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THE STANDARD NUMERIC SCORE

A score is a data file that provides information to an orchestra about its performance. Like an orchestra file, a score file is made up of statements in a known format. The Csound orchestra expects to be handed a score comprised mainly of ascii numeric characters. Although most users will prefer a higher level score language such as provided by Cscore, Scot, or another score-generating program, each resulting score must eventually appear in the format expected by the orchestra. A Standard Numeric Score can be created and edited directly by the beginner using standard text editors; indeed, some users continue to prefer it. The purpose of this section is to describe this format in detail.

The basic format of a standard numeric score statement is:

        opcode p1 p2 p3 p4...             ;comments
The opcode is a single character, always alphabetic. Legal opcodes are f, i, a, t, s, and e, the meanings of which are described in the following pages. The opcode is normally the first character of a line; leading spaces or tabs will be ignored. Spaces or tabs between the opcode and p1 are optional.

p1, p2, p3, etc... are parameter fields (pfields). Each contains a floating point number comprised of an optional sign, digits, and an optional decimal point. Expressions are not permitted in Standard Score files. pfields are separated from each other by one or more spaces or tabs, all but one space of which will be ignored.

Continuation lines are permitted. If the first printing character of a new scoreline is not an opcode, that line will be regarded as a continuation of the pfields from the previous scoreline.

Comments are optional and are for the purpose of permitting the user to document his score file. Comments always begin with a semicolon (;) and extend to the end of the line. Comments will not affect the pfield continuation feature.

Blank lines or comment-only lines are legal (and will be ignored).

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Prepared from the MIT Media Lab Csound Manual, PJN, Nov 1994.