ABC versus Lilypond

Subject: RE: ABC versus Lilypond
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 21 Jun 18 - 04:34 PM

Anyway, while I might get tempted into another play or two or feel the need to make more comments..., I think I'm at the point where I'd say Lilypond is unlikely to be for me.

I'm not sure that the initial entry was any harder that abc, at least after Stan kicked things off with a basic template but things are starting to get more complicated, and I couldn't see it working for me if (it won't happen but in terms of my line of thinking when looking at this thread) if a started another folkinfo type thing with tune converter, etc.

Subject: RE: ABC versus Lilypond
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 21 Jun 18 - 05:49 PM

According to the documentation I have (possibly outdated?), the following should do the job, although I cannot say whether it does with all software:

w:O'er the o-cean flies a mer-ry fay
+:Soft her wings are as a cloud of day
+:As she pass-es all the blue waves say:

etc.

It is an option, not always to be recommended. Readers of the code are likely to prefer the traditional lyrics-below-the-notes style.

Subject: RE: ABC versus Lilypond
From: Stanron
Date: 22 Jun 18 - 05:00 AM

I've tried all the suggestions for getting words from below the music code to appear under each line of music in ABC. So far no luck. My software may be at fault or I might be doing it wrong. Either way I'm not that bothered. It's no big deal to cut and paste text from one part of the file to another. After all it's the final score, and how it appears that matters.

Lilypond is interesting and has very good documentation on-line. At the moment I can't see what I'd use it for. ABC has far more material as free files of folk music and Musescore does my notation plus tab for my guitar stuff. I may well continue to play with Lilypond when other projects don't interfere.

Subject: RE: ABC versus Lilypond
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 22 Jun 18 - 07:47 AM

I think the hardest part is trying to work out where to put things once you have moved away from the basic minimal examples. I have had another play this morning and I think this would get me nearer to a basic template that would work for most things I'd look at. I'm using 2 \transpose but I don't see how to resolve that and I can't see how to come up with a macro that would change the 2 entries in one. Obviously I wouldn't always use all of this. I've left a "Kesh Jig" in.
Not sure of the chord shapes btw but I'm mostly open chords on guitar

\version "2.18.2"
  
  \header {
    title = "The Kesh Jig"
  }
  
  global = {
    \time 6/8
    \key d \major
    \tempo 4=100
  }
  
  
  melody =     \transpose g a {
      \relative d' {
      \global
      \repeat volta 2 {
        \partial8
        d8 | g4.^"~" g8 a b | a b a a b d | e d d g d d | e d b d b a \break
        g4.^"~" g8 a b | a b a a b d | e d d g d b | a g fis g4 } \break
      \repeat volta 2 {
        \partial8
        a8 | b4.^"~" d8 b d | e g e d b a | b4.^"~" d8 b g | a b a a g a | \break
        b a b d b d | e g e d b d | g fis g a g a | b g fis g4 }                 
      }
  }
  
  chordNames =   \transpose g g{
    \chordmode {
      \global
      d8 g2. d2. c4. g/b a:m d:7/fis
      g2. d2. a4.:m g d:7/fis g
      e:m g c g e:m g d2.:7
      e4.:m g c g c d:7 g
    }
    
  }
  
  words = \lyricmode {
    de dee di -- dly -- dee
  }
  
  text = \markup { \column{
    \line{ Other words go here}
    }
  }
  
  \score {
    <<
      \new ChordNames \chordNames
      \new FretBoards \chordNames
      \new Staff { \melody }
      \addlyrics { \words }
    >>
    \layout { }
    \midi { }
  }
  
  \text
  

Subject: RE: ABC versus Lilypond
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 22 Jun 18 - 11:37 AM

I will try to call it quits now but wanted to try something else

  \version "2.18.2"
  
  \header {
    title = "Diadem"
    subtitle = "Arr. Ian Russell"
  }
  
  global = {
    \time 3/4
    \key g \major
    \tempo 4=112
  }
  
  
  soprano =   \relative d' {
      \global
      \partial4
      d4 | g2 a4 |b8.( c16 d4) g, | a g fis | \break
      g2 fis8( [e]) | d4. e8 d [c] | b4 d g | e c' c | \break 
  }
  
  alto =  \relative d' {
      \global
      %\partial4
      b | d2 d4 | d2 d4 | e d d | \break
      d2 d8( c) | b4. c8 b [a] | g4 b d | e2 e4 | \break
  }
  
  tenor = \relative d' {
      \global
      g4 | b g fis | g8.( a16 b4) g | c b a | \break
      g2 a4 | g4. g8 g [g] | g2 g4 | g2 g4 | \break 
  }
  
  bass = {
      \clef bass
      \relative d, {
      \key g \major
      g | g b d | g2 b,4 | c d d | \break
      g,2 d'4 | g,4. g8 g [g] | g2 g4 | c2 a4 | \break 
      }
  }
  
  wordsone = \lyricmode {
    All hail the power __ of Je -- s -- us
    name, Let __ an -- gels prost -- rate fall ____ Let an- ____ -gels
  }
  
  wordstwo = \lyricmode {
    All hail ____ the power __ of Je -- s -- us
    name, Let an -- gels pros -- trate fall Let an- __ -gels
  }
  
  \score {
     <<
      \new Staff \with {
        midiInstrument = "church organ"
        instrumentName = \markup \center-column { Soprano}
      }{ \soprano }
      \addlyrics { \wordsone}
      \new Staff \with {
        midiInstrument = "church organ"
        instrumentName = \markup \center-column { Alto }
      }{ \alto }
      \new Staff \with {
        midiInstrument = "church organ"
        instrumentName = \markup \center-column { Tenor }
      }{ \tenor }
      \addlyrics { \wordstwo }
      \new Staff \with {
        midiInstrument = "rock organ"
        instrumentName = \markup \center-column { Bass }
      }{ \bass }
    >>
    \layout { }
    \midi { }
  }
  

Subject: RE: ABC versus Lilypond
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 07:32 AM

As a was up late last night (back ache),I thought I’d look at possibly converting a batch of songs in abc into lilypond. Using the abc2xml then musicxml2ly route as it does appear to give tidier .ly and the more direct abc2ly program is unsupported and may be dropped so isn’t really one for future use. I only got as far as the first trial file and noticed a couple of problems:

I think this is on the musicxml2ly side as importing the xml into muse score was ok but. The conversion seems to use a “blank note”, eg. “s4”. to handle an anacrusis. I think this explains a weird blank bar in the middle of a Kesh jig conversion I tried in the other thread. It is less of a problem in my sample song which just has one lead note with no repeats or multiple parts(eg, AB) but it still doesn’t work out right. In this case, “padding” (say s4 a4) before the first note would be ok but this came out as (say) a4 s4. Apart from looking a little odd on a score, a problem with midi production like this is you get an “instant” first note and then silence to fill the rest of the bar.

The B and W: fields did not get through. These exist in the musicxml as miscellaneous fields but I’ve been unable to find any information on mapping musicxml fields to ones that the musicxml2ly progam would take.

If (as I would be doing if I got to doing a batch for what I was playing with), I’d be extracting the abc from a database and running the conversions by a php script, I think I’d manage to add the missing fields to the .ly in the script (but wouldn’t be able to rewrite musicxml2ly) but don’t see how I’d make the substitutions for the first problem.

O well, not sure I’d use it anyway, just something to play with at 2am…

Subject: RE: ABC versus Lilypond
From: GUEST,Rev Bayes
Date: 02 Jul 18 - 02:08 PM

As I seem to be responsible for starting all this off, I apologise for the collective waste of man and woman hours.

In general, I would not advocate Lilypond over ABC for any purpose unless you *know* you need it. In many years of typesetting folk and traditional (and beyond) music I have never needed functionality some ABC utility could not provide, albeit at times by dint of extreme effort.

To be able to use Lilypond well means committing to using it: it is not a simple program but that in turn means that you can place anything on the page you wish - *if* you know how.

Finally, I don't recommend using Lilypond to process the outputs of other programs. That way lies madness.

Subject: RE: ABC versus Lilypond
From: Stanron
Date: 02 Jul 18 - 07:03 PM

I enjoyed my foray into Lilypond but I won't be using it for serious notation. I'm in the process of taking some recordings I did in 2011 and making videos that display notation and tab of the recording as the music plays. I'm using Musescore for this. I couldn't do it with Lilypond.

I like that Lilypond has similarities to C programming and it is well documented on-line. You can wing it but I'll stick with Musescore.

Subject: RE: ABC versus Lilypond
From: Jack Campin
Date: 03 Jul 18 - 04:17 AM

Stanron, could you describe the process of adding an animated score to a video? Maybe in a new thread?

Subject: RE: ABC versus Lilypond
From: Stanron
Date: 03 Jul 18 - 06:35 AM

I've started an Images on a video thread.

Cheers

Stan