Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)

Subject: Tech: abc converter at folkinfo
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 05 Jun 06 - 02:29 PM

There was some talk here sometime ago about an abc converter using abcm2ps (I believe concertina.net uses the older abc2ps) but I really cant remember what happened to it.

Anyway, I've decided I might as well have a go inspite of a couple of reservations and see what happens - it may come down again... It is at http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/abcconvert.php

Apart from using abcm2ps, it also differs in that it allows transposition and can display the error/warning messages produced by the abc conversion routines which (at least with abcm2ps) can be useful.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: GUEST,Norval
Date: 05 Jun 06 - 05:34 PM

Great Work Jon!! Print out looks very nice and transposing routine appears accurate. I especially like the ability to transpose. Will you be adding the printing of the S: and N: information in your next version. I would also like to see a button to clear the ABC box. These are small potatoe things but if you can make your program better than the other guy's it may be a way of increasing the traffic and exposure at your FOLKINFO site.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: nutty
Date: 05 Jun 06 - 05:55 PM

The programme seems to be working perfectly, Jon.

Well done

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: Sorcha
Date: 05 Jun 06 - 05:56 PM

Well done!

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 05 Jun 06 - 07:59 PM

Thanks for the feedback.

Norval,

I'm using abc2abc for transposing. I think it's pretty reliable.

You can use the abcm2ps "pseudo comments" to control a variety of things. Adding:

%%writehistory 1

at the top of the abc will cause S,N,B and H fields to be printed. I don't want to change from the abcm2ps default settings but could provide a checkbox to control this setting.

I'll add a clear button.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 05 Jun 06 - 08:53 PM

Norval, I've made a couple of changes.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: John O'L
Date: 05 Jun 06 - 09:21 PM

Brilliant. Well done.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: pavane
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 02:05 AM

What do you mean by an abc 'converter'?

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: nutty
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 02:21 AM

abc is a way of writing musical notes --- like shorthand is a way of writing words.

It means that you can convey tunes via email in an ordinary word document or store them on websites without the files being too large.

Copying abc into a converter allows you to hear and see the music in different formats eg. as a midi which will play the tune for you or a pdf file which will allow you to print it out as sheet music.
Jon's converter also allows you to transpose the music into a different keys.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 04:32 AM

pavane if familiar with abc, nutty. He is the author of harmony>harmony.

I suppose I could have said online abc converter for mine. I guess the point is that some people don't want to be downloading and installing more software, particularly for occasional abc, perhaps do find the command lines programs like abcm2ps (which produces great output for printing) a little hard or simply (like me) at times do find an onliline utility to print and/or play convenient.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: nutty
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 05:24 AM

Apologies if I misread Pavanne's question.

I'm sure there are others who are unaware of such programmes and will be glad of the explanation.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: pavane
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 02:07 AM

Ok nutty, perhaps I shoud have given more detail.

I know my program does all that including transpose and abc import warning messages, but only for Windows, and I know a lot of people use other operating systems.

I just wondered if there was something else I should have included!

And by the way, ignore the Guitar Tablature claim on my web site - it has a serious bug, which I have fixed in the NEXT version. It didn't take account of accidentals in the key signature when calculating the fret, so any key except C will have wrong fret numbers shown!

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: GUEST,Norval
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 06:17 PM

Jon:
Thanks for making the requested changes, everything seems to work just fine.
Tunes may be transposed to any key, then printed.
Transposed ABC may be retrieved/copied for the submitters archive.
An Error listing is given.

Can't ask for much more than that.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: MMario
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 10:26 PM

Pavane - jon has set it up so that it can work online - so that the user doesn't actually have the program - it runs off the webpage.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: maeve
Date: 29 Nov 15 - 10:57 AM

Has this converter been removed, Jon?

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 29 Nov 15 - 11:19 AM

Here is the ABC converter I use at Mandolintab.net

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 29 Nov 15 - 11:45 AM

Maeve,

folkinfo closed back in 2012. See this Mudcat thread for details, which you probably already know as you posted to it.

As that thread explains, Joe Offer now hosts the song database, but as far as I'm aware the the ABC converter (which was excellent) is no longer available.

Ed

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: maeve
Date: 29 Nov 15 - 12:29 PM

Ah yes, I remember it well! :D

Thank you for the reminders, gillymor and Ed. Both civil answers are much appreciated, and likely will fill in the gap for others as well.
Maeve

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 Nov 15 - 02:09 PM

I have listed all the public ABC converters I can find on my website homepage:

http://www.campin.me.uk/

They are all slightly different from each other so it's worth trying more than one.

If anybody knows of one I haven't listed, please let me know.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: maeve
Date: 29 Nov 15 - 04:25 PM

Thank you, Jack. Very helpful.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: GUEST,Geoff the Duck
Date: 30 Nov 15 - 09:03 AM

Maeve and gillymor

When Jon closed the Folkinfo web site, he passed his ABC Converter on to the person who runs the mandolintab.net web site.
I don't know if the converter is still as Jon left it, or whether the new host, Simon Becker, is actively updating the converter. In either case, I am pleased that a new home was found.
Quack!
Geoff.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: maeve
Date: 30 Nov 15 - 09:11 AM

All good information. Thanks, everyone!

Maeve

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 30 Nov 15 - 03:27 PM

Geoff, I frequently use the one at mandolintab.net to convert to mando tab and standard notation and it works fine. Now, if someone ever finds an abc converter that converts to guitar tab I'd dearly love to know about it.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 Nov 15 - 05:21 PM

Laurie Griffiths (developer of the Windows ABC program Muse) was working on that, and posted saying how he'd nearly got it releasable in a new version a few days before he was killed. He had some very ingenious ideas, generating the tab by global optimization of finger movements.

I think all of his work went down the drain (thanks to some shit in a posh car who got away with murder).

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 30 Nov 15 - 06:01 PM

Sad story.

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 30 Nov 15 - 11:51 PM

Gillymore, as far as I can remember, abcmp2s had 2 modes of tab operation and I think one of them invloved defining some symbols and writing your own instructions in the abc - I've not tried this mode.

The mode that mandolintab uses is pretty basic. It just responds to something like an "on draw note" event. As such, it's fine for simple things like a whistle or say my single note open position playing on mandolin but I don't think it would be usable for much else even if you could (and I can't...) work out how to do the sort of things Jack mentions.

Having said it's basic, it involves some (to me very weird and I never properly got my head round it - a lot of trial and error...) postscript work. I don't know if Simon has altered it since but this is the mandolin tab postcript as I left it:

beginps
  
  /m_head{/Helvetica 10 selectfont
          0 -5 M 90 rotate(Mandolin)show -90 rotate
          pop
          m_lines
          newpath
  }!
  
  /m_lines{
    0 10 30 {
        dup 10 exch moveto 660 exch lineto
    }for
        stroke
  }!
  
  /m_fret{
  /Helvetica 20 selectfont
  jf_fret 9 gt {-15}{-8}ifelse 
  jf_string 10 mul moveto 
  %jf_fret 2 string cvs show
  jf_fret[(0)(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)
          (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20)
          (21) (22) (22) (23) (24) (25)]exch get show
  }!
  
  /m_nofret{
  /Helvetica 20 selectfont
  -5 15 moveto (X) show
  }!
  
  /m_note{gsave
          -6 T 
          /jf_note exch def
          /jf_oct exch def
          jf_oct 0 ge {
            jf_note 7 lt {
              /jf_string 0 def
              /jf_fret jf_note def
              }{
                jf_note 14 lt {
                  /jf_string 1 def
                  /jf_fret jf_note 7 sub def
                }{
                  jf_note 21 lt {
                    /jf_string 2 def
                    /jf_fret jf_note 14 sub def
                  }{
                    /jf_string 3 def
                    /jf_fret jf_note 21 sub def
                    jf_oct 0 gt {/jf_fret jf_note 9 sub def}if %not sure why!
                  }ifelse
                }ifelse
              }ifelse
            m_fret
          }{
            m_nofret
            }ifelse %oct
          grestore
  }!
  
  endps[/pre] 




	

Subject: RE: Tech: abc converter (folkinfo)
From: gillymor
Date: 01 Dec 15 - 07:31 AM

Jon, I'm afraid your last post shot right past me. I just use the mandolintab converter to make tabs for myself, which has really enhanced my ability to learn tunes when I can't hear certain tricky parts, and also to make standard notation for my playing partners. The program will transpose well above and below the staff and so does all I require of it (except for the guitar tab). I'm very grateful to folks like you and Jack who make this technology available.