Post new topic   Reply to topic    Courserrim on Landroval Forum Index -> Minstrel Mayhem/The Remediators
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Briallan
Officer

user avatar

Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Posts: 980

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: Program to create song parts list

1

Last night I wrote a program to create the song part spreadsheet from a folder of ABC files. I uploaded the file into the File Gallery as ABC2Excel.zip (you need to unzip to extract the program, ABC2Excel.exe).

There are two ways you can run this program

(1) put ABC2Excel.exe into the folder where the ABC files are and execute it like you would any other program (e.g.. by double-clicking on it). It will only process the ABC files in the folder and ignore other types of files

(2) execute it from a command prompt window; if you run it this way, you can specify an argument which tells the program which folder of ABC files to process, for example:

     abc2excel "C:\Users\Courtney\Dropbox\Concert 1_12"

If you do it the second way, you need to make sure that the OS can find the program; one way is to change directory to the folder where abc2excel.exe is located (using the cd command) after you bring up the command prompt window, but before you run the program; another way is to make sure that abc2excel.exe is located someplace in your PATH. You could also create a .bat file to run the .exe, but it you know how to do that you don't need my help lol. If none of this makes sense, try the first way.

When you run the program, it will open up and fill in an Excel spreadsheet with the proper info, and you can then save it anywhere you want.

This program will only work if you have Microsoft Excel installed on your machine, and probably will only work on Windows operating system.

Please let me know if this doesn't work as expected .. hopefully will save some time for future concert planning. I can probably extend it to do some other useful stuff now that I have the basic concepts working.



Last edited by Briallan on Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:16 pm; edited 1 time in total


_________________
 
Ice Weasel
Member

user avatar

Joined: 18 Jul 2012
Posts: 511

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: Program to create song parts list

0

WOW!!!

Very, very, very cool, Bri!!

*runs off to play with it*



_________________
Ice Weasel
Officer, Northern Lights
On Landroval: Krohkur, Cynnabon, Skaldhi, Nurdanor, Crenbo, Brodur, Rhyton, Myopique, and Clehpto
"A dwarf minstrel who sings about goats... Krohkur? Is that you?"
Ice Weasel
Member

user avatar

Joined: 18 Jul 2012
Posts: 511

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: Program to create song parts list

0

Works as advertised!

This really saves a ton of monkey-work, Bri... Great job!



_________________
Ice Weasel
Officer, Northern Lights
On Landroval: Krohkur, Cynnabon, Skaldhi, Nurdanor, Crenbo, Brodur, Rhyton, Myopique, and Clehpto
"A dwarf minstrel who sings about goats... Krohkur? Is that you?"
Briallan
Officer

user avatar

Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Posts: 980

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: Program to create song parts list

0

I guess I should also mention that it only creates the list of songs and instruments, but does not assign parts to musicians -- there are several ways that could be done, but if it's not the way you were planning on doing it, that feature would be of limited use. Still, would consider that as an upgrade if I could figure a good way of doing it.

Also, I have only tested it on ABC files generated from Maestro -- it would probably be very easy to modify it to work for ABC files generated from Firefern (assuming that there are any differences between the output of the two programs -- there might not be...)



_________________
 
Ice Weasel
Member

user avatar

Joined: 18 Jul 2012
Posts: 511

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: Program to create song parts list

0

The ABC Format is a standard, so any program that "writes ABC" files has to make the output the same. Your generator ought to work for any ABC files, no matter what made them (or hand-coded... *shudder*).

As for filling the Musician names... I think it would be *less* valuable, really, if it did that. Unless it could be "smart" enough to know about instrument swapping, and who can play what... I think that that's the part that needs a deft hand... but the grind work of making the list and spreadsheet? Excellent thing to avoid having to do. LOL



_________________
Ice Weasel
Officer, Northern Lights
On Landroval: Krohkur, Cynnabon, Skaldhi, Nurdanor, Crenbo, Brodur, Rhyton, Myopique, and Clehpto
"A dwarf minstrel who sings about goats... Krohkur? Is that you?"
Briallan
Officer

user avatar

Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Posts: 980

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: Program to create song parts list

0

To assign musicians to parts, the program would have to read a separate file (or whatever) that would indicate who could play what instrument. And, it would have to allow the user to specify which characters he wants to limit instrument changes for (for example, Dend likes to change instruments, but I like to limit changes  for myself if I am running several alts at a concert). So the issue is -- is that enuf info for the program to create something that the concert planner would do if he did it by hand, or are there other factors which he would take into consideration. Unless you can really do what the concert planner would do on his own, then I would say it isn't useful since the concert planner would just redo it anyway. So I am keeping an open mind, but not ready to add features unless I'm sure it would be useful and not take TOO long.

Also prolly beating a dead horse at this point, but programmers love to talk about their code lol.

 

 



_________________
 
Briallan
Officer

user avatar

Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Posts: 980

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: Program to create song parts list

0

I have uploaded a new version of the ABC2Excel utility to the File Gallery (as ABC2Excel.zip). This version should work correctly with ABC files created by any of the midi-to-ABC converters that I am aware of (which include Maestro, Firefern and BruTE).

The issue is that LOTRO doesn't really care how the parts in the ABC file are labeled for instruments, since, as far as LOTRO is concerned, you can play any part in an ABC file with any instrument (as we have found out when we do things like playing a lute part with a bagpipe!). So all the converters which create ABC files are free to label the instruments parts in their own special way, which they do lol.



_________________
 
Briallan
Officer

user avatar

Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Posts: 980

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: Program to create song parts list

0

Well, there were still a couple bugs in the last version, which I just fixed:

  • instrument name in spreadsheet was incorrect if the song title in the ABC file had a hyphen in it
  • instrument name in spreadsheet was "optional" (instead of the correct instrument name) if the words "[optional]" were appended to the instrument name in the ABC file

The new version on this utility (zipped into ABC2EXCEL.Zip, and dated today) is now uploaded to the File Library in the Gallery section of this website.



_________________
 
Posts from:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Courserrim on Landroval Forum Index -> Minstrel Mayhem/The Remediators All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum