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Antescofo Basic Tutorials (windows version): findings and remarks

Antescofo
#1

Hello Arshia,
I have downloaded the new version (495) of ANTESCOFO’s Windows ALPHA version.
Then I have tested the Antescofo Basic Tutorials.
Please find herafter my findings, remarks and questions.
Thanks in advance for your corrections, answers and improvements
Best regards
Mathieu Courcier

  • I have seen that now, when we try to access to the Ascograph application, we see a new message in the Max windows : « antescofo~: AscoGraph is not currently available for this platform! Sorry. ». Thanks for that.
  • As we can’t for the moment use the Ascograph application on a Windows platform, it would be great, in the tutorials, to access to all scores with a text object (it’s the case for a lot of them) rather than to have to access for some of them directly in the « example_scores » folder.
  • “Tut06 keywords “: patcher help “Duration” in the subprogram “Note”: error accessing the file « MaxAntescofo_DurationTable » which actually exists in the folder docs/pdf.
  • « Tut10 oulets » : MAX crashes when we try to open this tutorial! So, it’s impossible to read it.
  • Tut11 inlets : in the subprogram « frequency » no information comes out of the antescofo~object.
  • « Tut13 more action language”: “error in opening file « action_messages-02.asco », syntax error, unexpected Start”. The system seems to refuse the word “start” as a label.
  • « Tut14 the @local attribute”: the event “skip_me” is only skipped when we play “Bb Ab E” (this event is not skipped when we play C Ab E”); Is this the awaited result (notice that it is not written what should be the result)?
  • « Tut14 the @local attribute”: same “error in opening file” as for Tut13
  • « Tut18 Group : loose ends »:
  • regarding scores “gfwd_example-06b.asco.txt” and “gfwd_example-06b-local.asco.txt”: if we play it “wrong”, the bang blinks with the “plain” version, and also with the version with @local. The bang doesn’t blink only if the first note isn’t a C; for example with “Bb Ab D”. Is this behavior specific to the Windows version?
  • regarding score “gfwd_example-06c-bad_local.asco.txt”: the bang doesn’t blink if we play “Bb Ab D”, consequently @local works! Is this behavior specific to the Windows version?
  • « Tut20 Nested Groups and Loops ”:
  • inheritance subprogram: @tight attribute example; example-04: error in the name of the “text file” (03-local instead of 04-tight (copy/paste error))
  • inheritance subprogram: @tight attribute example; example-04: the @tight attribute is inherited! Is this behavior specific to the Windows version?
  • inheritance subprogram: @tight attribute example; example-04b: error in the name of the “text file” (03-local instead of 04b-tighter (copy/paste error))
  • inheritance subprogram: @tight attribute example; example-04b: “LFWD” instead or “LOOP” in the text file.
  • « Tut23 Macros : expr and @INSERT » error accessing the file «Antescofo_MathExpr.pdf» which actually exists in the folder docs/pdf.
  • « Tut25 importing antescofo~ scores»
  • how can we convert a MusicXML file exported from FINALE into an Antescofo~ file if we have only a Windows configuration ?
  • error accessing the file «ExportingMusicXMLFiles.pdf» which actually exists in the folder docs/pdf.
  • « Tut26 “performance control” :
  • for all label printed we see “bang” in the Max windows ! It’s due to the existing cord between the third output of antescofo~ object and the second input of the route object.
  • the cord between the trigger object under the message “getcues”, and the lists of labels associated to the messages “gotolabel $1” and “jumptolable$1” erase those lists because it relays the order “clear”!
  • the first input of the message “gotolabel $1” is linked to the first output of the umenu object instead of the second output.
  • idem for the first input of the message “jumptolabel $1”
  • « Tut27 “Otemo” :
  • unfortunately CNMAT Max/MSP Externals is only for Mac
  • By the way the MAX program crashes after several seconds. One solution is to keep in the subprogram “sounds” only the transport object and the subprogram “otemo” and the object noteout, in that case we can hear the vibraphone and the Midi events (note-on messages).
#2

Hello

  1. Perhaps it’s a Max 7 effect, but I never meet this before :

    During some time ( 2 or 3 minutes) I have no possibility to change OVERDRIVE, which was grey.  
At this time, I was editing and reload the same score. I was using antescofo~.maxhelp.  
Max seems to find something but all others items in the max menu was ok and respond under the mouse.  
I try to use antescofo but it seem not working. After some try of antescofo, I choose again "overdrive"  
without any success, and suddently "overdrive" was selectable as normal.

  2. “printscore” and/or “printaction” don’t work : Error: unable to open temporary file `/tmp/tmp.antescofo.listening.txt.a00740’
    In ref doc pdf, in list of messages to antescofo~, there isn’t “printaction” but “printfwd” …

  3. to complete what Mathieu wrote, here some minors remarks on the patch antescofo~.maxhelp and pdf doc ref.

  • Deprecated files :
    0-BasicActions.asco.txt
    O-BasicActions.asco.txt.old

  • Anteescofo keep a pointer on an old file score even if we load a new score in antescofo

  • It seem that there is no really difference between the two message “nextevent” et “nextaction” : in “antescofo~.maxhelp” with “nextaction” by default we can execute some events (?)

  • nothing on “@modulate” dans la doc pdf de reference

  • no automatic reload if we change and save the “@insert score” (but it’s working for the score).

  • In pdf reference doc : in example “4-tempo_curve.asco.txt”
    wrong comment of the line :
    “4 {200} @type “cubic” ; the interpolation between 60 and 200 take 3 beats ant it is cubic”
    it’s from 200 to 60 no ?

  • page 8 : difference between “user-defined macros” et “macro definition” ? It seem we haven’t any exemple of “macro definition” in the pdf doc, only “user-defined macros” no ?

  • PAGE 15 "" could be better read if there is a '’ sign means “zero or more” (syntax repetition).

  • PAGE 18 : there is five pts in ref pdf, but 4 is suffisant
    because “A simple identifier or a string or an integer acts as a label for this event.” is not a new point

  • PAGE 50 : on graphic, in Y it is $y et non $a

  • PAGE 53 “In the simple example above, the time step or grain size ((@grain) attribute) and tbreakpoints’”

  • PAGE 59 : at the line of example : “{ print “OK” $ } during [2 #]” manque le X after ‘$’ in expression $X

  • PAGE 59 : logic (($cpt < 1) $X) does missing “and” or something as that ?

  • PAGE 114 “Monotoring”

----- In patcher antescofo~.maxhelp :

  • In antescofo~.maxhelp, the patcher “p readme” du patch “antescofo~.maxhelp” is deprecated.

  • Don’t hide on lock the “receive psound”, it will be esasier what psound means in the 5 scores in example…

Button in Ascograph, it is call “nextevent” or “nextaction” ? in anterscofo~.maxhelp it’s “nextaction” which is write.

“getcues” in “patcher PerformanceControl” : out of the OUTLET for any loaded score. —> nothing on ‘getcues’ in pdf ref.

In antescofo~.maxhelp we find this sentence :
“The Antescofo object accepts predefined message sent to antescofo-mess1. These messages corresponds to the internal commands described in section 4.6.” it is an default receive name in antescofo~ ?

#3

@Mathieu Courcier ,
@FRX,
Thank you very much for your useful feedbacks. We will take it into account in the next release.

Some partial answer to your questions:

  • Difference between the two message “nextevent” et “nextaction” : nextevent force the recognition of the next expected event by the listening machine. This recognition will trigger the actions that are associated to this event. nextaction will simply jump to the next action in the scheduler queue, droping what remains of its delay.

  • The automatic reload is realized by watching a file and we choose to watch only the main file, not the included ones, to spurious reload (you can edit an included file and save it, it will be taken into account only when you reload or edit and save the main file) and to minimize the cost of watching.

  • Difference between “user-defined macros” et “macro definition”: at this moment, they are only two system-defined macros @uid() and @lid() described in section 10.3 “Generating New Names”. These macros are system-defined because they cannot be easily user-defined.

Again, thank you for your feedbacks.

#4

Hello again,

I would like to share with you some remarks I have regarding the Boulez’ Anthemes 2 REMAKE example, the Helpfile Antescofo, and the AntescofoReference document.

Thanks in advance for your corrections, answers and improvements
Mathieu Courcier

Anthemes 2 REMAKE example

step 4 – “Samplers” :

  • the object « samplor~” of Serge Lemouton is not in a Windows version
  • score “a2s1_samplers.asco” : label Q11 : « dur schould be 1 » : why this duration didn’t have been corrected ?

Antescofo~ Reference

This documentation is very light compared to the other Max objects documentation.

Antescofo~ Help

  • Follower demos : after the “OR”, I haven’t be able to start the follower ; thus I added a message « start » linked to the antescofo~ object, and it worked.
  • Action Language demos : as this section of the patch doesn’t concern the “following”, but only the “launch of actions”, the command “start” seems to be unnecessary
  • Action Language demos : Scoring : printscore : error message in MAX Console : “unable to open temporary file ‘/tmp/tmp.antescofo.score.txt.az29060’ “ Idem for “printactions”
  • Action Language demos : Advanced controls : I didn’t find a definition of the “verbosity” ; and when I click on “suivireset” I get an error message in MAX Console : “doesn’t understand “suivireset””
  • Action Language demos : Score Browsing : If I want to begin to play the score at a specific label, I click on this label and I get the message in the Max Console : “starting at event number n with score beat position nn”, but then, what I have to do to launch the playback at this label position?
  • Action Language demos : “3- AdditiveMacros” : we can’t hear anything because the “decaying-sinusoids~” object doesn’t exist in Windows version (cf. CNMAT internet site). Moreover, after having played the score, anything we do makes MAX crash.
  • Action Language demos : “5- RandomLude” : strange order “KILL 1.0s r1” at the end of the asco file, which obliges the first loop to last only one second.

AntescofoReference document

  • p. 17 Fig 2.2 the first TRILL is TRILL (A4 B4), not TRILL (A4 A#4); the second is TRILL ( (C5 E5) (D5 F5), not TRILL ( (C5 E5) (G5 B5)
  • p. 58 last line : I think it should be written “during” instead of “until”
  • p.60 end of page : I think the values for $x are 10 then 11 then 12 etc., not 1 then 2 then 3
  • p. 69 second line : the letter “G” has to be replaced by “H”
  • p. 91 matrice*vector product [ @reduce(@+, $m[$i] * $v) | $i in @size($m) ]
    It works when one replaces [$i] by ($i) because $m is a map and not a table, except for the first element of the result which is due probably to the fact that the system use the key « 0 » ;
    I got a correct result with : [ @reduce(@+, $m($i) * $v) | $i in [1, 2, 3] ]
  • p. 91 squaring a matrix $m, i.e. $m * $m
    [ [ @reduce(@+, $m[$i] * $m[$j]) | $i in @size($m[$j]) ]| $j in @size($m) ]
    I didn’t succeed in debugging this program.
  • p. 92 : first line :
    @fun_def @choose_a_tab() { (@rand(0.1) < 0.5 ? $t1 : $t2) }
    let @choose_a_tab()[1] := 33
    To change the second element of a tab chosen randomly between $t1 and $t2, one has to write (@rand(1) instead of (@rand(0.1).
  • p. 107 : calling a Process: the program runs correctly for the first process and for the beginning of the second until the printout of “begin D3”, then it crashes.
  • p. 108 : Process as Values : : the program run correctly at the beginning : “TIC…TOC…TOC …” then it crashes!
  • for all other “Process” examples, it’s the same, the program crashes as soon as a second process is managed.
  • p. 121 : listable function : @abs has no impact on a table with negative numbers!
  • p. 126 : every function beginning with “@history_map”: unknown functions
  • p. 126 : “date” instead of “rdate” (copy/paste problem)
  • p. 127 : @is_defined : it doesn’t work.
  • p. 139 : experimental features : reserved experimental keyword : they include “start “ and “stop” which are actually used in some tutorials (I understand now, why for these words we got error messages in the Max Console).
#5

Thank you Mathieu for all the feedback!!! We are all impressed by our mistakes and grateful for your efforts! :slight_smile:

The lack of the Samplor object in Windows is going to be an issue! I hope I can find a replacement before the official Windows release soon.

For the rest, I hope we can address all your remarks in the next official release which should occur before the next Forum Workshops.