5 ms·
No list of text-based music systems is complete without the granddaddy of them all: [LilyPond](http://lilypond.org/ http://lilypond.org/) Alda seems greatly in
by smlacy 5y ago
No list of text-based music systems is complete without the granddaddy of them all: [LilyPond](http://lilypond.org/ http://lilypond.org/)
Alda seems greatly inspired by the syntax of LilyPond, and in fact, I actually think the musical rendering is done via LilyPond. I'm surprised the docs don't seem to mention this heritage at all.
- jeofken 5y agoI struggle to get LilyPond running on MacOS - is it easier on Linux? It would be great for us but my mates all use Windows or MacOS, so we resort to graphical notation programs, where version control and portability is hard
- klyrs 5y agoIt's extremely easy to get it running on Linux. Many distributions have a lilypond package, which just works out of the box. The problem I've always had with the language is that it's quite arcane and if you want to do anything weird (like, a tie to nowhere) you're either at the mercy of somebody else having solved the problem first, or failing that, a huge learning curve. It's a lot like latex in that way. That said, if you just need to do simple stuff, the language almost magically gets out of your way.
- Hackbraten 5y agoHave you checked out the unofficial Homebrew tap `nwhetsell/lilypond` [1]? It has a `lilypond` formula that has worked fine for me. Beware though that it installs some kind of TeX repository sized 7 GB. [1]: https://github.com/nwhetsell/homebrew-lilypond https://github.com/nwhetsell/homebrew-lilypond
- colomon 5y agoI've never noticed any difficulty getting LilyPond running on MacOS or Linux? I use it regularly on MacOS, and keep it installed on Linux for special occasions.
- jeofken 5y agoHow did you install it on MacOS?
- colomon 5y agoOh. I'm still using MacOS 10.14, so there's an official up-to-date version to download from the Lilypond site, and I think I'm using a two year old version of that. (I am very slow to update the OS on my main work machine, usually just ride out the major version it came with until I update to a new machine; and since I was working on a book in Lilypond, I wasn't in a hurry to update it, either.) Sorry I can't be of more help immediately!
- YossarianFrPrez 5y agoIndeed. And if you use Lilypond, check out Frescobaldi -- it makes typesetting and editing scores much easier, via things like syntax-staff co-highlighting. https://www.frescobaldi.org/ https://www.frescobaldi.org/
- int_19h 5y agoI would argue that the granddaddy of them all is the PLAY statement in BASIC: https://hwiegman.home.xs4all.nl/gw-man/PLAY.html https://hwiegman.home.xs4all.nl/gw-man/PLAY.html
- soylentcola 5y agoI had a lot of fun with this on my Commodore. The version of BASIC on the C=128 was surprisingly versatile. I was just a kid in elementary school, but messing with ENVELOPE and PLAY taught me the basics of attack/decay/sustain/release and other synth concepts. Very cool stuff to discover in the giant manual that came with the thing!
- sbuttgereit 5y agoI dunno... what about csound? https://csound.com/ https://csound.com/
- jim-jim-jim 5y agoWhich itself is a child of an even grander daddy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSIC-N https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSIC-N You can hear some recordings presumably made with these programs on this release: https://www.discogs.com/Various-Music-From-Mathematics/release/318560 https://www.discogs.com/Various-Music-From-Mathematics/relea... Some of it is gimmicky, some still kinda rocks.
- sbuttgereit 5y agoThanks for the tip. I hadn't realized that csound came from a longer lineage of work.