Musicians are not known for good coding style, so on that level, I
think you are far more liking to be judged on the quality of the art,
the ideas there, as well as ideas in the program, rather than the
cleanliness of the code. If you can clearly demonstrate the program,
and even better make it easy to run, that's really what counts.
Clean code is a good thing, I have to say. Good luck with the grad
school apps.
.hc
On Mar 17, 2006, at 3:07 AM, Chuckk Hubbard wrote:
Well, my JI sequencer is getting close to being everything I could want. I have it set up to use mouse messages to automatically select, copy, paste, and move notes, and I can automatically transpose notes within the same range by any ratio. I can switch from MIDI to PD audio, using 8 copies of a built-in synth (I could fairly easily expand the program to use any number of voices). I am experimenting with using a moveable canvas on the score with a ghost note next to it rather than number boxes to enter notes. I can change the reference note of the whole score to add sections in other "keys". I can load, save, and record songs. It saves voice presets for both MIDI output and my onboard synth. Exponential or linear tempo control, reading breakpoints from the score. I have a mixer that works for both MIDI and PD synth, controllable by MIDI surface. I enter notes with a version of the data entry patch I just posted. I have a minute:seconds timer on the main patch. A vertical line that follows the score while playing, turns off while recording, and is used to set areas of selection or transposing. This can be moved one or four beats at a time, or can jump to the beginning. There's a feature I don't use much anymore, where manually selecting a note and dragging it up or down cycles through a series of common ratios, which changes if the reference note changes. That was my original idea. It works, but I modulate so much I'd just as soon do the math in my head as change the whole score.
My problem is that the program is cluttered. I work by inspiration, in all things, and opening up dozens of subpatches, I see objects scattered wherever there was room to put them, connections running every direction around the screen. I still remember the purposes of most of them fairly well, so I can make adjustments and such, but I'd like for this program to be my ticket to grad school. It works fine, and I expect to have a healthy group of works to include with it when I show it, but anyone who looks inside is going to see supreme disorganization. Due to some quirks with PD, there are also elements that are not self-explanatory. The process of deleting measures is really roundabout, since PD can't delete scalars automatically. It's impossible to drag to select a group of notes without also selecting all the beat lines, measure lines, and staff lines.
So how important is all this to computer music grad programs? Are they going to call me on it if the program works? Is there a reference on programming etiquette?
Thanks. -Chuckk
-- "It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters." -Friedrich Nietzsche, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"
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