quick question…how do you convert that string of letter and numbers format, I guess its the ABC format to standard notation music I can read. I did the ABC download, but am not sure where to go from there or how to get music into the traditional readable form
Thanks!
BenS
Which download did you do?
There are several programs which convert ABC to standard notation, if you
downloaded one of those, you should be able to use the program to open an
abc file, and it should show you standard notation. Check the documentation
for the software you downloaded.
If you want a quick cut-and-paste solution, you can use the Tune-O-Tron:
http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html
You just paste an ABC tune – make sure it starts with an X line, like X:1
Then hit Submit and it will convert the ABC into a pdf showing standard
notation.
That is a good resource, but if your header lines and formatting are off, sometimes what you end up with is unreadable.
It may be worth reading An ABC primer to understand a bit about the format.
BenS, there are various very useful ABC softwares available - and all are listed and linked on the ABC homepage. Different ones have their strong and weak points. If you are a competent dot-reader and prefer your notations in dots but want to use ABC resources, I recommend ABCEdit as it has the best visibility of the standard notation in its interface (some of the others are quite poor on that) and also offers the greatest, most accessible control to managing the standard music notation layout, as well as direct copy-to-clipboard and printability of the notation image. All in all, it’s the most “dot-friendly” IMO, though some of the other progs do other things better.
Of course, ABC is designed to be human-readable; it started as a shorthand for scribbling tunes on napkins. So for a quick look at an ABC tune you shouldn’t need any software at all. For that, I second the Primer, and these other learning resources here:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=782994&highlight=abc#782994
Worthwhile learning, I think.
Another option for an ABCfile is LISTEN to it. Not great, but not awful either.
ABCmus gives passable [not great] rhythms for jigs n reels.
I’m glad this came up again.
I’m looking for good (or any!) abc conversion software for MS Windows Mobile OS (5.0 or 6.0). There are a couple of choices out there, which I found listed here
http://www.walshaw.plus.com/abc/software.html but specifically I want the capability of what I’m running on my PC: that is, the ability to enter in abc code manually with a text editor, and then generate standard notation and midi output. There’s TunePal, written by Bryan Duggan (is he here on C&F?), which seems to be a nice option for MIDI, but I want dots too.
Anything out there that anyone knows about? Or do I have to write my own software? Anyone proficient at porting code to other OS’s?
Salutations:
I’m unsure related to specific, PDA/cellphone OSs and such but an option would be to use any basic text editor (ascii based) and then use the open platform internet to convert to midi or dots.
I’ve always felt that John Chambers Tunefinder was the best abc app! As it’s webbased, I would imagine modern cellphones could access it through the web, thereby getting midi, gif and/or pdf for audio and visual purposes.
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc one of the ways to get there.
There’s also a abc webapp that was on concertina.net some years ago that basically processed abc(s) on the fly.
However, you may be trying to make a portable abc/cellphone/pda which would require some software specific elements, so good luck with that if that’s the case. Device specific OS(s) are to my mind traps.
have fun
I had thought about that – just using the internet to convert (i.e. tune-o-tron at concertina.net), but I’d rather not have to use internet minutes doing something as simple as converting abc notation to standard notation. What the hand-held OS’s need is a standalone converter - akin to what Barfly does (on the mac) or, what I use, abcm2ps and abc2midi. I mean, why the heck can’t I just download those sources and compile them on these little beasties? These should be open-platform devices, but I know they’re not (sadly). I know the iPhone is built on Mac OS, which is, at its heart, a UNIX OS. Do you have a command-shell there where you can compile stuff? Or am I asking way too much (getting into OT geek-speak now, I know)?
Wouldn’t that be nice? But no, they like to keep things very proprietary on the
iPhone. Many (non-smart-) phones have J2EE, so you can run any compiled
Java app … unless you are with Verizon, who insists that all their phones use
Qualcomm’s proprietary Brew system. Since you have a WinMobile phone,
you could compile apps on your PC with a cross-compiler and load it to your
phone.