MUSIC-N Note Lists

Note lists are the means by which score data is input to the MUSIC-N family of digital sound synthesis packages.

A note list is a text file. Each note list is a sequence of statements. For some packages, statements come one to a line; for others, statements are semicolon-delimited. Every statement begins with an opcode, which identifies the statement type. For example, the MUSIC-V opcodes include “NOTE”, for a statement describing a note and “END” for an end-of-score statement.

After the opcode comes a series of parameters. The first few parameters of a note statement have fixed purposes; these specify things like the start time, duration, and instrument number. After the fixed-purpose parameters comes any number of parameters whose purposes are defined by the instrument.