llamatron

llamatron is a tracker for the terminal: a composing environment where songs are built from shared patterns, scales and generators, arranged in scenes, and played. It plays in real time through MIDI hardware, software synthesizers or a DAW, or through FluidSynth with no setup at all, and exports to Ableton Live sets, MIDI files and WAV audio, so that a song can be finished in any DAW.

A file holds a set of songs, like the songs of one concert. The patterns, scales, generators, chains, grooves and instruments belong to the set, and every song shares them; each song has its own tempo, scale, seed, groove, tracks, registers and scenes.

Intro

Why llamatron

Page	What it covers
Why llamatron	What llamatron takes from Ableton Live, the Cirklon and the Monomachine, and where it goes its own way.

Installing

Page	What it covers
Installing	Installing llamatron, and why and when to install FluidSynth.
FluidSynth	The software synthesizer that plays every demo with no setup: installing it, and how the tracker uses it.
Recording	What recording videos needs installed and set up: BlackHole, a Multi-Output Device, permissions and Xcode's tools.

Getting Started

Page	What it covers
Getting Started	Starting llamatron, the layout of every screen, keyboard control, opening and saving, and a first song.

Concepts

Page	What it covers
Concepts	The ideas that join the pages: audio, chord progressions, shaping sections, randomness, hockets, performing, recording and exporting.

Demo Songs

▶ See every demo song: each example set, what it plays, how long it lasts and which features it shows, with videos to watch. Every demo plays as it comes through FluidSynth: open one, press A for Arrange, move to the top left corner and press Space.

Page	What it covers
About Demos	Opening and playing the example sets, and the pages that describe them.
Listening to the Demos	Every demo as a WAV file, made and played with no synthesizer.
Tutorial Demos	The learning demos, in the order to learn them.
Blues	The blues demo songs.
Children's	The children's demo songs.
Classical	The classical demo songs.
Electronic	The electronic demo songs.
Exercise	The exercise demo songs.
Folk	The folk demo songs.
Gospel	The gospel demo songs.
Pop	The pop demo songs.
Ragtime	The ragtime demo songs.
Rock	The rock demo songs.
Soundtrack	The soundtrack demo songs.
TV Theme	The TV theme demo songs.
Video Game	The video game demo songs.
World	The world demo songs.
Other	The demos in examples/other/, which fit no other folder.

Objects

Each object of a set has a page in the tracker and a page here, with its settings and keys; F1 on any page of the tracker lists its keys too.

Object	Key on the main screen	Page
Sets and songs	F, S	Object Model
Patterns	P	Patterns
Scenes	A, then a scene's name	Scenes
Tracks	A, then a track's name	Tracks
Instruments	I	Instruments
The arrangement	A	Arrange
Clips	A, then a clip	Clips
Scales	Z	Scales
Registers	R	Registers
Chains	C	Chains
Grooves	V	Grooves

Generators

A generator changes how a clip's notes are played, without changing its pattern. The overview describes what every generator shares, and each generator has a page of its own, grouped by what it changes.

What it covers	Page
What generators are, and what they share	Generators

Arrangement

What it does	Page
A melody dealt out among tracks	Hocket

Articulation

What it does	Page
Notes sliding into the next	Glide
Notes played short on chosen steps	Shorten

Chords

What it does	Page
A chord played one note at a time	Arpeggiator
Chords and notes played as a guitar plays them	Guitarify
A figure moved through chords	Progression
Chords spread in time like a pick	Strum
Chords voiced nearest the chord before	Voice Leading

Rhythm

What it does	Page
Notes chopped into quick repeats	AutoRatchet
Only the notes on a Euclidean rhythm	Euclid

Timing

What it does	Page
Notes pushed late	Drag
Notes pushed early	Rush

Transitions

What it does	Page
How long notes sound, ramping over a section	Articulate
How many notes play, ramping over a section	Density
One slow change over the whole song	Drift
How loud notes play, ramping over a section	Swell

File Operations

Page	What it covers
Exporting	Every kind of export: Ableton Live sets, MIDI files and WAV audio, from the tracker and the command line.
Importing	A MIDI file made into a new song of the set.

MIDI & Performance

Page	What it covers
MIDI Setup	Playing into a synthesizer or Ableton Live on a Mac, and what to do when nothing sounds.
Playing Live	Real-time playback, launching scenes and clips, and live editing.
Visualizers	Moving pictures drawn from the notes as a song plays.

Advanced

Page	What it covers
User Scripts	Every script in user_scripts/, by category, with an example of running each and its parameters.
Recording	Videos of a set playing, by itself or performed, one at a time or every demo in a batch.
Architecture	How the code is put together, for anyone reading it, with a link to it on GitHub.

Trademarks

Ableton and Ableton Live are trademarks of Ableton AG. Elektron and Monomachine are trademarks of Elektron Music Machines MAV AB. Sequentix and Cirklon are trademarks of Sequentix Music Systems Ltd. Apple and macOS are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. YouTube is a trademark of Google LLC. GitHub is a trademark of GitHub, Inc. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. llamatron is an independent project, not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of these companies; their names are used only to describe compatibility and inspiration.