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

instrument in function - good idea, or?
by Atte Andre Jensen 09 Oct '09

09 Oct '09

Hi I know I'm a bit slow, but I just found that it's quite simple to totally encapsulate an instrument in a function, ugens and all, as the example below shows. Now I'm wondering how much overhead this yields compared to keeping the ugens, ADSR.set and stuff like that outside the function? I guess part of the answer is it depends on what one needs to do. Do you need to play the instrument monophonically, with a small, fixed number of voices or ad-hoc polyphony. The instrument-in-a-function solution elegantly solves the polyphony problem, I can just spork as many voices as I need, and they are automatically destroyed when finished. But how great a peak in cpu usage does the creation of the ugens generate? 5 => int octave; .1 => float gain; [0,2,4,7,9,11,14,16] @=> int notes[]; while(true){ notes[Std.rand2(0,notes.cap()-1)] + 12*octave => int note; ms * Std.rand2f(1500,2000) => dur length; spork ~ ep(note, length, gain); ms * Std.rand2f(150,1500) => now; } fun void ep(int note, dur length, float gain){ 2::second => dur decay; 10::ms => dur release; SinOsc s1 => ADSR e1 => dac; SinOsc s2 => ADSR e2 => dac; gain => s1.gain; gain * .2 => s2.gain; e1.set(1::ms, decay, 0, release); e2.set(1::ms, decay * .3, 0, release); Std.mtof(note) => s1.freq; s1.freq() * 2=> s2.freq; e1.keyOn(); e2.keyOn(); if(length < decay){ length => now; e1.keyOff(); e2.keyOff(); release => now; } else { decay => now; } } -- Atte http://atte.dk http://modlys.dk http://virb.com/atte

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1.2.1.3 (dracula) unleashed!
by Ge Wang 06 Oct '09

06 Oct '09

Dear all, chuck-1.2.1.3 (dracula) is available: http://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/ http://chuck.stanford.edu/ This release, long overdue, introduces experimental/initial support for file I/O (thanks to many folks who have contributed, including Andrew Schran and Martin Robinson, both of whom have provided much implementation and design). Along with the file I/O functionality comes several new languages features and special objects, including using => and <= (the "back-chuck" operator, as Spencer calls it), as well as chout (stdout, pronounced "shout") and cherr (stderr, pronounced "Cher"). Additionally, a few of function overloading and other issues from the chuck-users list have been resolved (hopefully). As always, please let us know of any bugs/features you encounter! (Please see the release notes at the end of this email.) Many many thanks once again to Kassen, Inventor, and everyone on chuck-users, as well as the electro-music chuck forum, PLOrk, SLOrk, folks at Smule, Fernando Lopez-Lezcano, Carr Wilkerson, Chris Chafe, Andrew Schran, Martin Robinson, and the rest of the chuck community for making this release happen! Thanks and Happy ChucKing, UpChucKing! Best, Ge + Spencer, on behalf of entire chuck team VERSIONS --- 1.2.1.3 - (added) initial/experimental support for file I/O (finally) (thanks to Andrew Schran, Martin Robinson) - (added) new class: IO, FileIO see examples/io/: read-int.ck read-str.ck readline.ck - using readline write.ck - write using <= write2.ck - write using .write() - (added) IO input via => - (added) IO output via <= (the "back-chuck") example: fio <= x <= " " <= y <= "\n"; - (added) new syntax for checking if/while/for/until with IO objects e.g., while( fio => i ) { ... } - (added) StdOut/StdErr objects: "chout" (pronounced "shout") "cherr" (pronounced "Cher") - (added) Hid.open() now can accept a device name parameter - (added) analysis/tracking examples are now back (thanks to Kassen for looking into this) - (fixed) calling overloaded functions with most specific match e.g., Specific extends General: fun void foo( General obj ) { } fun void foo( Specific obj ) { } foo( obj $ Specific ); // should call foo( Specific ) (thanks to Robert Poor for reporting, to Kassen, David Rush, Michael Heuer, and Andrew C. Smith for follow-up) - (fixed) STK instruments control changes reports range issues as "control value exceeds nominal range"; previously printed hard-coded values that were potentially misleading (thanks to Kassen for reporting) - (fixed) all oscillators now produce audio for negative frequencies (thanks to Luke Dahl) - (fixed) incorrect UGen disconnect (thanks Kassen for reporting) - (fixed) type checker now validates if/while/for/until types - (fixed) linux compilation (for gcc 4.x) - (fixed) complilation on OS X Snow Leopard ~~~ Ge Wang Assistant Professor Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) Stanford University http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~ge/ ~ Co-founder, CTO, Chief Creative Officer Smule http://www.smule.com/ ~ http://twitter.com/gewang ~~~

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expanding paths
by Atte Andre Jensen 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

Hi Consider the following: "~/music/samples/seq/beats/bar_matched/spending.wav" => sample; //"/home/atte/music/samples/seq/beats/bar_matched/spending.wav" => sample; SndBuf s => dac; s.read(sample); This will yield an error [chuck](via SndBuf): cannot stat file '~/music/samples/seq/beats/bar_matched/spending.wav'... It seems chuck doesn't like the tilde (~), which on linux (I suppose osx too) is standard for "the current users home directory" in my case "/home/atte/. Are there any good advise for solving this in .ck-code or should I see if I could hack it in the source? -- Atte http://atte.dk http://modlys.dk http://virb.com/atte

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release 1.2.1.3: time (still) goes backwards
by Robert Poor 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

Ge (and everyone): I'm very excited about the new 1.2.1.3 release, and will dig more deeply into it this week. And like everyone else, I threw my favorite bug tests at it. One bug -- "time goes backwards" -- lingers. But the new release goaded me into creating a minimal test case that shows the problem. The real issue is that the scheduler gets confused about durations (or times) with fractional samples. So below is the test file. It's heavily commented, but the actual number of lines of code is small. Does anyone want to test this on a Windows or Linux build? Enjoy... - Rob Poor // ================================================================ // File: fractional_time_test.ck // // Summary: test file to demonstrate ChucK timing bug. // Applies to: chuck version: 1.2.1.3 (and earlier) // Submitted by: Robert Poor <rdpoor(a)gmail.com> // // Details: Chuck's scheduler does not properly handle times with // non-zero fractional parts. In general, a shred that waking from an // event always sees 'now' with a fractional part of 0. This has two // distinct manifestations: if 'now' had a fractional part of less // than or equal to 0.5 sample, in a waking shred, now is truncated to // the nearest integer sample. If now had a fractional part greater // than 0.5 sample, then the shred will fail to run until now advances // to the next higher sample, even if yield() is called in the // triggering shred. // // Executing this file following code produces this output: // ================================================================ // bsh% chuck --version // // chuck version: 1.2.1.3 (dracula) // exe target: mac os x : powerpc // http://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/ // // bsh% chuck --audio fractional_time_test.ck // 1.000000 0x5e7160 waiter: okay // 1.000000 0x5e5fd0 step: okay // 2.000000 0x5e7160 waiter time: expected 2.300000 but found 2.000000 // 2.300000 0x5e5fd0 step: okay // 3.600000 0x5e5fd0 step trigger count: expected 3 but found 2 // 4.000000 0x5e7160 waiter time: expected 3.600000 but found 4.000000 // bsh% // ================================================================ Event trigger; // trigger to signal waiter() int triggered_count; // # of times waiter() has run time triggered_time; // time at which trigger.broadcast() called spork ~ waiter(); // start the waiter shred // save some preset times. now + 1.0::samp => time t0; now + 2.3::samp => time t1; now + 3.6::samp => time t2; // t0 = 1.0 sample. this works normally: step() waits until now==1.0, // broadcasts on the trigger event and yields. waiter() then runs at // the expected time. step(t0); // t1 = 2.3 sample. this fails: step() waits until now==2.3, // broadcasts on the trigger event and yields. waiter() then runs, // but when it runs, 'now' is set to 2.0: time has gone backwards. step(t1); // t2 = 3.6 sample. this fails: step() waits until now==3.6, // broadcasts on the trigger event and yields. however, waiter() // fails to run until now has advanced past 4.0 step(t2); // make sure everything runs before we quit 1::second => now; fun void step(time t) { t => now; // wait for the designated time now => triggered_time; // record wake time triggered_count+1 => int i; // record expected trigger count trigger.broadcast(); // trigger the waiter() shred me.yield(); // ... and give it time to run // verify that the waiter() shred actually ran if (triggered_count != i) { <<< now, me, "step trigger count: expected", i, "but found", triggered_count >>>; } else { <<< now, me, "step: okay" >>>; } } fun void waiter() { while (true) { trigger => now; // wait for trigger.broadcast() / me.yield() triggered_count++; // prove that this shred has run // verify that 'now' agrees with expected wake time if (now != triggered_time) { <<< now, me, "waiter time: expected", triggered_time, "but found", now >>>; } else { <<< now, me, "waiter: okay" >>>; } } } // EOF

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playing raw audio files
by Renato Fabbri 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

Hi List, I didnt figure out how to read/play raw audio files in chuck, and didn't find any doc either. say i want to read a mono "rawsound.raw" as 16bit samples and 8kHz sample rate (say playback sample rate is determined beforehand). Is there a way to read and play such a raw audioo data or should i need to convert to wav or similar? best, rf

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serfault under arch (again) + profiling
by Atte Andre Jensen 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

Hi I hit the wall (cpu/chuck performance wise) again, and thought I'd profile chuck with gdb, in the unlikely event something lands in my lap :-) However, I then realized that the chuck I build under arch is segfaulting (have been mentioned here before). So I have two questions: 1) Could anyone help me (and arch users) with getting chuck to run under arch? Some info would be: gcc version 4.4.1, jackdmp version 1.9.2, chuck version 1.2.1.2. I don't know what else to provide, I'll gladly supply all the information needed :-) 2) Has anyone done any profiling or attempts to get chuck to run more efficiently? Are there any work being done in this area? What about the new release (Ge spoke about it a few days ago)? Is there any improvements in there? -- Atte http://atte.dk http://modlys.dk http://virb.com/atte

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New FileIO options, broken stuff from CVS: FileIO.read(int)
by Andrew C. Smith 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

Dear List (mostly Ge & other people who know about the brand-new dracula) First of all, great new ChucK. The FileIO is great to have, and it's good to see it implemented fairly comprehensively. I like how FileIO.readInt() or readFloat() just becomes FileIO => (int), too. Anyway, I was previously using FileIO.read(int) in my Scala file importer to parse a line and look for a "/" after the first integer (making it a ratio, rather than cents). There doesn't seem to be a FileIO.read method around anymore, though, which makes some sense since readInt and readFloat aren't used now. I was going to wade back through the source, which is where I found read(int) in the first place, but thought I should at least let you all know that the method was being used. Are there any good alternatives to .read()? My issue with reading in a string was that there's no space between the number and the "/" in Scala files, so it would read as one long string. Then, parsing the string into multiple bits, all that sort of thing...really difficult. My method was to read in a float, look for a "/" (with .read(1) == "/" ), and if it found one read in another float and calculate the ratio; if it didn't find one, calculate it as musical cents. Thanks for the help. Best, Andrew

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Passing classes to functions
by Adam Tindale 04 Oct '09

04 Oct '09

Hi All, I was doing some work and created some bugs that I ironed out when I discovered something: when non-primitive types are passed to functions they are passed by reference and not by value! I include a test so you can see what I mean. I hope somebody find this useful. --art class test{ 0 => int val; } test obj1; // obj2 is a reference to obj1 test obj2 @=> obj1; <<< obj1.val , "original object">>>; <<< obj2.val , "reference to original">>>; 2 => obj2.val; <<< obj1.val , "original object">>>; <<< obj2.val , "reference to original">>>; fun void testclasspassing(test i) { <<< i.val, "in function" >>>; } testclasspassing(obj1); testclasspassing(obj2);

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forward reference oddity
by Robert Poor 03 Oct '09

03 Oct '09

Here's another oddity. The following file: --------------------------------------- // file: ouroboros.ck class Ouro { Boros @ boros; fun void set_boros(Boros boros) { <<< this.toString(), "set_boros(", boros.toString(), ")" >>>; boros @=> this.boros; } } class Boros { Ouro @ ouro; fun void set_ouro(Ouro ouro) { <<< this.toString(), "set_ouro(", ouro.toString(), ")" >>>; ouro @=> this.ouro; } } --------------------------------------- gets a compile-time error: --------------------------------------- r% chuck ouroboros.ck [ouroboros.ck]:line(5): class 'Boros' has no member 'toString' [ouroboros.ck]: ...in function 'set_boros' --------------------------------------- This is odd, since (AFAIK) toString() is defined on the Object class, and all classes inherit from Object. If I remove the toString() call on boros as below, it compiles without error. Note chat ChucK has no problem compiling ouro.toString() in function 'set_ouro': --------------------------------------- // file: ouroboros.ck class Ouro { Boros @ boros; fun void set_boros(Boros boros) { <<< this.toString(), "set_boros(", boros, ")" >>>; boros @=> this.boros; } } class Boros { Ouro @ ouro; fun void set_ouro(Ouro ouro) { <<< this.toString(), "set_ouro(", ouro.toString(), ")" >>>; ouro @=> this.ouro; } } --------------------------------------- Is this because Boros is a forward reference? And is this not a bug? - Rob

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The ChucK Show on iTunes
by Les Hall 02 Oct '09

02 Oct '09

Fellow ChucKists, I have great news. Unless I'm mistaken, this news is so exciting I don't really believe it's true. Shane Morris of www.electro-music.com just told me that iTunes is going to list the internet radio station that airs The ChucK Show in it's (arguably huge) list of stations! Wow, I'm excited about this. I don't know what to think, other than I should just "Keep on ChucKin'". Tomorrow at 7pm EST will be "The Game Show" which will have a lot of ChucK music on it. It's sort of a cross between the classic shows "Name That Tune" and "The Gong Show". I will play a variety of music, all from electro-music.com members, and then people in the chatroom will try to guess the author, song name, software or hardware used to create the music, etc. Multiple points are awarded each song as people guess different stuff. And my friend Bill will mail out a CD to the winner. A good time is practically a guarantee, so tune in if you can. Again, I'm not quite sure if this is real but I think it is so if you'd like your ChucK music to appear on iTunes, send me mp3's or code. Actually send both! mp3's are better if you use much CPU at all because all I have a little 5 year old eMac and it's busy running the show controller as well. See you on the radio, Les For those about to ChucK, we salute you! - Ge Wang

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class abuse
by Robert Poor 01 Oct '09

01 Oct '09

I can hardly call this a bug, since people who go around casting classes get what they deserve, but it's unexpected behavior nonetheless. Consider the following -- the salient point is that General is a super class, Specific extends General. =================== class General { fun void announce() { <<< "I am general:", this.toString() >>>; } } class Specific extends General { fun void announce() { <<< "I am specific:", this.toString() >>>; } } fun General create(int type) { // factory method return (type==0)?(new General):((new Specific) $ General); } fun void process(General obj) { <<< "processing general object:", obj.toString() >>>; } fun void process(Specific obj) { <<< "processing specific object:", obj.toString() >>>; } General @ obj; create(0) @=> obj; // [1] create a General object obj.announce(); // [2] calls General.announce() process(obj); // [3] calls process(General obj) create(1) @=> obj; // [4] create a Specific object obj.announce(); // [5] calls Specific.announce() process(obj); // [6] calls process(General obj) process(obj $ Specific); // [7] calls process(General obj) =================== which produces the following (I've annotated the line numbers): =================== r% chuck classtest.ck [2] I am general: General:5df960 [3] processing general object: General:5df960 [5] I am specific: Specific:5de400 [6] processing general object: Specific:5de400 [7] processing general object: Specific:5de400 =================== Lines [1], [2], [3] do what you expect: creates a general object, calls the General.announce() method, and calls the process() function which has the <General obj> signature. So far so good. Lines [4], [5] also do what's expected: creates a Specific object and calls the Specific.announce() method. Line [6] is up for grabs. I half expected it to call the version of process() with the <Specific obj> signature (since it called the Specific.announce() method at step [5]). On the other hand, obj was declared as a General class, so it doesn't surprise me that it called the version of process() with the <General obj> signature. Line [7] is what bugs me: obj is cast to the Specific class, and the ChucK compiler _knows_ this at compile time. Yet it calls the process(General obj) function, NOT the process(Specific obj) function. If ChucK uses run-time checking for signature discrimination, then [6] should call process(Specific obj). But it uses compile time checking, right? So why doesn't it call process(Specific obj) in step [7]? I promise not to lose too much sleep over this. If someone familiar with ChucK's type system wants to report this as a bug, be my guest. I'm just happy to find that ChucK has a smidgen of run-time type discrimination (as evidenced at [5]). - Rob

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watchdog activate!
by Andrew C. Smith 01 Oct '09

01 Oct '09

[chuck]:(3:SEVERE): real-time watchdog counter-measure activating... What does that mean? How can I fix it? The shell/--loop prints it (and then stops working) fairly often, usually when I hit lots of notes really fast. Andrew

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object / class hacking
by Robert Poor 01 Oct '09

01 Oct '09

Chucksters: Three questions in one message (generally a bad idea, but they're short): [1] Accessing class name from an object I seem to recall seeing a way to get an object to yield its class name, if only for printing. But I haven't been able to locate the e- mail thread where that was discussed. Was I hallucinating? (I really only want this for debugging, but if it's a supported function, it may be useful for dispatching on class type.) [2] initializing an object Is there a subclassable method that is called when you instantiate an object? or do have to instantiate then initialize manually, as in: public class Foo { Controller @ c; fun void init(Controller c) { c @=> this.c } } Foo foo; foo.init(x); [3] "natural" sorting of objects Is there any attribute of an object that you can reliably use as a sort key? I ask because I want to speed up searching of an array of objects (e.g. to see if an object is already present). As I understand it, I can't use a hash array since there are no iterators. I guess the question should be: what's the fastest way to maintain a *set* of objects (i.e. a collection in which an object may only appear once) with the usual operations for insertion, deletion and iteration? TIA. - rob

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new versions?
by Fernando Lopez-Lezcano 01 Oct '09

01 Oct '09

I realize that no new big things may have changed at the source level that would trigger a new release of chuck and, say, miniaudicle. But. Isn't it time to do it anyway? Anyone downloading and trying to compile either package from source in a modern up to date linux distro will find that the software does not build. Not a good first time experience. Chuck should move with the times, including patching it for stricter (current) gcc releases, etc, etc. IMHO, of course. -- Fernando

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Re: [chuck-users] implementing a set (was object / class hacking)
by Robert Poor 30 Sep '09

30 Sep '09

Hans: To simultaneously stand my ground and display my ignorance: I've written several flavors of hash tables in my life, but I'm not sure how the Stroustrup code sample helps in this case. If you are suggesting that I hack the Chuck source code, you should know that I do entertain such ideas from time to time, but I usually come back to my senses within 25::samp -- it's just not on my list of priorities. A "written entirely in ChucK" solution -- albeit non-optimal in execution speed -- is good enough for my needs. I'm more into optimizing my days than my milliseconds. Thanks, though. - Rob On 30 Sep 2009, at 14:01, Hans Aberg wrote: > On 30 Sep 2009, at 22:12, Robert Poor wrote: > >> To clarify: I'd like to implement a set for storing a collection of >> homogenous objects. Specifically, I need to be able to test for >> the presence of an object in the set, add an object to the set (if >> not already present), delete a object from the set, and iterate >> over all the objects in the set. This last requirements, sadly, >> eliminates Chuck's "associative arrays". >> >> It's worth pointing out that: >> >> arbitraryobject.toString() >> >> will generate a string of the form "ClassName:hexLocation". >> Assuming that Chuck NEVER (ever) relocates a live object in memory >> (Chuck has a reference counting GC, not a copying GC, true?), that >> string could be useful as a unique ID. But Chuck lacks the string >> operations to reduce a string into a hash key. > > Bjarne Stroustrup, "The C++ Programming Language", 3.1.3, has a > simple hash function: > name* look(const char* p, int ins=0); > name* insert(const char* s) { look(s, 1); } > > struct name { > char* string; > name* next; > double value; > } > > const TBLSZ = 23; > name* table[TBLSZ]; > > name* look(const char* p, int ins=0) { > int ii = 0; > const char* pp = p; > while (*pp) ii = ii<<1 ^ *pp++; // Hash function using eor: ii<<1; > ii ^= *pp++; > > if (ii < 0) ii = -ii; // Reduce to array range. > ii %= TBLSZ; > > for (name* n = table[ii]; n; n = n->next) // Search > if (strcmp(p, n->string) == 0) return n; > > if (ins == 0) error("name not found"); > > name* nn = new name; // Insert > nn->string = new char[strlen(p) + 1]; > strcpy(nn->string, p); > nn->value = 1; > nn->next = table[ii]; > table[ii] = nn; > return nn; > } > > Hans

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[ot] Technical Director and Audio Specialist positions at Princeton
by dan trueman 30 Sep '09

30 Sep '09

apologies for the off-topic posting, but i thought this might get the word it to a bunch of the right people; please share this with anyone or any lists you think appropriate, and direct questions my way. thanks!! dan Technical Director The Music Department at Princeton University is seeking a Technical Director of Electronic and Computer Music Studios and The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk). The position provides technical facilities management support for the Music Department. The selected candidate will provide instruction and consultation on the use of facilities and on music technology in general, and will provide other services as needed for Music Department faculty and students. The Technical Director will analyze department technology needs; direct the purchase and maintenance of equipment to fill these needs; and design, install and maintain the Music Department’s electronic music studios. Additional duties include working with students and faculty on the design and implementation of experimental systems and interfacing with the Princeton University Office of Information Technology. The Technical Director performs production work for faculty recording projects, including editing, mixing, and mastering. He or she also serves as Assistant Director of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) which includes the redesign, development and maintenance of PLOrk technologies, assistance in the instruction of core electronic and computer music courses, and creative contribution to, participation in, and support of, PLOrk performances both on and off-campus. Education required: Bachelor’s degree Essential qualifications: One to three years of direct or related experience, experience with contemporary audio software and hardware, and a working knowledge of music literature and musical style characteristics. Note: Five months of the year this position has a demanding work schedule and the successful candidate must be able to work evenings and weekends as needed. Preferred qualifications: Hardware and software RAID arrays, extensive experience in hardware maintenance and repair, data recovery and disposal software and strategies (ex: Boot n’ Nuke), diagnostic software and strategies (ex: SMART, PC-Doctor), security software and strategies (ex: Symantec Antivirus), Max/MSP, Supercollider, ChucK, basic practical electronics knowledge and skills, Protools and Final Cut Studio, Peak Pro, Digital Performer, Logic Studio, and audio software development skills. Also desirable is experience in programming and electronics, although it is assumed that most candidates will learn new skills while in the position. Graduate work in electronic/computer music and/or music composition is desirable. Full-time salary minimum: $51,100. Note: this is a half-time position. Depending on the candidate’s interests and qualifications, this position and the Audio Specialist position have the option of being combined into a single, full-time position. To apply: Applicants should submit their curriculum vitae, a cover letter and a list of the names and addresses of three people who are willing to write on their behalf by November 1, 2009. Princeton University is an equal opportunity employer and complies with applicable EEO and affirmative action regulations. Please apply online at http://jobs.princeton.edu +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Audio Specialist The Department of Music at Princeton University is seeking an Audio Specialist. The position provides professional-quality audio engineering services and technical facilities management support for the Music Department’s performances in Taplin Auditorium, other campus venues and off-campus if required. The selected candidate will oversee concert recording, sound reinforcement and other audio services for Music Department faculty and students. The Audio Specialist will analyze department recording and sound reinforcement technology needs and direct the purchase and maintenance of equipment to fill these needs. Additional duties include working with students and faculty on the design and implementation of experimental systems and supervising the student position of assistant audio specialist. The Technical Director performs production work for faculty recording projects, including editing, mixing, and mastering. Education Required: Bachelor’s degree Essential Qualifications: One to three years of experience in audio/ recording technology and sound reinforcement, experience with contemporary audio software and hardware, working knowledge of music literature and musical style characteristics, microphone use and recording techniques. Note: Five months of the year this position has a demanding work schedule and the successful candidate must be able to work evenings and weekends as required. Preferred Qualifications: Audio software development skills, ProTools and Final Cut Studio, Peak Pro, Digital Performer, Logic Studio, Sibelius, Finale, Tonmeister Technology trained. Salary minimum: $47,800 for full-time position. Note: this is a half- time position. Depending on the candidate’s interests and qualifications, this position and the Technical Director position have the option of being combined into a single, full-time position. To apply: Applicants should submit curriculum vitae, a cover letter and a list of the names and addresses of three people who are willing to write on their behalf by November 1, 2009. Princeton University is an equal opportunity employer and complies with applicable EEO and affirmative action regulations. Please apply online at http://jobs.princeton.edu or (less preferred option)—mail to: Search Committee, Attention: Marilyn Ham, Princeton University, Department of Music, 310 Woolworth Center, Princeton, NJ 08544.

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rate parameter for StkInstruments?
by Robert Poor 30 Sep '09

30 Sep '09

A subset of StkInstruments (BlowBotl, BlowHole, Bowed, Brass, Clarinet, Flute, Saxofony) take a "rate" parameter. Looking at the source code suggests that it's supposed to control the envelope rate, but I'm not convinced. Setting to values between .001 and 1000.0 doesn't appear to make any audible difference, at least for the few cases I've tried, as in: Saxofony sax => JCRev r => dac; .5 => r.gain; .05 => r.mix; [ 61, 66, 63, 68, 65 ] @=> int notes[]; while( true ) { 0.5 => sax.stiffness; 0.5 => sax.aperture; 0.5 => sax.noiseGain; 0.5 => sax.blowPosition; 6.0 => sax.vibratoFreq; 0.1 => sax.vibratoGain; 0.5 => sax.pressure; for (.01 => float rate; rate <= 10000.0; 10.0 *=> rate) { <<< "rate: ", rate >>>; rate => sax.rate; for( int i; i < notes.cap(); i++ ) { Std.mtof( -12 + notes[i] ) => sax.freq; 0.6 => sax.noteOn; 300::ms => now; 1.0 => sax.noteOff; 100::ms => now; } } } The code examples don't show it being used. Can anyone shed light on the .rate parameter? (I was hoping to make a Clarinet or Saxofony with a sharper attack time, but now I'm simply curious.) - Rob

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Scala importer, FileIO capabilities
by Andrew C. Smith 28 Sep '09

28 Sep '09

All right, admit if you've made a Scala file importer. If not, it's about time that it was done, likely not to extend mtof() directly but rather as a separate public class/static method (like Scala.mtof or something). I know you're probably sick of hearing about microtonal things, but I've just been having a tough time getting a sustainable system going where I can work with an existing scale archive and develop my own tunings reasonably easily. I think a Scala converter is where it's at. If it hasn't been done, can someone tell me (before I send this to the dev list) where in the source the FileIO capabilities are? I just finished building ChucK with Xcode, so I'm ready to dive in and make some mistakes. Side projects for extending FileIO also include implementing the tinyXML file parser, which would let us easily parse XML files with ChucK. So, hands up if anyone has been working with FileIO to a large extent. Andrew

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hid questions
by Atte Andre Jensen 27 Sep '09

27 Sep '09

Hi I'm working a bit with HID at the moment. The goal is to get input from the buildin touchpad and keyboard into miniAudicle under linux. Problems (testing with mouse.ck and kb.ck from examples/hid): 1) I can't get the touchpads input into neither chuck or miniAudicle. An external usb mouse seems to work fine both in chuck and miniAudicle, though. I'd rather have the touch pad going for this purpose, though. 2) I can't get the keyboard into miniAudicle. It works fine in chuck, though. Any ideas are more than welcome! Nb: I'm on two laptops a toshiba (arch linux) and an eee (ubuntu 9.04) , although I'm still not able to run the mini under arch... -- Atte http://atte.dk http://modlys.dk http://virb.com/atte

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strange mini behaviour/ubuntu
by Atte Andre Jensen 26 Sep '09

26 Sep '09

Hi One of my students want to run miniAudicle under ubuntu 9.04. I helped him compile it, but for some reason it behaves quite strange. When the VM is started it shows run time of some large number (36276252.3645 or something) and when the first shred with sound-generating a ugen connected to dac is added the mini segfaults. I never saw this behaviour before, any idea what's up? NB: Sorry for the rather imprecise error report, I only saw his machine once, about a week ago... -- Atte http://atte.dk http://modlys.dk http://virb.com/atte

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Grains make garbage:(
by kurt 25 Sep '09

25 Sep '09

Hello all- I have been doing some granular synthesis in ChucK and I am trying to create overlapping grains without having resort to arrays of Ugens or similar methods to create polyphony. Although I have seen this technique used often, the following seems to eat up memory rather quickly (due to continuously sporking the SndBuf no doubt). //BEGIN CODE --> //use your own file here... Std.getenv("SSDIR")+"/"+"Percussion"+"/"+"snare.wav" => string filename; fun void voice(){ SndBuf s => Envelope e => dac; filename => s.read; .5 => s.gain; s.pos(Std.rand2(0, s.samples())); 5::ms => e.duration; e.keyOn(); 45::ms => now; e.keyOff(); 5::ms => now; } //spork away and make lots of overlapping SndBufs while (15::ms => now){ spork ~ voice(); } //<--END CODE I guess I am wondering if there is a way to release Ugen references or do I need to wait for garbage collection to liberally spork Ugens? I have looked over these threads... garbage collection: https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/pipermail/chuck-users/2009-March/003978.html https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/pipermail/chuck-users/2009-July/004473.html granular: https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/pipermail/chuck-users/2008-May/002917.html ...and they seem to indicate that i should declare a finite number of Ugens and juggle them somehow (not as cool as my RAM hungry example). The ability release unreferenced Ugens would facilitate the easy polyphony one gets when using Csound and really make ChucK awesomer (fingers crossed). Thanks ahead of time for any input. Kurt

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Click Monster
by Joel Matthys 21 Sep '09

21 Sep '09

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Fwd:Live coding survey - please respond!
by Kassen 17 Sep '09

17 Sep '09

fellow Chuckists, Alex just send this to the TOPLAP list, there may be some here who would be willing to participate yet not on that list. I'm forwarding this because I feel the results should be of help to all of us. Yours, Kas. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: alex <alex(a)lurk.org> Date: 2009/9/17 Subject: [livecode] Live coding survey - please respond! To: livecode(a)toplap.org Hi all, I'm doing a quick survey gathering the thoughts of live coders for a report I'm writing. If you've done some live coding in any capacity from playing around with live coding interfaces at home up, I'd be very grateful for your time. The survey is rather short, but with a bit of space to expand on your answers if you wish. Here it is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=X3s1aI61hCvaoKTZGCthuA_3d_3d Thanks, alex

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chuck shell...
by kurt 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

Hello all-First of all, I love ChucK shell!!! But I wondered if there are any plans for ChucK shell improvements in the works? It would be nice to have some normal shell type stuff... Tab-completion, command line history (it would be sweet to 'up-arrow', then 'enter key' to keep adding the same shred), the ability to change directories (or at least the ../../ syntax would be nice, cause, as it stands, one has to use absolute path names for files not in the working directory), and to move the cursor with the arrow keys to edit commands. Also it might be cool if when querying active shreds (the '^' command) it would be cool if the child shreds were indented a level from the parent shreds. It would be nice if you could add and remove shreds by name (eg. all shreds named "foo.ck" could be removed by some command like '-! foo", i dunno?). I feel kinda lame asking about this stuff, but I figured if some awesome ChucK dev out there was thinking about spiffying up the shell for the next ChucK release they might be stoked to know someone out there was exited about potential improvements. thanks. K.

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Static data problem (arrays, floats)
by Andrew C. Smith 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

Hey list, Basically, I want a static function that holds a tuning map in it (sort of an alternative to mtof). This (issue 1): float tuning_map[128]; Gives me: [Rational_io.ck]:line(45): non-static member 'tuning_map' used from static function... [Rational_io.ck]: ...in function 'read' and this (issue 2): static float tuning_map[128]; gives me: [Rational_io.ck]:line(16): cannot declare static non-primitive objects (yet)... [Rational_io.ck]:line(16): ...(hint: declare as ref (@) & initialize outside for now) and this (issue 3): static float @ tuning_map[128]; gives me: [Rational_io.ck]:line(16): cannot declare references (@) of primitive type 'float'... [Rational_io.ck]:line(16): ...(primitive types: 'int', 'float', 'time', 'dur') So, I'm just at an impasse. I can't figure out how to do this, because it won't let me declare things. To get around issue 2 in an earlier segment, I did: static FileIO @ tuning; new FileIO @=> tuning; which worked perfectly (tests well, too). But I can't do it with my float array because of issue 3. Any solutions? Andrew

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