Re: Controlling midi dynamics

Thank you for all your help on this. I now have an include file that does more or less what I want, and of course I can tweak in further in the future.

David

On Tue, 2019-07-16 at 15:11 +0200, Jean ABOU SAMRA wrote:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\version "2.19.83"

%{ From http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/notation/controlling-midi-dynamics.fr.html

midiMinimumVolume + (midiMaximumVolume - midiMinimumVolume) * fraction

These are the volume coefficients ('fraction' above) applied to each dynamic.
%}
#(define (my-dynamic-absolute-volume-function dynamic-name)
(assoc-get dynamic-name
'(
; Adjust these values to get what you would like.
; You can add other dynamics.
; If an dynamic name is not found, the default dynamic values are used.
("ff" . 0.95)
("pp" . 0.3)
)
(default-dynamic-absolute-volume dynamic-name)))

%{ These are the default equalizations applied to each MIDI instrument.
An equalization consists in (min . max) where min is the value to apply for midiMinimumVolume and max for midiMaximumVolume.
Keep refering to the formula above!
%}
#(define (my-instrument-equalizer instrument-name)
(assoc-get instrument-name
'(
; Adjust these values to get what you would like.
; You can add other instrument names.
; If an instrument name is not found, the default equalizer is used.
("violin" . (0.1 . 0.4))
("cello" . (0.5 1.0))
)
(default-instrument-equalizer instrument-name)))

\midi {
\context {
\Score
instrumentEqualizer = #my-instrument-equalizer
dynamicAbsoluteVolumeFunction = #my-dynamic-absolute-volume-function
}
}

violin = \new Voice \relative { c'4\pp d e f g\ff a b c }
cello = \new Voice \relative { a,4\pp b c d e\ff f gis a }

\score {
<<
\new Staff \with { midiInstrument = "violin" } { \violin }
\new Staff \with { midiInstrument = "cello" } { \cello }
>>
\midi { }
}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

You can use an instrument equalizer and custom dynamic absolute volume values at the same time.

Of course, instrument equalization can be achieved using
\set Staff.midiMinimumVolume = min \set Staff.maximumVolume = max …
but the power of an instrument equalizer is that you can put it in a separate file and
\include it, as you say that you generally want to hear the cello louder and the violin less loud.

By the way, I find that the example given on
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/notation/controlling-midi-dynamics.html#setting-midi-volume
in selected snippets at "Replacing default MIDI instrument equalization"
is overly complicated. Why define the alist empty to append to it later?
And why not just use assoc-get? It could be easily improved.

Best regards,
Jean Abou Samra

Le 15 juil. 2019 à 18:26, David Sumbler <address@hidden> a écrit :

Hi Jean

That's great - I certainly now can get a greater range of dynamic than before. Thank you very much.

But I find that altering values in 'my-instrument-equalizer-alist' has no effect at all. How can I adjust the relative volumes of 2 different instruments - say, 'violin' and 'cello'. (I find that in the fluidr3_gm sound font, the cello is far quieter than the other stringed instruments.)

David

On Mon, 2019-07-15 at 17:41 +0200, Jean ABOU SAMRA wrote:
Hi David,

Your problem is not with the instrument, it's with the dynamics themselves.
The algorithm that affects a volume to a note does a scale between midiMinimumVolume and midiMaximumVolume that includes all dynamics. Mathematically, you can think:
volume = midiMinimumVolume + (midiMaximumVolume - midiMinimumVolume)*dynamic

Let me try a diagram:

0 | pppp ppp pp p mp mf f ff fff ffff fffff sf | 1
no sound midiMinimumVolume midiMaximumVolume maximum volume possible

Here you set midiMinimumVolume to 0 or almost and midiMaximumVolume to 1, so if there is not enough difference for you, you need to influence the scale between the two in addition to minimum and maximum volume.

Taking a look at http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/internals/dynamic_005fperformer
suggests to set the dynamicAbsoluteVolumeFunction property. You will find its default in scm/midi.scm:

;; define factor of total volume per dynamic marking
(define-session-public absolute-volume-alist '())
(set! absolute-volume-alist
(append
'(
("sf" . 1.00)
("fffff" . 0.95)
("ffff" . 0.92)
("fff" . 0.85)
("ff" . 0.80)
("f" . 0.75)
("mf" . 0.68)
("mp" . 0.61)
("p" . 0.55)
("pp" . 0.49)
("ppp" . 0.42)
("pppp" . 0.34)
("ppppp" . 0.25)
)
absolute-volume-alist))

(define-public (default-dynamic-absolute-volume s)
(assoc-get s absolute-volume-alist))

so now you can modify it, for example:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\version "2.19.83"

#(define (my-dynamic-absolute-volume-function dynamic-name)
(assoc-get dynamic-name
'(
("sf" . 1.00)
("fffff" . 0.95)
("ffff" . 0.92)
("fff" . 0.85)
("ff" . 0.95) ;; was 0.80
("f" . 0.75)
("mf" . 0.68)
("mp" . 0.61)
("p" . 0.55)
("pp" . 0.10) ;; was 0.49
("ppp" . 0.42)
("pppp" . 0.34)
("ppppp" . 0.25)
)))

\score {
\new Staff \with { midiInstrument = "trumpet" } {
\set Score.midiMinimumVolume = 0.0
\set Score.midiMaximumVolume = 1.0
\set Score.dynamicAbsoluteVolumeFunction = #my-dynamic-absolute-volume-function
a'8\pp b' cis'' d'' e''-.\ff d''-. cis''-. b'-. a'
}
\midi { }
\layout { }
}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

You understand that default 'piano' is not so piano because we have to go to ppppp.

By adjusting the values in that associative list, you can play with dynamics and get the exact contrast you would like.

Hope that helps.
Kind regards,
Jean Abou Samra.

Le 15 juil. 2019 à 16:16, David Sumbler <address@hidden> a écrit :

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\version "2.19.82"

#(define my-instrument-equalizer-alist '())

#(set! my-instrument-equalizer-alist
(append
  '(
    ("trumpet" . (0.01 . 0.99)))
  my-instrument-equalizer-alist))

#(define (my-instrument-equalizer s)
(let ((entry (assoc s my-instrument-equalizer-alist)))
   (if entry
     (cdr entry))))

\score {
\new Staff \with { midiInstrument = "trumpet" } {
%    \set Score.midiMaximumVolume = #1
%    \set Score.midiMinimumVolume = #0
   \set Score.instrumentEqualizer = #my-instrument-equalizer
   a'8\pp b' cis'' d'' e''-.\ff d''-. cis''-. b'-. a'
}
\midi { }
}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Can somebody explain how I can control the absolute minimum and maximum
values of individual instruments in midi?

In the above snippet, I expect to find the first bar almost inaudible
and the second bar extremely loud. However, I find that the difference
between the pp section and the ff is quite limited. If I reduce the
supposed maximum volume of the trumpet to, say, 0.5, then the pp will
indeed be very quiet, but when I restore the second parameter to 0.99
as here, then the pp passage is much louder than previously.

If I uncomment the Score.midiMaximumVolume line and the following one,
it makes little difference. The Internals Reference states that valid
values for these 2 parameters are numbers between 0 and 1. However, if
I set midiMaximumVolume to 2, I find that the pp and the ff sections
have the same volume as each other. Further increases in
midiMaximumVolume do not seem to make any difference.

In every case, the total dynamic range is considerably less than I
would like. How can I extend the dynamic range beyond the limited
range I can currently get?

David

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From:	David Sumbler
Subject:	Re: Controlling midi dynamics
Date:	Wed, 17 Jul 2019 11:20:47 +0100