NAME

       Nyquist  -  A  computer  programming  language  for  software  sound  synthesis  and music
       composition

SYNOPSIS

       ny [OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION

       Nyquist is a language designed for digital sound  synthesis  and  computer-assisted  music
       composition.   It is based upon the XLISP implementation of the LISP programming language.
       Nyquist is similar to other software synthesis languages such as Csound and cmusic.   Like
       programs  written  in  those  languages  Nyquist programs invoke and arrange various audio
       synthesis functions  which  are  employed  by  musically  useful  algorithms  and  control
       structures, but instrument design and scoring syntax are completely integrated in Nyquist.

       Example:
              ;; Make and play a sound

              (play (osc 60))

              This  one-line  program will call a Nyquist oscillator function to create a default
              sine wave with a default amplitude of 1.0 (normalized) and  a  pitch  value  of  60
              (MIDI  note  number  for middle C).  The output from the oscillator is then sent to
              the system sound hardware for realtime play starting at the default delta-time of 0
              and lasting for a default duration of 1 second.

       Example:
              ;; Create an instrument, play a scale with it

              (defun note (pitch dur)
                (osc pitch dur *table*))

              (play (seq (note c4 i)
                         (note d4 i)
                         (note e4 i)
                         (note f4 i)
                         (note g4 i)
                         (note a4 i)
                         (note b4 i)
                         (note c5 q)))

              This  program first defines a note function that receives two parameters, pitch and
              dur (duration), and sends them to an oscillator.  The oscillator applies the  given
              pitch  and  duration  to  the  waveform defined in the *table* global variable. The
              default waveform is a sine with an amplitude of 1.

              The seq function then sends a sequence of note statements to the play function  for
              realtime  audio  output.   In  this  example  the  pitch  is  indicated  in a note-
              name/octave pair.  Duration  is  expressed  in  symbols  for  conventional  musical
              rhythmic  units,  i.e.,  i  stands  for  an eighth note (quaver) and q stands for a
              quarter note (crotchet).

              Nyquist programs may be entered line by line at the program prompt or they  can  be
              saved and loaded as files.

OPTIONS

       -l filename.lsp
                 Load  a  Nyquist program file, typically (but not necessarily) with an extension
                 of .lsp.

FILES

       Examples and tutorial files are located in the $NYQUIST_HOME/demos directory.

       HTML documentation is located in the $NYQUIST_HOME/doc directory.

BUGS

       Possibly, maybe, perhaps. If you find any please report them to the authors.

TODO

       See the todo.txt file in the Nyquist top-level directory for the current TODO list.

AUTHOR

       Nyquist is written by Roger B. Dannenberg <dannenberg@cs.cmu.edu>.  XLISP  is  written  by
       David Betz <dbetz@xlisper.mv.com>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright and license information for Nyquist:

       Copyright 2000-2002, by Roger B. Dannenberg. All rights reserved.

       Copyright and license information for XLISP:

       Copyright 1984-2002, by David Michael Betz. All rights reserved.

       See  the  license.txt  file  in  the  Nyquist  top-level  directory for complete licensing
       details.

                                          November 2003                                Nyquist(1)