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JedABC is an extension to the Jed editor that turns it into a powerful and easy-to-use development environment for ABC and ABC Plus files. Similar in concept to BarFly or runabc, it is fully integrated with converters, players, and previewers, with several advantages. JedABC works on Windows, Linux, and all platforms where Jed runs, but it was only tested on Linux and Windows.
JedABC consists of the following files:
which are available from the ABC Plus page, http://abcplus.sourceforge.net.
I developed JedABC `thinking Unix': that is, I gathered several tools that do their job well and had them work together. Take a brilliant ABC formatter, an ABC to MIDI converter, a MIDI player, the GhostView PostScript viewer, and Jed: JedABC combines them all in an integrated music creation environment. JedABC is specifically designed to work with abcm2ps and abcMIDI: currently, the two most powerful ABC applications available. Links:
To all those who want to write music in ABC (Plus) format, are reasonably familiar with computers, and need an easy-to-use, non-visual editor. This is by far the fastest way of writing music.
Please note the emphasis on write. JedABC is not a graphical program like ABC Navigator or ABCEdit. These applications are mainly designed to manage existing tune collections, while JedABC is mainly designed for writing them.
JedABC is designed to make writing ABC files easier, more fun, less subject to errors, with full integration with external programs, and to save the user from using the command line. Current features are:
Not to mention all of the features that the Jed editor boasts by itself! User-definable keybindings (Emacs, Borland/WordStar, CUA...), colour schemes, unlimited undo, advanced editing operations, macros, etc. Forget notepad! Jed is a very sophisticated editor, and I strongly suggest that you read its documentation.
All options are reachable via the Mode menu, but there are keyboard shortcuts to the most common operations. By default, the Windows version uses Borland IDE key bindings; all commands will start in Ctrl-Z. With Emacs emulation, you'll use Ctrl-C. In the following, we will assume IDE key bindings; see Command Reference below.
First of all, install GhostScript and Ghostview. JedABC expects to find the latter in c:\gstools\gsview.
Next, install the Jed binary; a Windows installer is provided. Finally, download jedabc-1.18.1.zip and uncompress it to a temporary location. Copy all files in jedabc-1.18.1/bin to the c:\windows folder. Files in the lib/ directory must be copied to the lib/ subdirectory in the Jed folder, e.g. c:\Program Files\Jed\lib.
Do not move the binary files to other folders, JedABC needs them! If you wish, you can replace these programs with more recent versions.
Jed can emulate other editors. If you wish to use Emacs or CUA keybindings, then edit the library file c:\jed\lib\jed.rc around line 31.
First of all, download Jed for your platform and install it; Windows users will want to read important details in README.pc. Then follow these steps:
variable abc_encoding="utf8"; % or latin1, if you still use it
autoload ("abc_mode", "abc");
add_mode_for_extension ("abc", "abc"); % plain ABC files
add_mode_for_extension ("abc", "abp"); % abcpp ABC files
enable_dfa_syntax_for_mode ("abc");
jed -batch -n -l preparse
ESC-X ()=evalfile("preparse");
define abc_mode_hook ()
{ setbuf_info (getbuf_info () | 0x400); }
JedABC cannot deal with file and directory names containing spaces. This is a serious issue in Windows, where directory names such as Documents and Settings\My Music\ABC may be desirable.
The Windows version cannot run Ghostview and the MIDI player in the background. The user will have to close these applications to return to the editor.
JedABC relies on external applications for converting the ABC file into PostScript and/or MIDI, for viewing and listening to it. The following applications and settings are used by default:
Linux:
Windows:
If you wish to change the defaults, add lines like these to the system-wide jed.rc or to your personal .jedrc:
variable abc_preprocess_cmd = "my_abcpp"; variable abc_compile_ps_cmd = "my_abc2ps"; variable abc_compile_ps_flags = "-c -l"; variable abc_compile_midi_cmd = "my_abc2midi"; variable abc_compile_midi_flags = "-v"; variable abc_view_cmd = "my_gsview32"; variable abc_player_cmd = "my_mplayer"; variable abc_player_flags = "-T 80";
but make sure that the applications you chose are in the PATH. You can also change some startup defaults: the length of the `beep' when notes are played; whether to insert notes in Italian notation (see Inserting Music in Italian Notation; whether to use autobar (see Autobar and Inversion; whether to beep notes; and whether to insert ISO 8859-1 or UTF8 Characters as special character sequences.
variable beep_duration = 100; % default: 50 variable abc_start_with_doremi = 1; % default: 0 variable abc_start_with_autobar = 0; % default: 1 variable abc_start_with_beep = 0; % default: 1 variable abc_start_with_latin1 = 0; % default: 1
You can also temporarily change these variables selecting JedABC Options/Customise Options. Please note that you can't add the -O switch to abcm2ps command line, as JedABC handles output files by itself.
Linux users will want to use the Timidity++ MIDI player, included in most Linux distributions; its home page is http://timidity.sourceforge.net.
Before you start writing music, I suggest that you click on the Mode menu and browse the submenus to have a look at all available features.
Options can be selected from menus, or via key sequences. There are two cases: opening an existing ABC file, or starting a new one. If your ABC file contains several tunes, JedABC will switch to Index Mode.
From the File menu, select Open. You will be prompted for a file name in the minibuffer, that is the line at the bottom of the screen.
Browse the file to become familiar with the syntax highlighting, designed to help distinguishing between notes and symbols. In particular, note how lower and upper octave notes are printed in different colours. There are several colour schemes; try selecting one from Windows/Color Schemes/Wjed (or Xjed).
When you're done, view the PostScript output selecting View PostScript; or listen to the tune(s) selecting Listen to Midi. If you wish to pass command-line parameters to abcm2ps or abc2midi, select the Customise Options menu entry and change the relevant variable.
The PostScript and MIDI files will be created in the same folder as the ABC file.
From the File menu, select Open and insert the name of your new ABC file. Remember to specify the .abc extension; it's used by Jed to recognise the file type and activate ABC mode.
If you wish, choose a template from the Templates menu. In the current version, these templates are defined:
JedABC inserts a header with the most common fields and the appropriate voice definitions, then prompts you for the music key. The `key wizard' asks you whether the key has sharps, flats, or nothing, and inserts the K: field for you.
Select Templates/Customise Template if you wish to change the labels associated to each voice.
Complete the header fields, move to the bottom of the file, then select JedABC Options/Insert System. One or more V: fields will be inserted; note mode and autobar will be turned on. This means that 1) if you press a key between `a' and `g' (or `A' and `G'), the corresponding note will be played; 2) when a measure is complete, the measure bar `|' will be automatically inserted. More details will be given below.
You are now ready to write the music. At this stage, I suggest that you start the PostScript viewer. At the end of each measure, the file will be quietly converted to PostScript, and the PostScript viewer (if capable) will refresh the view. If you make any mistake during automatic PostScript conversion, you'll be warned and will be asked to fix the last measure. If you launch the PostScript conversion by hand, if errors are detected the cursor will be moved to the first one.
Basically, an ABC tune is composed of two different elements: music lines, and all the rest. In music lines, each character represents a note or a symbol. In field lines, comments etc. each letter is equivalent to all others.
This leads to two different ways of writing things:
To put it briefly: select JedABC Options/Toggle Note Mode when you write music, and turn it off when you write header fields, lyrics, comments, inline fields, etc. Pressing a percent sign %, a double quote ", or an exclamation mark ! (that is, starting a comment, a guitar chord, or a decoration) in note mode disables note mode automatically: remember to enable it back on later.
If you change the key mid-tune, select Jedabc Options/Compose K: Field: the key wizard will help you. In a similar manner, if you change the metre or the default note length, select JedABC Options/Set Metre to let JedABC know the new values.
By default, in note mode every note you type is played, either by the external program beep.exe (Windows) or directly by JedABC (Linux). Disable note playing, if you wish, selecting JedABC Options/Toggle Beeps On/Off. See below for details on playing notes above and below the staff with the correct pitch.
`Autobar' means that when you have entered enough notes to complete a measure, a bar will be inserted automatically. You can always insert a bar yourself; the TAB key acts as `|', and is easier to reach. Obviously, automatic bar insertion only works in note mode.
Not only is the bar inserted when the measure is complete: it's also aligned to music lines above that belong to the same system. This way, you obtain a nicely formatted system. With the exception of music consisting of a single voice/instrument, systems are separated by a comment line.
The measure length is automatically calculated using the M: and L: fields. However, this is not enough for autobar to work. Since duration is given by symbols that come after a note, autobar cannot work unless another feature is introduced: symbol inversion.
Inversion works typing objects like numbers and / (that is, symbols of note length) before the note. JedABC will use this information for its routines, and will insert the objects after the note. This also holds for commas and single quotes (octave specifiers). A message is displayed that informs what the next note will become.
For example, if you wish to write this:
C2 E/E/ G//G//G//G//
you'll have to type this:
2C /E/E //G//G//G//G
Another example: if you want to obtain this:
A,2 a/a/ a'//a'//a'//a'//
type this:
,2A /a/a '//a'//a'//a'//a
I know, it seems awkward... but the advantages are worth the effort, once you get used to it. Incidentally, inversion makes it possible to play notes above and under the staff with the correct pitch. Also, autobar handles Tuplets correctly.
Please note: you must turn autobar off when you need to correct notes! Also, when you restart it it's best to write a bar `|' (and delete it) to initialise the measures correctly. If you don't pay attention, autobar can be a little obtrusive -- see Frequent Problems below.
When the cursor is within a system, you can reformat it to obtain measures of equal length. Select JedABC Options/Reformat Measures, but take care: the system must be delimited by comment lines.
For example, let's suppose you have this system:
% [V:1] CDEF|GABc|cdef|gabc'| [V:2] C/C/ D/D/ E/F/|c4|e4|g4| [V:3] C2 C2|E2 G/G/ G/G/|c2 c2| %
After reformatting, you'll see this:
% [V:1] CDEF |GABc |cdef |gabc'| [V:2] C/C/ D/D/ E/F/|c4 |e4 |g4| [V:3] C2 C2 |E2 G/G/ G/G/|c2 c2| %
Note that the fourth measure was not realigned, because voice 3 has only three measures. Also, please bear in mind that the reformatting algorithm is far from perfect: only simple measure bars are reformatted correctly.
Select JedABC Options/Remove Redundant Spaces to remove spaces before and after measure bars.
Pressing Ctrl-Z ( starts a tuplet; you will be prompted for the number of notes. When the tuplet is completed, a message in the minibuffer will notify you. Autobar will take note of the right number of notes to complete the measure.
Notes can be entered typing their initial in Italian notation. To do so, select JedABC Options/Do-re-mi to c-d-e. From now on, when you press the keys `d', `r', `m', `f', `s', `l', `t' (which stand for Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si) JedABC will insert the notes from `c' to `b'.
Selecting this menu item twice toggles the conversion.
Recent versions of Jed use UTF8 encoding, while older versions use ISO encoding. If the Jed status line includes an uppercase `U' letter, like:
-**----+ Jed 0.99.18U: music.abc (abc) (37/112 21) 10:57am-----------
then it's running in UTF8 mode. Please specify the correct value for the abc_encoding variable in .jedrc
By default, characters outside the ASCII range 32--126 are converted automatically either to the corresponding TeX-like sequence, or the octal code; whichever is easier to read. For example, accented characters like à è ò are converted to \`o \`e \`i, while © ® become \251 \256. Under Windows, the à letter will not be converted because of clash with the arrow keys.
The conversion of special characters makes the ABC source more portable, and I strongly suggest that you leave it on.
JedABC uses external programs for preprocessing the file. If the ABC file you edit has abcpp directives (that is, commands that start with `#'; e.g. #define, #include, etc), the abcpp preprocessor will be run before any conversion. The output file name is chosen automatically.
Another external command is abc2prt, which is used to extract a voice from multivoice ABC files and save it to another ABC file.
Let's suppose you're writing the file music.abc. Choose Convert to PostScript. If the file contains abcpp directives, you'll be prompted for the abcpp command line.
To view the PostScript file, choose View PostScript. The PostScript viewer will be launched. From there you'll be able to print the score or convert it to PDF. A note for Windows users: you must close the GhostView window to be able to come back to JedABC.
MIDI conversion is similar to PostScript conversion. The only difference is that abc2midi creates as many files as the tunes contained in music.abc: music1.mid, music2.mid,... When you're prompted for the MIDI player command, make sure you specify the number of the MIDI file. A note for Windows users: you must close the MIDI player window to be able to come back to JedABC.
When you work on a file that contains several tunes, you may want to typeset or play only one of these. JedABC makes it easy to work on ABC collections by providing the `Index Mode' facility.
Select JedABC Options/Make Tune Index to create an index of all tunes in a file. The screen will split, showing the tune index in the top window and the first lines of the tune in the bottom window.
In the index, the tune under the cursor is highlighted. Press `q' to quit, `v' or F10 to view the corresponding PostScript, `l' or F12 to listen to the MIDI, `Enter' or double-click to edit the tune.
Unless the Q: field is specified, JedABC will set the tune tempo according to the rhythm, if this information (R:) is available. This feature overrides abc2midi's default tempo, which is often not appropriate for playing folk tunes. Default tempo for some types of tunes are:
Selecting a tune, the key and the note length will be set. From now on, you will be editing the tune in a new window; the remaining part of the file is hidden, but is still there. This means that if you do Edit/Save As, the entire file will be saved, not only the tune! If you wish to save just the tune on a separate file, you will have to define a text block then save it on a file. Please see the Help menu.
Once you're done with the selected tune, to go back to the main file select JedABC Options/Make Tune Index again, then press `q'.
When you work on ABC collections, you can renumber all tunes in a file by selecting JedABC Options/Renumber Tunes. You'll be prompted for the number to start from.
The ABC Notation menu contains several submenus related to topics of the ABC language. It comes in handy when you don't remember the name of a decoration, or other ABC details.
The following table shows the actions associated for convenience to keybindings:
Convert to Postscript Ctrl-Z CP (or F9) View Postscript Ctrl-Z VP (or F10) Convert to MIDI Ctrl-Z CM (or F11) Listen to MIDI Ctrl-Z l (or F12) Stop Playing (Linux) Ctrl-Z Z Extract Voice Ctrl-Z X Insert Template Ctrl-Z T1 ... TD Customise Template Ctrl-Z TT Toggle Note Mode Ctrl-Z N Toggle Beeps On/Off Ctrl-Z B Toggle Autobar Mode Ctrl-Z A Toggle Formatting Ctrl-Z F Toggle Latin1 Font Ctrl-Z L Reformat Measure Ctrl-Z R Remove Redundant Spaces Ctrl-Z P Make Tune Index Ctrl-Z I Set Meter Ctrl-Z M Do-re-mi to c-d-e Ctrl-Z D Renumber Tunes Ctrl-Z U Compose K: Field Ctrl-Z K Insert System Ctrl-Z S
Q: I'm trying to write V:2, but JedABC keeps telling me: ``Next note will be multiplied by 2 (4, 8,...).'' What can I do?
A: you're in note mode with autobar activated, but you're trying to write something that's not a note. Press any letter between 'a' and 'g', turn note mode off, then correct what you were writing.
Q: The measure I'm writing is wrong! The bar is autoinserted after 2 quarter notes, but the measure should be 4 quarters!
A: you deleted two notes and re-entered them, and autobar couldn't notice. Insert `|' manually to reinitialise the measure.
Q: I'm running JedABC under Linux, and I can't get notes to play when I enter them. What's wrong?
A: you might have to enter the commands /sbin/modprobe pcspkr and chmod 666 /dev/console as root.
Q: How come the gv viewer won't start?
A: you probably specified wrong command-line flags, i.e. -watch instead of ---watch (one hyphen instead of two). Check them out.
JedABC is released under the GNU General Public Licence. I rely on your feedback to fix bugs and add new features.
I wish to thank a musician friend of mine, Maestro Sandro Pasqualetto, for his useful comments and suggestions (``think vertically!''), and Gianni Cunich for his suggestions and encouragement. The authors of Jed and abcm2ps, John E. Davis and Jean-François Moine, made two of my favourite pieces of software: thank you so much!
For whatever comment you may have on JedABC, please feel free to let me know. If you like it, please drop me a line. If you really like it, please make a donation to a charity of your choosing, and let me know. Computers are nice, music is even nicer, but human beings are the most important thing.
I hope you'll enjoy using JedABC.
Enjoy,
Guido =8-)
This document was generated using AFT v5.097