< Back to IRCAM Forum

@staccato Attribute

Antescofo
#1

What is the meaning of the @staccato attribute? I expected that it indicates shortening of the duration but this doesn’t seem to be the case. A succession of staccato notes like e.g.

NOTE A4 1 @staccato 
NOTE A4 1 @staccato 
NOTE A4 1 @staccato

seems to leave Antescofo missing the second and third notes, while the following variant does not:

NOTE A4 1/2
NOTE 0 1/2 
NOTE A4 1/2
NOTE 0 1/2 
NOTE A4 1/2
NOTE 0 1/2

So I wonder when the attribute @staccato should be used?

#2

Hi @kyl

The @staccato attribute does the following: It’ll add an “invisible grace silence” between the attributed event and the next. This is just there to absorb the silence induced by a staccato.
So in your case the equivalent would be:
NOTE A4 1.0
NOTE 0 0
NOTE A4 1.0
NOTE 0 0 // etc
In your case, you have repeated notes which are notoriously hard to detect. Your second notation is also fine and it might better help the recognition engine. The different timings in this case have no effect on Tempo Detection (as it looks at Inter-Onset-Intervals).

Bests,

#3

So @staccato advises Antescofo of a possible silence between detached notes but because the silence might be too short (as in a fast and dense sequence of staccato articulated notes) it doesn’t actually expect one?

#4

That’s correct. :slight_smile: If you’re having trouble detecting (especially on repeated notes) you might want to make those silences explicit.

#5

Thank you, Arshia. It is thus important to handle repeated notes differently. This also means that with a rapid succession of staccato articulations on a repeated note (say doubles-croches in a fast tempo) instead of

NOTE A4 1/4 @staccato
NOTE A4 1/4 @staccato
NOTE A4 1/4 @staccato
NOTE A4 1/4 @staccato

one should rather write:

NOTE A4 1 ; in place of 4 staccati

But in a very slow tempo rather

NOTE A4 1/8 ; staccato double-croche
NOTE 0 1/8
NOTE A4 1/8
NOTE 0 1/8
NOTE A4 1/8
NOTE 0 1/8
NOTE A4 1/8
NOTE 0 1/8