 | ||
Music Macro Language (MML) is a music description language used in sequencing music on computer and video game systems.
Contents
- History
- Background
- Classical MML
- Syntax
- Example
- Modern MML
- Example 1
- Example 2
- Example 3
- Example 4
- Standard Musical Expression SMX
- Languages platforms and software
- References
MML is sometimes known as Music Markup Language, by conflation with the XML musical notation markup language of that name. For instance, what the video game Mabinogi refers to as "Music Markup Language" is actually a typical implementation of Music Macro Language.
History
The history of MML is related to the history of computing hardware.
Background
Early automatic music generation functions were used in arcade games, which used many computer sounds. An example of an early popular Arcade game with music is The Circus from Exidy Corporation in 1977.
The boom in Japanese video games was heralded in 1978 by the appearance in Japanese game centers (Amusement arcades) of Space Invaders by TAITO Corporation. The Yellow Magic Orchestra used more sampling music motif in their games. Their sound has been reproduced on Moog synthesizers. Others were mostly played by acoustic instruments. The Circus and Space Invaders's music is both hard circuit music and sounds.
Many similar Space Invaders-style games were created. Melodic spinoffs are relevant to the development of MML, especially Melody part III, Space War PART III or the Music Invaders made by Sanritsu Electoric Corpolation in 1978.
The music was all proprietary (closed source). The 1978 release of the Programmable interval timer by Intel was significant. The Intel 8253 Mode 3 Square Wave generator was used for music, in the Kit computer MZ-40K(My computer Doctor (Maikon Hakase, マイコン博士/まいこんはかせ)) by SHARP Corporation, made in Japan at May 1978. Another Micro computer BASIC MASTER MB-6880(ja)BASIC Master (BASIC Master, ベーシックマスター) used a 5Bit D/A converter music automated reference signal. Also important was the development of a method to generate using BASIC software. The machine was assembled by Hitachi, Ltd. and made in Japan in September 1978.
The MZ-40K featured an open architecture and program sources.
Classical MML
The first commands for classical MML appeared in the internal architecture of the SP-1002 MONITOR IOCS and SP-5001 BASIC Operating Systems on the MZ-80K 8-bit computer. Made by SHARP Corporation at 1978 in Japan. It incorporated Intel 8253 hardware and memory mapped I/O. The sound-related BASIC Statements were MUSIC, TEMPO, and BEEP.
Syntax
Classical MML as used in BASIC is described here. "MML Commands" are supplied to the MUSIC statement. Notes are specified in a three-octave range. A song is a sequence of mono single tones.
"+" (or in some old code, "￣") indicates upper octave, "- " (or in some old code, "＿") indicates the lower octave. The characters "CDEFGAB" correspond to a scale ("Doremi Faso Lassi"). A semitone is indicated by following the note with a '#' character. The note names are followed by a tone length, indicated by a number from 0-9. Similarly, R indicates a rest, and is also followed by a number from 0-9 indicating length. Sound length Internal value × TEMPO values.Tone length Demisemiquaver is 0(SP-1002 Internal value is 1)- Whole note is 9(SP-1002 Internal value is 32). Music played on Call to $0030 SP-1002 IOCS program routine.
Statements TEMPO n is 1-9, the slowest 1.TEMPO 4 is similar T=120.
Example
Below is the popular Japanese song "tōryanse" written using MML in MZ-731 SHARP S-BASIC 1Z-007B (SP-5001 Upper compatible).
Modern MML
Modern MML originally appeared in Microsoft BASIC and was common in the early 1970s and 1980s on 8-bit and 16-bit era Japanese personal computers. The NEC PC-6001 included Microsoft BASIC and the Programmable Sound Generator in 1981. The MML was especially popular on NEC's personal computers, such as the NEC PC-8801. With the 2001 release of the mck (Music Creation Kit) software for compiling MML to play music on the Nintendo Entertainment System, awareness and use of MML increased. MML is presently popular among Japanese electronic musicians and musicians who create chiptunes as a way to write music for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Syntax
Modern MML originated as a sub-language of BASIC, then generally included in ROM on micro-computers. A PLAY statement uses an argument to define a string of tones that the sound-chip played. MML code has a simple text format whereby letters and numbers are used to describe the musical notes to be played. In addition, various implementations of MML add system extensions allowing parameters of audio synthesis to be altered with specialized commands or to simplify the entry of common musical figures such as arpeggios.
Though many platforms feature custom extensions and letter case requirements and other minor syntactical features vary slightly in some implementations, the fundamental syntax rules, commands and features that define MML and are present in whole or in part in all implementations are as follows:
cdefgab — The letters a to g correspond to the musical pitches and cause the corresponding note to be played. Sharp notes are produced by appending a + or #, and flat notes by appending a -. The length of a note is specified by appending a number representing its length as a fraction of a whole note — for example, c8 represents a C eighth note, and f+2 an F♯ half note.p — A pause or rest. Sometimes also r, although the original IBM and Microsoft BASIC used p, as do all clones (e.g. the Linux and BSD speaker devices). The length of the rest is specified in the same manner as the length of a note — for example, r1 produces a whole rest.o — Followed by a number, o selects the octave the instrument will play in.>, < — Used to step up or down one octave.l — Followed by a number, specifies the default length used by notes or rests which do not explicitly define one. For example, l8 g a b g l16 g a b g produces a series of four eighth notes followed by a series of four sixteenth notes.v — Followed by a number, sets the volume of the instrument. The range of values allowed is dependent upon the specific sound hardware being used. Some implementations also allow an ADSR envelope to be applied to the amplitude of each note.t — Followed by a number, sets the tempo in beats per minute. On hardware with more than one sound channel, it is often possible to set each channel to a different tempo.In addition to these, most implementations add their own keywords and symbols for system-specific enhancements or extensions.
Example 1
This example can be played using mml2mp3, a Web-based MML to MIDI / MP3 conversion system.
#timebase 480#title "The M.GAKKOU KOUKA"#copyright "Music Composed by Kenkichi Motoi 2009 Wikimedia version 2012"A t160A o3l4 V12A @1 ed8ce8 gg8er8 aa8>c<a8 g2rA aa8ga8 >cc8d<r8 ee8de8 c2rA dd8dd8 dd8dr8 ed8ef8 g2rA aa8ga8 >cc8<ar8 >dc8de8 d2<rA >ee8dc8< ab8>cc8< gg8ea8 g2rA >cc8<ge8 cd8ea8 gg8de8 c2rExample 2
This was originally compiled on a Sharp PC-E500S Pocket computer using Ryu. T. Kobayashi's PLAY3. After the NEC PC-9801 freeware games BGM Arranged,Appear the MML2MID MIDI version to Vecotor.co.jp(ja).
#title "bottakuri-shouten(ORIGINAL)PLAY3->PMD->MIDI"#copyright "Music Composed by Kenkichi Motoi 1997 Wikimedia version 2012"#timebase 48$g k100$h k100T C12 BT4,4 t150T EX x41,x10,x42,x12,{x40,0,x7f,0},xf7 r48 ; GS-RESETT EX x41,x10,x42,x12,{x40,1,x39,6},xf7 ; GS-Chorus #6G C1H C2I C3GHI r8 H0,0@45 r8 o3 l8 ; Melody 1G p64 v110H p80 v60I p32 v60H <I >G [rrrr rrrr rrrr rrrrHI [cgcg cgcg cgcg cgcgG rrrr rrrr rrrr rrrrHI cgcg cgcg cgcg >c<cegG >e<rrr rr>ef< rrrr >d<rrrHI >e<gcg cg>ef< dada >d<g+c+g+G >e<rrr rrrr rrrr rrrr >e<rrrHI >e<gcg cgcg cgcg >c<gcg >e<gcgG rr>ef< rrrr >d<rrr >e<rrrHI cg>ef< dada >d<g+c+g+ >e<gcgG rrrr rrrr rrrr brrrHI cgcg cgcg >c<gcg b<b>d<b>G rrbg+ rarb r>crd erfrHI d<b>bg+ <d>a<d+>b <f+>>c<<g>>d e<e>f<f>G erd+HI e<e>d+GHI k32,2[d32]24G $gHI $hG <ab>c c+<rrrHI <ab>c c+<c+c+c+G rb>cc+ d<rrr r>def gHI c+b>cc+ d<ddd d>def gGHI H0,0 @44H <I >GHI <<gb>cGHI gfed fedc edc<bGHI l16abababab abababab gagagaga gagagagaGHI g2GHI r8H >I <GHI @45GHI l8>gab]2GHI k110,-5,0G rrrr rrrr rrrr rrrrHI cgcg cgcg cgcg cgcgG rrrr rrrr rrrr rrrrHI cgcg cgcg cgcg >c<cegExample 3
Now an example for “Modern MML”: “Alle meine Entchen”, a popular German beginner/children's tune.
o2l4t120 cdefg2g2 aaaag2 aaaag2 ffffe2e2 ddddc1Example 4
This example (under The MirOS Licence) can be played, and converted to MusicXML, by MMLlib. Individual tracks can also be output to /dev/speaker on BSD. The extended file format is, besides comment lines: one track per line; an empty line is like a line wrap in a score, any subsequent lines are appended to the previous tracks. Bars are used for synchronisation (not strictly necessary in MML but for Floppi-Music) and for MusicXML export.
Standard Musical Expression (SMX)
SMX is similar to modern MML. In SMX, note length is specified via an L command (e.g. L4) rather than by writing a number after the note. This code was used by QBasic's PLAY command.
Languages, platforms and software
PLAY statement which takes a string argument in the SMX format. The name "Music Macro Language" may originate with GW-BASIC, which provided a facility "to play music by embedding a music macro language into the string data type." The SBasic compiler from the German magazine DOS Extra, produced by DMV Widuch, offers the same PLAY command, and a few-line BASIC programme could be compiled into a small (few KiB) tool to play any MML files (often called *.PLY) given on the command line.PLAY statement, as did several other implementations of BASIC produced or sold by NEC.