abcmidi/doc/abcmatch.1

.TH ABCMATCH 1
.SH NAME
abcmatch \- Search for specific sequences of notes in an abc file composed of many tunes.
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBabcmatch\fP \fiabc\ file\fP [\fB-c\fP] [\fB-v\fP] [\fB-r\fP] [\fB-con\fP]\
    [\fB-fixed nn\fP] [\fB-qnt\fP] [\fB-lev\fP] [\fB-a\fP] [\fB-ign\fP]\
    [\fB-br %d\fP] [\fB-tp abc reference file\fP] [\fB-ver\fP]\
    [\fB-pitch_hist\fP] [\fB-wpitch_hist\fP] [\fB-length_hist\fP]\
    [\fB-interval_hist\fP] [\fB-pitch_table\fP] [\fB-interval_table\fP]\
 \fireference\ number\fP
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
.B abcmatch
is used to  search for specific sequences of notes in an  abc file
composed of many tunes. For example, if you know a few bars of a tune,
you can use this program to find the tune having this sequence and perhaps
identify the tune.
At a minimum, abcmatch requires two files. A template file called
match.abc which contains the bars that you are searching for and a large
file consisting of a hundred or more abc tunes. The program automatically
loads up the match.abc file and then scans every tune in the large file
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B -v and -c
mainly used for debugging when the program does not do what was expected.
.TP
.B -ver
prints version number and then exits
.TP
.B --norhythm
Causes the matching algorithm to ignore the length of notes in a bar,
thus E3/2F/D GA2 would match EFD G2A. The option ignores \-r parameter
since it is now irrelevant.
.TP
.B -pitch_table
Used to produce a interval weighted pitch histogram for each tune in
the file. If this is saved in an external file, that file could be used
as a database for finding tunes with similar pitch probability density
functions (pdf).
.TP
.B -r
Controls how the matching criterion handles small rhythm variations in
the melody. The \-r option must be followed by a number which specifies
the temporal resolution for the match. When the number is zero, this
indicates that a perfect match should be performed, meaning that the
lengths of each note in the bar must match exactly in order to be
reported. For larger values a looser match will be performed as
described below. Note lengths are converted into temporal units where
a quarter note normally is assigned a value of 24. Therefore an eight
note has a value of 12, a sixteenth has a value of 6, a half note has
a value of 48 and etc. If you specify a temporal resolution of 12, then
the pitch values of the notes only need to match at time units which
are multiples of an eighth note. 
.TP
.B -fixed n
Causes the program to disregard bar lines when does the matching. It
allows matching of notes between tunes having different time signatures.
n is a number which specifies the exact number of notes to match. For
example if n is 4, the program could match
|C E G E| .. with |C E|G E|
Note the matcher still starts at a beginning of a given bar for both the
tune and template.
.TP
.B -con
Specifies contour matching. In this case, the program uses the key
signature only to indicate accidentals. The pitch contour is computed
from the pitch difference or interval between adjacent notes.
.TP
.B -qnt
Uses the contour matching algorithm but also quantizes the intervals
using the following table:

unison and semitone    0
minor 2nd to major 2nd 1
minor 3rd to major 3rd 2
any larger interval    3

Negative numbers are descending intervals.
.TP
.B -tp file name, reference number
Substitute any tune for the template match.abc. When using this
feature, the entire tune is used as a template. Abcmatch does not match
the template with itself, and only bars which match bars in other tunes
are reported.
.TP
.B -br threshold
Runs the program in a brief mode designed to identify groups of tunes
sharing common bars. In this mode, the program counts the numbers of
bars in the test tune which are also present in match.abc. If the
number of common bars is larger or equal to the threshold then the
program reports the tune and the number of common bars. 
The program scans all the tunes in the abc file and returns a list of
all the tunes which have more than a specific number of bars in common
with the template, match.abc. In actual use, the program is run
repeatedly by a script. For each tune in a abc file, it creates a
template file called match.abc and then executes abcmatch. The outputs
are displayed on the screen in a form easy to interpret. The user has
no control of the matching criterion. The rhythm must match exactly
and the notes are transposed to suit the key signature. In other words
the \-r parameter is independent of what is specified in the parameter
list.
.TP
.B -pitch_hist or -length_hist
Runs the program in another mode. It produces a histogram of the
distribution of the notes in the abc file.
The pitch is indicated in midi units. Thus middle C is 60 and the
pitches go up in semitone units. Following the pitch is a count
of the number of times that note occurred.
.TP
.B -pitch_table or -interval_table
Used to create a database for a collection of tunes in a file for
future analysis.

.SH "SEE ALSO"
.PP
.IR abc2abc "(1), " abc2midi "(1), " mftext "(1) ", midi2abc "(1) ", midicopy "(1) ", yaps "(1)"
.SH AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Ross Gammon based on abcmatch.txt by Seymour Shlien.
.SH VERSION
This man page describes abcmatch version 1.35 from January 15 2006.