A quick update on ABC.

There has actually been a lot happening behind the scenes when it comes to ABC Notation as it effects songs with lyrics.

(1) Thanks to the considerable talent and hard work of Mick Pearce, a very considerable part of the DT database has been converted to ABC format with both aligned lyrics and additional lyrics and explanatory notes for each song (anout 4,000 of them from memory). This still needs some work to get the conversion output from SongWright up to scratch, but the results to date are pretty b----- good.

(2) There has been a tremendous amount of software development done over the last few months to create programs which handle synshronised lyrics for folk songs. I'll take the opportunity now to just briefly list them - and leave details until later.

Mac - A new version of BarFly is now abailable. This is probably the best package for Mac which handles lyrics.

Melody Assistant (Mac and Win) - I'm not a user but the developers were due to have expanded the lyrics functionality by now.

SKINK (aka 5 Line Skink) - Uses Java and operates on both Mac and Win. No nonsense freeware which plays, displays and prints ABC songs. A trifle slow to react, but bear with the mnor delays for very reasonable quality output.

iabc (Win only) - Again no nosense score display and print. Under continuous development freeware. Doesn't handle some of the ABC notation exotica, such as grace notes and different modes - yet. Probably of interest to dabblers only at this point.

Muse - new beta version (Win) - Shareware. The original version was very powerful, so would expect good things when this new lyrics enhance version is released as a final version.

Harmony (win) - Pavane from Mudcat is re-writing for an imminent release. To be fully featured re lyrics. Previous version had unique features based on chord/melody generation.

Abacus (win) - A new freeware package to display, (play?) and print scores. Unfortunately Bryan seems to have an aversion to accomodating lyrics, so there is no lyrics function.

abcm2ps (Win, Mac, Unix) - This is a fantastic freeware package for propeller head folkies. Irs PostScript output quality is excellent and provides for lots of variations with a lot of grunt.. If you're a Win user, don't even think about it unless you're prepared to run this via command lines in DOS. Know nothing about the Mac environment. If you're a UNIX/Linux type you've probably stopped reading this and are already downloading it. THERE ARE LOTS OF ABC@PS CLONES. Unless you know otherwise none of the other variants CURRENTLY support lyrics - Sept 2002.

ABCRUN - A Win freeware front end to abcm2ps and clones. Designed to avoid the command line hassles, plus to integrate with other freeware ABC utilities such as play, edit, transpose. I wouldn't recommend it for Australians, but if you live elsewhere and the weather is gloomy for a couple of days on end then give it a try. It requires a number of discrete downloads plus a complex maual linking process.

Older ABC Software - Chances are that most of the older ABC 16 Bit software will bomb out if you try to read files that have lyrics lines in them (commencing with W: or w:).

I don't have an exhaustive list but ABC2WIN (Score Printer Shareware), ABC Checker (syntax cchecker from Bryan Creer) and ABCTWIN (Win freeware harmony writer) are among those that will refuse to co-operate.

It is indeed fortunate that a crop of new ABC softwate is now emerging.

I'll try to elaborate on the above when I get some time. In the meantime drop me an email if you have any queries.

Regards, John johninbrisbane^lycos.com The change required to make this a valid address should be self evident.