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)