Fiddler's Companion and it's ABC woes.

Poststructural Pub
1

Okay, so I’m not an ABC specialist, so maybe the problem is rather simple but I wouldn’t know. Anyways, while trying to use Fiddler’s Companion’s provided ABC notation at Concertina.net’s ABC tune converter, I always get the name of the tune, but no music notation, plus when I click on the midi, it says something like “website not found” or thereabouts.

I don’t believe it is Conertina.net’s ABC converter that’s causing the problems, because it’s worked for me when I’ve used ABC from other sources other then Fiddler’s Companion. Problem is, those other sources don’t always have what Fiddler’s does.

Just wondering if anyone knew what the dealio is. Maybe their ABC is old I don’t know. :confused:

Thanks,

-Eric

2

Drop a sample abc from the site, and I"ll have a lookie.
I’m rather proficient with abc.

3

concertina.net’s convert-a-matic will only work if the ABC file is preceded by the number field:

X:1
T:The Lilting Banshee
etc…

Notice, no space after the X:

4

ABC has been around for nearly twenty years, and has gone through several versions. As well, since it is an “unofficial” and unsupported format, there is nothing to make sure what someone has written is necessarily current or correct. ABC is in simple text format, so if you want to cut and paste it here, or even just provide a reference to the tune at FidCom, I’m sure someone here would be able to help.

djm

5

First thing I notice is that there’s no X: field.
Concertina requires that.
Just add

X:1

to the first line in the Tune-o-Tron box, and you should be good to go.

6

When you copy and paste an ABC from FC, the paste job will end up with space between rows.

abcd|

defg|

I always scoot the lines so that there are no spaces it and then it works for me. Maybe that’s a peculiarity of the concertina program but I’ve never used any other.

7

For example:

X:1

T:Fisherman’s Lilt [1]

T:Molly, What Ails You?

R:reel

H:Also in C, #154. The second name is from O’Neill’s

H:Also played as “The Kerryman’s Fling”, fling#4.

D:Bothy Band: Out of the Wind, Into the Sun

Z:id:hn-reel-206

Z:transcribed by henrik.norbeck@mailbox.swipnet.se

M:C|

L:1/8

K:D

~A3F ABde|fedc dB~B2|AF~F2 ABde|1 fedc d2dB:|2 fedc d2de||

|:fa~a2 bafb|afef dB~B2|fa~a2 fb~b2|abc’a b2ba| fa~a2 bafb|afef dB~B2|

AF~F2 ABde|1 fedc d2de:|2 fedc d2dB||


When I go to convert it, I get all the text describing the tune/ the tune’s name etc, but no music notation, and when I click on the midi button, it says website not found.

8

I guess that smiley faced popped up as a result of Key = D, but the ABC had it written (with no spaces aparently) K : D… That’s funny.

9

Take out the extra lines:

X:1
T:Fisherman’s Lilt [1]
T:Molly, What Ails You?
R:reel
H:Also in C, #154. The second name is from O’Neill’s
H:Also played as “The Kerryman’s Fling”, fling#4.
D:Bothy Band: Out of the Wind, Into the Sun
Z:id:hn-reel-206
Z:transcribed by henrik.norbeck@mailbox.swipnet.se
M:C|
L:1/8
K:D
~A3F ABde|fedc dB~B2|AF~F2 ABde|1 fedc d2dB:|2 fedc d2de||
|:fa~a2 bafb|afef dB~B2|fa~a2 fb~b2|abc’a b2ba| fa~a2 bafb|afef dB~B2|
AF~F2 ABde|1 fedc d2de:|2 fedc d2dB||

works for me.

10

Just to be sure, I copied AA Cameron’s Strathspey
X:1

T:A. A. Cameron’s

M:4/4

L:1/8

R:Strathspey

K:A Mix

|:eA3 A4 B3Gd3B|eA3 A4 d3g (3f2e2d2|eA3 A4 B3Gd3B|

BG3 G3B d3g (3f2e2d2:|

|:Be3e3f g3ea3f|Be3e3f g3e (3f2e2d2|

Be3e3f g3ea3f|dB3G3B d3g (3f2e2d2:|

So it comes out just like I said and wouldn’t give me sheet music. Then I closed all the gaps between the lines and it did. Try it like this
X:1
T:A. A. Cameron’s
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:Strathspey
K:A Mix
|:eA3 A4 B3Gd3B|eA3 A4 d3g (3f2e2d2|eA3 A4 B3Gd3B|
BG3 G3B d3g (3f2e2d2:|
|:Be3e3f g3ea3f|Be3e3f g3e (3f2e2d2|
Be3e3f g3ea3f|dB3G3B d3g (3f2e2d2:|

11

Yeah, whenever I post ABC, I click on the “Disable Smilies in this post”
option below the posting window, because there are many smilie
combination possibilities in ABC…

12

Well there you go, learn somethin’ new everyday.

Thanks everyone! :slight_smile:

-Eric

13

is there a way:

  1. to increase the distances between the staffs so that notes don’t run into triplet notations?
  2. possible to print on half of an 8 1/2 x 11 page so you can make a booklet of tunes?
14

Probably not with a web-based interpreter, but downloading an ABC program and running it on your own computer would give you what you need.

15

I use the “%%staffsep ” directive to control the distance
between staves. It works in the Tune-O-Tron.

X:1
%%staffsep 120
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:A Mix
|:eA3 A4 B3Gd3B|eA3 A4 d3g (3f2e2d2|
eA3 A4 B3Gd3B| BG3 G3B d3g (3f2e2d2:|
|:Be3e3f g3ea3f|Be3e3f g3e (3f2e2d2|
Be3e3f g3ea3f|dB3G3B d3g (3f2e2d2:|



Yeah, it’s labor intensive, but possible. You can print one tune in
landscape on the left side of the paper by specifying “%%landscape”
and give a right margin with “%%rightmargin ”.

X: 1
%%landscape
%%rightmargin 6in
T: Kesh, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
|:G3 GAB| A3 ABd|edd gdd|edB dBA|
GAG GAB|ABA ABd|edd gdd|BAF G3:|
B2B d2d|ege dBA|B2B dBG|ABA AGA|
BAB d^cd|ege dBd|gfg aga| bgg g3:|


Then, put the same paper back in, and print the next tune on the
right side of the paper by giving a left margin: “%%leftmargin ”.

X:2
%%landscape
%%leftmargin 6in
T: Donnybrook Fair
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
|:GFG AGA|Bee dBA|BAB GAB|AGE DED|G2G A2A|
Bee dBA|B2B GAB|AGF G3:|gfe fed|efe dBA|
Bee dBA|Bee e2f|1gfe fed|efe dBA|BAB GAB|
AGF G2f:|2gfg aga|bge dBA|B2B GAB|AGF G3|


You can find more format parameters (each of which must be
preceded with %%) here:
http://br.geocities.com/hfmlacerda/abc/format.html
These were designed for the abcm2ps program, but many of
them work in other conversion programs, like the Tune-O-Tron.

16

Thanks for the info; now to go off and see if all works