May 2011 - chuck-users - lists.cs.princeton.edu

Scale & diatonic
by Hans Aberg 12 Oct '11

12 Oct '11

I have made a program, scale.ck, that admits one to work with scales, including tuning stretch, céleste tremulant, retune them, and then save to a file, with a line of code that can be pasted back into the source, available at next program startup. Scale tunings can be put into tuning banks, and otherwise defined by your favorite method. Details in the file. I have also updated my program for diatonic tuning systems, diatonic.ck. Just a few changes: adding some common tunings, fixing typos. The files are available here: http://www.math.su.se/~haberg/tuning_systems/ Hans

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Virtual Audio World (VAW)
by Les Hall 17 Jun '11

17 Jun '11

I have decided to create a ChucK-based distributed virtual audio world. In this world we will have places which are physically located on each other's computers and virtually located throughout cyberspace. The first place in this world will be on my Mac mini. I have received permission to use five of the public streaming ports on radio.electro-music.com for this world temporarily. In the event that it grows, we will address the issue of expansion with electro-music server resources, however this world will not be restricted in any way other than morally, ethically, and legally as appropriate. This means that if you have streaming resources you may use them as well. The focal point for discussion of this virtual audio world will be a thread that I just started on the ChucK forum of electro-music.com. The thread is here: http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48042 Tonight I will set up a two-channel version of this world so that I and up to two guests can participate as soon as possible. It will use public ports public_1, public_2, and public_3, the latter two of which are for guests of my place in this world. I will post full information of the admittedly somewhat complex task of setting up for streaming into this world in the thread linked above. I openly invite your participation. Les (Inventor)

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Setting LPF Q or Freq to very high or low values causes bad sounds...
by Johnathan Bell 10 Jun '11

10 Jun '11

I'm not sure if I'm just doing something wrong or what, but (for instance) if I set up a SawOsc => LPF => DAC and set the LPF's Q to something very low (< 0.05) with the Osc set to a frequency of 440Hz, there is some kind of blow-your-ears-out high gain garbage that comes out of the speakers... Does anyone know if (1) this is normal and (2) what are normal (sane) values for this? I get the same kind of behavior if I set the cutoff frequency to something > 12000ish. - JB

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Gyration Air Mouse
by Les Hall 06 Jun '11

06 Jun '11

Good day ChucKists! I have finally purchased what looks to be a good motion controller for my particular needs. It is the Gyration Air Mouse Elite. It works great, though my first code attempt at varying a SinOsc produced more zipper than actual sine wave, lol. I know the zipper cannot be avoided in practice, so I'll work on ways to minimize it and /or make use of it. Now, to my question: How do I access all of the axes? This device has a 2-axis gyro and a 3-axis accelerometer, which IMHO packs a powerful punch missing only the roll gyro. I can do all sorts of stuff with it, but I need to get at that axis data. I'm sure it's very simple, how do i do it? Les

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chuck linux-alsa in Ubuntu 11.04
by Alex French 31 May '11

31 May '11

Hi all, I've become quite interested in procedural/fully synthesized audio for game development, and I've tried out a lot of different tools, including cmus, supercollider, puredata, and chuck. I really like chuck, because it seems fairly lightweight and simple compared to the others. The only problem is that I can't get it to work in Ubuntu using alsa. It works with jack, which is fine for me, but I don't want my users to have to install and deal with jack just to play my game. So here's my situation... I'm running 32 bit Ubuntu 11.04. I have onboard sound on my motherboard, through the nVidia MCP55 chipset: 00:0f.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP55 High Definition Audio (rev a2) Unfortunately, that device crapped out on me a year or so ago, so I replaced it with this: 02:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10) ...which is a Diamond XS51 PCI audio card. I also have this, courtesy of my video card: 01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Barts HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6800 Series] That makes for a fairly complex setup. Here's what chuck sees: $ ./chuck --probe [chuck]: found 7 device(s) ... [chuck]: ------( chuck -- dac1 )--------------- [chuck]: device name = "hw:NVidia,0" [chuck]: probe [success] ... [chuck]: # output channels = 8 [chuck]: # input channels = 2 [chuck]: # duplex Channels = 2 [chuck]: default device = YES [chuck]: natively supported data formats: [chuck]: 16-bit int [chuck]: 32-bit int [chuck]: supported sample rates: [chuck]: 44100 Hz [chuck]: 48000 Hz [chuck]: 96000 Hz [chuck]: 192000 Hz [chuck]: [chuck]: ------( chuck -- dac2 )--------------- [chuck]: device name = "hw:NVidia,1" [chuck]: probe [success] ... [chuck]: # output channels = 2 [chuck]: # input channels = 2 [chuck]: # duplex Channels = 2 [chuck]: default device = NO [chuck]: natively supported data formats: [chuck]: 16-bit int [chuck]: 32-bit int [chuck]: supported sample rates: [chuck]: 44100 Hz [chuck]: 48000 Hz [chuck]: 88200 Hz [chuck]: 96000 Hz [chuck]: 192000 Hz [chuck]: [chuck]: ------( chuck -- dac3 )--------------- [chuck]: device name = "hw:NVidia,2" [chuck]: probe [success] ... [chuck]: # output channels = 0 [chuck]: # input channels = 2 [chuck]: # duplex Channels = 0 [chuck]: default device = NO [chuck]: natively supported data formats: [chuck]: 16-bit int [chuck]: 32-bit int [chuck]: supported sample rates: [chuck]: 44100 Hz [chuck]: 48000 Hz [chuck]: 96000 Hz [chuck]: 192000 Hz [chuck]: [chuck]: ------( chuck -- dac4 )--------------- [chuck]: device name = "hw:CMI8738,0" [chuck]: probe [success] ... [chuck]: # output channels = 2 [chuck]: # input channels = 2 [chuck]: # duplex Channels = 2 [chuck]: default device = NO [chuck]: natively supported data formats: [chuck]: 16-bit int [chuck]: supported sample rates: [chuck]: 5512 Hz [chuck]: 8000 Hz [chuck]: 11025 Hz [chuck]: 16000 Hz [chuck]: 22050 Hz [chuck]: 32000 Hz [chuck]: 44100 Hz [chuck]: 48000 Hz [chuck]: 88200 Hz [chuck]: 96000 Hz [chuck]: [chuck]: ------( chuck -- dac5 )--------------- [chuck]: device name = "hw:CMI8738,1" [chuck]: probe [success] ... [chuck]: # output channels = 6 [chuck]: # input channels = 0 [chuck]: # duplex Channels = 0 [chuck]: default device = NO [chuck]: natively supported data formats: [chuck]: 16-bit int [chuck]: supported sample rates: [chuck]: 5512 Hz [chuck]: 8000 Hz [chuck]: 11025 Hz [chuck]: 16000 Hz [chuck]: 22050 Hz [chuck]: 32000 Hz [chuck]: 44100 Hz [chuck]: 48000 Hz [chuck]: 88200 Hz [chuck]: 96000 Hz [chuck]: [chuck]: ------( chuck -- dac6 )--------------- [chuck]: device name = "hw:CMI8738,2" [chuck]: probe [success] ... [chuck]: # output channels = 2 [chuck]: # input channels = 2 [chuck]: # duplex Channels = 2 [chuck]: default device = NO [chuck]: natively supported data formats: [chuck]: 16-bit int [chuck]: 32-bit int [chuck]: supported sample rates: [chuck]: 44100 Hz [chuck]: 48000 Hz [chuck]: 88200 Hz [chuck]: 96000 Hz [chuck]: [chuck]: ------( chuck -- dac7 )--------------- [chuck]: device name = "hw:Generic,3" [chuck]: probe [success] ... [chuck]: # output channels = 2 [chuck]: # input channels = 0 [chuck]: # duplex Channels = 0 [chuck]: default device = NO [chuck]: natively supported data formats: [chuck]: 16-bit int [chuck]: supported sample rates: [chuck]: 32000 Hz [chuck]: 44100 Hz [chuck]: 48000 Hz [chuck]: [chuck]: ------( chuck -- 2 MIDI inputs )------ [chuck]: [0] : "Midi Through Port-0" [chuck]: [1] : "C-Media CMI8738 MIDI" [chuck]: [chuck]: ------( chuck -- 4 MIDI outputs )----- [chuck]: [0] : "Midi Through Port-0" [chuck]: [1] : "C-Media CMI8738 MIDI" [chuck]: [2] : "OPL3 FM Port" [chuck]: [3] : "qjackctl" [chuck]: I've tried using dacs 4-6 with pasuspender to suppress pulseaudio, but nothing seems to work. The same thing happens without pasuspender; I don't know if it's actually required, but it's something I tried. Anyway, in an attempt to get some more information, I increased the log verbosity: $ pasuspender -- ./chuck --verbose5 --dac5 moe.ck **snip** [chuck]:(2:SYSTEM): | sample rate: 48000 [chuck]:(2:SYSTEM): | buffer size: 512 [chuck]:(2:SYSTEM): | num buffers: 8 [chuck]:(2:SYSTEM): | devices adc: 0 dac: 5 (default 0) [chuck]:(2:SYSTEM): | adaptive block processing: 0 [chuck]:(2:SYSTEM): | channels in: 2 out: 2 **snip** [chuck]:(3:SEVERE): starting real-time audio... [chuck]:(2:SYSTEM): RtApiAlsa: callback thread error... [chuck]:(5:INFORM): | (RtApiAlsa: audio read error for device (hw:NVidia,0): Input/output error.) [chuck]:(5:INFORM): | closing thread... What's going on here? I asked for the CMI8738, but I'm getting I/O errors from the nvidia device. At this point I'm completely lost. Help? -Alex

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Undocumented Features
by Jordan Orelli 31 May '11

31 May '11

What's the word on discussing and potentially documenting undocumented features? Occasionally I find it easier to just read the ChucK source than trying to find documentation for what I need, and I have noticed things that are undocumented. Their working state is questionable, but I have found at least one thing that is exceptionally convenient for me but remains unspoken of on the official documentation that appears to be stable: the Osc class. Internally it sits between UGen and the following classes on the inheritance tree: Phasor, SinOsc, TriOsc, SawOsc, PulseOsc, and SqrOsc. I find it useful for making collections of oscillators whose type I can change dynamically. I.e., in my current project, I have a two-dimensional array of Osc references that I can use to store a mixed collection of the aforementioned UGens. As an example, here's how I dynamically switch what base Osc object is being used, which would be much more verbose without the Osc class: fun void setPatch(string targetPatch, int column, int row) { if(!checkRange(column, row, "setPatch")) return; Osc s; // You can't use UGen here, because the UGen class has no freq property if(targetPatch == "SinOsc") { new SinOsc @=> s; } else if(targetPatch == "SqrOsc") { new SqrOsc @=> s; } else if(targetPatch == "SawOsc") { new SawOsc @=> s; } else if(targetPatch == "TriOsc") { new TriOsc @=> s; } else { cherr <= "Unrecognized targetPatch supplied in OscBank.setPatch:" <= targetPatch <= IO.newline(); } toneMap()[column][row] => s.freq; bank[column][row] =< gains[column][row]; s @=> bank[column][row] => gains[column][row]; } This seems to be a really general tool, since I'd wager that the supermajority of us go through ChucK 101 with little more than the SinOsc and Noise UGens. Where's the proper place to document my finding so that others can find it? Is there somewhere that this already happens? -Jordan

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[OT] a new email list (Live Group Computer Performance)
by Jascha Narveson 31 May '11

31 May '11

Hello, everybody - I'm forwarding this to the list on behalf of Charles Céleste Hutchins: ----- There is a new email list for discussion surrounding Live Group Computer Performance: http://groups.google.com/group/LiGroCoP We will be discussing issues about playing in and coding for LOrks, Laptop Ensembles, Laptop Bands and similar computer groups of three or more. ----- cheers, jascha

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Holodeck Phaser Practice
by Les Hall 27 May '11

27 May '11

I bet you didn't know that ChucK has a holodeck. Yep, an audio only holodeck with a real phaser target practice program. It works with any compatible phaser such as the Gyration Air Mouse Elite. If you have such a device, go to the following ChucK forum thread and get yourself a copy of the code. http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48028 Although slightly buggy, this code does work and I plan to do more with it, both fixing the wrap-around bug and adding lots of cool features. I'm open to suggestions on what else to add and what to refine, and if anyone could take a look at the if() statements in the mouse routine that wrap phaserTheta and phaserPhi to their angular limits, that would be greatly appreciated. Also note that the Gyration Air Mouse Elite has a healthy working range to it, so you can crank up your speakers and step out into the hallway or open floorspace so you have room to move around. People nearby will probably get a kick out of it also - tell them ChucK sent you. See you on the holodeck! Les

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ChucKchat Netlooping Instructions
by Les Hall 24 May '11

24 May '11

As requested, I have created a web page on electro-music.com that will help get you started netlooping with ChucKchat. Here it is: http://electro-music.com/article.php?t=47965 Les

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NetLooping Session
by Les Hall 23 May '11

23 May '11

Here is a forum thread containing a netlooping recording. It is funny: http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=47889 Les

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