HELP - computer dummy just wants to jam

[bvdp]

Actually you have SUCCESS!

The install script aborts for a complicated reason: there is a bug in MMA using the -g option. Now that you have it all installed, please, from your terminal type:

   mma -g

Note, a lowercase 'g'. BTW, it is the -G option in mma which is causing the error. I will look into this in the next day or so and post a new version.

In the meantime, you have MMA!

Now, start to compile the sample songs. Have fun.

[jon]

i typed mma -g and got this
"juan@juan-desktop:~$ mma -g
Running without pysco support, installation of pysco recommended.
Warning:
        No RC file was found or processed"
then a bunch of other stuff and finally this:
"ERROR:     Error creating lib-database file '/usr/local/share/mma/lib/yamaha'. CRITICAL!
juan@juan-desktop:~$ "

do i need to be concerned about this?
now i only need to figure out how to use mma and the jazz standards   

thanks again    (for helping a computer dummy, and im sure that i will have more questions coming up) ill let you know when i actually HEAR MMA tracks

jon

[bvdp]

I think this has to do with permissions not being set properly. Try to compile a song or 2 from the examples. They should compile okay. I'll figure out the error in the next day or so (the -G error) and put up a new version. Will let you know here.

[bvdp]

Just posted the 1.3a package. Now there are no bugs in MMA

[jon]

Try to compile a song or 2 from the examples. They should compile okay.

i extracted the songs from the bin and they look OK.  here is an excerpt:
// Abracadabra

// This is the Cole Porter tune from "Mexican Hayride",
// NOT the Steve Miller Band version!


Tempo 120
Keysig Eb

Groove Metronome2-4

   z * 2

// 4 bar intro

Groove BossanovaFill

Begin Solo
   Voice SynthBrass2
   Volume mf
   Articulate 80
   Harmony Open
   Octave 5
   Begin Riff
      8c; 4g; 8c; 4g; c;
      8d; 4an; 8d; 4a; d;
      8en; 4bn; 8e; 4b; e;
      4bn; an; 2g;
   End
End

1    Cm   
2    Dm   
3    Em   
4    G7   

Begin Solo
   Articulate 95
   Octave 6
End

Repeat
Groove Bossanova

5    Cm   
6    Fm6 
7    Cm   /    Cm7 
8    Cm6  /    AbM7 G7   
9    Cm   
10   F9   /    D7   
11   G    /    D7#5
12   Dm7  /    Fm6  G7   
13   C7   
14   /    /    Gm7  C7   
15   Fm   
16   F7   /    Fm6  F#dim
17   C   
18   D7   /    Fm6  G7   
............................................................................................

RepeatEnd

Groove BossaNovaEnd
Seq 3
Decresc p 2

69   C    /    Am7  Cm6 
70   C    z!   
Cut -2.25

you get the idea after all you wrote it    just to show you that my problem (opportunity for learning?  ) is not working in the text of the song -  im sure that ill figure out the meaning of text - after all bossanova, samba, swing are all terms familiar to me - and ive learned (from you  ) that i have to write the text EXACTLY as written or the computer wont understand me.......
anyway my opportunity is that i dont know how to play the songs on my computer (remember altho ive learned, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing...) do i play them by opening up a terminal?  or is there something ive missed?     i cant seem to open the pdf instruction booklet altho other pdf's work on my computer in ubuntu so i cant read and learn.
this computer dummy is stuck!
muchas gracias
jon

ps

Just posted the 1.3a package. Now there are no bugs in MMA

now i have more opportunities to practice what ive learned 

[bvdp]

Okay. You've found the songs files. Now, when in that directory, type:

   mma abracadabra <enter>

You should get a warning about no rc file (which you can safely ignore) and a message that the file "abracababra.mid" was created.

Now, to play the darned thing. First thing I would try is kmid and see what happens. Not to be a shit, but playing the files is beyond the help being offered here That's what the ubuntu forums are for ... they can offer much better help than I can. You many need to install timidity if you don't have a external synth connected.

A program like kmid gives you a gui from which you can navigate to your MIDI files. You can also do it from the terminal: for example the command "kmid somefile.mid <enter>" will fire up kmid and play the songfile (NOTE: it doesn't play the MMA file which needs to be compiled). Ummm, for playing I never use the internal sound on the computer; always the external synth. I use the program aplaymidi and my own program xpmidi (see my site). But, these are of no use if you don't have your synth connected. Oh, another way to play files, if your synth has a card slot, is to transfer the midi files to a card and insert that in your synth. More reading: this time the manual which came with the synth.

The docs supplied with mma are in 2 formats. There are html files which come with the bin file. If you installed the package (which it appears you did) you now have a complete manual (including the tutorial) in /usr/local/share/mma/docs/html ... just point your browser of choice to the mma.html file in that folder; or cd to the folder and type "firefox mma.html <enter>".

As to the contents of the .mma files ... yes, you do need to do it right. Computers are pretty dumb machines ... so they can't do much beyond what they are told. But, really, the mma format is pretty simple and if you have a mistake it tries its best to point out the error. My suggestion is to get the midi playback working, then make minor changes to the supplied songs to see if you can learn to change tempos, transpose, etc. Then write some of your own files by copying the chords from a fakebook or guitar sheet.

Listen to my music on mellowood.ca/music/recordings ... each example there is me playing sax with my synth playing tracks generated with mma. No magic. Nothing really complicated either (once you figure it all out).

Hope this all helps!

[jon]

 Not to be a shit, but playing the files is beyond the help being offered here That's what the ubuntu forums are for ... they can offer much better help than I can.

 

you have gone way above and beyond the call of duty.   it was me that was a ____ due to my dumb questions that you have so patiently answered.   

Listen to my music on mellowood.ca/music/recordings ... each example there is me playing sax with my synth playing tracks generated with mma. No magic. Nothing really complicated either (once you figure it all out).

Hope this all helps!

it helps a lot! i think i should be able to navigate my way to the jam in my office now.  ill post when i hear beautiful MMA waves going thru the air.   i have heard you play the sax on the recordings so im greatly encouraged to keep on keepin on
thanks again
jon

[jon]

well, i wiped winduds off my system, now i only have edgy eft.  downloaded mma, python running, installed mma but cant figure out where the directory is that has my songs so i can convert them to midi.   ive spent many hours working on this - reading the instructions and trying this and that only to report that i still havent had a single jam with mma. perhaps this is all too hard for me and i should just give up - remember im a computer dummy    
jon

[bvdp]

By itself MMA doesn't come with songs. Well, there are a few in the egs directory (which was created when you unpacked the MMA package). One command you might find useful on linux is "locate". From a terminal you can type something like:



To get a bunch of songs just download the file

file:///home/bob/www/mellowood/html/mma/mma-songs-1.3.tar.gz

 from our website. Do the normal "tar xzf mma/mma-songs-1.3.tar.gz" and you'll get about 475 mma files in the current directory. I suggest you create a new directory first, save the *gz file to that, then unpack.

Edgy is getting to be a pretty old distro. Dare I suggest you upgrade

If you want to see a computer dummy ... you should have seen me the last few days struggling to get a printer to work on a windows XP system ... in the end I decided that it was the printer which was brain dead, not me!

Keep at it. Hopefully one day you'll no longer consider yourself to be a dummy ... and no one here considers you to be one either. We've all been there.

[bvdp]

Sorry, about the previous post. Try the locate command to find stuff. For example, to find all the mma song files:

  locate \*.mma <enter>

Note, we need the '\' in front of the '*' to turn off shell escapes.

To find a specific songs:

  locate yellow-bird.mma <enter>

Read the man page for locate:  man locate

[jon]

you were right i needed to download the songs.  but what are the things in the mma package itself?  swing tango etc?  i got kmid, but anyway this is where im stuck: 

Okay. You've found the songs files. Now, when in that directory, type:

   mma abracadabra <enter>

i cant find any directories, in fact i dont even know what you are talking about.  remember im a computer dummy who wants to jam my saxophone?  locate does this:

juan@juan-desktop:~$ locate mma-songs.1.3
juan@juan-desktop:~$ locate mma-songs-1.3
juan@juan-desktop:~$  mma a-fool-such-as-i
Running without pysco support, installation of pysco recommended.
Warning:
        No RC file was found or processed
ERROR:     Input file 'a-fool-such-as-i' not found
juan@juan-desktop:~$ locate\*.mma
bash: locate*.mma: command not found
juan@juan-desktop:~$ locate\*.mma
bash: locate*.mma: command not found
juan@juan-desktop:~$

perhaps i wont be able to play my sax after i figure all this out?

my gutsy disc i BOUGHT was defective and i had to reuse the edgy that i had downloaded when i started with linux, im waiting for hoary hedgehog to come out before downloading updates.  so im a little bit edgy this morning
juan

[bvdp]

You have to actually go to the directory you created. So, if you type in:

 locate mma-songs-1.3

it should tell you something. Maybe it types out:

  /home/bob/tmp/mma-songs-1.3

so, now use the 'cd' command to move their:

  cd /home/bob/tmp/mma-songs.1.3

Now, use the 'ls' command to see what is in the directory:

  ls

.... a list of .mma files.

now, you can compile the songs.

Now sure what you're asking, but swing, tango etc are styles which mma uses to generate the tracks.

Just a gentle suggestion, but do you have a local friend who knows a bit about computers who can sit down with you can go over some basics? We don't mind helping here at all, but you'd progress much more quickly with some hands on demos.

Let us know of your progress.

Best,

[jon]

So, if you type in:

 locate mma-songs-1.3

it should tell you something. Maybe it types out:

  /home/bob/tmp/mma-songs-1.3

this is exactly what is so frustrating about computers (you are rite they are dumb machines): here is what i get:

juan@juan-desktop:~$ locate mma-songs
juan@juan-desktop:~$ locate mma-songs-1.3
juan@juan-desktop:~$

 
but the thing is i have it- i can see it on my desktop and i have unpacked it and looked at the songs.  it starts out aba-daba-honeymoon.mma, abracadabra.mma, abrazame-asi.mma, act-naturally.mma, a-day-in-the-life-of-a-fool.mma (thats me ) etc. i KNOW i have the songs, i could go on thru the entire list, its visible in the file browser in juan desktop mma-songs-1.3 so then i tried to make a midi file thinking i already was in the rite directory so i typed at the prompt:

mma abracadabra
Running without pysco support, installation of pysco recommended.
Warning:
        No RC file was found or processed
ERROR:     Input file 'abracadabra' not found
juan@juan-desktop:~$

so i go over to applications - Add/Remove - search and type in pysco and i get that "There is no matching application available"  perhaps its talking about me - im the psyco 
i certainly understand that you are getting tired of this, i sure am.  no reply is demanded.  as i have said above, you have gone way over and above the call of duty....
jon

[bvdp]

Assuming that you have unpacked/installed the files onto your desktop:

1. Open terminal

2. type "cd Desktop <enter>" (note the upper/lower case in "Desktop"

3. type "ls"

3. you should see a directory name. Probably "mma-songs-3.2"

4. type "cd mma-songs-3.2" or whatever.

5. type "ls" again. You should see the songs.

Or, if you are using nautilus for browsing files, select one of the songs (the mma file) and right click on it. You should get a menu of options, one of which is "properties". Click this and you should see that the "location" of the file is "/home/bob/Desktop/mma-songs-3.2/song.mma" or something. That gives the exact location you can "cd" to.

Here's the short story. MMA asssumes that the file it is to process is in the current directory of your terminal. So, if the file can't be see there, it can't be processed.

Now, I hate to suggest another method, but try this.

Once you find the file in nautalis or whatever file browser you are using, just right click on it and there should be a "open with" option. This should give a bunch of default applications, but mma won't be one. So, there is a "custom application" option. Click on that, and enter "mma". Now, mma should process the file and create a midi to play.

One of these days you will get this work

[jon]

One of these days you will get this work

you have kept the faith even when mine faltered -- check out the last two lines on this baby.......

young-at-heart.mma
you-oughta-be-in-pictures.mma
youre-the-cream-in-my-coffee.mma
youve-got-to-see-mamma.mma
zingaro.mma
juan@juan-desktop:~/Desktop/mma-songs-1.3$ mma world-on-fire
Running without pysco support, installation of pysco recommended.
Warning:
        No RC file was found or processed
Creating new midi file (66 bars, 2.78 min): 'world-on-fire.mid'
juan@juan-desktop:~/Desktop/mma-songs-1.3$

notice world-on-fire.mid
ladies and gentlemen, we have success!           
a BIG  THANK YOU is due here!               
jon
now to get the darn file to play.............but for now im gonna savor my success.......