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# BooBoo Music Language

Here is the documentation of the MML syntax:

Special definitions start with a @. Everything else belongs in a channel and every channel needs a name from A to Z which should be the first thing on the line unless it's @ or a blank line.

Note: envelopes split the note into segments depending on the number of elements in the envelope. If you have 2 elements in the envelope, each value applies to half the note, for 3 it's a third and so on.

## Effects

### @S

    	Define a sample
    	@S0 = { example.flac }
    	@S1 = { another.flac }

### @VAS

    	Volume envelope (single note). The volumes are between 0 and 255.
    	The difference between this and @VAM is with @VAS, the volume shift is applied to each note
    	@VAS0 = { 32 0 } ; this will play notes at channel volume fading to 32 then to 0

### @VAM

    	Volume envelope (multi-note)
    	Similar to @VAS except the volume applies across the span of the @VAM elements instead of
    	applying for each note within the statements

### @VO

    	Volume offset envelope. Volumes in the envelope are offsets from current volume instead of
    	absolute volumes.

### @D

    	Dutycycle envelope. A duty cycle of 128 is a square wave and it can slide either way.
    	@D0 = { 128 32 } ; slides the duty cycle from channel to 128 to 32

### @PO

    	Pitch offset envelope. Slides the pitch by the specified number of Hz.
    	@PO0 = { 0 -256 0 } ; the first number is used to start the effect at an offset. Here it starts at note frequency
    			    plus 0 Hz and slides down 256 Hz then to 0 again

### @PN

    	Pitch to note envelope. Slides to pitch to the note. The number is an octave
    	@PN0 = { c4 c5 c4 c6 } ; Slides the pitch to C at different octaves

### @PA

    	Absolute pitch shift. The values are in Hz.

### @L

    	Panning (level) envelope. Panning values are specified as 0 to 255 with 0 being full left,
    	128 being center and 255 being full right

### @TMP

    	Tempo envelope. Tempos are listed in BPM.

### @H

    	Hybrid generator. It will use the sample defined after @H and the generator
    	defined with @TYPE to create a hybrid sample/waveform generator. e.g.
    	@H0 = { clap.wav }
    	A @H0 abcd @H0

### @R

    	Reverb
    	@R0 = { 5 0 1000 255 32 }
    	5 reverberations, 0 is the falloff interpolator explained with interpolators
    	falloff time in MS, start volume of reverb, end volume of reverb

## Notes and Other

Within a channel, there are many symbols you can use. This is an attempt to document all of them, hopefully I don't forget any this time...

### ;

    	is a comment, everything after one is ignored on that line.

### abcdefg

    	Notes

### r

    	Rest (silence)

### w

    	wait (continues the same note)

### .

    	After one of the above, a dot adds half the length of the note to the total length. Two dots adds
    	half plus quarter and so on.
    	All of these can be proceeded by a number that is the length of the note. E.g. a1 is a whole note.

### ^

    	a tie. This continues an identical note, like a wait.

### +

    	is a sharp e.g. a+

### -

    	is a flat

### l

    	Change the default note length. e.g., l16 makes it 16th notes

### t

    	change the tempo of the channel. e.g. t200 for 200 bpm

### o

    	set the octave e.g., o4

### >

    	down an octave

### <

    	up an octave

### @S

    	e.g., @S0 will use the sample defined as S0 to play the notes in this channel

### @ Envelopes and Reverb

    	To use any of the envelopes or reverb, you need to specify them on a section of notes in a channel.
    	E.g., A @R0 abcdfgcde @R0 abcd @R0 cadbd @R0 ; the first @R0 turns on Reverb channel 0, the next turns
    	it off and so on

### @TYPE

    	sets the generator type.
    	E.g., @TYPE0 sets the generator to a pulse wave (default duty cycle is 128 on a pulse wave.)
    	The types are:
    		0 - pulse
    		1 - noise type 1
    		2 - sawtooth
    		3 - sine
    		4 - triangle
    		5 - noise type 2

### @CV

    	Volume curve interpolator setting. This is for @VAS etc which slide the volume.
    	The following list of interpolators applies to all envelopes where the type
    	of curve can be specified, like pitch envelopes, reverb etc...
    		0 - linear
    		1 - hermite
    		2 - slow fade
    		3 - sine
    		4 - pulse

### @CP

    	Same as @CV but for pitch

### @CD

    	Same as @CV but for dutycycle

### @RT

    	this can change phase reset for pitch envelopes
    	For example if you had @PO0 = { 0 -16 0 16 0 } it will reset the phase of
    	the note between each segment of the envelope which can cause a little
    	crackle. If you set it to @RT4 (maybe with @CP1) it will play through
    	it smoothly without resetting the phase. If you set @RT2 it will reset it halfway through.

Each generator can have buzz added to the waveform it generates. It's basically a hack at this point... If you had a pulse wave in a channel then added sine wave buzz you can imagine the wave being square with a slight (or big) sine at each level.

### @BF

    	buzz frequency. It's actually the number of phases of buzz per phase of the note
    		so @BF7 would have 7 phases of buzz on the note

### @BV

    	buzz volume (0 to 255)

### @BTYPE

    	buzz type. Same as @TYPE

### @F

    	Fade boolean. I think turning this off might introduce some clicks

### v

    	Channel volume, 0 to 255 e.g. v255

### m

    	mix volume 0 to 255

### y

    	Change dutycycle of channel. Applies only to @TYPE0 (pulse.)

### s

    	toggle sample stretching or not. By default (s0) samples are played back without stretching to note length

### L

    	Set the pan of the track (0-255, 128 is center)

## PetiteMM

PetiteMM is a great tool which can convert MIDI to MML. You will need to hand edit a bit, like described next but also to add your effects, samples, etc.

PetiteMM spits out a single tempo line, play_mml expects a tempo line per channel. Every line that PetiteMM spits out should be prefixed by A, B, C... etc. (first, second, third channel...) Luckily PetiteMM separates each channel with a semicolon. Prefixing everything with a channel and copying the tempo to each channel is the main thing, after that, you can add any effects.

PetiteMM GitHub: https://github.com/loveemu/PetiteMM