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#alda
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2016-01-20
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yjmbo22:01:22

Can I use alda to name a group of notes, and just use the name in various places around the score? Like a macro or a function definition, perhaps?

dave22:01:45

hi @yjmbo -- good timing, i actually just came here to post a link 😛

dave22:01:07

we are actually working on variables, which should be coming to alda very soon

yjmbo22:01:33

simple_smile I'm giving a short talk on alda at the upcoming LCA2016 music miniconf, so I'm trying it out

dave22:01:39

oh wow, that's awesome!

dave22:01:02

please feel free to tap me here or via email if you have any questions about anything, i'll be happy to help

yjmbo22:01:37

Yep, that's why I joined the channel. At the moment alda doesn't seem very much like a programming music; I'm trying to find ways to reduce the amount of 'code' that needs to be written.

dave22:01:31

i saw a lot of comments like that a while back on a thread about alda on hackernews

dave22:01:55

i definitely intend for alda to be used more "programmatically" like that in the future

yjmbo22:01:08

At least nested repeats seems to work, that's nice

dave22:01:22

we're sort of working our way there, from a starting foundation of a simple markup-like language

dave22:01:43

i think variables will open up a whole world of possibilities

dave22:01:49

see the examples on the first post here: https://github.com/alda-lang/alda/issues/131

yjmbo22:01:46

yep, that's the sort of notation that would work. Also perhape including external files?

yjmbo22:01:53

s/perhape/perhaps/

yjmbo22:01:16

Mmm, perhaps I should spend more time reading the github issues list then simple_smile

yjmbo22:01:44

OK, a question outside my scope, as I don't play with MIDI; how can I get a decent set of instruments for the playback? The ones my system currently supply are a bit insipid ... and I'm using Ace of Spades as my demo, which doesn't work well with 'insipid' simple_smile

dave22:01:10

lol, i bet it sounds pretty crappy with the default JVM soundfont

yjmbo22:01:26

recognisable though simple_smile

dave22:01:44

i would definitely recommend installing a nice, open source MIDI soundfont

yjmbo22:01:48

Specially having issues with trying to predict what percussion would be like

dave22:01:02

we actually have a script for that in the alda repo -- see: https://github.com/alda-lang/alda#installation

dave22:01:52

FluidR3 is a nice open source soundfont -- cloning the alda repo and running scripts/install-fluidr3 will make it the default MIDI soundfont for your JVM

dave22:01:31

percussion support is high on my TODO list. i'm hoping to get at least basic support for it knocked out by the time i give my alda talk at the ClojureRemote conference on february 11

dave22:01:15

(i've got to run, heading home for the day -- will be back on later though)

yjmbo22:01:58

Thanks Dave, I'll make sure to get some of those links/references into the talk. It's only 20 mins though! http://www.annodex.org/events/lca2016_mmm/index.php/Main/Schedule