summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/macros/musictex/FAQ
blob: 5165463c087e411c451c08b867dbfbaa091e0b26 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240

FAQ 930127: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to MusicTeX and MuTeX

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: This is a bare bones beginning of what will constitute a more substantial
	"Frequently Asked Questions" for MuTeX and MusicTeX.

	Please mail your contributions to this to "mutex@stolaf.edu"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

01	What is MuTeX?
02	Where can I get MuTeX and MusicTeX?
03	Where are the archives of MuTeX mailing list?
04	With MusicTeX I get notes and beams, but they are badly aligned,
	beams and slurs are offset to the right etc.
05	I obtained easily the .TEX files but the .PK and .TFM are wrong.
06	There is no documentation with MusicTeX.
07	I run MusicTeX on SUNOS (or some other big computer) but I have
        memory problems with MSDOS
08	Where's the glue?  it's not clear to me when to use or not use \temps
	or just what it really does.
09	When and why do you really need to put \relax at the end of a line?
10	What are the advantages or disadvantages of using ^ instead of \sh?
	Is one more flexible, or is it just a matter of typing style?
11	How can I put something somewhere in the MusicTeX staffs.
12	I cannot print notice.tex with american paper.
13	How can I make triplets?
14	How can I offset vertically the rests, in order to avoid collision
	with beams or other notes in polyphonic music:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This FAQ list is kept up to date by the contributions of the members of the
mutex mailing list.  To participate in mutex and musictex discussions, you
can subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) the "mutex" mailing list at the
address:
	mutex-request@stolaf.edu
To send a question to the entire membership of the mutex mailing list, use
the address:
	mutex@stolaf.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01 	What is MuTeX?

The MuTeX package is a set of macros allowing TeX to typeset music.  It was
written by Andrea Steinbach and Angelika Schofer, as a master's thesis at
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University.  MuTeX allows you to typeset
single-staff music and lyrics.


01	What is MusicTeX?

Another powerful package which allows the typesetting of orchestral and
polifonic music is MusicTeX, written by Daniel Taupin.

The main difference between MuTeX and MusicTeX is that
   - MusicTeX deals with multiple staves (staffs?)
   - MuTeX produces a nicer output.

The reason that MuteX produces nicer output seems to be that it can
handle only single-staff music and therefore can easier put glue
between the notes. A second reason is that it makes "real" slurs and not
some sort of rotated brackets (braces, ...). But MusicTeX is getting
better and better because Daniel Taupin maintains it whilst nearly
nobody continues the development of MuTeX

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
02	Where can I get MuTeX and MusicTeX?

Most up to date version of musictex:

	rsovax.ups.circe.fr	directory [anonymous.musictex]

Different versions of MuTeX and MusicTeX are available from many other
sites, including:
	ftp.stolaf.edu		/pub/mutex/MuTeX.tar.Z
	ftp.stolaf.edu		/pub/mutex/MuTeX_doc.tar.Z
        ftp.gmd.de              /music/mutex/mutex.zip
	ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au	/pub/tex/MuTeX.tar.Z
	clouso.crim.ca		/pub/MuTeX.tar.Z
	sol.cs.ruu.nl		/pub/TEX/mtex.tar.Z

MusicTeX
	ftp.stolaf.edu		/pub/mutex/musictex-4.31.tar.Z
	ftp.gmd.de		/music/musictex/musictex.zip
                                /music/musictex/musictex-nnn.tar.Z
	alfred.ccs.carleton.ca	/pub/tex/MusicTeX.tar.Z
	aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de	/tex/musictex.tar.Z
	bach.cs.umb.edu		/pub/tex/musictex.tar.Z
	cs.dal.ca		/pub/comp.archives/musictex
	emx.utexas.edu		/pub/mnt/source/tex/musictex.tar.Z
	forwiss.uni-passau.de	/pub/tex/macros/musictex.tar.Z
	iraun1.ira.uka.de	/tex/musictex.tar.Z
	kth.se			/tex/umb/musictex.tar.Z
	wraith.cs.uow.edu.au	/cache/ftp.cs.umb.edu/pub/tex/musictex.tar.Z
	qed.rice.edu		/pub/musictex.tar.Z
	sol.cs.ruu.nl		/TEX/musictex.tar.Z
	srawgw.sra.co.jp	/.a/sranha/arch/arch/comp.archives/musictex
	srawgw.sra.co.jp	/.a/sranha/arch/arch/comp.archives/music/notation/musictex

Other Related Stuff
	arisia.xerox.com	/pub/musictexdemo.PS
	athene.uni-paderborn.de	/pcsoft/amiga/tex/fonts/musictex.lzh
	nz20.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de /pub/pctex/texutl/macros/musictex.lzh
        ftp.gmd.de              /music/midi2tex/...        midi to MusicTeX

For those without FTP access, you can e-mail to:

        mail-server@cs.ruu.nl   TEX/musictex.tar.Z
or

(Submitted by: dgold@basso.actrix.gen.nz (Dale Gold))

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
03	Where are the archives of the MuTeX mailing list?

Archives for the MuTeX mailing list are available via anonymous FTP from:
	ftp.stolaf.edu:/pub/mutex/archive         (actual size: 0.5 MB!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
04	With MusicTeX I get notes and beams, but they are badly aligned,
	beams and slurs are offset to the right etc.

Remove all unnecessary spaces, i.e. ALL (all, not most of them)
spaces which do not follow a TeX or MusicTeX control sequence. E.g.:
do not write \qu h | \ibu0i3 \qu b \qu c \enotes
but          \qu h|\ibu0i3\qu b\qu c\enotes

\relax at the end of each line not ending with \enotes

Answer thanks to TAUPIN@FRUPS51.bitnet

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

05	I obtained easily the .TEX files but the .PK and .TFM are wrong.

You probably forgot to say BINARY to your ftp before GETting the binary files.
As a rule the .TEX and .STY are ASCII, as well as the .MF. But the .PK, .ZIP,
.TFM and (for VMS) .BCK files must be transferred in BINARY

Answer thanks to TAUPIN@FRUPS51.bitnet

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

06     There is no documentation with MusicTeX.

There is one, named musicdoc.tex. You may process it by plain TeX after
installing the tfm-files from the distribution. The result is musicdoc.dvi
-- which is in the distribution, too. Print it with you favourite dvi-driver.
If you do not have all fonts, put dummy ones and read the text. It will not
be beautiful, but still informative...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

07      I run MusicTeX on SUNOS (or some other big computer) but I have
        memory problems with MSDOS

Two solutions:
	a) insert compulsory line breaks (\alaligne) and page breaks (\alapage)
	b) use Eberhardt Mattes's bigtex (btex286) (or the beta-test version
           of tex386 if you have at least a 386-machine)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

08	Where's the glue?  it's not clear to me when to use or not use \temps
	or just what it really does.

Glue occurs each time you say \barre or \temps or \alaligne or \alapage
\temps is used to put glue between groups of notes. You can disable it
and look how ugly it looks...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

09	When and why do you really need to put \relax at the end of a line?

Put \relax at end of lines whenever the last item is not a control
sequence. Because in this case the spaces are swallowed by TeX as a
final part of the control sequence. Thus I use \relax when I need
a control sequence to swallow end of line spaces (and new line code).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10	What are the advantages or disadvantages of using ^ instead of \sh?
	Is one more flexible, or is it just a matter of typing style?

The ^ is used within collective coding, \sh is used outside.

   You may write \sh k\qu k
   or            \qu$^k

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11	How can I put something somewhere in the MusicTeX staffs.

Read the musicdoc and use \zcharnote\244<pitch>\207\244<what-you-like>\207
If you want it spacing use \charnote\244...\207\244...\207
Within those macros you can put anything, including maths
below, in the middle of, above the staffs. To be used inside
tne \notes....\enotes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

12	I cannot print notice.tex with american paper.

        don't print it :-)  you have an old version. New versions of
        MusicTeX contain  musicdoc.dvi  a LaTeX-document which fits
        on american paper.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

13	How can I make triplets?

It's already in musictex.tex, but without the `slur' you wanted. \xtuplet
is the routine that puts a number under your beam, and the line:

        \def\triolet{\xtuplet3}%

will provide you with a number under or over your beam and it could be
adapted for sextuplets or anything else.  This will make you a nice
triplet:

        \Notes\ibl0j0\triolet M\qb0{jk}\tbl0\qb0j\enotes

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

14	How can I offset vertically the rests, in order to avoid collision
	with beams or other notes in polyphonic music:

Write \raise <n>\internote\ds
      or       \raise <n>\internote\soupir

      All rests are \hbox-es, so you can prefix them with \raise <dimension>
      The <dimension> (or <n>\internote or <n>\Interligne) can be negative.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------