Re: How to connect Midi keyboard to Lilypond?

[Richard Shann]

On Thu, 2013-09-26 at 11:52 +0200, David Kastrup wrote:
> James Harkins <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > David Kastrup <dak <at> gnu.org> writes:
> >
> >> It's been some time since I last tried, but the basic answer I arrived
> >> at for myself was "don't bother".  The tools are not good enough right
> >> now to save time.
> >
> > I have to agree with David here.
> >
> > When I first started looking at LilyPond, one of my first questions was
> > about MIDI input. But then I realized:
> >
> > - I would have used MIDI for step input (hold a note, press a key for
> > the rhythmic value). So, which is faster? Reaching for another
> > keyboard to hold down, say, F and type 2, or just to type "f2" on one
> > keyboard?

I think the common technique for users of Finale et al is to use one
hand to change prevailing duration on the pc-keyboard and the other to
play pitches on the MIDI keyboard. This is based on the observation that
the pitch usually changes more often than the duration.

>  Seemed to me that it would be faster to stick with one
> > keyboard (the computer keyboard).
> 
> Well, add to that reasonably good rhythm detection so that you basically
> just need to put in the bar checks and your input tool corrects its
> conceptions accordingly.  Or make a completely separate input pass just
> for entering the durations.

That is the method I developed for Denemo.

>   Or combine them, and update the guesses
> based on the specified durations.
> 
> There are a number of ways in which one can imagine an actually helpful
> way of working with a separate Midi input, or even with abusing the
> computer keyboard itself as a Midi keyboard approximation.
> 
> And then there is the question of how convenient your editing tools make
> it to pull apart something like a Midi performance of a piano concerto
> into the kind of voicing you need for making LilyPond happy with the
> music.  That's not the ordinary cut&paste support.  If I have something
> like wrongly chorded expressions, how to cut out selected notes in
> chords and then paste them out into a separate voice?

Curiously there is a command in Denemo for splitting apart a piece
written as chords into voices. But your point is well-taken, more time
is spent on getting the voices right in polyphonic keyboard music than
in the raw note entry; the advantage of a MIDI keyboard is marginal.

> 
> That's something that Emacs' LilyPond mode could conceivably be extended
> to do with a reasonable degree of comfort, and of course it's a nice
> challenge for something like Frescobaldi as well.  It's not strictly
> related to Midi, but this sort of editing task is more likely to occur
> with Midi-based workflows.
> 
> Anway, my point is: the currently available tools are not good enough
> right now to save time.

This very much depends on the sort of music you are working with. Try
typing in the LilyPond syntax for the Vivaldi sonata movement
(https://vimeo.com/62188678) that was generated in 10 mins using Denemo
working straight from an original print and you will be convinced (I
hope).

Richard