Plugin request for melody variations.

• Nov 19, 2018 - 20:51

Hi

I would like to have a plugin that could create variations from selected phrase.
The variations would be:
1) Reverse
2) Rhythm reverse, note row original
3) Rhythm original, note row reverse
4) Inversion (scale and key based)
5) Inversion and reverse (scale and key based)
Anybody interested? Please contact, so we can discuss the details.

I know there is a inversion plugin, but that´s chromatic. '

Thnx

Comments

• Nov 22, 2018 - 11:46

Hm, some of these request may be ambiguous.

E.g. let's take rhythm-reverse on a triplet, just on teh timing, where caps mean "being played": ONE-TRIP-let

Reverse1 = notewise complement, yields: one-trip-LET
Reverse2 = mirrored, yields let-TRIP-ONE
(but how to mirror, e.g. just each quarter-note, bar-wise, phrase-wise ...?)

Leaving out everything about changes in tonality ...

And so on. After all, I wonder how useful this plugin might be, and if results aren't obtained manually more easily and more reliable?

Best, Michael

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• Nov 23, 2018 - 07:33

Thnx for you answer

Yes, I understand that some of these things can be difficult to achieve. Especially the reverse rhythms.

I would prefer the rhythms to be reversed by each value. E.g - A doted eighth and a sixteenth reversed would be sixteenth and a doted eighth. Triple as in your example would be let-TRIP-ONE. If someone says it´s impossible to program, then I guess it is so. Maybe I should rephrase the question - which of these variations is achievable most easily by a plugin.

For me and my workflow the plugin would be a time saver. I would´nt ask if it was not t :)

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• Nov 23, 2018 - 07:50

"For me and my workflow the plugin would be a time saver. I would´nt ask if it was not t :) " - Probably :)

"Yes, I understand that some of these things can be difficult to achieve." - At the moment we recognize that it's even hard and ambiguous to define. Implementation is just a follow-up with its own world of trouble.

In terms of wording, for the plugin, for its submenues etc., it will be also hard to communicate clearly, what it does and what it doesn't.

"Maybe I should rephrase the question - which of these variations is achievable most easily by a plugin." - And that will be, what you wanted, what helps you ? That's what's called specification ... and a discussion like this usually works as a spotlight.

"E.g - A doted eighth and a sixteenth reversed would be sixteenth and a doted eighth. Triple as in your example would be let-TRIP-ONE." - I don't know if you recognize the ambiguity of your example. Because it's easier to see in my triplet-example I just reversed the direction of reading, right-to-left turned into left-to-right. You allpy it twice: on the notes AND on their timing value. In the timeframe of, I suppose, a quarternote. How should the algorithm work for longer or shorter timeframes, e.g. a dotted full-note?

The more I think about, the situation is probably like this:
* there is a huge number of interpretations of your request
* there is a huge amount of variation in scores/sheets
* the chance, that your intentions are implemented as you need it tends towards zero, because a few "rights" are simply outweight by the overwhelming number of "that's not the way I wanted it".

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• Nov 23, 2018 - 09:28

Fine, I think a plugin developer now would have a much better idea.

My suggestion: Please expand your example to other time signatures, melodies and rhythms. This is called "specification by example" and helps to further reduce ambiguity.

BTW, in your example you vary tone, duration and sequence, hence 3 parameters in two choices, each. Because this results in 2^3 = 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 choices, your example misses just two more variations ;-)

Best, Michael

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• Nov 23, 2018 - 17:24

Thnx,

No, I didn´t use chordal inversion. Instead - melodic. There are different ways of doing it, but I did it like this:

The lowest note in the original (e) becomes the highest in the original (c) and all the other notes between them use same scalar steps. If the melody in the origal raises a third, then in the inversion, it will go down a third.
Or if explained numerically:
Original:
E=1
F=2
G=3
A=4
Bb=5
C=6

Inverted
C=1
Bb=2
A=3
G=4
F=5
E= 6

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• Dec 4, 2018 - 03:34

I am working on a plugin that does various types of INVERSION, diatonic as well as chromatic. I work slowly but hope to have something finished in a few weeks.

It's only a small piece of what you're looking for. The other features you've proposed are for the most part trickier to implement in a plugin, especially if you're hoping to see it handle features like tuplets and grace notes. That's beyond my skill set. But I'll wish you good luck, and I'll post here when my more modest project is ready to share.

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• Nov 25, 2018 - 09:22

A plugin offering some of these functions is available for MuseScore 1. Due to the major limitations it has (simply by not having all the necessary info available through the plugin framework) it was not ported to MuseScore 2. (such as no tuplet support)

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• May 12, 2019 - 19:57

Hi, Since MS3 is out for a while now I´ll just bump this post.

Are there any developers out here who would like to give this a try?

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