annotate README.OSC @ 2023:9eca5814fb7d

Use locale-aware comparators - ensuring proper dictionary order for e.g. pYin with small "p"

OSC control of Sonic Visualiser
===============================

Sonic Visualiser can be controlled remotely using the Open Sound
Control protocol.  This facility requires Steve Harris's liblo (Lite
OSC) library to have been available when Sonic Visualiser was built.

Sonic Visualiser opens a single OSC port on startup.  The URL of this
port is printed to standard output on startup, or can be read from the
About box on the Help menu.

OSC commands accepted by Sonic Visualiser take the form:

  <scheme>://<host>:<port>/<method> [<arg> ...]

For example, "osc.udp://localhost:12654/play 2.0" will play the
current session from time 2.0 seconds.

Methods that manipulate panes or layers act on the currently selected
pane or layer.  Use the setcurrent method to choose the right target
for subsequent such methods.

If you need an OSC client, there is a small program in the svcore
library at

  svcore/data/osc/sv-osc-send.c 

that sends an OSC method and arguments to a given URL -- this is not
specific to SV but will work with it. To compile that program you
should only have to run

  $ gcc sv-osc-send.c -o sv-osc-send -llo

provided you have liblo installed.

Then there is a small shell script in the same directory, called
sv-command, that provides a basic command shell for Sonic Visualiser.
Start SV first, then sv-command should find its OSC port from the
system process table when you start it.
For example:

  $ PATH=.:$PATH ./sv-command      # Set PATH so it can find sv-osc-send
  /open snare_hex.wav
  /add spectrogram
  /set layer Colour Sunset
  /play
  /quit
  $


OSC methods available
=====================

Main window methods
-------------------

  /open <filename>

     Open a new file (of type determined by Sonic Visualiser).
     If it is an audio file, use it to replace the existing main
     audio file (if any).

  /openadditional <filename> 

     Open a new file.  If it is an audio file, open it in a new
     pane in addition to the existing audio file (if any).

  /recent <n>
  /last

     Open the <n>'th most recent file from the Recent Files menu,
     counting from 1 for the most recent file opened.  "last" is a
     synonym for "recent 1".

  /save <filename>

     Save the current session in <filename> as an SV session file.
     This action will try to fail rather than overwrite an existing
     file, but you probably shouldn't rely on that.

  /export <filename>

     Export the (first) selected area of the main audio file
     (or all of it, if there is no selection) in <filename>, as a
     WAV file.  This action will try to fail rather than overwrite
     an existing file, but you probably shouldn't rely on that.

  /jump <t>
  /jump end
  /jump selection

     Jump the playback position to time <t> (in seconds); or to
     the end of the file; or to the start of the current selection.

  /play
  /play <t>
  /play selection

     Start playback.  If a time <t> is given, start from that time
     in seconds.  If the word "selection" is given instead, play
     the current selection.

  /stop

     Stop playback.

  /loop on
  /loop off

     Switch playback loop mode on or off.

  /select <t0> <t1>
  /select all
  /select none

     Select the region from times <t0> to <t1> in seconds; or select
     the whole file; or clear the selection.  If there is a layer
     selected that can be used as a snap guide for the selection, then
     the selection will be snapped to it (in the same manner as when
     making selections interactively).

  /addselect <t0> <t1>

     Make an additional selection (leaving any existing selection
     in place) from times <t0> to <t1> in seconds.

  /undo
  /redo

     Undo the last editing operation; redo the last undone operation.
     Note that most of the classic editing operations (copy and paste
     etc) are not controllable via OSC, but undo may still be useful
     because Sonic Visualiser considers actions such as adding a pane
     to be undoable editing operations as well.

  /add <layertype>
  /add <layertype> <channel>

     Add a new pane containing a layer of the given type, based on
     the main audio file.  If no <channel> is specified, use all
     available channels.  Useful <layertype>s are:

       waveform
       spectrogram
       spectrum
       timeruler

     The following <layertype>s are less useful, because they create
     empty layers which there is currently no OSC support for editing:

       timeinstants
       timevalues
       notes
       text
       colour3dplot

  /set <control> <value>
  /set pane <control> <value>
  /set layer <control> <value>

     Set a main window control; a property of the current pane; or a
     property of the current layer.

     Accepted main window <control>s are:

	 gain
           whose values are linear multipliers (i.e. 1.0 == unity gain).

	 speed
           takes a value of a percentage change in playback
           speed, so 100 is the default playback speed, 200 sets
           double the default speed, and 50 sets half the default.

	 overlays
           controls the verbosity level of the text overlays on
           each pane, from 0 (everything off) to 2 (everything on).

         zoomwheels
           controls whether the zoom wheels are displayed (1) or not (0).

         propertyboxes
           controls whether the property boxes are displayed (1) or not (0).

     For pane and layer properties, the control name is the displayed
     name of the given property (though you may use "-" or "_" in place
     of any spaces in the name if it's easier for you).  The value may
     be the displayed value or underlying integer for the property.

     Some examples:

         /set pane Global-Scroll off
         /set pane Follow_Playback Scroll
         /set layer Colour Blue
         /set layer Scale-Units dB
         /set layer Frequency-Scale Log

     Note that while you can use "-" or "_" in place of spaces in the
     property name, you cannot currently do so in the value text.  If
     this is a problem for you, you might be able to set the value
     as an integer instead (all layer properties can be set this way).

  /setcurrent <pane>
  /setcurrent <pane> <layer>

     Make the given <pane> (a number counting from 1 for the topmost
     pane) and optionally the given <layer> on that pane (a number
     counting from 1 for the "frontmost" layer) the current pane and
     layer for subsequent pane and layer operations.

  /delete pane
  /delete layer

     Delete the current pane or layer.

  /zoom <level>
  /zoom in
  /zoom out
  /zoom default

     Zoom to a given zoom <level>, given in audio sample frames per
     pixel; or zoom in or out one step from the current level; or
     return to the default zoom level.  This method acts on the
     current pane (it only affects all panes if set to Global Zoom,
     which is the default).

  /zoomvertical <min> <max>
  /zoomvertical in
  /zoomvertical out
  /zoomvertical default

     Change the vertical zoom and origin so as to show the value
     range from <min> to <max> in the vertical scale; or zoom in or
     out vertically; or return to the default vertical zoom level.
     The effect of this method is heavily dependent on the current
     layer.

  /transform <name>

     Transform the current main audio file using the named transform.
     Transforms are named according to the scheme

         type:source:plugin:output

     For example, the percussion onset detector from the Vamp example
     plugin set can be invoked via

         /transform vamp:vamp-example-plugins:percussiononsets:onsets

     If the output is omitted, the first is used.  Note that you
     need to use the plugin and output name, not description: in
     this case "percussiononsets" rather than "Simple Percussion
     Onset Detector".

     There is not yet any way to run a transform via OSC on any but
     the main audio file, nor with any but its default parameters,
     processing block/step size, or channel selection.

  /resize <w> <h>
  /resize pane <h>

     Resize the main window to width <w> and height <h> (if the
     window system permits); resize the current pane to height <h>
     if possible (!!! not yet working).

  /quit

     Exit the program abruptly without saving.

Handy things still missing from the OSC interface include:

 * the ability to run transforms with non-default parameters or
   starting from different source models
 * the ability to add layers to a pane (without transform)
 * the ability to add panes (and layers) showing any but the
   main model
 * the ability to set play parameters on a layer/model and show/hide it
 * the ability to set the vertical zoom range (vital for spectrogram)
 * the ability to import and export layers
 * a working pane resize
 * quick shortcuts to Melodic Range Spectrogram, Peak Frequency Spectrogram
 * the ability to rename a layer