picotune

Use a text file with a simple DSL to generate a musical (maybe) wav file.

• install with gem install picotune or add gem picotune to your Gemfile
• Use in code: require 'picotune'; p = PicoTune.new('path/to/your/input/file.txt'); p.wav
• or use the command line! bash> picotune path/to/file.txt
• then check out the newly minted .wav file in whatever directory you ran the above from!

• Take a look at the example file below, then come back here and read this explainer:
• tune helloworld names your tune to "helloworld"
• sequence ph1 ... defines what sequence your phrases will play in. Notice the names ph1 and ph2 are defined lower down with the phrase ph1 and phrase ph2 blocks.
• instrument i1 names an instrument "i1".
  • valid tone values are sine, square, triangle, saw, or noise
  • valid length and volume values are none, quarter, half, threequarters, or full
  • valid pan values are left, centerleft, center, centerright, or right
  • valid reverb values are none, some, more, or lots
• phrase ph1 names a phrase called "ph1"
  • tempo is beats per minute
  • beats is the number of beats per measure. This is usually 4 in modern pop/rock music but any number besides 0 will do.
  • subbeats is the number of subdivisions of each beat. 4 will divide your beats in 16th notes. So in this case "ph1" will have 16 steps in the phrase (4 beats each with 4 subbeats)
  • melodies keyword goes on a line by itself, followed by lines of melody definitions. A melody is an instrument and a pattern, both must be named (see pattern description)
• pattern p1 C4.C4.E4-E4-G4.G4.C4-C4. defines a pattern named "p1". The string after that is the notes and rests of the pattern. IMPORTANT: A pattern MUST have the correct number of "steps" to match with a phrase. If you have a phrase like above with 4 beats and 4 subbeats per beat then your pattern MUST have 16 steps!
  • a step of the pattern can either be a note like A4, a rest ., or a continuation -
  • note names include a note and an octave. valid note names are A, A# or Bb, B, B# or Cb, D, D# or Eb, E, F, F# or Gb, G, G# or Ab. valid octaves are a number between 1 and 8 inclusive.
  • a rest means nothing plays
  • a continuance plays the note that immediately proceeds it again. A4--- encodes four A4 notes. this is just for convenience.

There is not much error checking so if something breaks check your format, make you are spelling instrument/phrase/pattern names correctly wherever you use them.

You can have as many tempo and time signature shifts as you want in a tune, so go nuts with that.

That's about it! Good luck!

tune songofstorms

sequence ph1 ph2 ph1 ph2 ph3 ph4 ph5 ph6 ph3 ph4 ph5 ph7 ph8 ph1 ph2

instrument i1
tone triangle
volume full
length full
pan centerleft
reverb none

instrument i2
tone triangle
volume full
length full
pan centerright
reverb none

instrument i3
tone sine
volume half
length full
pan center
reverb some

phrase ph1
tempo 200
beats 6
subbeats 2
melodies
i1 p1
i1 p2

phrase ph2
tempo 200
beats 6
subbeats 2
melodies
i2 p3
i2 p4

phrase ph3
tempo 200
beats 6
subbeats 2
melodies
i1 p1
i1 p2
i3 p5

phrase ph4
tempo 200
beats 6
subbeats 2
melodies
i2 p3
i2 p4
i3 p6

phrase ph5
tempo 200
beats 6
subbeats 2
melodies
i1 p1
i1 p2
i3 p7

phrase ph6
tempo 200
beats 6
subbeats 2
melodies
i2 p3
i2 p4
i3 p8

phrase ph7
tempo 200
beats 6
subbeats 2
melodies
i1 p1
i1 p2
i3 p9

phrase ph8
tempo 200
beats 6
subbeats 2
melodies
i2 p3
i2 p4
i3 p9

pattern p1 D3 . F3 . F3 . D3 . G3 - - -
pattern p2 .  . A3 . A3 . .  . B3 - - -
pattern p3 D3 . A3 . A3 . D3 . G3 - - -
pattern p4 .  . C4 . C4 . .  . B3 - - -
pattern p5 D4 A4 D5 . . . D4 A4 D5 . . .
pattern p6 E5 - - F5 E5 F5 E5 C5 A4 - - -
pattern p7 A4 . D4 . F4 G4 A4 - - - - -
pattern p8 A4 . D4 . F4 G4 E4 - - - - -
pattern p9 D4 - - - - - - - - - - -