SCAMP is an computer-assisted composition framework in Python designed to act as a hub, flexibly connecting the composer-programmer to a wide variety of resources for playback and notation. SCAMP allows the user to manage the flow of musical time, play notes either using FluidSynth or via MIDI or OSC messages to an external synthesizer, and ultimately quantize and export the result to music notation in the form of MusicXML or Lilypond. Overall, the framework aims to address pervasive technical challenges while imposing as little as possible on the aesthetic choices of the composer-programmer.
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Flexible and extensible playback: Although SCAMP comes with a basic general MIDI soundfont, any .sf2 or .sf3 soundfont can be used, and playback can also include MIDI or OSC messages to external programs or synthesizers, which effectively offers limitless sonic possibilities.
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Note-based, but in a broad sense: Although SCAMP conceives of music in terms of notes, notes in SCAMP are extremely flexible sound-objects that can include the continuous evolution of arbitrary playback parameters.
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Effortless microtonality: to play the G above middle C 30 cents sharp, the user has only to use the MIDI pitch 67.3. Behind the scenes, SCAMP manages all the MIDI pitchbend messages, placing notes on separate channels where necessary so that these messages do not conflict.
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Effortless playback of glissandi and dynamic envelopes. Both pitch and volume can follow arbitrary curves defined using the expenvelope package.
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Flexible and precise polyphonic tempo control using clockblocks. In SCAMP, different layers of music moving at different tempi can be interwoven with one another while remaining coordinated. Smooth accelerandi and ritardandi are possible, and the resulting music can be quantized according to the tempo of any layer.
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Sensible and flexible quantization. The user has a fine degree of control over how rhythms are quantized and over the degree of complexity in the resulting notation.
Compositional tools always feature some degree of trade-off between functionality and freedom; every feature that is made available to the user steers them in a certain direction. For instance, if a framework provides abstractions for manipulating harmonies, the user may find themselves (perhaps unconsciously) pushed in the direction of a particular harmonic language. While this may be a worthwhile trade-off in many cases, it is not the goal of SCAMP. Here, the goal is to provide general purpose tools, to remove the drudgery of implementing practical functionality that is needed again and again. Beyond this scope, users are encouraged to write and share their own extensions to suit their own compositional inclinations. (Several such extensions are available in the scamp_extensions package.)
Other key values underlying this framework are:
- Playback first, notation second: SCAMP has been designed so that the user interacts with an ensemble, not a score. This way, ideas can be quickly auditioned and iterated over based on the sonic result. Once the result is deemed satisfactory, the user can then export it as music notation.
- Compact and expressive code: Efforts have been made to make user code simple, yet powerful. One of the ways this is accomplished is through sensible defaults; although there is a lot of functionality under the hood, it shouldn't be encountered by the user until it is needed.
- Modularity and adherence as much as possible to the Unix Philosophy. SCAMP bundles a number of tools together for convenience, but it may be more than a given user needs. For this reason, the MusicXML export capability is available separately as pymusicxml, the flexible musical Envelope class is available separately as expenvelope, and the system for managing musical time is available separately as clockblocks.
SCAMP requires Python 3.12 or greater. With Python installed, opening a terminal and running:
pip install scamp
is usually all you need. Prebuilt wheels on PyPI bundle the FluidSynth library for Linux, macOS (both Intel and Apple Silicon), and Windows, so soundfont playback works out of the box on all three platforms with no separate install step.
To pull in the optional extras (LilyPond export, MIDI input/output, keyboard/mouse input) in one go:
pip install "scamp[all]"
This installs abjad==3.31 (pinned for compatibility), python-rtmidi, and pynput.
Test the installation by:
- Opening a terminal and typing
pythonto start an interactive python session. - Typing in
from scamp import test_run; test_run.play()and pressing return.
If you hear a piano gesture sweeping inward towards middle C, SCAMP has installed correctly!
You don't need any of these for a basic install — they only matter if you want the corresponding feature.
python-rtmidi — needed for MIDI input and for generating an outgoing MIDI stream (e.g. into
a DAW). On Linux, if pip install python-rtmidi fails, you may first need the Python development
headers: sudo apt install python3-dev. See the python-rtmidi installation
instructions for details.
abjad + LilyPond — needed for LilyPond output. SCAMP pins to abjad==3.31; newer abjad
releases sometimes break compatibility, so prefer pip install "scamp[all]" (which uses the
pinned version) over pip install abjad. After installing abjad, also download and install
LilyPond, which abjad calls out to.
pynput — needed for the keyboard/mouse input helpers in scamp.utilities.
Linux wheels include a bundled FluidSynth, but if you have FluidSynth installed system-wide
(e.g. sudo apt install fluidsynth), SCAMP will prefer that copy. This is useful if you want
SCAMP to share a FluidSynth build with the rest of your system, or you're running on a distro
the wheels weren't built for.
The scamp_extensions package is the place for models of music-theoretical concepts (e.g. scales, pitch-class sets), additional conveniences for interacting with various types of input and output, and in general anything that builds upon SCAMP but is outside the scope of the main framework.
pip install scamp_extensions
To install the latest development version directly from GitHub:
pip install git+https://github.com/MarcTheSpark/scamp_extensions