UNI2008

1) Single Studies with Jim




2) Creative Computing with Christian :

.~

Graduation Day, 13Dec'07

End of year concert

Ear Poke 2007 : EMU end of year concert
For me probably end of uni concert.. What went wrong.. ??? The sound guy knew everything he was doing.. !! I wonder why did he put me first to the stage mixing desk and then to the main mixing desk.When I had nothing to do with stage, my setup was at the side of it. For what i think , the levels on the stage mixer were totally down, it was only the bleed which was coming through,,thanks to the age of our Studio 5 mixer.. While i was pushing the levels up from my mixer in the performance, the only thing got raised was distortion.. I dont intented to be a noise artist,however i think alot of times i have fallen into those categories.. Thanks to supercollider and my feedback engine patch, as Moira calls it " Force Field of Sound"..
I have the recording but the audio is crappy, since it was recorded from the video camera's inbuilt microphone..I dont think the concert was recorded.. Did it ?

Emu jam : This was interesting but I did not feel any bond .. I could not even hear anything as soon as I started playing.. I had no monitors, because of the laziness of some organisers. They didnt wanted to move the drum monitor from the stage. I wonder why do they do that, is it lack of understanding that its important to listen or is it a kind of unthoughtful power game or just ignorance. When I ask somehting there is a reason behind it, I am not asking it to complicate the setup. Whats complicate anyway, something which one does not understand, once you know it , its all cool.. Its very easy to sit down infront of a computer in a performace and do a playback piece or rather use another performer to play in automated settings. wonder what did you do, smiled, waived and went away...
Anyway there is a life beyond uni and I am going to start that now. Thanks to everyone for their love and support, knowledge and wisdom , memories and great times..I will always remember you all. Take care and good luck for everything you guys do..

Projects

Audio Arts : Sound Design for Films..
What is Music ? <<<<< Film by Daniel Murtagh <<<< Music & Sound Design by Vinny Bhagat



Creative Computing : Programming with SuperCollider..
click here to download the project file..

Now when thinking about this project, I am wondering have I succefully completed it..? I really dont know, depends what you call success is. The amount of time I put into this did not yield the outcome I would have expected. I have certainly come to know a new language, a new tool to construct sounds, music. My programming skills definately came in between my ideas and thier implimentation. Disappointment is there , towards the end I could not handle all this information properly. I am waiting to see what christian has to say about it..

Week 12

Creative Computing : Spatialisation

Materials for the week

* Mix.rtf : Mixes an array of channels down to a single channel or an array of arrays of channels down to a single array of channels.

// Mix an array of channels
{ Mix.new([ ClipNoise.ar(0.2), FSinOsc.ar(440, 0.1), LFSaw.ar(20, 0.1)]) }.play;

( // fill an array of channels
{
n = 18; // number of voices
Mix.fill(n, { SinOsc.ar(50 + 500.0.rand, pi, 0.05) });
}.play;
)

* MultiOutUGen.rtf : A superclass for all UGens with multiple ouptuts.MultiOutUGen creates the OutputProxy ugens needed for the multiple outputs.

* OutputProxy.rtf : A place holder for multiple outputs,sometimes used by Ugens.
// Pan2 uses an OutputProxy for each of its two outputs.
({
var out;
out = Pan2.ar(WhiteNoise.ar, SinOsc.kr(0.5));
out}.play;
)
* BiPanB2.rtf : Encodes a two channel signal to two dimensional ambisonic B-format.This puts two channels at opposite poles of a 2D ambisonic field.This is one way to map a stereo sound onto a soundfield.It is equivalent to:
PanB2(inA, azimuth, gain) + PanB2(inB, azimuth + 1, gain)
BiPanB2.kr(inA, inB, azimuth, gain)
{
var w, x, y, source1, source2, a, b, c, d;

source1 = SinOsc.ar(200);
source2 = SinOsc.ar(202);

// B-format encode
#w, x, y = BiPanB2.ar(inA: source1,
inB: source2,
azimuth: MouseX.kr(-1,1),
gain: 0.1);

// B-format decode to quad
#a, b, c, d = DecodeB2.ar(numChans: 4,
w: w,
x: x,
y: y
);
[a, b, d, c] // reorder to speaker arrangement: Lf Rf Lr Rr
}.play;

* DecodeB2.rtf : 2D Ambisonic B-format decoder.Decode a two dimensional ambisonic B-format signal to a set of speakers in a regular polygon.The outputs will be in clockwise order. The position of the first speaker is either center or left of center.
( // Theremin model
{
var theremin, w, x, y, a, b, c, d;

theremin = SinOsc.ar(freq: MouseY.kr(3200, 200, lag: 0.5, warp: 1)
*
SinOsc.kr(freq: 6, mul: 0.02, add: 1), // Vibrato
mul: abs(MouseX.kr(0.02, 1))
); //Amplitude

// B-format encode
# w, x, y = PanB2.ar(in: theremin,
azimuth: SinOsc.kr(2* pi),
gain: 0.5
);

// B-format decode to quad
#a, b, c, d = DecodeB2.ar(numChans: 4,
w: w,
x: x,
y: y
);

[a, b, d, c] // reorder to speaker arrangement: Lf Rf Lr Rr
}.play;
)
* LinPan2.rtf : Two channel linear panner.
"Sounds more like the Rhodes tremolo than Pan2."
{ Out.ar(0, LinPan2.ar(VarSaw.ar([200, 201], pi, 0.1), SinOsc.kr(1))) }.play;

* LinXFade2.rtf : Two channel linear crossfader.
{ LinXFade2.ar(FSinOsc.ar([800,804], 0, 0.2), VarSaw.ar(0.2), FSinOsc.kr(pi)) }.play;
* Pan2.rtf : Two channel equal power panner.
(
{Pan2.ar( //pan position
FSinOsc.ar(exprand(700, 2000), 0,
max(0, LFNoise1.kr(3/5, 0.9))),
LFNoise1.kr(1))
}.play(s)
)
* Pan4.rtf : Four channel equal power panner.
( // phone ring
{
var lfo,in;
lfo = LFPulse.ar(freq: 15, mul: 200, add: 1000);
in = SinOsc.ar(lfo, mul: 0.5);
in = Pan4.ar(in, SinOsc.kr(2), VarSaw.kr(1.2),1);
}.play
)
* PanAz.rtf : Azimuth panner : Multichannel equal power panner.
Server.internal.boot;
(
{
var trig, out, delay;
trig = Impulse.kr(freq: 10);
out = Blip.ar(
freq: TRand.kr(0, 50, trig).midicps,
numharm: TRand.kr(1, 12, trig),
mul: max(0, TRand.kr(-0.5, 0.4, trig))
);
out = Pan2.ar(in: out,
pos: TRand.kr(-1.0, 1.0, trig)
);

out = out * EnvGen.kr(Env.perc(attackTime: 0,
releaseTime: 1),
gate: trig
);
out = Mix.ar({out}.dup(12))*0.2;
delay = CombL.ar(in: out,
maxdelaytime: 2.0,
delaytime: 4/6,
decaytime: 0.1
);
out = out + delay;

// five channel circular panning
PanAz.ar(
numChans: 5,
in: out,
pos: LFSaw.kr(MouseX.kr(0.1, 10, 'exponential')),
level: 0.5,
width: 3
);
}.play(Server.internal);
Server.internal.scope;
)

* PanB.rtf : Ambisonic B format panner.decodes over 4 channels.
* PanB2.rtf : 2D Ambisonic B-format panner. Encodes a mono signal to two dimensional ambisonic B-format.
* Rotate2.rtf : Rotates a sound field : Rotate2.kr(x, y, pos)
Rotate2 can be used for rotating an ambisonic B-format sound field around an axis.It does an equal power rotation so it also works well on stereo sounds.It takes two audio inputs (x, y) and an angle control (pos).It outputs two channels (x, y).
It computes this:
xout = cos(angle) * xin + sin(angle) * yin;
yout = cos(angle) * yin - sin(angle) * xin;
where angle = pos * pi, so that -1 becomes -pi and +1 becomes +pi.

* SelectX.rtf : =Mix one output from many sources
The output is mixed from an array of inputs, linearly interpolating from two adjacent channels.

* SelectXFocus.rtf : Mix one output from many sources.

The output is mixed from an array of inputs, linearly interpolating from a number of adjacent channels.A focus argument allows to control how many adjacent sources are mixed. (by adc)

* Splay.rtf : Splay spreads an array of channels across the stereo field.
* SplayZ.rtf : SplayZ spreads an array of channels across a ring of channels.
* XFade2.rtf : Equal power two channel cross fade.
* Select.rtf : Select one output from many sources.

References :

* Haines.Christian."Workshop-12-sem2, conducted on Spatialisation .Programming with SuperCollider".25 October'2007.Electronic Music Unit.University of Adelaide, South Australia.
* McCartney , James et al . 2007,SuperCollider Inbuilt Help.
* Source Forge, http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/

Audio Arts : Film Sound
Class Notes:
* Sourround Sound in Film
*Dialogue; To be crystal clear in the mix. You could filter out the music/ frequencies from the range of 600Hz till 3Khz, from the mix so that the dialogue becomes clear.
Ducking : It is an effect where the level of one signal is reduced by the presence of another signal, through the use of side chain compression.
Side-chaining uses the dynamic level of another input to control the compression level of the signal.
* THX ( Tomlinson Holman's experiment )is the trade name of a high-fidelity sound reproduction standard for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, gaming consoles, and car audio systems.Itwas developed by Tomlinson Holman at George Lucas's company Lucasfilm in 1982 .THX is mainly a quality assurance system, a playback environment to ensure that any film soundtrack mixed in THX will sound as near as possible to the intentions of the mixing engineer.

(Dolby Digital, SDDS) or analog (Dolby SR, Ultra-Stereo), can be "shown in THX.

References:
Harrald.Luke.2007.Audio Arts 3.Film Sound.Electronic Music Unit.University of Adelaide, South Australia.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX ,viewed on 31.Oct'07
* http://www.thx.com, viewed on 31.Oct'07

Week 11

Creative Computing : FFT(2)

Keywords :
* Josh_PV_Ugens
PV_EvenBin : Returns the even numbered bins in an FFT buffer, resynthesize only even bins. Similarly PV_OddBin resynthesize only odd bins
PV_FreqBuffer(buffer, databuffer) : stores the freq values from an FFT analysis into a buffer to be used outside the FFT process
databuffer - a buffer of (fft buffer size / 2) for storing freq or mag data in
PV_Invert :
PV_MagBuffer(buffer, databuffer) : Store FFT data in another buffer for other uses.
databuffer - a buffer of (fft buffer size / 2) for storing freq or mag data in
PV_MagMap : Remap magnitudes to a new mag curve
PV_MaxMagN : return the N strongest bins
PV_MinMagN : return the N weakest bins
PV_NoiseSynthF : Decisions are based on whether or not freq data across numFrames is within a given threshold.return only bins that are unstable.
PV_NoiseSynthF(buffer, threshold, numFrames)
PV_NoiseSynthP : PV_NoiseSynthP and PV_PartialSynthP base these decisions on whether or not phase data across numFrames is within a given threshold.
buffer - the FFT buffer
threshold - a phase value (in radians) with which to allow values to pass through or be zeroed out
numFrames - the number of FFT frames needed to make the above decision
initflag - if 0, all bins are zeroed out while the initial is calculated, if 1, all bins pass through.

PV_OddBin : Return the odd numbered bins in an FFT buffer

MCLD Ugens

CQ_Diff : Logarithmic spectral difference measure.
CQ_Diff.kr(in1, in2, databufnum)
FFTDiffMags: Compares the spectra of two signals, finding the magnitude of the difference for each frequency bin. These differences are averaged onto the (control-rate) output.
FFTDiffMags.kr(chain1, chain2)

FFTFlatness : Calculates the Spectral Flatness Measure, defined as a power spectrum's geometric mean divided by its arithmetic mean. This gives a measure which ranges from approx 0 for a pure sinusoid, to approx 1 for white noise.
FFTFlatnessSplitPercentile : Splits the FFT power spectrum into two parts - above and below a given percentile and then calculates the spectral flatness measure for the two parts of the spectrum.
# lower, upper = FFTFlatnessSplitPercentile.kr(chain, fraction)
FFTFlux : Calculates the spectral flux of the signal, which is a measure of the rate of change of the FFT power spectrum. It measures the difference between the current and previous FFT frames, by calculating the 2-norm (the Euclidean distance between the two spectra) after normalising for power.
FFTInterleave : Takes two FFT "chain" signals and mixes them together. The FFT data is not actually combined, rather the trigger signals which indicate that a new FFT buffer is ready for processing are combined. The first chain takes priority: if both chains fire at the same time, then the frame from the second will be ignored.
FFTPercentile : Calculates the cumulative distribution of the frequency spectrum, and outputs the frequency value which corresponds to the desired percentile.
FFTPower : Sum of instantaneous FFT magnitudes.Operates on the frequency-domain rather than time-domain representation.
FFTSubbandPower : Calculates the spectral power measure, in the same manner as FFTPower, but divides the spectrum into (adjacent, non-overlapping) subbands, so returns separate power measures for the different subbands.
#[power1, power2, ... powerN+1] = FFTSubbandPower.kr(chain, [cutfreq1, cutfreq2, ... cutfreqN], incdc)
FFTTriggered : Based on [FFT], but analyses the signal only when triggered, rather than in a continuous sequence. The point is to be able to synchronise analysis windows exactly with trigger signals. Its purpose is for spectral analysis rather than "phase vocoder" manipulation, since IFFT typically won't be able to reconstruct a continuous audio signal.
chain = FFTTriggered(buffer, input, trig, maxoverlap=0.5)
FincoSprottL : chaotic system UGen
FincoSprottM : chaotic system UGen
FincoSprottS : chaotic system UGen
ListTrig : Emit a sequence of triggers at specified time offsets
Logger : Store values to a buffer, whenever triggered
RosslerL : A strange attractor discovered by Otto Rossler based on work in chemical kinetics.
The system is composed of three ordinary differential equations:

x' = - y - z
y' = x + ay
z' = b + z(x - c)

Readings :
More Simple Chaotic Flows with ABS Nonlinearity : http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/chaos/finco/abs.html
some of the examples might use the FFT plugins from the library of Bhob Rainey
http://bhobrainey.net

Referenes:
* Haines.Christian."Workshop-11-sem2 conducted on Fast fourier Transform .Programming with SuperCollider".18 October'2007.Electronic Music Unit.University of Adelaide, South Australia.
* Parmenter, Josh 2007, JoshPV SuperCollider Library, 2007,
* Stowell, Dan. 2007, Signal Analysis - SuperCollider Plugins - MCLD UGens, 2007,
* IXI Tutorial 10 on FFT. www.ixi-software.net
* McCartney , James et al . 2007,SuperCollider Inbuilt Help.
* Source Forge, http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/

Audio Arts : Film Music
This week was presenting a draft for our alloted films. If you are not aware, I am doing the film made by Dan. I like the feel and question raised in the film, " What is Music". So far I have added the background track and the audio present with the video. I somehow like the minimalist characterstic to what I presented. After spending a bit more time on the musical ideas, I thought they are not really required. After adding the foley sounds the film can have a quite a different and unique characterstic to it. I do want to implement a paced motive when the car scecne comes up. Ther are two interviews in the film with a little more voice to be added on. The sound design work has to be quite precise and effective. Thats where i am .. What is Music : -- succesfully conveying the idea across and convincing the listener that this is music - Mark carrol ..

Week 10

Creative Computing : GUI(3)

Keywords and lecture Notes:
* BoxGrid.help.rtf :
* Grid.help.rtf :
* MIDIKeyboard.help.rtf :
* ParaSpace.help.rtf :
* ScrollNumberBox.help.rtf :
* Software, IXI 2006, Experimental Music Software -
Backyard, IXI, 2007... www.ixi-software.net

Task of the Week:
===================================================================
/*
VarSaw : Variable duty saw
Lag2 : It is equivalent to Lag.kr(Lag.kr(in, time), time), thus resulting in a smoother transition. This saves on CPU as you only have to calculate the decay factor once instead of twice.
*/
// Sound Source
(
SynthDef("saw+tri",{|freq, amp=0.90|

var signal,
signal1;

signal = VarSaw.ar(Lag2.kr(freq, 60.1), 0, amp)!2;
signal1 = LFTri.ar(Lag3.kr(freq, 62.1), 0, amp)!2;
signal = (signal * signal1) ;
Out.ar(0, signal);
}).load(s);
)
/* List is a subclass of SequenceableCollection with unlimited growth in size.
SCWindow : User interface Window
ParaSpace is a GUI widget, similar to the SCEnvelopeView, but has some
additional functionality and it is easier to use. One can select many nodes
at the same time and drag them around.
A Synth is the client-side representation of a synth node on the server. It represents a single sound producing unit.
*/
// Set up the ParaSpace
(
l = List.new;
w = SCWindow("ParaSpace", Rect(10, 500, 800, 300));
a = ParaSpace.new(w, bounds: Rect(20, 20, 760, 260));

76.do({arg i;
a.createNode(3+(i*10), 130);
l.add(Synth("saw+tri", [\freq, 150, \amp, 0.04])); // starting frequency
});
75.do({arg i;
a.createConnection(i, i+1);
});

/* Task is a pauseable process. It is implemented by wrapping a PauseStream around a Routine. Most of it's methods (start, stop, reset) are inherited from PauseStream.
SystemClock is more accurate, but cannot call Cocoa primitives.
AppClock uses NSTimers but is less accurate,it can call Cocoa primitives.
*/
t = Task({
var d;
inf.do({arg i;
76.do({arg j;
d = ((i*(j/100)).sin*120)+130;
a.setNodeLoc_(j, 3+((j%76)*10), d);
l[j].set(\freq, 500+(400 - (d*4))); // emerging frequency,travelling range
});
0.25.wait;
})
}, AppClock);
t.start;
)
t.stop;
===========================================================

References : Referenes:
* Haines.Christian."Workshop-10-sem2 conducted on GUI(3) .Programming with SuperCollider".11 October'2007.Electronic Music Unit.University of Adelaide, South Australia.
* IXI softwares, www.ixi-software.net
* McCartney , James et al . 2007,SuperCollider Inbuilt Help.
* Source Forge, http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/

Week 9

Creative Computing : GUI(2)
Keywords for the Week:
* Color : Each component has a value from 0.0 to 1.0 except in new255 :
Color.new(red, green,blue, alpha), Color.rand(hue, sat, val, alpha)
* Document: Opens up a text document.Document(title, text, isPostWindow);
background_set the background color of a Document
(
a = Document("background", "'documentwindow");
a.background_(Color.blue(alpha:0.8));
)

* Font : command-T to look for Font names.
* SC2DSlider : 2 dimensional slider
* SC2DTabletSlider : a 2D slider with support for extended wacom data
* SCButton : each state: [ name, text color, background color ] . Failure to set any states at all results in an invisible button.
SCCompositeView : A view that contains other views.
SCEnvelopeView : opens the envelope window whose nodes can be moved.
SCHLayoutView : Puts the sliders etc horizontally in a formatted layout.
SCVLayoutView : Puts the sliders etc vertically in a formatted layout.
SCMultiSliderView : Multisliders in a single window.
SCNumberBox : Number Box
SCPopUpMenu : Pop up menu
SCRangeSlider : sliders within a specified range
SCTabletView : Tablet view. Can receive data ffrom wacom or mouse.
SCTextField : Text based entry
SCView : SCView is the abstract superclass for all SC GUI widgets.
SCWindow : User Interface window : SCWindow.new(name, bounds, resizable, border);
resize : resize behavior for SCView..
1 - fixed to left, fixed to top
2 - horizontally elastic, fixed to top
3 - fixed to right, fixed to top

4 - fixed to left, vertically elastic
5 - horizontally elastic, vertically elastic
6 - fixed to right, vertically elastic

7 - fixed to left, fixed to bottom
8 - horizontally elastic, fixed to bottom
9 - fixed to right, fixed to bottom
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quiz : The error was there should be "states" instead of "state"..
Right : but.states = [["suffering",Color.black,Color.red] and not
Wrong : but.state = [["suffering",Color.black,Color.red],
code
(
var win, but;

win = SCWindow(
name: "Panel"
);
win.front;

but = SCButton(
parent: win,
bounds: Rect(20, 20, 230, 50)
);
but.states = [["suffering",Color.black,Color.red],
["living",Color.black,Color.blue]];
but.action = {"hello".postln;}
)

References :
* Haines.Christian."Workshop-9-sem2 conducted on GUI(2) .Programming with SuperCollider".4 October'2007.Electronic Music Unit.University of Adelaide, South Australia.
* IXI softwares, www.ixi-software.net
* McCartney , James et al . 2007,SuperCollider Inbuilt Help.
* Source Forge, http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/

Film Sound:
Forum : Bent Leather Band

Mid sem break

What did i do << had to move my house, one of the key problems i have faced in being here as an international student(which was obviously my decision)..Do i need that, wont it be nice to go back home, have a stable place,my own place, a permanent drumkit/percussion setup/piano and my own studio setup and I can spend all my time, without worrying literally about anything.. the answer is I have already spent that time, now I am away fom home, far away and the time for that is over,it wil come bacj though, nt now, however I am in search of another home, is it adeladie, not so far, not in 4 years, how cum now.. {i hate to move * inf;}.println
I did have some great time in the holidays, although not alot of study, alas, I am kicking now babay, dont you worry, I will fly high,I believe can fly, I believe i can touch the sky,tara ra ra ra rara,I want to spead my wings and flyaway.. shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Instrument

So far Piezzo seems to be the basis of my instrument. I want to scratch the surface of piezzo with differnt objects like a bow, brush or a hand grinder.Putting it under water and then hitting it on the surface of the glass also gives interesting metallic sounds.Brush and grinder gives quite differnt characterstic to the resultant piezzo's vibrations/sound. Generating complex rhythmic patterns at a very high tempo by touching the surface of piezzo by a grinder fascinates me quite a lot. A easy and interactive way of generating metallic rhythmical patterns.
Further,exploring these ideas I want apply all these techniques and take piezzo as a Line In into the computer and use SuperColliider( or rather use Arduino )to synthesize the incoming signal of the piezzo. So far I have experimented by PitchShifting the incoming signal of the Piezzo or convoluting it with any other sound source.
I need to look more into the Arduino patches and explore them to make interesting sound material.However I am more interested in sticking to SuperCollider since I am in a learning phase of that and spending more time on it will be more benificial for me..( I would need approval to do that).
Breadboarding is interesiting, however its quite fragile and a temporary solution( atleast for me).Old school technology is fine but I find it very time consuming or/and not quite an ideal approach for me to make music with at this stage.There is so much I can do with computers and playing with toys I can leave for the other people to explore.Playing with IC's and resistors is OK but I find it to be kind of pointless at this stage (1) because so far it has not been a priority and I need to spend alot more time (2) Time is very crucial and I have to very sure where am I putting my time..I like electronics and their construction and I do understand it might open up new possibilites for me and thats why I am not rulling it out totally and I will definately be exploring them in the holidays, and hopefully I can use them as part of me instrument ..
I would actually like to have kind of a percussion kit( a basket of few hand constructed objects or miscellinous tools) all hooked up to my computer through line In or a microphone to change their characterstics and timbre by applying various synthesis techniques.
This is a scratch,I will have more ideas as the time goes by in the holidays

Week 7

Creative Computing : Physical Modelling (2)

Quoting PMPD documentation intro:" These objects provide real-time simulations, specially physical behaviors. pmpd can be used to create natural dynamic systems, like a bouncing ball, string movement, Brownian movement, chaos, fluid dynamics, sand, gravitation, and more. It can also be used to create displacements thus allowing a completely dynamic approach .With pmpd physical dynamics can be modelled without knowing the global equation of the movement. Only the cause of the movement and the involved structure are needed for the simulation. pmpd provides the basic objects for this kind of simulation. Assembling them allows the creation of a very large variety of dynamic systems ."

CODE
Sound Examples:

Referenes:
* Haines.Christian."Workshop-7-sem2 conducted on Physical Modelling - PMPD library (physical modelling) created by Cyrille Henry on PureData.Programming with SuperCollider".6 September'2007.Electronic Music Unit.University of Adelaide, South Australia.
* PMPD : Documentation and examples
*Collins.Nick and Olofsson.Fredrick.Tutorials on SuperCollider.Chapter 11.1
* McCartney , James et al . 2007,SuperCollider Inbuilt Help.
* Source Forge, http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/

Week 6: mid way

Creative Computing: Physical Modelling

'Physical modeling' refers to the use of computers to model or simulate the sounds of traditional musical instruments or any analogue sound.
"There are two different general methods for synthesis of musical instrument sounds. One approach is to look at the spectrum of a real instrument and try to recreate it. This includes methods such as additive synthesis and frequency modulation (FM). These produce sounds with similar structure, but the parameters involved have no relation to the physical parameters of an instrument. The other popular approach is to use a sample of the instrument, such as in wavetable synthesis and samplers. In both of these cases, you're creating sounds without any consideration for how the real instrument actually creates those sounds.

"Karplus-Strong string synthesis is a method of physical modelling synthesis that loops a short waveform through a filtered delay line to simulate the sound of a hammered or plucked string or some kind of percussion . This is a subtractive synthesis technique based on a feedback loop similar to that of a comb filter."

References:

* Haines.Christian."Workshop-6-sem2 conducted on Physical Modelling - Karplus-Strong string synthesis.Programming with SuperCollider".30 August 2007.Electronic Music Unit.University of Adelaide, South Australia.
* Anon. 2007, Karplus-Strong string synthesis, 2007, .
* "Tutorial 9". IXI 2007, Software, IXI, 11/1, .
"Chapter 16". Cottle, David Michael 2005, Computer Music (with examples in
SuperCollider 3).

Audio Arts : Film Concepts
Feedback is the signal that is looped back to control a system within itself. This loop is called the feedback loop. A control system usually has input and output to the system; when the output of the system is fed back into the system as part of its input, it is called the "feedback."
In cybernetics and control theory, feedback is a process whereby some proportion of the output signal of a system is passed (fed back) to the input. This is often used to control the dynamic behavior of the system.

My work is based on feedback theory and digital manipulations. Visuals are generated by the process of video feedback which are then manilulated by using various filters. The end result will be of collarge of various shots and filtered result applied to the generated feedback.
(my film analysis coming soon)

Week5

Creative Computing: Granular Synthesis (2)

Keywords of the Week:
granulation, granular synthesis, source sound, buffer, duration, amplitude, interpolation,
overlap, rate, pitch, envelope, tone, sound file, panning, spatialisation, 'hand coded',
customised.

Task of the Week:
CODE
Sound Examples:
1)Pure Tone granulation
2) Sine graulation inspired from Zannos method
3) Buffer granulation
4) Signal arithmetic and granulation
Any number of permutations can be applied to various oscillators for the desired result.
<< ((osc1 / osc2) + (osc / osc3) * osc4) *env ; << ((osc1 * osc2) - (osc * osc3) / osc4) *env ; << ((osc1 * osc3) / (osc * osc2) * osc4) *env ; Etc.. Here is a list of few Synthesis techniques that can be applied to the signal:

• Subtractive synthesis
• Additive synthesis
• Granular synthesis
• Wavetable synthesis
• Frequency modulation synthesis
• Phase distortion synthesis
• Physical modelling synthesis
• Sample-based synthesis
• Subharmonic synthesis

Steps: Granular synthesis and the various parameters:

Grain size: Create an envelope - the envelope duration will then be the grain size
Grain amplitude: Change the maximum value of the envelope mentioned above
Grain amplitude dispersion: Add a random factor to the above amplitude
Pitch: Change the rate value of the PlayBuf
Pitch Dispersion: Add a random factor to the Pitch value
Density: Use some sort of signal (e.g. Pulse) to trigger the envelope - if you use Pulse, then a higher frequency will generate a higher density, a lower frequency a lower density.
Time Dispersion: Add a random factor to the frequency of your Pulse trigger signal
No. of Grains: Create/destroy more instances of the synth

Step 1: Creating an envelope
add the variable env

env = EnvGen.kr(Env.new([0,1,1,0], [1,1,1]), trigger, grainamplitude, 0, grainsize);

Work out trigger, grainamplitude and grainsize?

trigger = LFPulse.kr(density+timedispersion)
grainamplitude = Grain Amplitude + Grain Amplitude Dispersion
grainsize = Grain Size + random factor if wanted

Once this is done multiply the output of the synthdef by env.

References:
* Haines.Christian."Workshop-5-sem2 conducted on Grainular Synthesis.Programming with SuperCollider".23 August 2007.Electronic Music Unit.University of Adelaide, South Australia
* Granular Synthesis by Eric Kuehnl : http://music.calarts.edu/~eric/gs.html
viewed on 21.August.07
* "Tutorial 08 - Granular Synthesis". SuperCollider Tutorial, 2006, 2007, .
* "Granular Synthesis. A very simple Granular Synthesis case:", "First steps". McCartney ,
James et al 2007, SuperCollider Inbuilt Help, Source Forge, .

*Collins.Nick and Olofsson.Fredrick.Tutorials on SuperCollider.Chapter 7.2
* McCartney , James et al . 2007,SuperCollider Inbuilt Help.
* Source Forge, http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/

Week 4

Creative Computing :Granulation

"Granular synthesis is an innovative approach to the representation and generation of musical sounds" (DePoli 139).The grain is a unit of sonic energy possessing any waveform, and with a typical duration of a few milliseconds, near the threshold of human hearing. The typical duration of a grain is somewhere between 5 and 100 milliseconds. If the duration of the grain is less than 2 milliseconds it will be perceived as a click. The most musically important aspect of an individual grain is its waveform. The variability of waveforms from grain to grain plays a significant role in the flexibility of granular synthesis. Fixed-waveforms (such as a sine wave or saw wave), dynamic-waveforms (such as those generated by FM synthesis), and even waveforms extracted from sampled sounds may be used within each grain.
Asynchronous granular synthesis (AGS) was an early digital implementation of granular representations of sound .When performing AGS, the granular structure of each "Cloud" is determined probabilistically in terms of the following parameters:

1. Start time and duration of the cloud
2. Grain duration (Variable for the duration of the cloud)
3. Density of grains per second (Also variable)
4. Frequency band of the cloud (Usually high and low limits)
5. Amplitude envelope of the cloud
6. Waveforms within the grains
7. Spatial dispersion of the cloud

References:
* Haines.Christian."Workshop conducted on Grainular Synthesis.Programming with SuperCollider".16 August 2007.Electronic Music Unit.University of Adelaide, South Australia
* Granular Synthesis by Eric Kuehnl : http://music.calarts.edu/~eric/gs.html
viewed on 21.August.07

*Collins.Nick and Olofsson.Fredrick.Tutorials on SuperCollider.Chapter 7.2
* McCartney , James et al . 2007,SuperCollider Inbuilt Help.
* Source Forge, http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/

Audio Arts: Film Analysis
I somehow have to accept the casualness of this class. The topic as you can see is huge and can get really interesting and informative.(In any case self research is the key to learn and I dont expect to become an expert by attending those 12 hours). However I do expect inspiration and valuable sessions from my lectures.I certainly believe that a classroom with better Audio-Visual facilities will enhance the experience of any examples we talk about in the class.
Next week is the presentation of our movie and through out the week I will be doing that. Few results I got from video feedback are really interesting.This is done by pointing the camera on the computer screen while final Cut pro is capturing the live input. I will base my work around that and more digital manipulations.

This week, we briefly talked about the various aspects of film music.
Theme music as the word suggets is the title music of the film.It is the sonic image of the film and refers to a piece of music that is written specifically for it.
Mood Music refers to setting a mood of the film or sequence coming ahead.
CharacterMusic/leep music/motives : represents the character or reminds of a place/motive.
Enviornment music : sounds from the place/space/enviornment projected on the screen
Action Music : fast paced music with the action scene, climax, use of high tempo arpeggios

In the later part of the hour we looked at the film Team America - world Police by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Thanks Luke for the DVD, confessing I have watched the whole film. It is not the choice of film i would like to watch, because of the political message it has got. Now, i think its a very well made film and contains a clear message and some good sound design components and some great arrangments. Music plays an important role in setting the mode of the film. Music suggesting a part of the world/culture is very well used, like for middle eastern vocal singing.In the begining accordion is used to depict Paris.The theme music represents an american way.String arrangments plays aimportant role in depicting the mood.

I was going through the course material of film scoring of Berklee School of Music.Its quite ellaborate and different from how we approach it,but I thought there are some good individual topics here to be studied on.

Film Scoring 101: Berklee Music

Lesson 1: Drama and Music

• Absolute Music vs. Functional Music
• List Situations Where Music Provides Support
• Early Film and Sound Technology
• Identifying Dramatic Intent
• Identify Emotions for Music
• Think Like a Director
• Quiz

Lesson 2: Dramatic Functions

• Focusing on the Visual
• A Symbiotic Relationship
• Relationship Between Visuals and Music of Scenes
• More Symbiosis
• Dramatic Function: Three General Categories
• Identify Dramatic Functions of Scenes from "To Kill Mockingbird"

Lesson 3: Spotting for Music

• Spotting
• Considerations When Spotting
• Analyze the Spotting Process With a Scene
• Analyze the Spotting/Scoring of Several Scenes
• Spot Two Scenes

Lesson 4: Film Terminology and Dramatic Application

• The Stages of Film Production
• Setting Up and Shooting a Scene
• Analysis of Scene Structure
• Film Grammar and Linear Structure
• Scene Comparison with and without Music
• Basic Film Terminology
• Photographic Processing Effects
• Identify Editing Techniques and Photographic Effects
• Camera Movement and Perspective
• Breaking Down a Scene

Lesson 5: Working with SMPTE Time Code

• SMPTE Time Code
• Digital Audio – Digital Video
• SMPTE and Relative Time (aka-Clock Time or Running Time)
• Determine Relative Time
• SMPTE and Relative Time Conversion Tools
• Importing Video and Creating an Offset Start Point
• Using Markers in Your Video and Sequence
• Adding Markers in a Movie Clip
• Quiz
• Assignment

Lesson 6: Synchronization

• Synchronization
• Methods of Synchronization
• Critical Synchronization
• Music and Visual Sync
• Applying Sync Leeway
• Leeway- Early or Late
• Identify the Sync Relationship with Hard and Soft Sync Events
• Comparison of Timing Events to selected tempo - Bar/Beat Numbers
• Bar/Beat Breakdown
• Assignment

Lesson 7: Synchronization Part 2

• Frame Click Tempo Defined
• Comparison of Frame Click tempo to Metronome
• Subdivision of a Frame for Additional Tempi
• Using the Beat Sync Spreadsheet with a Frame Click
• Comparing Beat Sync Accuracy – Leeway of Neighboring Tempi
• Bar Layout and Use of Mixed Meters
• Starting a Cue
• Ending a cue
• Changing Tempo Directly
• Changing Tempo Gradually
• "Hiding" the Feel of Pulse

Lesson 8: Scoring Practicum – from spotting to mixing

• Spotting a Short Film
• Creating a Music Summary
• Developing a Concept for the Score
• Developing Thematic Material
• Relationship of Cues to Story Content and to One Another
• Assignment: Preparation for Creating a Complete Score

Lesson 9: Free Timing Techniques

• Methods of Free Timing Defined/Examples
• Comparison to Use of Clicks
• Composing to a Stop Watch
• The "Written" Click
• Freedom from Pulse – Ritards, Rubato
• Conducting/Performance Consideration
• Free Timing Applied to Using a Sequencer

Lesson 10: Overlap Cues and Transitions

• Overlap Cues Defined and Analyzed
• Why and When to Use an Overlap
• Four Techniques for Creating Overlaps
• Musical Considerations: Tonality, Tempo, and Instrumental Color
• Overlapping Source Cues and Underscore
• Double Track Cues
• Sweeteners and Overlays

Lesson 11: Scoring under Dialogue or Narration

• The Realities of Soundtrack Balance: Dialogue is King
• Open and Closed Scoring Situations
• Female/Male Voice Timbre and Register
• Narration vs. Dialogue – Other Considerations
• Rhythm and Dynamics of Spoken Word
• Instrumental Color: Choices for Blending
• Orchestration Dynamics Texture
• Dialogue and Music as Counterpoint

Lesson 12: Professional Scoring – preparations and application

• Types of Scoring Jobs
• Making Contacts
• Self-Promotion – The Scoring Demo
• Getting Organized for a Scoring Assignment
• Going Solo
• Building a Team
• Work Methods and Creating Mock-Ups
• Deadlines and Delivery
• Contracts and Copyright

Week3

Audio Arts: This semester is about Film Music.First six weeks is about film making and producing a short film, providing the visual material for the major project.
We talked about "time lapse photography' and later looked at Koyaanisqatsi - a film by Godfrey Reggio and music by Phillip Glass. We only watched couple of minutes which had shots of builidings and sky/clouds crafted together with time lapse and slow motion effects. It is the first in Qatsi Trilogy, an influential trilogy of films made over a period of almost 20 years.
Qatsi Trilogy:

* Koyaanisqatsi ( Life out of Balance );
* Naqoyqatsi ( War as a Way of Life );
* Powaqqtsi ( Life in Transformation );

Koyaanisqatsi which was released in 1982. Music plays a vital role in this film. "Film provokes its audience into thinking about aspects of the modern world around them and in particular how our cities and industry sit within and compete with the natural landscape."
( I will write more about the film, once I watch it)




References:
* Harrald.Luke.2007.Lectures in Audio Arts.9 August'2007. University of Adelaide
* http://www.mfiles.co.uk/composers/Philip-Glass.htm ( viewed on 13 August'2007 )
* http://www.qatsi.org/ ( viewed on 13 August'2007 )

Forum : " Breadboarding" -- This was the first forum I attended this semester. I dont have my kit,so I shared with freddy. I completed soldereing a piezo microphone and the first exercise,which was to make an Square wave Oscillator. I could not reach till making of Modulating Square Oscillator and Ring Modulation effect. I should have my kit this week,so can complete previous weeks work and then I could post some sounds for you to listen..
I am glad we are doing something in the forum and not sitting listening to someones talk. Enough talking has been done, its time for some action guys. I dont mind so much that we are still not playing music,indeed we are working on our instruments that will be later used to make music .

Week 1

Creative Computing : Splice and Dice(1)

BBCut Library : This is a collection of SuperCollider UGens, classes and patches for automated event analysis, beat induction and algorithmic audio splicing. It is released as public open source under the GNU General Public License, Copyright (C) 2001 Nick M.Collins.
Nick Collins is a London-based composer, computer music researcher and laptop performer. My first encounter with nick was at ACMC'06 at Jade Monkey during Klipp Av's performance.

Keywords
BBCut2 and associated BBCut classes and methods including :

* BBCutBuffer : Represents a Buffer with some BBCut specific refinements, holds data on a buffer including any segmentation (event positions). Derived from the Buffer class and has methods for choosing playback segments.
+ new(filename, beatlength, eventlist)
+ array(filenames, beatlengths, eventlists)

* CutStream1 : cut up a stream, via an intermediary buffer that holds the most recent cut for repeating.The stream can be any bus on the Server, so might be a file streamed off disk, a current audio input or some synthesised data.
+ new(inbus, bufnum, dutycycle, atkprop, relprop, curve)

CutBuf1 :Playback for a buffer, using a single fixed PlayBuf UGen with jump in playback position, but no enveloping.
+ new(bbcutbuf, offset)

CutMixer : The CutMixer organises the final output from a given rendering CutGroup. It control final rendering bus, master volume, and ampfunc and panfunc parameters of cuts.
+ CutMixer.new(bus, volume, ampfunc, panfunc)

*sound examples coming soon

References:

* Collins. Nick , “Further Automatic Breakbeat Cutting Methods,” Proceedings of
Generative Art, Milan Politecnico, 12–14 December 2001.
* Collins. Nick ,“The BBCut Library,” Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference,Goteborg, Sweden (2002).
*Collins. Nick ,“The BBCut Library,” Examples and help files.
* McCartney , James et al . 2007,SuperCollider Inbuilt Help.
* Source Forge, http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/

i am back

IMNp

Interconnected Musical Network Performance with SuperCollider










Attempt 1 = Tyrell controlling frequency and vinny controlling amplitude & Pan

Attempt 2 = Vinny controlling frequency and Tyrell controlling amplitude & Pan

Projects

Creative computing ;: My first composition with SuperCollider. The basic model of the tree is constructed by defining the stems of the tree that are the sound sources for SynthDef’s.I have called my work as " Timbre Tree". The process started by generating stills of a tree in Photoshop . I was amazed to see how visual representations can give elobrate ideas and can become the foundation of a piece. I have tried to express what I was seeing in those stills.
The tree can have several shapes, depending on how the performer moulds it.One picture of a tree has climbed various stages of filtering. The print has reached the stage of wind shaping the frequencies and patterns, in a way symbolising the feedback process.
I have used various kinds of Noise generating Ugens contained in SynthDef's to shape this piece.These SynthDef's are modulated by their own signal through the feedback engine. Having ‘just’ the right volume without excessive feedback is the key for the performance. After switching the engine, the player can decide either to modulate the incoming signal feeding on to itself or play the table, clap or speak to generate more textures for the tree. A user input sound generation process feeding itself which is played back from the same set of speakers. I played the ‘table on which my laptop was sitting and have also used my laptops body to generate sound. An important point into consideration; my laptop is acting as a sound generating body both ‘physically’ and electronically.
I recorded this piece by close micing the speakers in Studio 2. This created another feedback environment in the chain and affected the overall timbre of the tree. "Life feeds on life, feeds on life and feeds on life".Similar concept applied to sOuNd.
In other words the speakers that are used to playback the SynthDef's are feeding their own signal through feedback engine. This modified signal is reproduced back into the same set of speakers. The end signal is then captured by two Newman U-87 microphones as ‘Left’ and ‘right’ and recorded onto proTools.
The recorded waveform had two sections .One constructed with dust particles and storms and the next section was recorded playing the table. This is very interesting. I have figured out that when my feedback engine is on and I am using the ‘line In’ as the internal microphone of my computer, it converts the table as a drum. Not just the table the whole environment is affected. Speech, abstract noises and even breathing gets amplified with the control of changing parameters like pitch, grain size, time dispersion and pitch dispersion. As the player increase the output of the amplifier. There will be a dense cluster of sonic cloud (use this very carefully, if the volume is high, you ears are at a high risk and so are the speakers.)
The AB section is then made Left = AB and Right = B(rev) A(rev). A mono file is then bounced down which is exported back on to Protools. I made another mono track of the bounce; this time I have A B B (rev) A(rev). I made another mono channel, copied the track, hard panned both the channels and then I got Left = A B B(rev) A(rev), Right = A(rev) B(rev) B A
I then applied panning to both the channels . Both the tracks simultaneously change their position and move to the corresponding speaker several times in the piece.

Score : My code contains instances of synth which can be run and paused at any given time by the performer.. It also contains a user changeable yet fixed scheduling duration of various Synth’s .It also contains a user input random duration scheduling for playing the different Synth’s.The player can decide when he would like to switch ‘on’ the feedback engine. He can then decide if he would like to feed the signal on its own or start playing anything and everything he desires in that acoustic space.Nothing is fixed from the author,go crazy with it.
jai rAm ji ki..
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Audio Arts :

Ezulai is a highly unique band from Adelaide. Its influences draws from indi-rock to funk and from punk to jazz. All compositions are short song based originals with the vocals creating vivid stories and images resting upon a bed of twisted soundscapes. Ezulai seeks to utilize all forms of media to create a unique experience. I recorded their couple of songs but have only mixed their 3 songs so far. A little more work but the guys are all set to release their first EP.

Tracks:
mumma
Cheap as a cigarette
Robbers Collar

contact : ezulai@optusnet.com.au>

Lizabella Baker – Vocals, Flamenco dance/drums
Maura O’Reagan – Vocals, Whistle
Julius Crawford – Bass, keyboards
Christian Hodgson - Guitar
Mousiour Duffur - Drums
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Music in Context 3A: Music since1900

" Mosque in war times "- 6'55 mins
download score

References:
Whittington.Stephen.2007.Lectures presented for Music in Context 3A.Music Since 1900.Elder Conservatorium of Music.University Of Adelaide