| Author: | Ralf Schlatterbeck <rsc@runtux.com> |
|---|
This is a fun project for generating morse code in ABC music notation.
The ABC tools can be used for converting the resulting .abc file
into either MIDI (using abc2midi) or – and that's the fun part –
morse code in musical notation. Many ABC tools are shipped with the
popular Debian Linux distribution. This project currently has no Python
installer, it's intended to be cloned with git and used in the
checkout directory.
The program supports some options, e.g., for chosing a MIDI instrument, for setting the morse code (it is called CW (Continuous Wave) by ham radio operators) speed or for using Farnsworth Speed (also called Farnsworth spacing) used when training morse code.
The resulting MIDI files can be used for training (e.g. using a MIDI player) or for other purposes like ringtones for your phone, etc.
The shipped Makefile contains examples how to create MIDI (or a
Postscript file with the musical notation) from text.
An example is the text "A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" which is a test sentence that contains all letters in the alphabet. Converted to ABC notation this reads:
X: 1 T: Quick Brown Fox M: 4/4 L: 1/8 Q: 1/8=600 K: E %%MIDI program 70 z6 z a- | a2 z3 a z a | z a z a z3 a | z6 z a- | a2 z a3 z a | z a3 z3 a | z a z a3 z2 | z a z a z3 a- | a2 z a z a3 | z a z3 a3 | z a z a3 z2 | z4 z a3 | z a z a z a z2 | z a z a3 z a | z3 a3 z a- | a2 z a3 z2 | z a z a3 z a- | a2 z3 a3 | z a z6 | z a z a z a3 | z a z3 a3 | z a3 z a3 | z3 a3 z a | z a z a3 z2 | z4 z a z a- | a2 z a3 z a- | a2 z3 a z a | z a3 z3 a- | a2 z a3 z2 | z a z a3 z a- | a2 z a z3 a | z a z a z4 | z3 a3 z a- | a2 z a3 z2 | z a z a z a z a- | a2 z3 a z2 | z a z a3 z a | z6 z a- | a2 z3 a z a | z a z a z3 a | z6 z a | z a3 z a z a | z3 a z a3 | z3 a3 z a- | a2 z a z a z2 | z a3 z a z a- | a2 z a3 z2 | z4 z a3 | z a z a z3 a- | a2 z a3 z a- | a2 z3 a3 | z a3 z a z2 |
This ABC notation can be converted to MIDI using abc2midi or to
Postscript using abcm2ps. The line starting with %%MIDI defines
the instrument to use when converting to MIDI. I've chosen a flute that
has a sound not too unnatural for morse code. You can change the
instrument to use with a command-line flag to genmorse.py. Since
MIDI instruments are not standardized across players you may want to
chose a different instrument – for better-sounding morse or for other
effects. Rendered as music notation the ABC notation above looks like:
