Lye

Lye is a simple, straightforward library for expressing musical grooves as compositions of small snippets of music. It could be thought of as an extremely complex music box.

Lye takes in snippets of Lilypond markup written in a strict set of Lilypond, called Lye, and outputs MIDI data, either in realtime or to a MIDI file for later playback.

Fluidsynth is required, along with my Python bindings for Fluidsynth. The bindings can be found on PyPI under "fluidsynth".

The Lye Language

Lye is a strict subset of Lilypond. The following features are supported:

• Notes
  • Pitches
  • Accidentals
  • Octaves
  • Durations
  • Ties (~)
• Rests (r4)
• Chords (<c e g>)
• Voices (<< { c d e d } { e f g f } >>)
• Dynamics (\\ff)
• Tuplets (\\times)
• Drums mode (\\drums)
• Relative mode (\\relative)

Embedded Scheme is not supported, and will not be supported. Lye is not for typesetting, it is for performance.

lyne.py

lyne.py is the main entry point for Lye at the moment. It reads in a timelyne and produces a MIDI file. To run it, try:

$ ./lyne.py <library> <lyne> <midi>

For example, to compile the example groove, try:

$ ./lyne.py groove groove.lyne groove.mid

lyne-fs.py

lyne-fs.py is an experimental Twisted-Fluidsynth blend which renders a timelyne to Fluidsynth.

$ ./lyne-fs.py <library> <lyne> <soundfont>

Bugs

Lye is obviously a bug-free and perfect piece of software. :3

In all seriousness, feel free to report bugs, but don't be surprised if I don't move on them.

Special Thanks

• Wade Cline
• Sarah Craig
• Jerome Hirsch
• Ben Kero