♫Jens Johansson · Excerpts of polymath discussion on meshuggah forum

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Excerpts of polymath discussion on meshuggah forum

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From QUILAN

You asked for it. Let's play the game "What meshuggah song is this?" Ready?



==============================



(t, 133) (n, CR CH SD BD T1) 

(D, p1CR, 1 1P 1 1P) 

(D, p1CH, 4P 4*7 4P 4*7) 

(D, p1SD, 16P*5 (P, 16, 7 6 8 6 8 6 8 6 4) ) 

(D, p1BD, (P, 16, 3 5 (xx 3*2 6)*3 xx 3*2 4 xx) ) 

(D, p2aCR, (P, 16, 26 6) ) 

(D, p2aSD, 16P*28 16*2 16P*2) 

(D, p2aBD, (P, 16, 26 6) ) 

(D, p2bCR, 1 1P*3 1 1P*3) 

(D, p2bCH, 4P 4*15 4P 4*15) 

(D, p2bSD1, 16P*5 (16 16P*10 16 16P*9)*5 16 16P*12 (P, 16, xxoxo)) 

(D, p2bSD2, 16P*5 (16 16P*10 16 16P*9)*5 16 16P*10 (P, 16, 7)) 

(D, p2bSD, $p2bSD1 $p2bSD2 $p2bSD1 ) 

(D, p2bBD, (P, 16, 2 x 4 x 2*2 xx 4 x 2)*6 16 16P ) 

(D, p3aT, 2 4P (P, 16, 3 1) 2P 4P 4 2P (P, 16, 3*2 2) 2P 8P (P, 16, 6) ) 

(D, p3bCR, 1 1P*3) 

(D, p3bCH, 4P 4*15) 

(D, p3bSD, 2P 1*3 2) 

(D, p3bBD, (P, 16, 3*2 4 2 3*3 2*2 3*3 2*2 5 3*3 2 4 6) ) 

(D, p4aCR, $p3bCR) 

(D, p4aCH, $p3bCH) 

(D, p4aSD, $p3bSD) 

(D, p4aBD, (P, 16, xxx 3*3 2*2 3)*3 (P, 16, x*3 3 x) ) 

(D, p4bCR, $p3bCR) 

(D, p4bCH, $p3bCH) 

(D, p4bSD, 16P*3 (16 16P*8 16 16P*9)*3 16 16P*3) 

(D, p4bBD, (P, 16, xx 4 (3 2)*2 3)*3 (P, 16, xx 5) ) 

($p1CR)*4 $p2aCR ($p2bCR)*3 ($p1CR)*2 1P*8 ($p3bCR)*4 ($p4aCR)*4 ($p4bCR)*4 $p2aCR ($p2bCR)*2 ($p1CR)*4 

|($p1CH)*4 1P*2 ($p2bCH)*3 ($p1CH)*2 1P*8 ($p3bCH)*4 ($p4aCH)*4 ($p4bCH)*4 1P*2 ($p2bCH)*2 ($p1CH)*4 

|($p1SD)*4 $p2aSD $p2bSD ($p1SD)*2 1P*8 ($p3bSD)*4 ($p4aSD)*4 ($p4bSD)*4 $p2aSD ($p2bSD2)*2 ($p1SD)*4 

|($p1BD)*4 $p2aBD ($p2bBD)*3 ($p1BD)*2 1P*8 ($p3bBD)*4 ($p4aBD)*4 ($p4bBD)*4 $p2aBD ($p2bBD)*2 ($p1BD)*4 

|1P*50 ($p3aT)*2 

==============================

See? The polyrythm tool is simple to use, and has easy-to-read code, right?

From QUILAN

And if you couldn't get that one, try this well-known rhythm:



=======================

(t, 150) (n, CR CH SD BD)

((1 1P*3)*2)*2 

|((4P 4*15)*2)*2 

|(2P 1*7 2)*2 

|((P, 16, (xxx 3 2 2)*2 xxx)*5 (P, 16, xxx 3 2 2 xxx))*2 

=======================

From QUILAN

Now for another easy one off of Chaosphere, try this one. The only thing that was hard about it, was that there wasn't any drum-tabs for it online that I could find (on meshuggah.net, etc.). So I have to semi-transcribe them myself, then turn into code-stuffs. So, if you find that the transition from part 3 to 4 is icky, you do it better. Here it is:



======================== 

(t, 174) (n, CR CH SD BD T1) 

(D, p1C, 1 1P*3) 

(D, p1H, 4P 4*15) 

(D, p1S, 4P (2 8P)*6) 

(D, p1B, ((P, 16, x*6 4)*3 16*2)*2 ) 

(D, p3C, (2 8P)*6 4) 

(D, p3S, (4P 4 8)*6 4P) 

(D, p3B, (16*16)*4) 

(D, S2, (2 8P)) 

(D, S4, (4 8P)) 

(D, p4C, 1 1P*7) 

(D, p4H, 4P 4*31) 

(D, p4S, 4P ($S2*2 $S4 $S2 2 $S4)*2 $S2 2 4P 16*2 ) 

(D, p4B, (P, 8, ((2 2 x)*2 2 x 2 2 x 2*3 x)*2 ((2 2 x)*2 2 xx)) ) 

(D, p5aC, (1P*8)*2 ) 

(D, p5aH, (1P*8)*2 ) 

(D, p5aS, (1P*8 1P*7 2P 8P 8 4) ) 

(D, p5bC, (1 1P*7)*2 ) 

(D, p5bH, (4P 4*31 4P 4*27 1P) ) 

(D, p5bS, (2P 1*15 8P 8 4) ) 

(D, p5cS, (2P 1*7 2)*2 ) 

(D, p5cH, (4P 4*31)*2 ) 

(D, p5B, 4P (P, 8, ((x 4)*2 x 2 x 4)*3 x 4 x 2) ) 

(D, b18, xx 2 x 2 2) 

(D, b20, xx 2 xx 2 2) 

(D, p6C, 1 1P*3 8*3 8P 2P 1P*3) 

(D, p6H, 4P 4*31 4P 4*28 2P 4P) 

(D, p6S, 2P 1*14 2 4P 8*6) 

(D, p6B, (P, 8, ($b18 $b20)*3 xx 2 3) ) 

($p1C)*4 ($p3C)*4 ($p4C)*4 ($p5aC) ($p5bC) ($p6C)*2 ($p5bC) ($p4C)*4 

|($p1H)*4 (1P*4)*4 ($p4H)*4 ($p5aH) ($p5bH) ($p6H) ($p5cH) ($p4H)*4 

|($p1S)*4 ($p3S)*4 ($p4S)*4 ($p5aS) ($p5bS) ($p6S) ($p5cS) ($p4S)*4 

|($p1B)*4 ($p3B)*4 ($p4B)*4 ($p5B)*2 ($p5B)*2 ($p6B)*2 ($p5B)*2 ($p4B)*4 

========================

Note: I shortened the first section from 14 repetitions (yeah, they do the same 4-bar structure 14 times in a row) from 14 to 4 repetitions. So, if you want the full version (rather repetitious imo) you can change the first parts to:



($p1C)*4 => ($p1C)*14 

($p1H)*4 => ($p1H)*14

I wanna try doing some more Mesh stuff, so if you've got good transcriptions, I'd love to see 'em. Btw, this tool rules to fool around with :-).

From ME

Quilan: that's amazing! I'd say that's quite stretching the program beyond what it was designed for. Great!

Inspired by this, and in the spirit of "hey, what if people actually try to USE this!?!", and a bit out of idle boredom (I'm sitting in an apartment here in Helsinki completely jetlagged out of my skull!!), I enhanced the syntax of the program slightly this morning. This became messier and more time-consuming than I thought, so I may quite possibly have introduced new bugs! But the idea is to make this type of "pattern based" programming a bit easier. It works like this: when the character '%' (percent) is encountered it means something like "go back to track 1 again". This makes it easy to (for instance) define a macro that contains information for more than one track, which was not possible before. As far as the time position in the output, whatever is after the "%" is added at the point in time where we were before the '%'. So if you write 1 | 2*2 | 3*3 | 4*4 % 5*5 | 6*6 | 7*7 | 8*8 you get two bars of output. One bar with 1|2*2|3*3|4*4, and the a subsequent bar with 5*5|6*6|7*7|8*8, all on the correct notes . If you double the percent sign ('%%') it means the same as a single '%' but with a "rewind the position to the beginning of the song" functionality.

About all this — perhaps it becomes clearer if I provide an example. This is quilan's first polymath code, rewritten to take advantage of the new syntax:



================BEGIN CODE 

(t, 133) (n, CR CH SD BD T1)   



(D, p1, % 

   1 1P 1 1P | 

   4P 4*7 4P 4*7 | 

   16P*5 (P, 16, 7 6 8 6 8 6 8 6 4) | 

   (P, 16, 3 5 (xx 3*2 6)*3 xx 3*2 4 xx)  

) 

 

(D, p2a, %  

   (P, 16, 26 6) | 

   1p | 

   16P*28 16*2 16P*2 | 

   (P, 16, 26 6) 

) 

 

(D, p2bSD1, 16P*5 (16 16P*10 16 16P*9)*5 16 16P*12 (P, 16, xxoxo))   

(D, p2bSD2, 16P*5 (16 16P*10 16 16P*9)*5 16 16P*10 (P, 16, 7))   

 

(D, p2b1, % 

   (1 1P*3 1 1P*3) * 3 | 

   (4P 4*15 4P 4*15) * 3 | 

   $p2bSD1 $p2bSD2 $p2bSD1 | 

   ((P, 16, 2 x 4 x 2*2 xx 4 x 2)*6 16 16P) * 3  

) 

 

(D, p2b2, % 

   (1 1P*3 1 1P*3) | 

   (4P 4*15 4P 4*15) | 

   $p2bSD2 | 

   ((P, 16, 2 x 4 x 2*2 xx 4 x 2)*6 16 16P) 

) 

 

(D, p3aT, 2 4P (P, 16, 3 1) 2P 4P 4 2P (P, 16, 3*2 2) 2P 8P (P, 16, 6) )     

 

(D, p3b, % 

   1 1P*3 | 

   4P 4*15 | 

   2P 1*3 2 | 

   (P, 16, 3*2 4 2 3*3 2*2 3*3 2*2 5 3*3 2 4 6) 

) 

 

(D, p4a, % 

   1 1P*3 | 

   4P 4*15 | 

   2P 1*3 2 | 

   (P, 16, xxx 3*3 2*2 3)*3 (P, 16, x*3 3 x) 

) 

 

(D, p4b, % 

   1 1P*3 | 

   4P 4*15 | 

   16P*3 (16 16P*8 16 16P*9)*3 16 16P*3 | 

   (P, 16, xx 4 (3 2)*2 3)*3 (P, 16, xx 5) 

) 

 

# 

# the song -- as you can see you don't have  

# to keep track of each track separately, which  

# I suppose could be useful, or at least reduce  

# some possibilities for typos or confusion 

# 

 

$p1*4 $p2a $p2b1 $p1*2 1P*8 $p3b*4 $p4a*4 $p4b*4 $p2a $p2b2*2 $p1*4 

 

# 

# and here we rewind (%%) to fill in the tom  

# pattern at the right bar 

# 

 

%%  

# overdub pauses on all the other drums...

1p|1p|1p|1p| 

# ...except the tom

1P*50 $p3aT*2  

================END CODE

Any bug reports would be most welcome! The unmodified program is still on the server as polymath-old.par / polymath-old.cgi. BTW I'm quite suprised how well much of the meshuggah stuff "maps onto" quite short polymath expressions.

Page updated Aug 21, 2004 at 01:42 • Email: jens@panix.com

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