FAQ 930127: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to MusicTeX and MuTeX ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: This is a bare bones beginning of what will constitute a more substantial "Frequently Asked Questions" for MuTeX and MusicTeX. Please mail your contributions to this to "mutex@stolaf.edu" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 What is MuTeX? 02 Where can I get MuTeX and MusicTeX? 03 Where are the archives of MuTeX mailing list? 04 With MusicTeX I get notes and beams, but they are badly aligned, beams and slurs are offset to the right etc. 05 I obtained easily the .TEX files but the .PK and .TFM are wrong. 06 There is no documentation with MusicTeX. 07 I run MusicTeX on SUNOS (or some other big computer) but I have memory problems with MSDOS 08 Where's the glue? it's not clear to me when to use or not use \temps or just what it really does. 09 When and why do you really need to put \relax at the end of a line? 10 What are the advantages or disadvantages of using ^ instead of \sh? Is one more flexible, or is it just a matter of typing style? 11 How can I put something somewhere in the MusicTeX staffs. 12 I cannot print notice.tex with american paper. 13 How can I make triplets? 14 How can I offset vertically the rests, in order to avoid collision with beams or other notes in polyphonic music: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This FAQ list is kept up to date by the contributions of the members of the mutex mailing list. To participate in mutex and musictex discussions, you can subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) the "mutex" mailing list at the address: mutex-request@stolaf.edu To send a question to the entire membership of the mutex mailing list, use the address: mutex@stolaf.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 What is MuTeX? The MuTeX package is a set of macros allowing TeX to typeset music. It was written by Andrea Steinbach and Angelika Schofer, as a master's thesis at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University. MuTeX allows you to typeset single-staff music and lyrics. 01 What is MusicTeX? Another powerful package which allows the typesetting of orchestral and polifonic music is MusicTeX, written by Daniel Taupin. The main difference between MuTeX and MusicTeX is that - MusicTeX deals with multiple staves (staffs?) - MuTeX produces a nicer output. The reason that MuteX produces nicer output seems to be that it can handle only single-staff music and therefore can easier put glue between the notes. A second reason is that it makes "real" slurs and not some sort of rotated brackets (braces, ...). But MusicTeX is getting better and better because Daniel Taupin maintains it whilst nearly nobody continues the development of MuTeX ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 02 Where can I get MuTeX and MusicTeX? Most up to date version of musictex: rsovax.ups.circe.fr directory [anonymous.musictex] Different versions of MuTeX and MusicTeX are available from many other sites, including: ftp.stolaf.edu /pub/mutex/MuTeX.tar.Z ftp.stolaf.edu /pub/mutex/MuTeX_doc.tar.Z ftp.gmd.de /music/mutex/mutex.zip ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au /pub/tex/MuTeX.tar.Z clouso.crim.ca /pub/MuTeX.tar.Z sol.cs.ruu.nl /pub/TEX/mtex.tar.Z MusicTeX ftp.stolaf.edu /pub/mutex/musictex-4.31.tar.Z ftp.gmd.de /music/musictex/musictex.zip /music/musictex/musictex-nnn.tar.Z alfred.ccs.carleton.ca /pub/tex/MusicTeX.tar.Z aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de /tex/musictex.tar.Z bach.cs.umb.edu /pub/tex/musictex.tar.Z cs.dal.ca /pub/comp.archives/musictex emx.utexas.edu /pub/mnt/source/tex/musictex.tar.Z forwiss.uni-passau.de /pub/tex/macros/musictex.tar.Z iraun1.ira.uka.de /tex/musictex.tar.Z kth.se /tex/umb/musictex.tar.Z wraith.cs.uow.edu.au /cache/ftp.cs.umb.edu/pub/tex/musictex.tar.Z qed.rice.edu /pub/musictex.tar.Z sol.cs.ruu.nl /TEX/musictex.tar.Z srawgw.sra.co.jp /.a/sranha/arch/arch/comp.archives/musictex srawgw.sra.co.jp /.a/sranha/arch/arch/comp.archives/music/notation/musictex Other Related Stuff arisia.xerox.com /pub/musictexdemo.PS athene.uni-paderborn.de /pcsoft/amiga/tex/fonts/musictex.lzh nz20.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de /pub/pctex/texutl/macros/musictex.lzh ftp.gmd.de /music/midi2tex/... midi to MusicTeX For those without FTP access, you can e-mail to: mail-server@cs.ruu.nl TEX/musictex.tar.Z or (Submitted by: dgold@basso.actrix.gen.nz (Dale Gold)) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 03 Where are the archives of the MuTeX mailing list? Archives for the MuTeX mailing list are available via anonymous FTP from: ftp.stolaf.edu:/pub/mutex/archive (actual size: 0.5 MB!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04 With MusicTeX I get notes and beams, but they are badly aligned, beams and slurs are offset to the right etc. Remove all unnecessary spaces, i.e. ALL (all, not most of them) spaces which do not follow a TeX or MusicTeX control sequence. E.g.: do not write \qu h | \ibu0i3 \qu b \qu c \enotes but \qu h|\ibu0i3\qu b\qu c\enotes \relax at the end of each line not ending with \enotes Answer thanks to TAUPIN@FRUPS51.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 05 I obtained easily the .TEX files but the .PK and .TFM are wrong. You probably forgot to say BINARY to your ftp before GETting the binary files. As a rule the .TEX and .STY are ASCII, as well as the .MF. But the .PK, .ZIP, .TFM and (for VMS) .BCK files must be transferred in BINARY Answer thanks to TAUPIN@FRUPS51.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 06 There is no documentation with MusicTeX. There is one, named musicdoc.tex. You may process it by plain TeX after installing the tfm-files from the distribution. The result is musicdoc.dvi -- which is in the distribution, too. Print it with you favourite dvi-driver. If you do not have all fonts, put dummy ones and read the text. It will not be beautiful, but still informative... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 07 I run MusicTeX on SUNOS (or some other big computer) but I have memory problems with MSDOS Two solutions: a) insert compulsory line breaks (\alaligne) and page breaks (\alapage) b) use Eberhardt Mattes's bigtex (btex286) (or the beta-test version of tex386 if you have at least a 386-machine) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 08 Where's the glue? it's not clear to me when to use or not use \temps or just what it really does. Glue occurs each time you say \barre or \temps or \alaligne or \alapage \temps is used to put glue between groups of notes. You can disable it and look how ugly it looks... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 09 When and why do you really need to put \relax at the end of a line? Put \relax at end of lines whenever the last item is not a control sequence. Because in this case the spaces are swallowed by TeX as a final part of the control sequence. Thus I use \relax when I need a control sequence to swallow end of line spaces (and new line code). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 What are the advantages or disadvantages of using ^ instead of \sh? Is one more flexible, or is it just a matter of typing style? The ^ is used within collective coding, \sh is used outside. You may write \sh k\qu k or \qu$^k ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 How can I put something somewhere in the MusicTeX staffs. Read the musicdoc and use \zcharnote\244\207\244\207 If you want it spacing use \charnote\244...\207\244...\207 Within those macros you can put anything, including maths below, in the middle of, above the staffs. To be used inside tne \notes....\enotes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 I cannot print notice.tex with american paper. don't print it :-) you have an old version. New versions of MusicTeX contain musicdoc.dvi a LaTeX-document which fits on american paper. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 How can I make triplets? It's already in musictex.tex, but without the `slur' you wanted. \xtuplet is the routine that puts a number under your beam, and the line: \def\triolet{\xtuplet3}% will provide you with a number under or over your beam and it could be adapted for sextuplets or anything else. This will make you a nice triplet: \Notes\ibl0j0\triolet M\qb0{jk}\tbl0\qb0j\enotes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 How can I offset vertically the rests, in order to avoid collision with beams or other notes in polyphonic music: Write \raise \internote\ds or \raise \internote\soupir All rests are \hbox-es, so you can prefix them with \raise The (or \internote or \Interligne) can be negative. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------