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

Diatonic keyboard
by Hans Aberg 18 Apr '09

18 Apr '09

I was able to find one working combination by simply disconnecting the generators when the keys are released. ChucK does not seem to consume much resources at all. So I report it back here (I will do more work later). It is nice to play both melody lines and chords. The attached file contains descriptions. Hans

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Re: [chuck-users] Keyboard Stuff
by Hans Aberg 18 Apr '09

18 Apr '09

On 18 Apr 2009, at 08:26, Kassen wrote: > I agree with you here but I feel that voice cycling is quite > different from GC. Of course they can be similar; a voice that's no > longer used might become garbage, depending on the structure used It was not intended as a far reaching analogy - only that one may end up programming side issues rather than the main task. >> If there was a simple way, if that now was needed, to just being >> able to add generators and the program could sort out which ones >> were needed for the sound output, would that not be great? > > Yes, and it does this; ChucK only calculates UGens that are > connected (directly or through other UGens) to the dac or to > blackhole. No other UGens take cpu (at least not for calculating > sound). The problem with not calculating ones that are silent (as I > think you are sugesting) is that I might do things like have a > sample player connected through a envelope to fade it in and out > while it plays. If we wouldn't calculate the sample player we'd have > no way of knowing where in the sample it should be playing when it > is faded back in again. Yes, it may be a difficulty issue and not always possible. In the case of the fader, it must able report back to the source that it is not needed. - So there might be needed something similar to lazy evaluation or ray back-tracing. Such things must then be supported by the programming language. > ... what you likely need is a series of parallel sound sources and a > way to link those to notes. I will probably just start off with a few generators which will be allocated if available. There is a problem with key roll over on a typing keyboard, but one can learn to avoid it. >> Each new key, which initiates a sound generator, adds in CPU power >> after being allowed to settle down and not producing sound anymore >> about as much as 3 times when as full program at startup time. So >> there is a quick buildup of from these idle generators. > Yes. One of the factors here, aside from the BeeThree's is that you > use two Echo's and a reverb for each voice. Because both of those > effects are linear and time-invariant it doesn't matter (for the > sound) whether we send a BeeThree through it's effects, then mix the > effects together or whether we mix the BeeThree's and send all of > them through the effect chain. Now; while this may not matter to the > sound the second option does save us rather a lot of UGens, and > especially reverbs take a lot of CPU. I might try to simplify that. The echo effects may not be necessary at this point, I just want some pitches. > > Such a resource consuming problem might be fixed if each sound > generator could turn itself to sleep. Say there is a cutoff-level, > or something. > > Yes. there are two ways of doing that. First of all you can > "unchuck" (or disconnect) a UGen and when you do it will no longer > consume CPU. Like this; > > SinOsc s; > > while(1) > { > if ( s.isConnectedTo(dac) ) s =< dac; > else s => dac; > second => now; > } Thanks. I was just about to look for this. > Another way of making a UGen stop consuming cpu is to make the shred > that contained it's defininition (which is also the namespace > containing it) leave the VM. like this; > > JCRev r => dac; > .5 => r.mix; > > repeat(20) > { > spork ~ play ( Std.rand2(1,5) * 200, Std.rand2f(.5,2)::second ); > .5::second => now; > } > 5::second => now; > > fun void play( float freq, dur length) > { > SinOsc s => Envelope e => r; > .5 => s.gain; > freq => s.freq; > .5::length => e.duration; > 1 => e.keyOn; > .5::length => now; > > 1 => e.keyOff; > .5::length => now; > } > > Note, that while both methods free the CPU again neither frees the > memory used by the UGen. THat is less of a problem, in view of virtual memory. > I think that in the case of the last example we can free the memory > as well by making the function read like; > > > fun void play( float freq, dur length) > { > SinOsc s => Envelope e => r; > .2 => s.gain; > freq => s.freq; > .5::length => e.duration; > 1 => e.keyOn; > .5::length => now; > > 1 => e.keyOff; > .5::length => now; > > null @=> s; > null @=> e; > } > > that's a bit hacky though. It's good to get an idea of it. I did look a bit at the dynamic allocation of arrays. > Hope that clarifies. Yes. Thank you. Hans

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Keyboard Stuff
by Les Hall 17 Apr '09

17 Apr '09

Hans, Yes, you can do it simpler than that. I don't know for sure but I think the degeneration problem is because you are ChucKing up patches dynamically but never unChucKing them. So they build on top of one another and corrupt. Not sure but that's my guess. This may not be quite your answer, but i did implement a monome-like keyboard interface in my Digitar program. It does a crude attempt at Karplus-Strong string synthesis, which amazingly sounds like a real guitar. When you start the program it is silent, then when you press alphanumeric keys that puts logic table entries into the boolean sequencer that plays the guitar. Press F1 thru F4 to page the monome-like keyboard interface among the four vertical positions in the logic table, and press other function keys followed by the +/- keys to adjust stuff like distortion, reverb, etc. Oh, and watch the console monitor for the user interface. Enjoy! Les

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Re: [chuck-users] Keyboard Stuff
by Hans Aberg 17 Apr '09

17 Apr '09

On 17 Apr 2009, at 20:19, Kassen wrote: >> Even the ASCII keys may differ from the US, like the German >> keyboard layout, which swaps "z" and "y". > > There was a debate about that on this list a while ago. I think the > conclusion was "It's a confusing mess but it can be worked with with > some effort and care". Maybe that's just what I concluded though :¬). It strikes me that Chuck may not be good for mixing key numbers with the translated "AsCII" numbers. Ir seems one has to make choice of what to use. When mixing, one may want to pick up the event first and looking at both the key and the (eventual) Unicode number. So when doing a Hid kb; ... kb.recv(msg) one would want a function msg.char() that returns an "int": say -1 if no character, or the Unicode code point (character number) otherwise. Hans

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Polyphony
by Hans Aberg 17 Apr '09

17 Apr '09

Is there a better way to have parallel sound generators? - The key map in the attached file quickly corrupts on my computer: I want one for each key. (It is set in E31 with the key "J" set at A = 440 Hz, in the layout C# D# E# C D E F# G# A# B# Cb Db Eb F G A B Fb Gb Ab Bb C' And the organ sound generator is from hid/keyboard-organ.ck.) Hans

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Re: [chuck-users] Using typing keyboard for playing
by Hans Aberg 16 Apr '09

16 Apr '09

On 16 Apr 2009, at 02:33, Kassen wrote: >> There are problems with using MIDI-patches as they may not be able >> to produce intermediate pitches - pitch bends en E12 may also >> change tone color. > > Yes, I see. Fortunately with ChucK you can implement pitch-bend (if > you'd like to use it) in any way you see fit. There is a MIDI Tuning Standard (MTS) which allows one to set frequencies, but it is not widely implemented. And even that ignores the problem of scale stretch. >> Actually, I only played piano accordion. I was led to the diagram >> when trying to find something better than the E12 buttons. > > Me too, and now, years after I quit, I still have a inclination to > want to put musical keyboards vertical on the rare occasions that I > play them :¬). There is the Korg nanoKey which resembles accordion piano keys somewhat, and the Roland virtual accordions, but they are a bit ore pricey. Otherwise, the key map was known (in a mirror reversed version) in the 19th century, by Helmholtz and Bosanquet. >>> I myself favour the exact opposite in keyboards; a longer key- >>> travel with a distinct "click" (like the IBM Model "M"). Odd, >>> maybe as I used to play the accordion and still have one stored. >> >> There are different styles, but the sensitive firm touch is good >> for full-grown accordions when playing rapid music (like Balkan >> music). >> >> When playing buttons, the hand must be m,ore curved, and one cannot >> use much force. So I think more sensitive keys would be better for >> that. > > Oh, yes, I wouldn't dream of using the style of keyboard I like for > typing on a accordion. Composers use MIDI keyboards for typing when entering the score (into programs like Finale and Sibelius). >>> For your purposes the best tip I could probably give is that the >>> "midi" section of the examples also touches on polyphony. I think >>> you will benefit from looking at those examples as you are clearly >>> after chords. >> >> Perhaps, if one can avoid that microtonal tone color problem. > > Without pitch-bend I'd still assume you would want your keyboard to > be polyphonic. I don't think those examples even go into pitch-bend > but I might be mistaken. I meant that those examples will show you > how to do voice-cycling which is a rather useful technique as it > will avoid "garbage" in ChucK. Yes, thank you, it will take me some time to get to those examples. On keyboards, I think even when playing a single line legato, there will be overlap of keys. Once (two decades ago) I had a MIDI synth with limited simultaneous notes, and with too few sound generators assigned, the audio would be truncated. Hans

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Re: [chuck-users] The ChucK Show
by Les Hall 16 Apr '09

16 Apr '09

Adam, Thanks for the bio info, I'll read it or some of it next show. If you are looking for drums, then perhaps you will like kijjaz's drum class which is at the end of the attached file. It's my Generator program which creates No Wave, Rock, and Relaxation music. The switch at the top of the file selects which type, and it is set for Rock to demo the drums best. Please feel free to use, modify, distribute, or even profit from it. Les

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Using typing keyboard for playing
by Hans Aberg 15 Apr '09

15 Apr '09

I want to be able to play from the typing keyboard - the idea is that a note of specific frequency should be sounded as long as the key is held down. (Typically in an generalized diatonic key layout.) The function KBHit.getchar() does not seem to be the right thing, because it just gives a value when the key is depressed, not when it is released, and further, does not disable "key repeat". In addition, it would be better to get the key numbers, not the text key map translated values which may change (and not work one special key combinations). So can this playing functionality be achieved somehow? Hans Aberg

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performing with laptops
by Jay Klein 14 Apr '09

14 Apr '09

Hi all, I'm getting ready to start playing shows with a band that will mix live instrumentation with material from a laptop (primarily using Live, and ChucK at some point I hope). I've never done this before and I'm not sure of the best way to connect a laptop to a typical rock club's mixer/PA. I've found a small number of answers on the web that range from a simple cable between the laptop's headphone jack and RCA inputs on the mixer, to a firewire audio interface and a stereo DI box. Audio quality and hum from AC power are mentioned as reasons to go with more advanced solutions. I don't want to spend money and carry around these devices unnecessarily, but I'd also hate to be unprepared or inflict bad sound on the audience. There must be a lot of experience with this on this list, so what do you think? Apologies for the arguably off-topic post, but I wasn't sure where else to turn. I'll try to redeem myself with something more directly ChucK-related in the future. Thanks, -Jay

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The ChucK Show
by Les Hall 14 Apr '09

14 Apr '09

Adam, Thanks for your "conductor" dance music generator. After the holiday socializing I finally kranked it up and tested it with a simple microphone patch on a new setup. It sounds great! I'm going to feature it on this week's ChucK show. The new setup is miniAudicle on eMac with Y cable to headphones and split to a patch cable that connects emac headphones out to netbook line-in where edcast broadcasts. I can do it all on the eMac using soundflower but I don't have enough CPU for ChucK *and* MuSE broadcaster, so hence the use of two computers. Oh, by the way to make ChucK use relative paths you just put a dot in front of the filename, like this: "./dir/filename" instead of "/dir/filename", and in miniAudicle you go to preferences to select the current directory. I modified you code to work this way by addind the dots in the right files. Do you have any biographical information for me to read or paraphrase as I introduce your program? Anything would be good... Thanks, Les (Inventor)

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