Skip to main content

Modern library for handling Music Macro Language

Project description


MMLlib - Modern library for handling Music Macro Language
=========================================================

About
-----

MMLlib is a pure Python implementation of functionality related to the
`Music Macro
Language <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Macro_Language>`__ as
implemented by Microsoft® GW-BASIC® and compatibles, which is its most
common form, also implemented by the PC speaker driver in Linux and
`BSD <http://www.mirbsd.org/man4/spkr>`__, with a number of extensions
and changes:

- ``|`` denotes a bar line, ignored by the Linux/BSD driver
- support for multiple (parallel) instrument tracks
- a per-file header with work metadata (optional)
- lines starting with a ``#`` are comments
- the alias ``~`` is not supported

The library currently contains functions to:

- parse an (extended) MML file into metadata and individual tracks
- a duration estimate and the number of tracks is added to the metadata
- return a list of tuples (frequency, duration) to play (in a threaded
interpreter, such as Floppi-Music)
- bar lines are indicated separately as integer ``1``
- return an event-oriented list of measures / bars across all tracks;
each measure has a duration and a list of time-fixed tone on/off
events; facilitates playing in non-threaded interpreters and,
possibly, MIDI export
- export (extended) MML to MusicXML
- which can be imported by e.g. `MuseScore <https://musescore.org/>`__
to…

- double-check the MML score for mistakes in a visual representation
- play, arrange, etc. the music
- beautify the score to print it as sheet music
- export into other formats or share on their website

- check tracks for synchronisation error
- missing tracks, i.e. with 0 bars
- missing bars (can only be detected at the end, of course)
- missing notes within a bar, relative to other tracks

Examples
--------

Some example extended MML files are contained within the examples/
directory, in lieu of better documentation for the extended format, in
addition to the `MML format documentation
<http://www.mirbsd.org/man4/spkr>`__.

Projects using MMLlib
---------------------

::Floppi-Music::
`Floppi-Music <https://github.com/Natureshadow/Floppi-Music>`__ has
MML as input format for floppy drive music on Raspberry Pi and uses
MMLlib for processing. Floppi-Music is also the origin of MMLlib.

Description of the (extended) music macro language
==================================================

Based on http://www.antonis.de/qbebooks/gwbasman/play.html and
https://www.mirbsd.org/man4/spkr .

Symbols of MML
--------------

:A-G[#,+,-][length]:
A-G are notes. # or + following a note produces a sharp; - produces a
flat.

:L(n):

Sets the length of each note. L4 is a quarter note, L1 is a whole note,
and so on. n may be from 1 to 64. Length may also follow the note to
change the length for that note only. A16 is equivalent to L16A. Default
is L4.

:ML:
Music legato. Each note plays the full period set by L.

:MN:
Music normal. Each note plays seven-eighths of the time determined by L
(length).

:MS:
Music staccato. Each note plays three-quarters of the time determined by
L.

:N(n):
Play note n. n may range from 0 to 84. In the 7 possible octaves, there
are 84 notes. n set to 0 (or omitted) indicates a rest.

:O(n):
Octave 0 sets the current octave. There are 7 octaves (0 through 6).
Default is 4. Middle C is at the beginning of octave 2.

:P(n):
Pause. n may range from 1-64; the current L value is used if omitted.

:T(n):
Tempo. T sets the number of L4s in a minute. n may range from 32-255.
Default is 120.

:. (period):
A period after a note increases the playing time of the note by 3/2
times the period determined by L (length of note) times T (tempo).
Multiple periods can appear after a note, and the playing time is scaled
accordingly. For example, A. will cause the note A to play one and half
times the playing time determined by L (length of the note) times T (the
tempo); two periods placed after A (A..) will cause the note to be
played at 9/4 times its ascribed value; an A with three periods (A...)
at 27/8, etc. Periods may also appear after a P (pause), and increase
the pause length as described above.

:>:
A greater-than symbol raises the current octave by one.

:<:
A less-than symbol lowers the current octave by one.

:\|:
Optionally used as a synchronisation mark for multi-track music. This is
a proprietary extension in the Floppi-Music project.

Comments
--------

Lines starting with # are comments. At the beginning of the file,
comments may be used to encode metadata. This is yet to be specified.
The current implementation parses '^:raw-latex:`\s*`#(
[^:]*):(.*):raw-latex:`\s*`$' into :raw-latex:`\1` = key,
:raw-latex:`\2` = value pairs, strips both key and value, lower-cases
the key and adds it to a dictionary.

The MusicXML export currently specifically recognises these keys:

- Title, Copyright, Encoder (person), Source
- Composer, Lyrics, Arranger, Translator *xor* Artist (deprecated, only
one)

Any other key is treated as miscellaneous field.

Voices
------

The voices of a song are interleaved. They are grouped per notation
system, and the notation systems are seperated by empty lines.

Changelog for MMLlib
====================

0.3
---

- Enable Python 3 compatibility.
- Add new mmllint script.
- Include example MML songs.
- Add first parts of test suite.
- Some bugfixes.

0.2
---

- Add mml2musicxml script.

0.1
---

- Separate from Floppi-Music.

Project details


Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distribution

MMLlib-0.3.tar.gz (26.3 kB view hashes)

Uploaded Source

Built Distribution

MMLlib-0.3-py2-none-any.whl (21.2 kB view hashes)

Uploaded Python 2

Supported by

AWS AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Datadog Monitoring Fastly Fastly CDN Google Google Download Analytics Microsoft Microsoft PSF Sponsor Pingdom Pingdom Monitoring Sentry Sentry Error logging StatusPage StatusPage Status page