Re: Bug#886672: [ddtp] aeolus - german localization
Martin Eberhard Schauer wrote:
> the easy thing first. I'll write a mail when the description has changed.
>
> i think that there is a problem with the Englisch description too. It seems
> to be copied verbatim from [1]. "synthesized … emulator" sounds weird to me.
> And I wonder how important the hardware restrictions are nowadays.
There are oddities not so far mentioned. It uses en_GB where on the
whole package descriptions are expected to default to en_US
("synthesiZe"); it involves a rather oddly phrased claim that the
software is good enough to *make* an organist enjoy playing it; it has
a Germanic comma before a "that" clause; and it seems to believe that
pipe-organists are necessarily male, which is a bit Freudian.
The middle paragraph is a bit short on structure, and might work
better formatted as a list -
Main features of the default instrument:
* three manuals and one pedal;
* five different temperaments;
* variable tuning;
* MIDI control of course;
* stereo, surround, or Ambisonics output;
* flexible audio controls including a large church reverb.
Oh, and the last sentence has a doubled article: "should run without
problems on a e.g. a 1GHz, 256Mb machine." Mind you, we could replace
that whole paragraph with the word "lightweight" somewhere in the
first few lines, assuming that people *expect* things like this to be
CPU-intensive - if they don't expect that it's just a waste of bits.
> Somebody commented on the web interface to the best translation:
>
> (umlaeute) i still doubt that "eine Stimme geben" is the best translation
> for "to voice", as the latter appears to be a terminus technicus in the
> context of organs (though i do not know the correct English translation;
> a quick web search indicates that the correct translation would be
> "intonieren")
I'm thoroughly non-musical, but I had heard of this use of "voice",
since it conflicts with a different technical use of the same word in
articulatory phonetics that I'm more familiar with. I wouldn't expect
the average reader to know either, but putting "voice" in quotes is a
good clue that it's meant in a specialised sense.
> Wikipedia [2] says yes to "intonieren" and there even is an English
> translation [3] for intonieren (to intone). The Google translation is
>
> Intonation as tone color and volume balance
>
> Especially in keyboard instruments, where there is a separate tone
> generator (usually strings or whistles) for each tone, intonation means
> the equalization of volume and tone of the tone generators.
Be careful; most of these words can also mean just "producing sounds
(with a particular set of overtones)", while the sense you want is
"configuring an instrument to have a particular set of overtones".
The general term I'd expect to use for this is "(fine-)tuning", but
you might also find useful vocabulary by searching from "temperament".
> I suggest to explain intonise and reword short description and first
> paragraph of the description[4] to make it better understandable for
> non-musicians:
>
> synthesiser for emulating pipe organs
>
> Aeolus is a pipe organ emulator that should be good enough to make an
> organist enjoy playing it.
Most of this could probably be swallowed up into the word "enjoyable";
maybe
Aeolus is a pipe organ emulator designed to be enjoyable to play.
> It is a software synthesiser optimised for
> this job, with possibly hundreds of controls for each stop, that enable
> the user to intonate his instrument, i.e. equalize volume and tone of the
> pipes.
It is a software synthesizer optimized for the task of handling
what may be hundreds of controls for each stop, enabling users to
"voice" their instruments (that is, to tune them for tone and
volume balance).
Going up a level, http://kokkinizita.linuxaudio.org/linuxaudio/ lists
aeolus as "a high quality pipe organ emulator using additive
synthesis" - I'm not sure what that means, exactly, but it seems to be
extra information not conveyed in the current package description.
How about:
Description: synthesized pipe organ emulator
Aeolus is a pipe organ emulator using additive synthesis (not samples)
which is designed to be lightweight, high quality, and enjoyable to play.
It is a software synthesizer optimized for the task of handling what may
be hundreds of controls for each stop, enabling users to "voice" their
instruments (that is, to tune them for tone and volume balance).
.
Main features of the default instrument:
* three manuals and one pedal;
* five different temperaments;
* variable tuning;
* MIDI control of course;
* stereo, surround, or Ambisonics output;
* flexible audio controls including a large church reverb.
--
JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
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