ABC Transcription Tools

[Michael Eskin]

Some really exciting new PDF Export features in my ABC Transcription Tools that I think some of you will find very useful.
 

You can now have play links in all the PDF export formats including text incipits, sorted text incipits, full ABC text, and full ABC text in Comhaltas "blackboard" format.

Previously they were limited to just the notation and notation incipits PDF exports.

They are created the same way, using the

%add_all_playback_links 0 0 fatboy

playback link definition annotation injected when configuring your PDF features from the PDF export dialog.

Demo video:
 

 

 

[Michael Eskin]

Using the new text incipits play link features of my ABC Transcription Tools, I've generated a PDF text incipits version of Michael Long's "King Street Sessions Tunebook" (over 1000 tunes), where clicking on any tune name opens the tune in my player.
 

It's the smallest, fully interactive PDF version of the tunebook I've ever produced, less than 3 Megabytes in size.

Download it now at:

https://michaeleskin.com/tunebooks.html#kss

[Michael Eskin]

How to download and use the new interactive text incipits version of the "King Street Sessions Tunebook" PDF file that includes over 1000 tunes of many different styles.

In the tunebook, you can click on any tune title to play it in my ABC Transcription tools.

This is the smallest version of the interactive PDF tunebook so far, only 2.8 Megabytes.

Download it for free at:
https://michaeleskin.com/tunebooks.html
 

 

[Michael Eskin]

Happy New Year!
 

Now for something completely different...

New Solfège Instrument + Fixed (Do=C) Solfège Note Names Demo

 

 

This was a very interesting problem to at least partially solve.

Since the tool can easily transpose any tune to any key, it's pretty easy to come up with something that works for most tunes.

How I created this demo:

To play the spoken "Solfège" note names:

Use my new "Solfège" instrument:

%%MIDI program 136

To get the Solfège note names under the notes:

Click on "More Tools".

Click on "Inject Shape Note/Solfège".

Select "Fixed (Do=C) Solfège - No Chromatics" as the Solfège style from the style dropdown.

Click "OK"

Share link to the tool with this example:

http://tinyurl.com/3uapjmrp

 

Edited January 3 by Michael Eskin

[Michael Eskin]

I've added a dedicated section in the user guide on using my Solfège instrument (136) for singing the note names as well as guidance on using it along with Solfège injected from the Inject Shape Note/Solfège dialog:
 

https://michaeleskin.com/abctools/userguide.html#sung_solfege

[Michael Eskin]

Huge announcement this morning after pulling an all-nighter working on the tool.
 

For the longest time abcjs has had a bug with:

%%MIDI bassprog

It just didn’t work.

It would always use the chordprog no matter what you might try to set the bassprog to.

I’ve now fixed that in my custom version of abcjs and the code is now deployed in the latest version of the tool.

Additionally, I’ve gone through the entire tool and anywhere where I was only allowing selection of a combined bass/chord program (since that’s all abcjs supported), you can now select the bass and chord programs independently.

I’ve even changed my sample reel, jig, and hornpipe (available on the “Add” dialog) to demonstrate the feature, they now all use a synth bass sound for the bass and a piano sound for the chords.

*** Very Important Note for PDF Tunebook Creators ***

There is one minor breaking change with regards to my private PDF play link generation annotations.
 

For the two annotations:

%add_playback_link

and

%add_all_playback_links

that instruct the PDF generator to inject play links along with MIDI program information into either a single tune or all the tunes, there is a new parameter for the bass program.

The previous form was:

%add_playback_link <melody program> <bass/chord program> <soundfont>

%add_all_playback_links <melody program> <bass/chord program> <soundfont>

For example:

%add_playback_link 0 0 fluid

%add_all_playback_links 0 0 fluid

That made sense when there was no ability to independently control the bass and chord programs.

The new version of the directives have an additional parameter for the bass program:

%add_playback_link <melody program> <bass program> <chord program> <soundfont>

%add_all_playback_links <melody program> <bass program> <chord program> <soundfont>

For example, to specify Acoustic Grand Piano for melody, Acoustic Bass for bass, and Honky Tonk Piano for the chords, use:

%add_playback_link 0 32 3 fluid

%add_all_playback_links 0 32 3 fluid

If you manually add %%MIDI program, bassprog, and chordprog values to the individual tunes, as before, you can still use the parameterless version of the annotations to just add the play links but not do the MIDI program injection:

%add_playback_link

%add_all_playback_links

If you use the “Configure PDF Tunebook Features” dialog to generate the play links, it will automatically inject the new format.

This is only a concern when generating new PDF files from previous ABC tunebooks that might have these directives in them. If you use them, you will need to update the directives in those tunebooks before regenerating any PDF files to get the correct MIDI programs in the tunebook play links.

If you used the “Configure PDF Tunebook Features” dialog to originally to generate the play links, just open it again, select the bass patch you want and click OK to update the annotation in the header.

This has no effect on any existing PDF tunebooks, they already have the MIDI data injected in them and will work exactly as before, this only effects the generation of tunebooks.

I will be coordinating with Paul Rosen in the coming days to see about getting my bugfix for the bass programs folded back into the core GitHub abcjs version.

Demo videos:
 

 

 

 

Edited January 5 by Michael Eskin

[Michael Eskin]

By popular request, you can now play or practice portions of tunes by selecting the section of the tune you want to play and then clicking the "Play" button.

 

Once in the Player you can loop or slow down the section of the tune.

From the Player, you can also open the section of the tune in the Tune Trainer for additional looped practice.

Notes on Playing Selected Notes

The selected playback works with most tunes but there are a few exceptions:

If any ABC : style headers, for example but not limited to P:, K:, or Q: are found in the notation below the header, the entire tune will be loaded into the player.

Selected note playback only works for single voice tunes.

If a V: tag is present anywhere in the tune, the entire tune will always be loaded into the player.

If you prefer to always have the entire tune played even if notes are selected, you can disable the selected note playback feature in the Advanced Settings dialog.

Demo video:

 

 

 

 

[Michael Eskin]

As you probably know, I'm as interested in creating new and innovative ways to share music as I am in creating tools for them to create and play it.
 

You can now easily create a PDF tunebook with a QR code for each tune.

Scanning the QR code with a mobile device will launch the tune into my ABC Transcription Tools.  

If play links were enabled on the original PDF, the tune will be automatically loaded in the Player.

I have an example CCE Dublin 2001 tunebook with 116 tunes in QR code form at:

https://michaeleskin.com/tunebooks.html#cce_tunebook

Look for the one marked as *** NEW ***

Also:

An example O’Carolan PDF tunebook with over 200 tunes in QR code form at:

https://michaeleskin.com/tunebooks.html#ocarlolan

 

 

[Michael Eskin]

The “King Street Sessions Tunebook” is now available in a 2000+ page, Notation+QR Code version.
 

https://michaeleskin.com/tunebooks.html#kss

Download the PDF file to your phone.

Touch the >> next to any tune to jump to the Index which has all the tune names in alphabetical order.

Touch tune you want to find in the Index. On the next page you’ll find the QR code.

Hold your phone up for others to scan with the Camera app on their phone. The app will read the QR code and offer to open it in the device’s browser.
 

They now have the tune and can play it, save it, generate their own PDF or edit it.

Click the QR code to launch the tune in the Player.

It’s a big file, over 140 megabytes, so be sure to save it once you download it.

On iOS devices, I suggest sharing it to GoodReader, the PDF reader I like.
 

 

[Michael Eskin]

And now for something completely different:
 

 

It dawned on me that some people might prefer a horizontal layout, so I've added the ability to choose either vertical or horizontal flow.
 

Full notation vertical flow:
https://michaeleskin.com/transcriptions/SmartDraw_Set_List_Full_Notation_12Jan2024.pdf

Full notation horizontal flow:
https://michaeleskin.com/transcriptions/SmartDraw_Set_List_Full_Notation_Horizontal_12Jan2024.pdf

This also works with the full text and text incipits versions.

Demo video of horizontal flow exporter:
 

 

 

Edited January 13 by Michael Eskin

[digver]

Michael, as a rank beginner your ABC Transcription Tools have been a great help to me. Thanks for all the work you've put into it!

 

Here is a feature request though. Would it be possible to add a delay to starting the trainer? It could be a time delay or maybe even better a user defined number of measures.

 

Here's my situation, or use case. I would like to be able to start the trainer, and then in a somewhat relaxed manner get back to the concertina before it begins. As the beginner that I am, the idea of working with the trainer, or even just a metronome freaks me out. Having a delayed start would help put me at ease.

 

digger  

[Michael Eskin]

That's a good idea! Let me think about how I might do that.

 

 

Edited February 9 by Michael Eskin

[Michael Eskin]

3 hours ago, digver said:

Michael, as a rank beginner your ABC Transcription Tools have been a great help to me. Thanks for all the work you've put into it!

 

Here is a feature request though. Would it be possible to add a delay to starting the trainer? It could be a time delay or maybe even better a user defined number of measures.

 

Here's my situation, or use case. I would like to be able to start the trainer, and then in a somewhat relaxed manner get back to the concertina before it begins. As the beginner that I am, the idea of working with the trainer, or even just a metronome freaks me out. Having a delayed start would help put me at ease.

 

digger  

@digver Here you go! Thanks for the suggestion!
 

 

Edited February 9 by Michael Eskin

[Roger Hare]

4 hours ago, Michael Eskin said:

Here you go! Thanks for the suggestion!

That's pretty neat!

 

Is there an argument for introducing such a count-in time to 'ordinary' playback as well as in the 'trainer'? Is it possible (silly question really...)?

[Michael Eskin]

2 hours ago, Roger Hare said:

That's pretty neat!

 

Is there an argument for introducing such a count-in time to 'ordinary' playback as well as in the 'trainer'? Is it possible (silly question really...)?

I really don't want to clutter up the standard player UI with more controls.

 

Just use the tune trainer and set the start and end speed to 100% if you want equivalent functionality. One button click and you're there. All trainer parameters are saved and restored the next time you use it.

Edited February 9 by Michael Eskin

[Roger Hare]

18 hours ago, Michael Eskin said:

I really don't want to clutter up the standard player UI with more controls etc...

The clutter argument is perfectly reasonable - that's why I phrased it as a question rather than a suggestion. I think I may well have responded in the same way. Thanks for the response.

Edited February 10 by Roger Hare

[Michael Eskin]

At the suggestion of a member of my Facebook group for the tool, renamed the feature "Countdown":

 

Edited February 9 by Michael Eskin

[digver]

Great, thanks!  I'll give it a go later tonight