beefdown

A markdown-driven MIDI sequencer.

Sequences

This file is a sequence. Run it with:

go run . README.md

Code blocks with beef prefixed language identifiers are used to specify musical information.

See docs/controls.md for application controls.

Sequence

Sequence blocks contain global configuration.

```beef.sequence
bpm:150
loop:true
sync:none
```

See docs/sync.md for more info on the sync setting.

Parts

Parts are collections of notes.

```beef.part name:a
c4:8

a2:6

d3:4



```

Each line represents a beat.

c4:1 would play c4 for 1 beat.

c4:1
|| |
|| +--- beats
|+--- octave
+--- note

Horizontal space is irrelevant. Do whatever makes the most sense to you visually.

```beef.part name:a'
c4:8      d3:8

     a2:6


               d5:3


```

By default parts are sent on channel 1. The next part will be sent on channel 2.

```beef.part name:b ch:2
c4:2
          c6:2


     c5:2
               c7:2


```

To omit off messages, don't include a beat value. You might want this for samplers or percussion instruments.

```beef.part name:hh-1 group:drums ch:16
gb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
```

You can change the length of each beat with div. Recognized values are 8th, 8th-triplet, 16th, and 32nd.

```beef.part name:hh-2 group:drums ch:16 div:8th
gb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
    bb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
    bb1
gb1
gb1
gb1
```

For parts with repeated lines, you can multiply them. The next part repeats gb1 24 times.

```beef.part name:hh-3 group:drums ch:16 div:8th-triplet
gb1 *24
```

```beef.part name:hh-4 group:drums ch:16 div:16th
gb1     *4
    bb1
gb1     *7
    bb1
gb1     *7
    bb1
gb1     *7
    bb1
gb1     *3
```

```beef.part name:ks-1 group:drums ch:16 div:8th
      *10
c1
c1
   d1
c1
```

```beef.part name:ks-2 group:drums ch:16
c1

   d1

c1

   d1

```

All notes are sent with a velocity of 100.

Parts also have basic chord support. Run examples/chords-ii-v-i.md to see how that works.

Arrangements

Arrangements are collections of parts.

```beef.arrangement name:kick-snare-hi-hat group:drums
ks-2 hh-1
ks-2 hh-2
ks-2 hh-3
ks-2 hh-4
```

You can also multiply arrangement steps!

```beef.arrangement name:all-the-parts group:last
ks-1 hh-1 a
ks-2 hh-1 a'   *2
ks-2 hh-2 a' b *2
ks-2 hh-3 a' b *2
ks-2 hh-4 a' b *2
```