Xen-toolbox

Xen-toolbox is Haskell library meant to facilitate the composition and playback of xenharmonic (also known as microtonal) music.

Features/Usage Notes

Xentoolbox works by providing a multiparameter TuningSystem notes group typeclass, with the group type constrained with another typeclass, AbstractTemperament group. The idea is that the notes in a TuningSystem correspond to particular frequencies. The TuningSystem typeclass then provide various functions for converting to and from various frequency representations (i.e. fractional midi note numbers, raw frequency in hz), which can then be used by the fluidsynth (for the playback of soundfonts) and vivid (i.e. supercollider) backends for sound generation.

To implement a Tuningsystem notes group instance, group must implement AbstractTemperament and Group instances. The idea behind this typeclass being that whereas the notes of a Tuningsystem are concrete frequencies that can be playedback, the group elements of an AbstractTemperament represent intervals in that temperament. An AbstractTemperament g implements a function intfreq :: g -> Double which should be a group homomorphism, i.e. for all elements a,b of type g, it should satisfy intfreq (a <> b) = intfreq a <> intfreq b.

Xentools includes several convienient template haskell quasiquoters to facilitate the notation of music in many different temperaments. For example, the following expression gives a value of type Line NoteBP, which is a type synonym for [(NoteBP, Duration)] -- i.e. a sequence of notes in the Bohlen Pierce tuning, each played for a given Duration, which is simply a newtype for a Rational from Data.Ratio:

[lineBP| C3 1, D3 1, E3 1, F3 1, G3 1, H3 1, J3 1, A3 1, B3 1, C4 4 |]

Most of the template haskell quasiquoters in xentools use the standard western note names (C, D, E, F, G, A, B), but the above example also uses "H" and "J", which are commonly used to notate the Bohlen Pierce scale. The general format of the quasiquoters in xentools is to parse a comma-seperated list of notes, formatted as: [natural note name][period number][(optional) list of accidentals] [space] [duration] For example, for our 22edo parser, we use the standard western natural note names, the notation "Is" and "Es" for sharps and flats, respectively, and the additional microtonal accidentals:

"Qis": Quarter sharp
"Qes": Quarter flat
"Sis": Sesqui (one-and-a-half) sharp
"Ses": Sesqui (one-and-a-half) flat

Here is an example to see this notation in action:

[line22| E4 2, G4 2, E4 2, GEs4 2%3, GEsQes4 2%3, GEsQesQes4 2%3 |]

Also, notice that rationals inside the quasiquoter are notated the same way that they would be notated in Haskell.

Currently there are several interfaces provided for playing back Scores of notes in different tuning systems. The most versatile of these is the function sequenceNotes', and it's usage is documented in tests/examples.hs. However, given that xen-tools is currently in pre-release, this interface is liable to change.

Transformations

Given some Line notes or Score notes, we can preform various transformations on them, which can be found in the Scales.Generic module provided by xentools. Notably, scores form a Semiring (from Data.Semiring in the semiring-simple package). In other words, this means that we can combine two scores of the same type in sequence by using the <.> operator:

-- two melodic fragments in 12 tone equal temperament
a = [[line12| C4 2, D4 2, E4 2, C4 2 |]]
b = [[line12| E4 2, F4 2, G4 4 |]]
-- a line in 12 tone equal temperament where first "a" is played, immediately
-- followed by "b"
abSeq = a <.> b

And we can play two scores of the same type in parallel by using <+>:

-- some more melodic fragments
c = [[line12| G4 1, A4 1, G4 1, F4 1, E4 2, C4 2 |]]
d = [[line12| C4 2, G3 2, C4 4 |]]
-- let's make them into a tune!
frereJacque = a <.> a <.> b <.> b <.> c <.> c <.> d <.> d
-- ... and make that tune a round!
frereJacqueRound = (rest 8 <.> frereJacque) <+> frereJacque

Installation Instructions

Note: Xentools currently requires GHC version 8.4.1 or greater to install. On Ubuntu, the easiest way to make sure this is installed is to run:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:hvr/ghc
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ghc-8.4.1

Next, ensure that you have cabal, supercollider, and fluidsynth installed on your machine. On recent versions of Ubuntu, to accomplish this you should be able to run:

sudo apt install supercollider
sudo apt install ghc
cabal update
cabal install vivid

Finally, clone into this repo and run cabal build.

git clone https://github.com/Sintrastes/xen-toolbox
cd xen-toolbox
cabal build

To ensure that everything is working correctly, you can listen to some examples by running:

./start_servers.sh &       # to start the supercollider and fluidsynth servers
cabal run examples

Note: Currently, to get the examples running properly, you need to have a "test.sf3" soundfont file in the same directory as this README.