Producing
Csound scores with BP2
First
select the "Csoun
d"
option in the "Output" menu. This option is saved with the settings of the
current project or data. If the "MIDI" option is still active, musical items
will be played on MIDI and then the user will be prompted to go for a Csound
score. If "MIDI" is inactive Csound scores are immediately saved to a file.
(See more options Fig.33.)
If
Csound is running on a Unix or Windows machine it is a good idea to change the
file format to "DOS" or "Unix". The dialog for MIDI and Csound file saving
options is visible after typing cmd-option space ("Settings" in the "Windows"
menu).
On
the top "Settings" dialog, checking "Trace Csoun
d"
requests BP2 to display a copy of the score in the "Trace" window. A good idea
for a first check-up.
BP2
creates a Csound score of musical items selected in a text window (a "BP2 scor
e")
or produced by a grammar. The components of these musical items are
sound-objects and/or simple notes. A sound-object contains a sequence of
elementary events that may be described as a MIDI stream, a Csound score, or
both.
In
the latter case, BP2 checks that the durations of the MIDI and Csound sequences
are identical. It makes sense to have both descriptions generate similar
sounds on MIDI and Csound, so that MIDI is used for an immediate check and
Csound for the final material.
• When
sound-objects contain Csound scores, their MIDI streams are ignored and the
final score is a rearrangement of these score lines with appropriate changes in
the timings of events and the values of their parameters. (See §17.8)
• When
a MIDI stream is used as the input (which is always the case with simple
notes), BP2 does its best to convert MIDI messages to Csound score lines. (See
§17.3)
In
both cases BP2 needs information about the parameter locations and ranges for
each instrument of the Csound orchestra file. Unfortunately, reading the
orchestra file would not yield the required information unless it is prepared
in a comprehensive way. (Csound designers might think of new instructions in
Csound orchestra files that would make this information directly accessible :-)
This partial description of Csound instruments is entered in the "Csound
instruments" dialog and saved to a "-cs.<name
>"
file.
Version
2.9.3 of BP2 inserts function tables into the score when necessary, thus
enabling arbitrary variations of continuous parameters within a single Csound
event (a score line).