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| Frequently Asked Questions |
What
is Symbolic Composer and how does it operate?
Because of its unique design Symbolic Composer can play many roles.
- Symbolic Composer is a production tool for making music
with MIDI.
- It is an expert-system for music composition.
- It is a programming language for musicians based on Lisp.
- Symbolic Composer is a mapper enabling any data to become
music.
In Symbolic Composer's terms music is thought of as a language
expressed in melodies, rhythms, notes, durations, harmonies,
tonalities, chords and intervals. This language is largely symbolic,
lying invisibly behind sound and timbre as the inner substance of the
musical message.
No matter what style or idiom you work in the basic elements of this
language are always present.
What I will need?
To run Symbolic Composer you need a PC with Windows with 512 MB or
more memory.
How does SCOM handle playback?
SCOM compiles standard MIDI files, that are compatible with any
sequencer in the market. SCOM saves MIDI files into the Output folder.
After score compilation SCOM launches the MIDI file into WinAmp, or
with any other MIDI file
player such as VanBasco's, sequencer or a notation software that is
defined as a default
file handler for ".mid" files.
SCOM MIDI files play in Cubase, Logic, Performer, Notator,
Finale, Sibelius, Igor, and others that support MIDI file playing.
Refer to your software settings for setting it to the default ".mid"
file player. If not available, you can use WinAmp for "draft sound"
playback unit for quick feedback, and load the MIDI file into your
sequencing environment manually for finalizing the sound rendering.
Compilation of even the most complex pieces happen in few seconds. And
SCOM has all the tools to handle them fluently just by programming - so
once you get to know SCOM better you'll find that you actually do not
need that sequencer for assembling the score and can handle everything
with just programming the score including all MIDI controllers, tempos
and program changes in SCOM.
Does SCOM generate sounds?
SCOM is for music composition. This means that it does not
generate any sounds by itself, but lets you use all your hardware and
software synthesizers and samples for sound rendering. This provides a
great
flexibility and compatibility, since you can apply your existing
knowledge on your instruments, and develop your instrumentation freely
without enhancements on your compositional practises.
How does the demo version run?
SCOM demo mode shows you the interface items and provides you full
score libraries and documents. You can play back the demo MIDI files
and view their source codes, but if you want to compile your own songs
you need to purchase a license.
What kind of music does SCOM let
me compose?
SCOM is a context-free music language. Context-free means that SCOM
does not restrict the style or complexity of the piece you want to
compose with it.
Is it realtime?
Yes. Compilation occurs in few seconds and you can play back the piece
almost immediately.
Can I use live input from a
keyboard?
That is improvising. SCOM is for music composition, and in SCOM
you would think how to write a piece of
code that would be improvising instead of you.
Can I program my own code?
Yes. SCOM includes full Common Lisp language. You can define new
functions and documents and add them to the system in the same way as
the native functions and documents have been added.
Who is a typical user?
Experimental composer who has a mind of a mathematician. The more you
think about music the more you become both. Fascination to find out new
spaces, solutions, formalisms, algorithms that operate human mind - or
just want to explore the vast possibilities that SCOM opens up adapting
a "surfing attitude" on composing "let's try that" and "what-if".
How much memory does it need?
Suggested memory requirement for the SCOM Windows release on the
current Windows operating system is 512 MB RAM and 200 MB hard disk
space.
Is it easy to learn?
With mind open to programming, Symbolic Composer helps you develop a
new relationship with your music and understand more about the way its
elements connect and interact. You will find SCOM suddenly gives you
enormously powerful system ready to explore very complex scores. No
matter what style or direction your music takes, Symbolic Composer lets
you handle that.
Don't panic while browsing the huge function library. Nobody has used
all the SCOM functions (not even the developers). Every composer who
works with the system tends to
use a small subset that reflect his/hers personal ways of composing.
As a sequencer-user you are already familiar with complex editing
routines and organisation of your compositional material. Symbolic
Composer pushes these concepts further giving you a programming
environment for music composition. Your scores are written in text
within an editor window. This text is then evaluated and turned into a
MIDI file.
If you have a mind of a programmer you can make it. Composing is an art
form that has n-dimensional mental creation space. It is not possible
to
reduce it to a simple formula, or you end up with Band In A
Box-functionality. SCOM goes to the other direction and provides a rich
music language with maximum of freedom for consructioning musical
structures.
What is the best way to learn it?
The best way to learn it is an open attitude and making lots of
experimentations. Like an instrument it does not open up just by
reading a book. The program ships with lots of example scores, a
Tutorial and full documentation with all the aspects of the language,
that
speed up initial learning period.
How to turn the score into MIDI?
On
the Contributed Projects folders you will find plenty of
scores to
compile and modify immediately without prior knowledge on music
programming, and the Tutorial will show you how to put together your
first own composition, too.
 To
operate Symbolic Composer you'll:
(1) Open the score file.
(2) Press E-B button to compile the score into a
MIDI file - check out the blazing-fast execution of expressions in the
SCOM Output Window.
(3) Click the Output folder on the Start bar (we
suggest you should at that) and double-click the MIDI file for load-up
into your sequencer, notation software or software synthesizer for
playback and further assemblage.
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