled with environ values. If there are notes with the Derive.EnvKey.hand value set, they will be split into the upper and lower staves of a grand staff. And if there are notes with Derive.EnvKey.voice set, the notes on a single staff will be split into multiple voices. However, the voices are only split for the time where the voice number is actually set. And if you set voice for some notes, you have to set it for all of them, and for the same duration. Bad things will happen if you have voiced notes overlapping with non-voiced notes on the same staff. Hopefully there will be warnings in the log, and you should notice messed up notation.

pitch

Staff notation only supports the *twelve scale. If you want it to support some other scale you’ll have to create an adapter. This is just a mapping from scale degree names to pitch names that lilypond understands, so if you can get lilypond to understand it then you can get Karya to emit it.

time signature

Time signature is another concept that only exists in staff notation. The closest analog is the ruler, but the ruler is more general and lower level, so I don’t try to infer time signature from it. Instead, you set meter explicitly with the meter call. Still, for your sanity, you should make sure the ruler lines up to the time signature in use.

The meter call is special in that it’s interpreted as a global instruction, no matter which instrument (if any instrument) it happens to fall under. While technically different simultaneous meters are possible, they’re tricky to implement.

The more important part of meter is that it affects rhythm spelling, which another concept that doesn’t exist in Karya. Therefore, it’s the responsibility of the lilypond performer to decide on how to spell rhythms. This also means that irregular meters must be explicit, e.g. you have to write 3+2/4 or 3+3/8 instead of 5/4 or 6/8. Rhythm spelling is complicated and partially a matter of aesthetics, so it may spell a rhythm differently than you want. E.g. if the meter is 2+2+2/8, it will spell a duple pattern with ties instead of dotted notes. Currently, there’s no way to override the rhythm spelling, so you’d have to either change the meter to 3+3/8 for that measure, edit the lilypond code by hand, or just live with it. Or make like Stravinsky and write it as a duplet.

Currently, meter support is hardcoded, so Perform.Lilypond.Meter only supports a limited set of them. However, it’s easy to add new ones, and I could probably guess one automatically from the meter, so this limitation could be removed someday.

The same issue, though simpler, arises with beaming. In this case, lilypond itself will guess a good beaming for you, which you can override by directly emitting the relevant bits of lilypond code. Interestingly, lilypond also handles beaming with a hardcoded list of specially tweaked time signatures.