@dave thank you for making alda, it's the first time music has really clicked for me. finally started diving in a few days ago and ive been having so much fun. quick question, i'm making dueling banjos here https://gist.github.com/oakes/9bfec27a0199deee96d0dce0c8405b82

is there a better way to make each part wait? all the r8~8~4~4~4~4~4~4~4 things are repetitive and error prone. i havent used markers or other fancy things yet, maybe that is what i should use?

hey @sekao, it's great to hear that alda is helping make music click for you! bridging the gap between musicians and programmers is definitely one of my goals with alda. you've hit the nail on the head with how tallying up rests for all the instruments that aren't playing is repetitive and error prone. it's exactly the use case for markers. the beginning of dueling banjos is also a great use case for variables, since there's so much repeated material. here's my refactor of the first bit using variables and markers:

lick1 = o3 b8 > c8 d4 < b > c < a b g a

guitar: lick1 %banjo1
banjo: @banjo1 lick1 %guitar2
guitar: @guitar2 lick1 d1

guitar: g4 g a b g b a1 %banjo2
banjo: @banjo2 g4 g a b g1

lick2 = g8 g8 g4 a b > c d c < b1

guitar: o2 lick2 %banjo3
banjo: @banjo3 o3 lick2 %guitar4
guitar: o2 lick2 %banjo4
banjo: @banjo4 o3 lick2 %guitar4

# etc.

perfect, i'll try that out. i wish i started using alda earlier -- i added it to nightcode many moons ago but didnt get around to using it until recently.

oh i just realized you have your own slack, nice