Csbeats is an alternative score language that is aimed at specifying simple scores in standard western tunings and rhythms. Csbeats can be invoked via the CsScore component of a standard .csd score with bin="csbeats" or as stand-alone program which generates a standard numeric score.
As a stand-alone the program reads standard input and writes to standard output.
The csbeats language is very simple, having only 5 kinds of statement, and only one of them has any complexity. In general the introductory word for each statement type is case insensitive, so "QUIT", "quit", "QuIt"... are all the same. Comments can be introduced in either ANSI C89 format or C++ (that is either /* ... */ or // to the end of line) or Csound's semicolon.
Causes csbeats to exit. For flexibility the command END is also accepted for the identical action.
Sets the number of beats per minute for the following score until the end or until it is reset. The default value is 60bpm. The token BPS is also acceptable instead of BEATS.
Sets the number of beats in a bar. The default value is 4.
Start a new bar.
Start the bar whose number is given.
Specified a note event for the numbered instrument. The attributes may be any of a pitch, duration or dynamic, or a positioning of the note to a beat or measure, and can be in any order.
Pitches are specified with a conventional note name (English form) in upper case optionally followed by a #, x (for double sharp), b (for flat) or bb (for double flat). A note of Z is a rest (think zzzz). All notes except rests must be followed by an octave number, with A4 being international A (440Hz). Pitches are passed to Csound in Hertz in the parameter p4, and are twelve tone equal temprament.
Durations are coded in lower case with the initial letter of the name for whole, half, quarter, eigth and sixteeth notes, or th for thirtysecondth notes. Except for w these can be moderated by appending as suffix:
Durations can be added together by giving more that one duration. To make this more intuitive a + sign can be used instead of white space.
The dynamics are written in conventional notation, that is fff, ff, f, mf, mp, p, pp, ppp, pppp. These are passed to the instrument as p5 as 0 for fff, and one less dB for each step below. The default dynamic is fortissimo.
Additional parameters (p-fields) can be specified in an instrument statement by giving statements like p6=42 which would set the p6 field to 42 until it is changed. The number must be 6 or greater as the first 5 fields are taken with fixed information. Each instrument number has its own additional parameters.
If any of these attributes is missing it carried forward from the previous note, with beat position being incremented to the end of the previous note.
In addition an event can be directed to a particular measure with an m attribute or a particular beat with a b.
The opening of Bach's Goldberg variation number 3 can be coded as:
; Bach - Goldberg Variations - Variato 3
; by Brian Baughn 3-14-05
; bbaughn@berklee.net
beats = 120
permeasure = 6
i101 m1 b1 B4 mp qd+s
i101 C5 s
i101 D5
i101 C5
i101 D5
i101 E5
i101 A4 qd+s
i101 B4 s
i101 C5
i101 B4
i101 C5
i101 D5
i101 m2 b1 G4 qd
i101 G5 qd+e
i101 A5 s
i101 G5
i101 F#5
i101 G5
i101 A5 e
i101 m3 b1.5 D5 s
i101 C5
i101 B4
i101 A4
i101 B4 e
i101 C5 s
i101 B4
i101 A4
i101 B4
i101 G4 e
i101 E5
i101 D5
i101 C5
i101 F#5
i101 A5
i101 m4 b1 B4 q
i101 G5 e
i101 G5 q
i101 F#5 e
i101 Z e // Z is a rest (zzzzz..)
i101 e
i101 B5 e
i101 A5 q
i101 D5 e
quit
This produces output
;;;setting bpm=120.000000 ;;;setting permeasure=6 i101 0.000000 0.875000 493.883621 -4 i101 0.875000 0.125000 523.251131 -4 i101 1.000000 0.125000 587.329536 -4 i101 1.125000 0.125000 523.251131 -4 i101 1.250000 0.125000 587.329536 -4 i101 1.375000 0.125000 659.255114 -4 i101 1.500000 0.875000 440.000000 -4 i101 2.375000 0.125000 493.883621 -4 i101 2.500000 0.125000 523.251131 -4 i101 2.625000 0.125000 493.883621 -4 i101 2.750000 0.125000 523.251131 -4 i101 2.875000 0.125000 587.329536 -4 i101 3.000000 0.750000 391.995436 -4 i101 3.750000 1.000000 783.990872 -4 i101 4.750000 0.125000 880.000000 -4 i101 4.875000 0.125000 783.990872 -4 i101 5.000000 0.125000 739.988845 -4 i101 5.125000 0.125000 783.990872 -4 i101 5.250000 0.250000 880.000000 -4 i101 6.250000 0.125000 587.329536 -4 i101 6.375000 0.125000 523.251131 -4 i101 6.500000 0.125000 493.883621 -4 i101 6.625000 0.125000 440.000000 -4 i101 6.750000 0.250000 493.883621 -4 i101 7.000000 0.125000 523.251131 -4 i101 7.125000 0.125000 493.883621 -4 i101 7.250000 0.125000 440.000000 -4 i101 7.375000 0.125000 493.883621 -4 i101 7.500000 0.250000 391.995436 -4 i101 7.750000 0.250000 659.255114 -4 i101 8.000000 0.250000 587.329536 -4 i101 8.250000 0.250000 523.251131 -4 i101 8.500000 0.250000 739.988845 -4 i101 8.750000 0.250000 880.000000 -4 i101 9.000000 0.500000 493.883621 -4 i101 9.500000 0.250000 783.990872 -4 i101 9.750000 0.500000 783.990872 -4 i101 10.250000 0.250000 739.988845 -4 ;;rest at 10.500000 for 0.250000 ;;rest at 10.750000 for 0.250000 i101 11.000000 0.250000 987.767243 -4 i101 11.250000 0.500000 880.000000 -4 i101 11.750000 0.250000 587.329536 -4 e
Here is a simple example of the csbeats score generator. Play csbeats.csd
Example 1362. A simple example of csbeats.
See the sections Real-time Audio and Command Line Flags for more information on using command line flags.
<CsoundSynthesizer> <CsOptions> </CsOptions> <CsInstruments> sr = 44100 nchnls = 2 gi1 ftgen 1, 0, 4096, 10, 1 gi2 ftgen 2, 0, 4096, 7, -1, 4096, 1 ; sawtooth gi3 ftgen 3, 0, 4096, 7, 0, 1024, 1, 2048, -1, 1024, 0 ;triangle instr 101,102,103 iamp = ampdbfs(p5) a1 oscil iamp, p4, p1-100 kenv expseg 1, p3, .01 a1 = a1 * kenv outs a1, a1 endin </CsInstruments> <CsScore bin="csbeats"> ; by Brian Baughn 3-14-05 ; bbaughn@berklee.net beats = 100 permeasure = 4 i101 m1 b1 q mp D3 i101 F3 i101 D3 i101 m2 b1 D3 i101 b3 D3 i101 m3 b1 D3 i101 F3 i101 D3 i101 m4 b1 D3 i101 b3 D3 i101 m5 b1 D3 i101 b4 G5 i101 m6 b1 E5 i101 b2 F5 i101 b3 e Eb5 i101 b3.5 e i101 b4 q i101 m7 b1 e D5 i101 i101 q i101 e Db5 i101 i101 q i101 m8 b1 q D5 i101 E5 i101 D5 i102 m1 b2 q D4 i102 b4 E4 i102 b4 Bb3 i102 m2 b2 F4 i102 b2 B3 i102 b4 C#4 i102 b4 Bb3 i102 m3 b2 q D4 i102 b4 E4 i102 b4 Bb3 i102 m4 b2 F4 i102 b2 B3 i102 b4 C#4 i102 b4 Bb3 i103 m5 b2 e F6 i103 b2 e A5 i103 b2.5 e D6 i103 b3 e F6 i103 b3 e A5 i103 b4 e E6 i103 m6 b1 q C#6 i103 q D6 i103 e C6 i103 i103 q i103 m7 b1 e B5 i103 i103 q i103 e Bb5 i103 i103 q i103 m8 b1 e F5 i103 b1 e A5 i103 b1.5 e D6 i103 b2 e Bb5 i103 b2.5 e D6 i103 b3 q F5 i103 b3 A5 end </CsScore> </CsoundSynthesizer>