Experimenting with Carnatic Music Gamakas using MIDI

Introduction

Welcome! This site contains a Java Applet (i.e. a Java program that will run inside your browser), which allows you to experiment with carnatic music gamakas by modeling them as pitch contours (curves) and associated volume contours. The applet then lets you immediately test your gamakas by synthesizing them using the MIDI synthesizer on your computer.

Click here to start using the program. If you prefer, you may launch it in a separate window, so that you can refer to the usage instructions below as you play with the program.

Author Information: You can find information about me, Arun Kumar, the author of this program here (my current "official" but outdated website).

Important Note/Disclaimer: This is an experimental program in many ways. I do not guarantee any robustness at this point - in other words do not be surprised if you run into bugs. Please let me know if you like the program (or if you run into bugs). If you have had good success modeling realistic gamakas, please let me know too!

Requirements

The Java applet obviously requires Java (version 1.4.2). If you are running a recent enough version of your browser, it should automatically prompt you for installation of the appropriate Java runtime if necessary.

The applet also needs access to the MIDI synthesizer on your computer. If you are running on a PC, this should rarely something you need to explicitly know about - it should just work.

Usage

The program allows you to create gamakas (the program refers to them as contours), assign a name for them and group them under groups. You can also create your own groups. The left hand side of the display shows a hierarchical view of all the groups and the contours under them. By default, a group called Default is created with a contour named Contour1 is created for you. The right hand side of the display shows a graph area where you will draw the pitch contour and volume contour for your gamaka (contour).

You can start using the program by clicking on Contour1 to select it, adjusting the pitch range for the gamaka (Lo and Hi settings) if necessary, and then adding points for the pitch contour by clicking on the graph area. The program will draw the pitch curve as you add points. When you are done adding points, you can then click on the Synth button to synthesize the gamaka. You can adjust the tempo by increasing or decreasing the PPQ setting and/or the Len setting (see below for valid values for the Len setting).

Creating Gamakas (Contours)

For any gamaka/contour you create, you need to specify the following:

Pitch Range: The pitch range of the gamaka is determined by a low swara and a high swara. You control these via the Lo and Hi settings on the control panel on top. Note that your pitch curve need not have to exercise the full pitch range, and so the range simply establishes the limit within which you draw the pitch curve. Note that the swaras you specify for the range correspond to western keyboard frequencies as explained below:

S	shadjam	n/a
R1	suddha rishabam	1 semi-tone higher
R2	chatusruthi rishabam	1 semi-tone higher
G1	suddha gandharam	same as above
R3	shatsruthi rishabam	1 semi-tone higher
G2	sadharana gandharam	same as above
G3	antara gandharam	1 semi-tone higher
M1	suddha madhyamam	1 semi-tone higher

M2	prati madhyamam	1 semi-tone higher than M1
P	panchamam	1 semi-tone higher
D1	suddha dhaivatam	1 semi-tone higher
D2	chatusruthi dhaivatam	1 semi-tone higher
N1	suddha nishadam	same as above
D3	shatsruthi dhaivatam	1 semi-tone higher
N2	kaisika nishadam	same as above
N3	kakali nishadam	1 semi-tone higher

Also, any swara followed by a the forward tick (e.g. S') indicates the swara in tara sthayi. Similarly, any swara followed by the backward tick (e.g. P`) indicates the swara in mandra sthayi.

Pitch Contour: This is a curve tells the program how the pitch of the gamaka changes over time. You create it as follows:
- Click anywhere in the graph area to add a point. The program will draw the curve to it, adjusting the already drawn curve.
- Or click on an existing point and drag it to move the point around.

Length: This is the length of the swara which is to be rendered as the gamaka you are modelling. This is sort of equivalent to how many mathrais (counts within an akshara) a swara takes. This is controlled by the Len setting on the control panel. The value you specify must be one of the the following characters (because the applet uses JFugue internally):

Character	Meaning
w	whole duration (or consider it as the duration of an akshara)
h	half duration (or consider it as 1/2 the duraion of an akshara)
q	quarter duration (or consider it as 1/4th the duration of an akshara)
i	eight duration (or consider it as 1/8th the duraion of an akshara)
s	sixteenth duration (or consider it as 1/16th the duraion of an akshara)
t	thirty-second duration (or consider it as 1/32th the duraion of an akshara)
x	sixty-fourth duration (or consider it as 1/64th the duraion of an akshara)

For the theoretically inclined, these imply chatusra gati and there is currently no way to specify a duration in tisra gati as in 1/3rd the duration of an akshara.

Volume Contour: The volume contour determines how the volume varies over the duration of the gamaka. The volume contour is not a curve as in each point is connected to the next point by a straight line rather than a curve. Each point in the volume contour determines the volume level (Y-Axis value, from 0 minimum to 100 maximum) at that point.
You can flip between editing the pitch contour and the volume contour using the Edit Pitch Contour and Edit Volume Contour setting. A few important things about editing volume contour as it differs significantly from editing the pitch contour:
- You cannot add new volume contour points. Points are added to the volume contour for you automatically as you add points to the pitch contour. The points in the volume contour always have an exact one-to-one correspondance with the points in the pitch contour.
- You can move points but only up or down and not sideways. This sort of follows from above point as moving them side ways would mean they wont correspond with pitch contour points. Moving a point up and down moves the volume level up or down.
Tempo: This is strictly not part of the contour definition and is more of a synthesis setting. The length above is a big part of how "long" the swara takes in actual time when you synthesize but it is not the only parameter. The other parameter is the the MIDI Tempo which is represented by the PPQ setting on the control panel. PPQ is pulses-per-quarter-note. The lower the value the faster the tempo.

Advanced Settings - Prefix and Suffix

So you have created a couple of contours and you have tested them. But you want to test them in "proper contexts". For example, suppose you create a gamaka-laden "ri" for say mOhanam and want to see how it sounds if it is rendered as in "sa ri ga" as part of a standard arOhana of mOhanam. This is where the Prefix and Suffix settings comes in. They allows you to type in a sequence of swaras and/or contours to be played before and/or after your gamaka. For our example, the "sa" would go in the Prefix and the "ga" in Suffix. But you cannot type in "sa" and "ga", there is a language involved. For the Prefix and Suffix you can specify a sequence (separated by spaces) of one of the following forms:

Type

Example

flat swaras

Examples

G2'

N3`

flat swaras with specific length

Examples

R2q	suddha rishabam - quarter note
D2h	chatusruthi rishabam - half note
P`w	mandra sthayi panchamam - whole note

contour

contour name enclosed between a pair of percentage signs (%)

%Contour1%	A contour named "Contour1" (use previous swara's duration or quarter note if no previous swara)
%mohanam_da%h	A contour named "mohanam_da" half note long.

Continuous swara

Any of the above followed by a dash. For example, S- R- %Contour1%q-

This will ask the synthesizer to play that note and the succeeding note continuously without any discrete break (as in MIDI note-off followed by a note-on), bending the pitch as appropriate to transition from the first note to the next note.

This can result in better synthesis of carnatic music where notes are almost always chained together (unlike western music where notes are mostly discrete)

Pause

R stands for pause/rest. Examples

R	Rest - use previous swara's duration or quarter note if no previous swara)
Rq	quarter note rest

Here are some examples of the sequences you may enter in the Prefix and Suffix methods:

	S R2 %myga% %myma%h 

	R2 G3- %myma% Rq- Ph

Saving the synthesis of your contour as MIDI file

You can save the synthesis of any contour as a MIDI file by clicking on the Save current contour as MIDI file button.

Advanced Settings - Saving to your computer, and importing it back

The applet also allows you to save away all your precious work to your computer and later "import" them. Click on the Save to your Computer button below and save the file anywhere on your computer. Do not worry, the data is text (although may look like gibberish) and not binary, and cannot harm your computer. Note that if you do not do it, then if you quit your browser or visit some other site and the revisit your site, your previous information will all be lost!

You can import previously saved information from your computer by clicking on Import from your computer button.