Modest is a Lua library designed for working with musical harmony. It provides functionality for representing notes, chords, scales, and intervals, allowing for manipulation and analysis of musical structures. The library supports various operations like transposing, inverting, and identifying chord qualities. It also includes features for working with different tuning systems and generating musical progressions. Modest aims to be a lightweight and efficient tool for music-related applications in Lua, suitable for everything from algorithmic composition to music theory analysis.
A new open-source library called "Modest," written in Lua, has been introduced for working with musical harmony. This library aims to provide a comprehensive toolkit for representing and manipulating musical concepts within Lua scripting environments. Modest offers functionality to define and work with scales, chords, and intervals. It allows users to create musical structures programmatically, enabling algorithmic composition, music analysis, and potentially other music-related applications within Lua. The library appears to focus on providing a clear and concise API for common musical operations, including constructing chords from scales, identifying intervals between notes, and potentially transposing musical elements. While detailed documentation is still somewhat limited, the provided code examples suggest that Modest supports various musical notations and can handle complex harmonic relationships. This library is likely to be of interest to musicians, programmers, and anyone interested in exploring the intersection of music theory and software development within the Lua ecosystem. Its potential applications could range from generating musical scores programmatically to creating interactive music tools and educational software. The creator has positioned Modest as a relatively lightweight and straightforward library, suggesting it is designed for ease of use and integration within existing Lua projects.
Summary of Comments ( 6 )
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42907765
HN users generally expressed interest in Modest, praising its clean API and the potential usefulness of a music theory library in Lua. Some users suggested potential improvements like adding support for microtones, different tuning systems, and rhythm representation. One commenter specifically appreciated the clear documentation and examples provided. The discussion also touched on other music-related Lua libraries and tools, such as LÖVE2D and Euterpea, comparing their features and approaches to music generation and manipulation. There was some brief discussion about the choice of Lua, with one user mentioning its suitability for embedded systems and real-time applications.
The Hacker News post discussing the "Modest – musical harmony library for Lua" project has a modest number of comments, focusing primarily on the niche nature of the project and its potential applications.
One commenter expresses their appreciation for niche projects like this, highlighting the value in exploring specific, focused domains. They also mention the "intriguing possibilities" such projects offer, suggesting that a Lua-based music library could be useful in game development or other creative coding contexts. This commenter doesn't delve into the technical details of the library itself but rather focuses on the broader implications of its existence.
Another commenter points out the existence of Euterpea, a Haskell library for music theory and composition, drawing a parallel between Modest and this established project. This comparison serves to contextualize Modest within the landscape of music programming libraries, suggesting it occupies a similar space, albeit within the Lua ecosystem. The commenter doesn't offer a judgment on whether Modest is better or worse than Euterpea, simply noting the similarity in their purpose.
A third comment brings up the topic of live coding music with Lua, specifically referencing the ORCA sequencer. This suggests a potential use case for Modest, implying it could be integrated with or used alongside tools like ORCA for real-time music creation and manipulation. This comment expands the potential applications of Modest beyond pre-composed music and into the realm of interactive performance.
Finally, the original poster (OP) responds to the comment about ORCA, acknowledging its existence and expressing their intention to explore a combination of Modest and LuaJIT's FFI (Foreign Function Interface) for audio synthesis. This response sheds light on the OP's future development plans and suggests they are actively considering how Modest can interact with other tools and libraries within the Lua ecosystem. It also hints at the potential for real-time audio processing capabilities being added to or integrated with Modest.
In summary, the comments are generally positive and intrigued by the project. They acknowledge the niche nature of a Lua-based music library but highlight its potential use in game development, creative coding, and potentially live music performance using tools like ORCA. The discussion touches upon related projects like Euterpea and hints at future development directions involving audio synthesis.