AMC - the A'dam Music Composer
amc dance.scoThen dance.sco will be read. A score file contains short tunes that are to be combined into a complete piece of music. This combining is controlled by a script file which is a normal text file, created with a text editor. After the script file dance.scr has been read the screen may look as follows.
It is also possible to double-click a score file, or a script file. If script file xxx.scr is double-clicked, then first xxx.sco will be loaded if it exists. Notice that a score file gets its icon when the file is saved, whereas a script file gets it icon when it is read. If a script file must be edited instead of read by AMC, then drop its icon onto an editor icon, or call the editor via the terminal.
AMC is quite different from other music software. It is especially focused on composing music, which is a very difficult endeavor, so it is aiming at placing as little hurdles as possible on the user's road. See also the last chapter.
The entering of new tunes is done on a normal 5-bar staff (treble or bass clef), whereas the modifying and collecting of the tunes is controlled by a text file. There are 2 kinds of instruments: sampled instruments for percussive sounds, and sounds that are generated real-time. Fore each kind there is choice between 6 instruments, indicated by a color. The sound of a real-time instrument can be modified via its own control panel, that will appear when the appropriate color has been selected.
The characteristics of a real-time instrument is controlled by algorithms. So if you know how
to program, then the creation of different
sounds belongs to the possibilities. How AMC is controlled will be explained
in the next chapter via the panels and widgets of the graphical user interface.
If the middle mouse button is used, then the note will be staccato (indicated by a shortened display of the note). If the note is staccato already it will be turned back to normal.
Sampled instrument notes are created if the sampled notes checkbox is enabled. In this case the instrument control panel (middle right of the window) will list the available sampled instruments, provided that the wave files have been read. Notice that these files are read when they are needed for the first time, so if only tunes with real-time instruments are played then the samples will never be read. Sampled notes are indicated by colored crosses. Their vertical position is irrelevant, because their frequency is fixed.
Clicking the right mouse button will create a vertical 'end-of-tune' line. This will be useful when several tunes are combined later on, because then no timing information will have to be specified in the script file. Also, this way the length of a tune can be increased beyond its initial value. To accomplish this, first use the slider to shift the view to the right, or resize the AMC window in the horizontal direction. Then extra white space at the right of the scores will appear. Clicking here with the right mouse button will increase the size of the score.
Actually the scores are extending 1 octave at the top and 1 octave at the bottom. This area can be made visible by clicking one of the move triangles.
The color of the notes is choosen by the color control panel (middle of the window), but first one score must be the active score, which is controlled by the active button in a score panel. If this button is clicked once more, then none of the scores will be active.
The amplitude slider controls the loudness of the notes, which can be overruled when the tune is used as a building block for a complete piece of music.
Notice that the active button status is relevant for several different operations, thus it can be harmful if it is on inadvertantly. Therefore it is always reset after being used. If you don't want this, you can keep the active button status by pressing the shift key before clicking a button or slider.
The tune in the score is sounded by clicking the panel's play button. It is possible to indicate the starting and stopping times of the playback. This is done by clicking the left and right mouse buttons respectivily, above the highest score line, and is indicated by small red triangles. They can be undone by clicking at the same point a second time.
A checkbox labeled disp ampl controls the appearance of the score display. If the checkbox is enabled, then the amplitude of the notes in the score is shown in an ascending shade of grey.
Usually, musical scores are preceeded by 'flat' or 'sharp' key signatures, depending on the key in which the piece is written. The key signatures are drawn in front of the score lines, see chapter Chords. If a note is entered on such a line it will be raised or lowered one semitone.
The color of a new entered note is determined as follows:
- if it is next to an existing note, it will take that note's color;
- else if the checkbox draw with color is active, it will take the active color
from the color panel;
- else it will take the default color (assigned by clicking in the
color panel while the score active button is on).
The action performed by clicking or dragging the left mouse button can be modified by the row of buttons underneath the score panels, see the next chapter.
Clicking outside a note will select all note parts under and above the clicked location. By dragging the mouse an area of selected notes will be created.
Instead of the select button also the S key can be used.
Selected note parts can be moved, copied, deleted, re-colored or they can get a different amplitude. Notice that the select button stays active after the mouse button has been released, whereas the other buttens will be reset in this case.
If the K key is pressed before releasing the mouse button, then the moving of selected note parts will not occur (K means 'keep').
Again, if the K key is pressed before releasing the mouse button, then the copying of selected note parts will not occur.
- If the cursor is on a note, the cursor shape becomes a square. Then the mouse can be dragged, the cursor becomes a dot. If the cursor reaches another note, the cursor again becomes a square. If the mouse is released at that moment, then a line is drawn from the first note to the second.Notice that the portando data are stored in the first note, which can be seen when one of them is moved or deleted. If 2 notes are in portando, then the decay part of the first and the attack part of the second are skipped. The horizontal distance between the first and second note can be between 0 and 15, the vertical distance between -15 and 15.
- If the cursor is on a note which is the start of a portando line, then the line is omitted.
- If the cursor is not on a note, then nothing happens.
Notice that normal notes that differ one semitone are treated specially. For instance a B note that is made sharp will turn into a C note.
| Instrument | |
| Black | An FM instrument, like the Yamaha DX7. The basic sinus signal can be FM modulated with 0.5 till 8 times the basic frequency. The modulation index can be choosen between 0 and 5. Both frequency and index are controlled with a two-dimensional slider. The modulation frequency is either an integer or a rational multiple of the basic frequency, depending the checkbox sub band. |
| Red | The waveform is a repeating pattern consisting of 2, 3 or 5 cycles
(with varying frequency) of a sinus wave.
This yields a frequency spectrum with a wide formant component.
The number of cycles as well as the frequency variation within one cycle are controlled
with 2 two-dimensional sliders labeled diff/nrsin, one for the startup,
one for the sustain part of a note.
This instrument a.o. can imitate a guitar or a bass-guitar. If checkbox soft attack is enabled it sounds more like a cello. |
| Green | A waveform with a random quality: each note sounds slightly different. The waveform is built up from straight lines. This instrument is well suited for a solo voice, and chords can sound beautiful. |
| Blue | Basicly a pulse. If the chorus checkbox is enabled,
then a second pulse with a slightly different frequency is added with the opposite
amplitude. The 2 signals cannot fully cancel each other, because they
are asymmetric. With the rich tone checkbox pulses with 2 and 3 times the
basic frequency can be added. If the piano attack checkbox is enabled,
then the amplitude envelope will be piano-like. In this case the value of the
attack slider is irrelevant.
This instrument can have a pure, floating quality, or a full rich sound if chorus and rich tone are enabled. |
| Brown | Also an FM instrument, like the black one. The modulation frequency can be detuned in order to create interesting sounds. |
| Purple | An additive synthesis instrument, like a Hammond organ. The sound is the sum of sinus waves with a frequency of 1 upto 10 times the fundamental, with separate controls for these harmonics during startup and sustain. Duration of the startup is controllable. This instrument can sound very nice and mellow. |
The small widgets beneath the label loc control the stereo location of the different instruments. Clicking the widgets modifies this location between left, middle an right. The stereo effect is created by delaying one channel with 2 mS, not by decreasing its amplitude.
If the default file name in the dialog panel is still valid, then also the save button can be clicked a second time.
Files are conventionally saved with extension .sco. A saved file is more or less human readable. The idea is that simple modifications like reordering, renaming or copying of the tunes is done with a normal text editor. Also other modifications like e.g. re-coloring of all notes could be done, as each parameter has a unique letter code. Tip: in your text editor, set the line wrap setting to off.
Also the notes of one single instrument can be processed. This occurs if the solo voice checkbox is on, using the instrument as choosen in the color panel.
If the ignore set cmd's checkbox is on, then the set commands in the script will be skipped.
The position of the starting and stopping marks in the complete score controls the operation. The time:n parameter of set and add etc. commands will be modified, as follows:
In case of add and take commands: All times greater or equal than the starting mark will be decreased with an amount equal to the distance between the stopping and starting mark. All tunes starting between the stopping and starting mark will be removed.
Operations that are not provided by the available buttons sometimes can be performed by giving an appropriate command. After reading the script syntax chapter the following examples will be clear.
Starting and stopping times can be controlled by clicking in the score panel. After the playing has stopped, sliders and checkboxes will be redrawn such that they show their current value.
The scroll button can be used to see all parts. The audio clipping level is indicated by a dotted line. By means of the checkbox labeled all a choice can be made between a detailed view, where only the first part of the audio buffer is shown, or a complete view.
At the bottom of the score the names of the tunes that were used as building blocks are shown. Clicking on the play button (right middle) will start the playing. After this the appearance of all controls is updated such that they show their current value.
This score cannot be modified with the mouse, only starting and stopping times of the playback can be indicated. This is done by clicking the left and right mouse buttons respectivily, and is indicated by small red triangles. They can be undone by clicking at the same point a second time.
Notice that always before playing all script set commands are executed, also when playing starts at a later time. However, when the ignore set cmd's checkbox is on, then the set commands will be skipped. This is handy if you want to experiment with different instrument settings and also read a script.
First the base tone at the left is selected, then the desired chord at the right. If one of the score panels is active, then the chord will appear there at the left side, or after the end-of-score line if it exists. The notes are in "selected" mode, and thus can be moved or copied to the place where you want them.
The chords window offers yet another facility. When the set key button is clicked, then key signatures will be drawn in the active score panel. So if e.g. the base tone F is selected, then a flat signature will appear in front of all score lines for note B.
WAVE files are rather big. They can be converted to MP3 format with a suitable converter. See the README file for details.
For the sampled instruments the mapping is:
black : MIDI instrument 6, electric piano 2 red : MIDI instrument 25, guitar green : MIDI instrument 41, violin blue : MIDI instrument 1, piano brown : MIDI instrument 5, electric piano 1 purple : MIDI instrument 17, drawbar organ
black : MIDI (channel 10) instrument 36, bass drum red : MIDI (channel 10) instrument 47, low-mid tom green : MIDI (channel 10) instrument 38, acoustic snare blue : MIDI (channel 10) instrument 46, open hi-hat brown : MIDI (channel 10) instrument 42, closed hi-hat purple : MIDI (channel 10) instrument 62, mute high conga
| take name | Clear the internal score buffer, copy tune name to it. |
| take-nc name | Copy tune name to the internal buffer without first clearing it. |
| add | Add the buffer contents to the big score. |
| add name | Add tune name directly to the big score. |
| put name | If name is found in the list of tunes, then copy the contents of the buffer to this tune. If name is not found, then first create a new tune. |
| exit | Skip rest of script |
| set | Set parameters. |
Most basic commands can have parameters. The add, take and take-nc commands take the same set, as follows:
| time:number | Add at a certain time. number has one of 2 forms: n - indicates the measure number n.m - e.g. 3.2 indicates the 2nd note-unit in measure number 3. Multiple times are also supported, e.g. time:2.4,9 means that the tune will be added at the start of measures 2.4 and 9. |
| shift:n | Shift all notes n semitones up (if n is positive) or down (if n is negative). If the score is in a key containing flats, then accidentals (the black keys of a piano) will be flats. If the score is in a key containing sharps, then they will be sharps. |
| raise:n | Shift all notes n lines up or down. |
| ampl:n | Set the amplitude to n. Values between 1 and 6. |
| from:n to:m | Take an interval. n and m are numbers like in the time: parameter. |
The set command can take many parameters. Notice that for the start of tones two different values can be specified: "attack" specifies the amplitude at the beginning of a tone, "startup" specifies the waveform.
|
| Valid values for n, m, b, s. | |
| time:number | Succeeding parameters are valid after this time. number has one of 2 forms: n - indicates the measure number n.m - e.g. 3.2 indicates the 2nd note-unit in measure number 3. Multiple times are supported. The time:n parameter can be given more then once on the same line, the last read value (or list of values) is valid. If no time:n parameter is given, then time:0 is supposed. | |
| tempo:n | Set the tempo. | > 10 |
|
black-attack:n green-attack:n blue-attack:n brown-attack:n | Set instrument attack. | 0 - 5 |
|
black-decay:n red-decay:n green-decay:n blue-decay:n brown-decay:n | Set instrument decay. | 0 - 5 |
|
red-start-wave:n,m red-sustain-wave:n,m | Set waveform of red instrument during startup or sustain. The waveform will consist of m sinuses, which vary in frequency dependant on the value of n (value 1 means: small difference, tone with a strong formant; 5: big difference, bright sounding tone). | 1 - 5 2 - 4 |
| red-soft:b | Set soft attack of red instrument. | on, off |
| red-startup:n | Set duration of startup wave of red instrument. | 0 - 5 |
| green-tone:n | Set tone of green instrument (0: soft, 3: sharp). | 0 - 3 | blue-piano:b | Set a piano-like attack of the blue instrument. | on, off |
| blue-rich:b | Set extra harmonics of blue instrument. | on, off |
| blue-chorus:b | Set chorus effect of blue instrument. | on, off |
|
black-fm:n,m brown-fm:n,m | Set FM parameters. The actual values for the modulation index and for the ratio modulation/carrier frequency, are as displayed near the fm freq/index slider; they also depend on sub band on or off. | 0 - 7 0 - 7 |
| brown-detune:n | Set detuning of modulating frequency of brown instrument. | 0 - 5 |
|
black-subband:b brown-subband:b | Set FM modulation range of brown or black instrument. | on, off |
| purple-start-harm:n1,n2,n3,n4,n5 | Set startup harmonics of purple instrument. | 0 - 3 |
| purple-sustain-harm:n1,n2,n3,n4,n5 | Set sustain harmonics of purple instrument. | 0 - 3 |
| purple-startup:n | Set startup duration of purple instrument. | 0 - 5 |
|
black-loc:s red-loc:s green-loc:s blue-loc:s brown-loc:s purple-loc:s | Set stereo location. | left, mid, right |
Notice the different semantics of the time:n parameter. If it follows an add or take command, it is valid for the whole line; if it follows a set command, it is valid for the statements after it.
The colors in statements after a set command can also be stated differently. As an example: the line
set red-soft:on red-startup:1 red-decay:2can also be written as:
set red soft:on startup:1 decay:2
The number of voices that can sound at the same moment is restricted to 10 (which can easily be modified in the source code). If this number is exceeded then a warning is issued. Notice that a note that is in its decaying phase still occupies a voice, so if short decay values are choosen then more notes can overlap.
If you want to do something that's not possible, e.g. assign a note color while no score panel is active, then simply nothing happens. And if you try to quit the app after extensive modifications of the tunes without hitting the save butten, then no warning whatsoever will stop you.
If you cannot read scores or you do not know the fundamentals of harmony then AMC probably is of little use for you. However, composing is something that can be learned, and it's quite rewarding. A nice and practical book about composing:
The Composers HandbookA more elaborate book about harmony and composing:
by: Bruce Cole
Scott educational publications
Harmonic Practice in Tonal MusicOn-line several smaller or bigger tutorials can be found, e.g. about chords and chord-progressions:
by: Robert Gauldin
W.W.Norton & Company
www.rpsoft2000.com/rps_musicinfo.htm