Robot Rock User Guide

Introduction

Robot Rock is a fun, easy, interactive framework for conducting music in real-time. It allows novices and experts alike to create songs using multiple virtual musicians who collaborate with each other and with a human conductor. Robot Rock represents the future of human and machine artistic collaboration. Download it today!

How to Get Robot Rock

1. Please make sure you have the following tools installed on your Linux environment:

   • Python 2.5 or later
   • Qt and PyQt
   • FluidSynth and PyFluidsynth

     More detailed instructions, and Windows instructions, are available here.

2. Then, using a terminal, enter svn checkout http://subversion.assembla.com/svn/cse403 or download the .tar file.
3. Enter cd cse403/
4. Enter python setup.py install

   • Currently, changing the directory prefix (with --prefix) is not supported. This will be remedied soon.

5. Run with simply robotrock (on the Mac the binary will be under /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/bin/robotrock for Python 2.6)

Using Robot Rock

UI Layout

The User Interface is divided into 4 sections:

• In the upper left is the musician selection area, where musicians can be added to the ensemble.
• Below the musician selection menu is the stage, where all the musicians are displayed.
• In the Upper right is the musician info. Properties of the currently selected musician are displayed here
• In the lower right are the conductor controls. This section includes the play button, delete button, and controls for various properties of the music, including tempo, time signature, and key signature.

Creating / Deleting Musicians

• To create a musician, use the drop down menu in the upper left corner to select the musician to add, then click the add musician button.
• The musician icon will be placed at a random spot on the stage
• To delete musicians, right click their icon. Alternatively, you can click the musician's icon to select it, and then click the red x in the lower right corner to delete it or press the delete key on the keyboard.
• Currently, there is a limit of 16 musicians that can be placed on the stage.

Playing Music

• In order to play music, click the play button above the x in the lower right hand corner. Music will begin playing and the play button will turn to a pause button. Clicking pause stops the music.

Selecting / Deselecting Musicians

• To select a musician, click on its icon on the main view. The selected musician is brighter and has a red border.
• To deselect a musician, press the ESCAPE key.
• Only one musician may be selected at a time, so selecting a different musician will deselect the currently selected musician.
• The selected musician's properties will appear in the upper right hand corner of the window.

Moving a Musician

• Moving a musician will adjust its complexity and energy. Energy increases towards the right of the stage, while complexity increases towards the top of the stage. The musicians current energy and complexity will be display in the properties box in the upper right.
• To move a musician somewhere else on the stage, simply click and drag the icon and release the icon where you would like it to go. Alternatively, you can select the musician with a left click and use the arrow keys to move it in any direction.

Adjusting Tempo

• To Adjust tempo, use the tempo slider along the right side of the screen. Moving the slider right will speed the music up, moving it left slows the music down.

Advanced Features

• To adjust the time signature, use the arrow keys or type a value into either of the two boxes near the "Time:" label. The top number represents the number of beats in a measure, the lower number represents what type of note counts for a beat (4 means quarter note, 2 means half note, etc.)
• To adjust the key signature, select the desired key from the drop down box to change the key. Use the "minor" check box to change to a minor key, which will have a darker sound.

Bugs

• If you find a bug, please review active tickets, since it may be a known issue.
• To report a bug, please send an email with the subject 'User Bug' and a description of the bug to: cse403-robot-rock at cs.washington.edu
• Please reference this bug writing guide for general tips on writing a great bug:

  Mozilla Bug Writing Guidelines

Thank you for using Robot Rock!