\pard\tx960\tx1920\tx2880\tx3840\tx4800\tx5760\tx6720\tx7680\tx8640\tx9600\f0\b0\i0\ul0\fs28 Q: What music software is there for NeXT Computers?\
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A: NeXT Computers are an ideal music platform with their built-in CD-quality sound and DSP sound synthesis. Several companies have announced music software for the NeXT, but none is shipping as of January 1991. Coda has been working on MusicProse, a notation program. The NeXT version supports playing of scores on the DSP. Imagine has announced First Chair, a MIDI and audio sequencer that include SMPTE synchronization and multimedia capabilities. World Class Software is developing a program called Songwriter's Toolbox, which is a training, analysis, and production environment for composing songs in a variety of contemporary musical styles. See the Fall 1990 Software and Peripherals Catalog for more details on these programs.\
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NeXT bundles a great deal of music-related software in 1.0 and in 2.0 Extended, though most of it is not music applications
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\i0 . The Music Kit
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\f0\fs28 is an extensive development tool for programmers; see the NeXT documentation. There are some bundled music demos that can be used by non-programmers, such as ScorePlayer, which can be launched by double-clicking the scorefiles in /NextLibrary/Music/Scores, or the demo program /NextDeveloper/Demos/Ensemble. (Ensemble is new in 2.0, replacing Synthesizer.) Ensemble combines MIDI in and out with DSP synthesis, soundfile playback, real-time algorithmic composition, interactive note processing, and more. See its on-line help for details. \
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In the /NextDeveloper/Examples directory, the MusicKit, MidiDriver, Sound, and SoundEditor subdirectories contain programs that are runnable by anyone who knows enough Unix to change directories and compile in a shell window. The source for Ensemble is included in the MusicKit examples directory. (Suggestion: copy anything in /NextDeveloper to your home directory before compiling or editing. Also see NextAnswers sound.350.) \
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Some public-domain software is available on the Internet archive servers. Looching is a program that plays continuous background music on the DSP. Programmers at NeXT created the Lisp Scorefile Package, a Lisp front end for generating Music Kit scorefiles, and RecordApp, a program for sound recording. (See NextAnswers misc.227 for instructions on obtaining software from archive servers.)\
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Also available for programmers are some environments for software (non-real-time) sound synthesis and soundfile processing, mostly ported from other Unix platforms. Some also do real-time DSP synthesis. Generally these are available with source for a nominal fee or free of charge. CSound was created at M.I.T. and was given a NeXT front end by Pete Yadlowsky (pmy@virginia.edu). F. Richard Moore at U. C. San Diego (frm@sdcarl.ucsd.edu) has ported cmusic, a software synthesis language, and pvoc, a phase vocoder (for sophisticated analysis and resynthesis of recorded sound). Paul Lansky at Princeton ported cmix, a program for soundfile processing. John Rahn at the University of Washington (jrahn@blake.washington.edu) has a Lisp kernel for music composition. \
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At Stanford University, Heinrich Taube (hkt@ccrma.stanford.edu) has created Common Music, a compositional environment based on the Common Lisp Object System; it creates scorefiles, soundfiles, and DSP synthesis using the Music Kit. Bill Schottstaedt (bil@ccrma.stanford.edu) is developing a Lisp-based software synthesis language that uses the DSP for acceleration rather than real-time synthesis. Perry Cook has written SPASM, an interactive vocal synthesis application, and ResonatorLab, a real-time digital filter tool, both of which can be used by non-programmers. Glen Diener is developing a music notation program. \
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At Northwestern University, Bill Parod has created a NeXT application for exploring tuning systems. \
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IRCAM in Paris is creating a software environment for real-time music synthesis and performance using a signal-processing board based on the i860. The board is under development at IRCAM and will be produced by Ariel. Ariel is now shipping another board with five DSP56001's, called the QuintProcessor. In a future release of the NeXT software, the Music Kit will talk transparently to QuintProcessors, providing a powerful real-time synthesis engine. Schottstaedt's Lisp synthesis software also will make use of any QuintProcessor that is installed.\
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There is an extension to TeX for music notation called MuTeX. See NextAnswer misc.390 for ftp sites that have MuTeX. We are told this works with the NeXT version of TeX, but that it doesn't include 92dpi screen fonts, so you have to print the scores on your printer to see the notation. Presumably someone could use TeX's companion program METAFONT, also bundled on NeXT's 2.0 Extended software release, to create a 92dpi screen font from the provided MuTeX fonts.\
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Note that there are non-NeXTstep programs available for other platforms that should run on NeXT computers under SoftPC or X. For example, SCORE is a powerful music notation program for the IBM PC, and there are some public-domain sound tools that run under X windows.\
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QA571\
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Valid for 1.0\
Valid for 2.0\
(Some of the software mentioned may not work under both releases.)\
