MMA 1.5c now up and testing

[bvdp]

A development snapshot, version 1.5c, of MMA--Musical MIDI Accompaniment
is available for downloading. Included in this release:

 - A new track, the Plectrum. This can generate a realistic MIDI guitar.
   Getting a realistic guitar sound using MIDI has been notoriously difficult
   as calculating the notes in each chord and strumming patterns can be very
   tricky.  Now the MMA PLECTRUM pattern takes care of most of this for you
   so all you have to do is to enter the chords names and how when you want
   each string to be strummed or plucked. An example is availabe at:

        http://www.mellowood.ca/mma/examples.html#plectrum

 - A number of minor bug fixes.

This is very close to a 1.6 release! Your bug reports and other input is needed.
Get this version at:

        http://www.mellowood.ca/mma/downloads.html#developer

MMA is a accompaniment generator -- it creates midi tracks
for a soloist to perform with. User supplied files contain
pattern selections, chords, and MMA directives. For full details
please visit:

   http://www.mellowood.ca/mma/

If you have any questions or comments, please send
them to: bob@mellowood.ca

[bvdp]

Just a note for folks playing with the lib files and the new version. In the dist for 1.5c the library files 'bolero' and 'jazzguitar' have been converted to use the new Plectrum tracks. I am quite fond of the bolero sound I've managed to achieve here.

[kara]

That PLECTRUM sounds realy interesting !
Now the only to do is trying to understand how a guitar is played
I must admit that until know I avoided guitars in my songs as much as possible.

k

[bvdp]

The plectrum doesn't really do a guitar We have real guitar players for that!

The big difference between the plectrum track and everything else that MMA does is that a note duration is NOT specified. Plectrum notes continue to ring (sound?) until another strum or chord change intervenes.  We're still stuck with whatever the synth produces.