AC Toolbox New in version 4.5

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Tools to facilitate music notation 1. The primary new feature in this version is the ability to write section data in a form that is suitable for use by FOMUS, a program for formatting data for music notation. FOMUS produces data which can be read by LilyPond. It can also produce data in MusicXML format which can be read by Finale, Sibelius, and some other programs. 2. In the dialog created with the menu item 'File>Write FOMUS File', various options can be specified to include in the FOMUS file to assist in the formatting process. These options including the writing of quartertones, constraining beat divisions and tuplet durations, etc. Various convenience options can also be specified. 3. One of the options when writing a FOMUS file is to use Luc Döbereiner's Pre-FOMUS Rhythm Quantizer which is included in this release. In some cases, this provides a more plausible interpretation of the rhythm data in a section. 4. Additional information about using FOMUS in the AC Toolbox can be found in the Index or under the help button in the 'Write FOMUS File' dialog. 5. The AC Toolbox does not contain FOMUS. This program must be downloaded and installed separately. There may not be a PPC version of FOMUS readily available. New tools and generators 6. Limit returns part of a list or stockpile that is between or outside certain specified limits. This could be useful when using -choice generators. It can also return values <= or >= to certain thresholds. 7. No-more-than returns a list of values with no more than a certain number of some specific values. E.g. a list may contain 50 values but no more than 3 of them may be 60. 8. More-than is a tool which can be used with the generator without. It limits the number of times that certain values will be allowed. This is similar behavior to no-more-than except that without is a generator and produces a continuous stream of values. 9. With is a generator which is a quick and easy way to determine which values produced by a generator or stockpile should be included. Results can be limited to specified values or to values which meet a defined condition (such as < 1.0). This is the opposite of the generator without. 10. Sample is a generator that samples values from a generator or a stockpile. For a generator, this means that the generator is applied several times before a result is returned. 11. Clip-generator clips values from a generator to be within certain limits. 12. Allow-larger-quantization-stack may expand the functionality of the Pre-Fomus Rhythm Quantizer when dealing with large sets of data. Modifications to tools and generators 13. Keyword :limit was added to make-chord. This limits the range of the chord to ±limit number of steps from the first value chosen for the chord. 14. In generator sine, the value for n can change over time. 15. From was adjusted to deal more accurately with a floating-point value as step size. 16. A method was added to extract to allow channel data to be extracted from a section. 17. Generate-diversity can be stopped after some specified number of unsuccessful attempts of finding a value. Additional menu items for convenience 18. The Help menu contains items to navigate forward and backwards among help windows. 19. Tools>Plot>Selected Object will plot (if possible) the object selected in the Objects dialog. This means that an object which has just been made can be plotted with a keyboard shortcut instead of using the button in the Objects dialog. 20. Tools>Selected Object as Text will print a text representation (if possible) of an object selected in the Objects dialog. 21. A keyboard shortcut was added to the existing menu item Tools>Test Value. 22. Window>Cleanup Windows and Objects will close most windows and delete all objects. 23. Window>Example Window to Front will bring the most recent examples window to the front of the open windows. 24. Help>Section Info will create an info window for a section, Midi performance object, or community when one of those objects is selected in the Objects dialog. Otherwise, it will bring the info window to the front if it is already open. Shortcuts 25. Several shortcuts (for tools and generators) were defined: density - for density-of-start-times ms - for make&sort sbl - for scale-by-layers fn - for from-number ro - for round-off cg - for clip-generator Other 26. Improvements and changes were made to various plotting routines. In particular, plotting data read with read-tracks-files is more accurate. The behavior of plotting with lines (instead of with points) was adjusted in some cases. The use of minimum and maximum values when plotting was in some cases altered when the values exceeded those boundaries. Some histograms can now also be presented within specified minimum and maximum values. 27. Fixed a bug regarding chaotic-notes, stockpiles, and saving the environment. Home