Cadence

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Cadence is a minimalist software music sequencer written in Python.

Getting started

1. Clone the repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/emilykl/cadence.git
$ cd cadence

2. Install package:

$ pip install -e .

3. Play a sequence:

$ python sequences/seq1.py

4. Launch visual interface:

$ cadence go

Usage

Cadence consists of a Python API, a command-line interface, and a visual user interface.

Python API usage

See sequences/seq1.py for an example of how to use the Cadence Python API to play a sound sequence.

Command-line interface

After installation, run

$ cadence --help

to see the available CLI commands.

Visual interface

Run the command

$ cadence go

in your terminal to launch the visual interface.

Saving and loading projects

A project can be saved in two ways:

• by calling the cadence.save_project() function (see example at the bottom of sequences/seq1.py)
• via the "Save project..." button in the UI

A saved project consists of a folder called projectname.cadence/ with the following structure:

projectname.cadence/
 ├─ project.json      # metadata and sound timings
 └─ sounds/           # contains all sound files
    ├─ sound1.wav
    ├─ sound2.wav
    └─ ...

Once saved, a project can be loaded in three ways:

• by calling the load_project() function
• by running the command cadence load projectname.cadence to launch the project in the UI
• by clicking the "Load project..." button within the UI

Sounds

The sounds/ directory includes a set of built-in sound files to use in your projects. You can also use your own sound files, as long as they meet the following requirements:

• Sounds must be .wav files
• All sounds used in a single project must have the same sample rate, bit depth, and number of channels (mono or stereo).

The ffmpeg command line utility can be used for converting sound files to the correct format.