modmark

Table of Contents

1. Modmark
   1. Current Status and Goals
   2. Purpose
   3. Syntax
      1. A Module File
      2. A Patch

Modmark

This repo encapsulates an attempt to develop a markup language for describing modular synth patches.

In future, this scope may be expanded to make available a language for describing arbitrary audio and data routing across a wide array of devices.

Current Status and Goals

This software is currently a prototype. Right now the "compiler" is a Perl script that translates a .modmark file into a flowchart via Graphviz.

A rough road map looks something like:

• [X] Prototype compiler in Perl
• Test and stabilize syntax/grammar
• Implement modmark as a source-to-source compiler in Racket ( "Real" implementation )
• Develop libraries for as many modules as possible

Purpose

In the past I've found it difficult to discuss discrete details of modular patches on the internet. This arises, I believe, from the large amount of effort and time it takes to describe the intricacies of a modular patch in long form plain English. This prototype language is an attempt to address that problem.

By specifying a concise syntax that favors brevity over absolute human-readability, the hope is to get more modular synth users to document their patches and enable more knowledge sharing across the community.

I know of one other attempt to solve this problem: https://github.com/SpektroAudio/Patchbook

My problem with Patchbook is that it still requires a lot of "boilerplate", in that you have to specify modules yourself. Modmark aims to offload this task by having the community describe modules in a Library format (.module files) that can then be imported. In this way, we can specify a module once and then not have to do that work again the next time we'd like to use it in a patch.

Syntax

A Module File

# A module spec
Manufacturer: MakeNoise
Module: Maths
Revision: null
- Input: Slew1
- Input: Slew2
- Input: Trig1
- Input: Trig2
- Input: Attenuveter1
-- Position: [1-12]
- Input: Attenuveter2
-- Position: [1-12]
- Input: Attenuveter3
-- Position: [1-12]
- Input: Attenuveter4
-- Position: [1-12]
- Input: Rise1
-- Position: [1-12]
- Input: Rise2
-- Position: [1-12]
- Input: Both1
- Input: Both2
- Input: Fall1
-- Position: [1-12]
- Input: Fall2
-- Position: [1-12]
- Input: Cycle1
- Input: Cycle2
- Knob: LogExp
-- Position: [1-12]
- Button: Cycle1
- Button: Cycle2
- Output: 1f
- Output: 1
- Output: 2
- Output: 3
- Output: 4
- Output: 4f
- Output: Or
- Output: Sum
- Output: Inv
-- Position: [1-3]

A Patch

See the below example of a "Hello World" type patch:

# A comment

# The title of the patch
Title: Foo

# The directory to look for module files
ModuleDir "/home/swatson/Repos/modmark/"

# Modules to use in this patch
import Module::Foobar::FooMod
import Module::MakeNoise::Maths

# Sets. These are used to indicate setting
# particular module attriubtes in accordance with
# the module definition
set Maths.Cycle1 = on
set Maths.Rise1.position = 7
set Maths.Fall1.position = 1
set Maths.LogExp.position = 5

# Connects. These are used to indicate data flow.
# Connects are always defined left to right. The
# below line connects the Function1 output of Maths
# to a FooInput on FooModule, as imported above
connect Maths.1f FooMod.FooInput