[April 11, 2000] Bert Schiettecatte (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) reports on the development of an XML-based format for musical notations - 'FlowML'. "FlowML is a format for storing audio synthesis diagrams, as used in various software synthesizers. It offers a way to store synthesis instruments as a graph of reusable synthesis blocks (defined in the format specification). It differs from existing languages for audio synthesis like CSound, because it is not a programming language, but a data format. The format is also interesting for hardware synthesizer companies, it would allow prototyping of synthesizers at no cost." FlowML is described in an online document which proposes this "format for storing synthesis diagrams and their supporting mechanisms. Such a standard format is necessary to allow exchange of virtual musical instruments between several (non-)realtime software synthesizers, and to publish synthesis diagrams on the WWW."

References:

• Description. Draft Version 0.3. [cache]

• Description document, PDF version [cache]

• license agreement

• Bert Schiettecatte Web site

• See: "XML and Music."