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I M P R O V I S E R
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This is the automatic music generation program imaginatively called:
'Improviser'. It can play and generate music in real-time and save the
result as a MIDI file as well. The program can be controlled using a GUI or
the command line and is supposed to work on all the major platforms.
http://improviser.onderstekop.nl/
http://pypi.python.org/pypi/improviser/
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Requirements:
* A Python runtime - http://www.python.org
* The Python mingus library with fluidsynth (see mingus' setup instructions)
http://mingus.googlecode.com/
* A SF2 SoundFont. You can find thousands of those using Google.
Some good ones can be found here: http://www.hammersound.net
(go to Sounds -> Soundfont Library -> Collections).
Optional:
* Pygame for the Visualizations - http://www.pygame.org/
* Python bindings for Qt4. [Recommended]
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Installation:
* Install the required programs and libraries.
* Run `python setup.py install`
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Graphical User Interface:
If you have the bindings for Qt4 installed. You can load up a GUI to control
the improviser by running:
qtImproviser.py
This is the preferred way to go, because the GUI is not only a front-end for
the cli version, but has support for up- and downloading and exporting and
importing as well; which currently can't be found in the cli version. It's
also easier to control.
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Command Line Interface:
To start a real-time simulation from the command-line, run:
Improviser.py -e jazz --sf2 soundfont.sf2
This uses the jazz ensemble to play the default progressions with the soundfont
you downloaded from the internet. You can use the --list or -l switch to list
progressions, ensembles, blocks, etc.
For instance:
Improviser.py -le
Gives you a list of the available ensembles.
If you want to have a little visualization while the PC is jamming away,
use the --frontend switch:
Improviser.py --frontend mixed
To see more options use --help.
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Contact:
If you'd like to get in touch to ask a question or submit a patch,
you can best contact me by e-mail: onderstekop@gmail.com
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Improviser - Automatic music generation software
Copyright (C) 2008-2009, Bart Spaans <onderstekop@gmail.com>
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
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