in reply to Creating XML from text

Without seeing any data (hint hint), giving you solid advice is kind of hard. My first approach would be to use DBD::CSV (again, need more info ... howare you storing stuff inside the flat file) with XML::Generator::DBI. Or how about simply XML::CSV? Here are a couple of links for you:

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)