Module Specification v1.2 (Draft)

Describing the Document

The root element always contains a version attribute used to determine the version of this specification.

<module-spec version="1.2">
...
</module-spec>

The first child of the module-spec-element is the header element which contains all meta data describing the document as a whole.

<module-spec version="1.2">
  <header>
    <language code="en" /> 
    <license><!-- the license of this document --></license>
    <vendor href="http://nmedit.sf.net">The nmedit open source project</vendor>
    <last-modified>2006-07-14</last-modified>
    <device>
      <name>Nord Modular</name>
      <version>3.03</version>
      <vendor href="http://www.clavia.se">Clavia</vendor>
    </device>
  </header>	
  ...
</module-spec>

• language identifies the english language to be used in this document
• license specifies the license assigned to this document
• vendor specifies the vendor (and it's url) of this document
• last-modified specifies the date of the last modification made to this document
• device specifies the synthesizer model's name, os-version, vendor and optionally the vendors url

Declarations

To differentiate parameters or interfaces it is possible to associate key-value pairs with them.

<module-spec version="1.2">
  <header> ... </header>	
  <declarations>
    <class name="type" component="interface" values="input,output" default="input">
      differs between input and output connectors
    </class>
    <class name="signal" component="interface" values="audio,master-slave,control,logic" default="audio">
      differs between input and output connectors
    </class>
    <class name="type" component="parameter" values="custom,parameter" default="parameter">
      differs between usual parameters and custom parameters controlling display modes
    </class>
  </declarations>
  ...
</module-spec>

• In the example above a class named type for the interface-component is declared with the possible values input and output. If no class is specified within an interface element the default value input is used.
• In the example above a class named type for the parameter-component is declared with the possible values custom and parameter. If no class is specified within an parameter element the default value parameter is used.
• In the example above there are no classes declared for modules

Scripting

The section allows scripting with ECMAScript (javascript). Functions can be declared that transform one or more parameter values into the value they represent.

Example:

<module-spec version="1.2">
  <header> ... </header>	
  <declarations> ... </declarations>
  <script>
  <![CDATA[
    function beatsPerMinute(var a)
    {
       if (0<=a && a<=127)
       {
          return (24+a)+" bpm";
       }
       else
       {
          return null;
       }
    }
    ... /* more function declarations */
  ]]>
  </script>
  ...
</module-spec>

Modules

<module-spec version="1.2">
  <header> ... </header>	
  <declarations> ... </declarations>
  <script> ... </script>
  <modules>
    <module>
      <const name="load" type="float">
        Constant describing the dsp-load.
      </const>

      <param class="indirect" name="x">x-coordinate of module</parameter>
      <param class="indirect" name="y">y-coordinate of module</parameter>

      <param class="label" name="name" type="string" string-limit="16">
        Module name containing up to 16 characters.
      </param>
    </module>

    <module id="5" type="instancible" extends="default-parameters,constants">
      <name>BPM</name>
      <const name="load" value="0.002" />

      <param class="parameter" id="1" name="BPM" min="0" max="127" display-value="beatsPerMinute(this)">
        Beats Per Minute
      </param>

      <param name="display-type" class="custom" min="0" max="1" />

      <interface class="type(input),signal(audio)" />
    </module>

    ...
  </modules>
  ...
</module-spec>

Module Hierarchy

To the definition of a module also belongs their relation to each other.

<module-spec version="1.2">
  <header> ... </header>	
  <declarations> ... </declarations>
  <script> ... </script>
  <modules> ... </modules>
  <hierarchy>
    <group>
      <label>In/Out</label>
      <description>In- and Outputs</description>
      <group level="xyz">
        <module id="1" />
        <module id="2" />
      </group>
      <group>
        <module id="3" />
        <module id="4" />
      </group>
    </group>
    <group>
      <label>Oscillator</label>
      <description>Oscillators</description>
      <group>
        <module id="5" />
        <module id="6" />
      </group>
      <group>
        <module id="7" />
      </group>
    </group>
    ...
  </hierarchy>
  ...
</module-spec>