conducting

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Conducting Interface

Requirements

Need to conduct up to 8 orchestras (7 are planned for the concert).

Each orchestra plays one "language" designated by a number and an icon. There will be 10 to 15 languages.

It must be possible to select languages on a per-orchestra basis, e.g. orchestra 1 has language 3, orchestra 2 has language 7, etc.

Languages are selected and transmitted to the orchestras at any time. In a separate action, a "cue" is sent to the orchestras to say that the selected language should now take effect. The orchestras do not change languages until the cue is given. (This allows the conductor to prepare several changes and have them take effect simultaneously.)

In addition to assigning languages to orchestras and cuing them, some languages take additional cues to play sounds (one sound per cue).

In addition, there should be some play louder/play softer indications, e.g. select a set of orchestras and then move the mouse or wheel to control volume. Maybe it should be general "give me more" or "give me less" control without specific meaning.

Both Performer interface and Conducting interface should have a status display to show status such as "connecting to federation", "connected to super-node", "clock synchronized to super-node", ...

Coordinate with the Performance Interface group and others to create "Main." It should be possible to become a conductor or performer (one monolithic program contains both interfaces). Also, it should be possible to be a node or a super-node. There is no group assigned to write the "main" program, so this is the responsibility of the Conducting interface group.

Design

• Control Interface: almost all control is performed by the keys and MIDI keyboard: we want to use numbers to select orchestra and use other keys to perform quick settings such as louder/softer and sending cues. And we use MIDI keyboard to choose language. This design enables batch selection and editing using minimized key strokes, leaving GUI a mean to track status and information. (-Zeyu)
• Graphic Interface: GUI displays information about the last performed action (such as changing language and sending cues), orchestra status (such as the current language and louder/softer settings) and network status. (-Zeyu)

• Keyboard & MIDI control: conductor uses number keys to select orchestras and use MIDI keys together to send messages to the selected orchestras. These messages include:

  1. Language change (mapped from C4 to B5 on the MIDI keys) 
  2. Cues, some keys on the MIDI keyboard 
  3. Give me more/ less (also on MIDI) 
  4. tempo indicated by continuous tapping a key.
  

(meeting notes by Zeyu, uploaded by Collin)

Control Interface

Orchestra names are "ccrma", "blork", "tamu", "lsu", "cmu", "sarc", helo"

Messages are published to subject "Cond"

MIDI	Key	Command	Message
n/a	1-7	Select Orchestra	(address field)
n/a	-	Cancel Selection
n/a	0	Select All Orchestra
C3-B4	Cmd 1-Cmd 9	Select Language	NextLang nn
C5	space	Change Language	ChangeLang
Bb4	c	Send Cue/Pulse	Pulse
Db3+Ab4	g	Orch: Play now	OrchPlay
Db3+Gb4	s	Orch: Stop/Mute	OrchStop
Db3+Db4	i	Orch: Fade in	OrchFadeIn
Db3+Eb4	o	Orch: Fade out	OrchFadeOut
Eb3+Ab4	G	Solo: Play now	SoloPlay
Eb3+Gb4	S	Solo: Stop/Mute	SoloStop
Eb3+Db4	I	Solo: Fade in	SoloFadeIn
Eb3+Eb4	O	Solo: Fade out	SoloFadeOut
Bb3	f	Vol: loud	VolLoud
Ab3	x	Vol: any	VolAny
Gb3	p	Vol: soft	VolSoft
	h	Pitch: high	PitchHigh
	m	Pitch: Mid	PitchMid
	l	Pitch: Low	PitchLow
	a	Pitch: Any	PitchAny
Ctrl 1-7		Intensity for individual orchestras	Intens nn (0 <= nn <= 100)
Ctrl 8		Intensity for all orchestras

Language Spec

Index	Language Name	Can take pulses?
0	Long Sound
1	Accented Long Sound
2	Trills
3	Staccato Line Forming
4	Intervallic Forming
5	Short Attacks Rhythms/Intervallic Variety
6	Angular Attacks and Lines
7	Legato Forming
8	Accented Long Sound on Cue	Yes
9	Short Attacks on Cue	Yes
10	Legato Forming on Cue	Yes
11	Drum Circle
12	Rising Pitch Forming
13	Falling Pitch Forming

Subtask Assignments

• Zeyu: GUI/IO design, API framework (usage information in attachment)
• Collin: Working on integrating APIs from other groups

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