Let me summarize the ideas we discussed to notate percussion withing ABC:
1) Use implict note heads (a la abcm2ps) based on accidentals
and extend it to ^^ and __ to include more note heads or allow
different instruments to share the same notehead.
2) Add %%setdrum [<note>=]<instrument>[,<head>] to map notes to
instruments.
3) Use decorations as in "+AcousticSnare+ +head-x+ e" to explicitly
associate percussions to notes. Using "&" to overlay voices
one could create a sort of tablature for drums. (We should
explore abctab2ps syntax to find opportunities there).
4) Use 2) and I: to achieve the same result as 3):
[I:setdrum 38] +head-x+ e
5) Add "instr" and "head" to the V: syntax. For example:
X:1
V:1 clef=perc instr=HigTom head=wsquare name=drums
V:2 clef=perc instr=LowTom head=square merge
V:3 clef=perc instr=CrashCymbal1 head=x merge
K:perc
[V:1] z ^e/ ^e/ z/ ^e z/
[V:2] z2 _e/ _e/ _e/ z/
[V:3] g2 z3/2 g/
6) Adopt an implicit drumkit like this one:
http://home.iprimus.com.au/brucemcintyre/percussion-notation.png
or the one suggested in this message:
http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/nwc2/forum/331.htm
Did I miss anything?
I personally don't like the idea of having an implicit, hard-coded
association as in 1) or 6) for two reasons: it's not intuitive and I
fear different appplications will end up with different implementations.
As for 2), I'm in favour of adding a "setdrum" instructions to create
percussions mapping. Again I would add an explicit note head
association. It's plenty of note heads out there, these are the ones
that I've seen used more often (names are provisional!):
"head-plus"
"head-x"
"head-xcircle"
"head-square"
"head-wsquare" (white square)
"head-triangle"
"head-wtriangle" (white triangle)
"head-diamond"
"head-wdiamond" (white diamond)
Note that we could assume 1) as a "default" so that noteheads can also
be left unspecified:
^c head-x _c head-xcircle =c head-plus ^^c head-triangle __c head-diamond
About instrument names, I still think that names are better than numbers
and both should be allowed. Spelling it's not a big issue to me, GM
names are consitent almost everywhere and it's very easy to recognize
"OpenHiHat" or "openhihat" or "open-hi-hat" or "Open_HiHat", ... I would
only rule out the usage of spaces in names (but still, we could use
quotes!).
In other words [I:setdrum ^e=38] and [I:setdrum ^e=AcousticSnare] should
both be allowed.
My preference goes to 3) (use of decorations), it seems easier to me to
read than 4).
Option 5) could be a good compromise and only requires a change to the
V: syntax.
Any comment?
Remo D.
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/T8sf5C/tzNLAA/TtwFAA/mjFolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/abcusers/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
