synth_tutorial.rst

Synths

Jird can use Fluidsynth, Surge XT, and ZynAddSubFX to render music directly from the command line.

Specifying a synth

The --synth flag selects a synth to use (with a default patch). The possible choices are fluidsynth, zynaddsubfx, and surge_xt. For example running

$ jird --synth surge_xt

starts the interpreter using Surge XT for playback, and running

$ jird --synth zynaddsubfx music.txt

plays the music in music.txt with ZynAddSubFX.

Specifying an instrument

We can specify a patch with the -i flag. The corresponding synth is inferred from the patch filename. For example running

$ jird -i ~/surge/resources/data/patches_factory/Polysynths/Oiro.fxp

will start the interpreter using Surge XT with the Oiro patch for playback. To play music in music.txt with this patch we can run

$ jird -i ~/surge/resources/data/patches_factory/Polysynths/Oiro.fxp music.txt

The Surge repo containing the patches can be found on github.

To use Zyn, we can run for example

$ jird -i /usr/share/zynaddsubfx/banks/the_mysterious_bank/0031-wah_sine.xiz

The Zyn patches may be found in /usr/share/zynaddsubfx/banks if you have ZynAddSubFX installed. If not they can be found in the ZynAddSubFX instruments repo.

Using a config

More detailed synth configuration is done with a config file described below. Given a config in config.json and music in music.txt, the music can be played by running

$ jird -c config.json music.txt

The config allows specifying a different instrument for each jird part, as well as setting overall parameters like the basic time and frequency. For example, here is an example config with two parts:

{
    "t": 0.63,
    "f": 440.0,
    "synth": "surge_xt",
    "parts": [
        {
            "instrument": "~/surge/resources/data/patches_factory/Polysynths/Oiro.fxp",
            "volume": -8.25,
            "panning": 0.5
        },
        {
            "instrument": "~/surge/resources/data/patches_factory/Polysynths/Boss.fxp",
            "volume": -7.0,
            "panning": -0.5
        }
    ]
}

With this config, one beat lasts 0.63 seconds, the frequency ratio 1/1 sounds at 440Hz, and Surge XT is used for playback. The parts list contains patches, volume, and panning to use for the two parts (semicolon separated jird music).

Config fields

All config fields are described below.

.. autoclass:: jird.config.Config()

.. autoclass:: jird.config.PartConfig()