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Excerpts of polymath discussion on meshuggah forum
Note: If you get some C00D11CD error from windows media player it's not
my fault. Just set the ^#@%&$^%#@$@ media player not to play web content
in that sidebar, that fixes it!
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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Any offensively categorical statements passed off as facts herein should only be construed
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