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SYNTAX OF THE ORCHESTRA

An orchestra statement in Csound has the format:
     label:   result    opcode    argument1, argument2, ... ;comments
The label is optional and identifies the basic statement that follows as the potential target of a go-to operation (see Program Control Statements). A label has no effect on the statement per se.

Comments are optional and are for the purpose of letting the user document his orchestra code. Comments always begin with a semicolon (;) and extend to the end of the line.

The remainder (result, opcode, and arguments) form the basic statement. This also is optional, i.e. a line may have only a label or comment or be entirely blank. If present, the basic statement must be complete on one line. The opcode determines the operation to be performed; it usually takes some number of input values (arguments); and it usually has a result field variable to which it sends output values at some fixed rate. There are four possible rates:

(1) once only, at orchestra setup time (effectively a permanent assignment);

(2) once at the beginning of each note (at initialization (init) time: I-rate);

(3) once every performance-time control loop (perf time control rate, or K-rate);

(4) once each sound sample of every control loop (perf time audio rate, or A-rate).


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