athenaCL Information

Interface Features

Advanced, easy to use, interactive command line: enter commands with arguments, or just enter the command and athenaCL will prompt the user for all necessary data.

Command history logging, and executable command history.

Graphical displays in EPS (convertible to PDF), Tk GUI, PNG, and JPEG formats, providing Texture arrangement views, Path voice leadings, and Texture parameter event graphs.

Interactive help for every command. Complete HTML / PDF tutorials and reference documentation.

Algorithmic System

Rapid creation of polyphonic event list structures. Theses event lists can be composed for GeneralMidi or as Csound scores using a built in library of internal instruments. Output formats include scores for internal or external Csound instruments, MIDI files, text-based output formats, and support for alternative algorithmic composition systems including Paul Berg's AC Toolbox and Michael Goggins' Silence.

Over sixty integrated Csound instruments, all with default values and documentation.

Combine any number of musical parts or Textures, controlling tempo, pitch, rhythm, amplitude, panning, and instrument-dependent parameters with modular customizable ParameterObjects. Over sixty specialized Generator, Rhythm, and Filter ParameterObjects provide tools for stochastic, chaotic, cellular automata based, markov based, wave-form, fractional noise (1/f), genetic, Xenakis sieve, linear and exponential break-point segments, masks, and various other algorithmic models. ParameterObjects can be embedded in other ParameterObjects to provide powerful dynamic and masked value generation.

Control panning as a standard parameter in mono, stereo, or (with Csound) quadraphonic space.

Control pitch data with Paths: reusable, partitioned pitch collections. Paths can be specified as Xenakis sieves, set classes, microtonally specified pitch collections, or through spectral analysis files from the audio editor Audacity. Further shape pitches within Textures with algorithmic Temperament objects.

Analytic System

Pitch set class dictionary containing all 351 sets (all Tn types from the singleton to the dodecachord) and capable of quickly converting any pitch set, Forte number, or Xenakis sieve to normal-form.

Access to all Tn and all TnI subset vectors, Forte interval-vectors, and Morris invariance vectors for all sets.

Over twenty set class similarity measures, including John Rahn's ATMEMB and David Lewin's REL.

Voice leading analysis and ranking with Joseph N. Straus's Smoothness, Uniformity, and Balance measures. Ability to sort and store numerous voice leadings of the same Path, select maps by rank or map, and display images of vertical voice-leading mappings.

Development & Code

As an open source (GPL) project, athenaCL development is conducted at SourceForge, allowing, among other things, anonymous CVS access to the current source code.

athenaCL at SourceForge
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Supporting Software Links

Both Python and Csound are free and run on every platform. athenaCL requires Python 2.3 or better. To render Csound scores as audio files, Csound 5 is recommended, Csound 4.16 or better is required.

Download Python

Python
Python Downloads
Python Documentation

Download Csound

Csound
Csound Downloads
Csound Reference Manual