Proper handling of chords

[hyperdriveguy]

Currently, Muse2pokecrystal will simply throw an error if any chords exist in the same channel. There are a couple alternative ways to handle this:

Algorithm 1: Ignore all notes that have the <chord/> element

Pros:

• Easy to implement

  Cons:

• Only the bottom notes of a chord lack the <chord/> element
  • This may not sound pleasing
  • May result in redundant notes depending upon input
  • Probably will delete the melody in most songs
• Just not as cool

  Algorithm 2: Ignore all notes that aren't the melody

  Pros:

• Sounds exactly as intended in many cases
• Not too complex an algorithm
• Ideal for channel 2

  Cons:

• Doesn't work as well for channels 1, 3, and 4
• Poor option for chords that are purely meant to harmonize

  Algorithm 3: Randomly choose a note from the chord

  Two different modes:

• One that excludes the top notes (user says it's the melody)
• One that includes the entire chord (all harmony)

  Pros:

• More variety in songs
• May work well for channels 1 and 3 (maybe 4?)
• Generally cool concept

  Cons:

• Doesn't always produce desirable result due to being, well, random
• Seeds will need to be saved if the output is to be reproduced (probably to a temporary file by default)
• Relatively complex

  Algorithm 4: Intelligent selection (Spanning across channels)

  Explanation:

  Note: I really dislike the idea of having to parse something spoopy like this. What will likely happen instead is there will still be a placeholder command and a separate chord list (at this point, likely a three dimensional one which is...not ideal) and an index that points to the placeholder. Pre-process the notes and commands adding placeholders for notes formatted like so: [[[list_index], [note, octave, length, tie_start_or_end], [note, octave, length, tie_start_or_end], ...], ...] For example: [[[4], ['A_', 4, 4, None], ['F#', 5, 8, 'start'], ...], ...] Apply algorithm 2 for channel 2 only. Apply algorithm 3 with weights based on what other notes exist in other channels. Prioritize unique notes. Apply algorithm 1 to channel 4. Don't use too many different seeds.

  Pros:

• It can take a lot of junk and output something decent
• Balanced and ideal mix of algorithms
• Handles every channel

  Cons:

• This thing is likely a hefty amount of complex code.
• Difficult to understand and implement correctly
• Three dimensional lists are realllly gross if supported at all (possible to work around)
• Tied notes are gonna be hard
• Might as well make a neural network

  Algorithm 5: Intelligent selection (single channel)

  Simple version of algorithm 4 without the wacky list.

  Pros:

• Fairly resilient
• Still pretty balanced
• Per channel handling

  Cons:

• Still a fairly complex algorithm
• Harder to weight values

I will try and see if I can implement an algorithm similar to algorithm 5. Ideally, the functionality of 4 should still be the target but it's a lot of work for very little gain.

[nephitejnf]

Yeah, 5 seems the simpler version of 4, while still trying to retain some of the 4 functionality.