Glossary

This glossary defines terms used in this Help file and tutorials. For further information on music and musical terms we suggest you refer to one or more of these references.

Arranging: This term most frequently refers to the writing out of parts for the various instruments to play.

In a general sense it can also refer to the entire decision process leading to a musical performance.

Articulation: Articulation refers to the amount of time that a note actually plays relative to the amount of time ‘available’ for that note; in ArtSong this is expressed as a percent (%).

For example, a quarter note has a 240 tick duration but may actually only sound during 160 ticks. In this latter case, a series of quarter notes would be spaced 240 ticks apart even though each only sounds for 160 ticks.

Chord: A chord refers to a group of notes (usually more than 2) played at the same time. Chords are generally represented by alphabetical chord symbols which indicate chord root and type. The root is the note upon which the chord is build. The type is determined by the number of notes and the nature of the intervals between the root and the other notes.

The process of naming the notes indicated by a chord symbol is called ‘spelling’ the chord.

Chord Progression: A chord progression is a series of chords.

Chord Voicing: Chord voicing refers to how the individual notes that spell a chord are placed relative to one another. For example, a C Major Chord, spelled C E G, can be voiced in different ways: C5, E5, G5 or C5, G5, E6; the numeral represents octave.

Harmony: Harmony refers to the study of chord structures, chord progressions, and their interrelationships.

Instrumentation: The application of instruments to parts; related to Orchestration and Arranging.

Key Signature: The Key Signature refers to the sharps or flats placed at the beginning of a composition to denote the scale upon which the music is based.

Measure: A measure is a unit of musical organization consisting of a particular number of beats. The number of beats per measure and the note value which constitutes a beat are indicated in the Time Signature of the composition.

Meter: Meter is the regular pattern of accented and unaccented beats within a measure. Meter is indicated at the beginning of a composition by the Time Signature.

There are two ArtSong algorithms, Hierarchical Meter and Free Meter, that can be used to assign a ‘numerical’ value to each beat during the composition process.

Tracks use this value to generate a volume accent which modifies generated note volumes. Both ‘Accent’ and ‘Volume’ are Track composition variables.

Metric Threshold: The Metric Threshold value defines a numerical ‘Threshold’ (dividing line) used by composition engine to distinguish between ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ beats.

Several components have options that can be aligned to strong or weak beats. (A Meter algorithm is required).

The Metric Threshold value is set in the Composition Component or Composition Component Event editors.

Note: A note is a sound having a distinct pitch, volume, duration, and sound quality or timbre.

Note Duration: This term can refer to both the amount of time available for a note (i.e. classical note duration) or the amount of time the note actually sounds.

Classical note durations are used to indicate time signatures and note attack/duration quantisation. For most other purposes ArtSong uses a finer division called the tick; 240 ticks are defined to be equal to a quarter note.

Note Pitch: Pitch, related to sound frequency, refers to the relative highness or lowness of a sound.

Not every possible frequency in the audio frequency spectrum is used in Western music. Instead the audio frequency spectrum is divided into octaves, each of which are further subdivided into 12 half-step intervals. Only the notes at those intervals are named.

Octave: An octave is defined as the interval between a pitch of a particular frequency and that a twice the frequency. In Western music, each octave is subdivided into 12 intervals called half-steps. This series of notes, each one half-step apart, comprises the chromatic scale. The chromatic scale starting on C is spelled:

C, C# (Db), D, D# (Eb), E, F, F#(Gb), G, G# (Ab), A, A# (Bb), B

The note names in parentheses are alternative spellings. In ArtSong, a numeric octave designation is appended to the alphabetical note name to identify specific note names; a specific note can then be equated to a MIDI note (pitch) value. Middle C is C5, or MIDI pitch 60; MIDI pitch 0 is C0

Orchestration: Orchestration is the process of deciding which instrument, set of instruments, or sound is used to play particular parts or sections of music. See Instrumentation.

Part: The term part refers, in ArtSong, to the series or set of notes that would be played by one instrument or voice.

Pattern: A Pattern, in ArtSong, is a group of notes having some ‘fixed’ pre-defined pitch-interval and duration relationship. There are several algorithms that allow you to define patterns which can then be applied over and over.

ArtSong Patterns can also refer to the pattern-component event data that has been saved to ArtSong’s Pattern Repository.

Preset: ArtSong component Presets consists of an individual component’s initial setup properties any component event data.

Presets can be saved to ArtSong’s Preset Repository for any component.

Quantisation: Quantisation refers to both he process and result of forcing event start times or durations to whole number multiples of some base value (the quantisation value); usually one of the classical note durations.

Rhythm: Rhythm refers to the pattern(s) of the sounds in time.

Scale: A scale can be broadly defined as any serially ordered subset of notes in an octave. The root of the scale is the 1st note, e.g., D is the root of the following scale:

D E F# G A B C#

When a scale is moved to a new root (transposed) the intervals in half-steps between adjacent notes remains constant.

Sequence: Sequences are essentially time-ordered lists of notes.

Style: A musical style refers to a type of music having distinguishing characteristic rhythm, harmonies, instrumentation, etc., such as rock & roll, funk, jazz, etc.

Tempo: Tempo refers to the rate at which beats occur in time.

Tick: MIDI sequencers typically measure musical time in smaller units, called ticks, to provide a higher resolution for note positions and durations than provided by the classical note durations.

ArtSong uses a basic 240 ticks per standard quarter note.

Timbre: Timbre refers to those aspects of a sound that allow us to distinguish one instrument from another, i.e. distinguish a piano from a trumpet, etc.

Time Signature: The time signature defines what classical note duration is considered a ‘beat’ and how many beats are in a measure.

Voice: A voice generally refers to the series of notes played by a particular instrument.