Alchemy Tutorial Part I [MatrixSynth]

Alchemy Tutorial 1 - Part 1

YouTube via CamelAudio
"This is part 1 of the 1st tutorial on the features of Alchemy - the new ultimate sample manipulation synthesizer from Camel Audio.
http://www.camelaudio.com"

Alchemy Tutorial 1 - Part 2


Alchemy Tutorial 1 - Part 3

AirWindows Audio Unit Plug-ins

Chris Johnson is the brains behind the AirWindows audio units plug-ins, which he breaks down into the following groups: tape/tube, dynamics, effects, eq, emulation, mastering, modulation, spatial, bizarre and EXS24 (the sampler for Logic Pro). On the main page, there is also a large number of FREE plug-ins, such as the useful channel, an analog simulation plug-in.

Chris forgoes the faux vintage knob thing, but focuses on good sounding plug-ins, such as the Iron Oxide tape simulation plug-in or his LA2A compressor emulation, Smooth.

Comparing Kyma, Max/MSP and a Nord Modular [GearSlutz post]

As a long-time Max/MSP user (since the MIDI only days of 1990) and a long-time Kyma/Capabara longer-for, I read with some satisfaction this useful post comparing the learning curve of sound quality of these environments.

Max/MSP: AU object for using audio unit plug-ins

From Michael Norris software: a beta version of a Max/MSP object that lets you use installed AudioUnits audio plug-ins [ Mac ]. If you've got a fair number of plug-ins this can be really useful, similar in spirit to some of the prior Vst~ objects.

Online Text: The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music [ Miller Puckette ]

Miller Puckette, the original instigator behind Max and the author of the open source version, Pd, has posted an online HTML version of his text, The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music.

Also, here is a Page With Links to Examples

Visualizing sound with an Arduino [ from MAKE ]

Nick Lally has a nice post about visualizing sound on an Arduino. He uploaded the Processing and Arduino code so you can try it out yourself. This looks like a good place to start learning about the Minim library and Processing.

I modified another old Processing program of mine to graphically react to sound using the Minim library. The program outputs the sound level to an Arduino connected to a breadboard, creating a sound level meter using LEDs. The code is a bit sloppy (and uncommented!) as I quickly tried to prototype these ideas.

Arduino, Processing and Sound from nick lally on Vimeo.

More about Visualizing sound with an Arduino

In the Maker Shed:


Bare Bones Arduino Board Kit (Unassembled)

Demonstration of eyeSequencer

This video demonstration by Patrick in Karlsruhe of eyeSequencer is based on the imagery of people's eyes used as a generative source. The video analysis is done in Processing and Open Sound Control (OSC) messages are generated and sent to SuperCollider and Ableton Live.

YouTube SuperCollider Overview

A one minute overview of using SuperCollider posted on YouTube. The YouTube page is here.

Percussa AudioCubes

I've been interested in alternative controllers like the AudioCubes so I was interested to hear that they are coming up with a beta version of an SDK written as a C-based library and designed to integrated with the C++ JUCE framework. No, I don't know what that is, either, but it sounds good...

Today's SuperCollider Links

I continue to be a fan of the open source computer music language SuperCollider which can produce some amazing sounds. I confess to being somewhat of a preset tweaker myself, though many neurons ago, I did spend a lot of time trying to create my own instrument patches in SC as well as CSound. I still seek out SC documentation and examples on the web. Here are a few from the latest round-up:

• Tour of the Unit Generators
• Nick Collins' course on Computational Music 1 and Computational Music 2
• Guide to downloading and installing the latest SC 3 Build in OS X
• The original but deprecated audiosynth page from SC 2
• The Sourceforge Page with links and resources to the eList, Wiki, nightly builds

MuO musical objects for Squeak

I briefly caught the SmallTalk bug in the early 90's when I was interested in algorithmic composition. These days, music programmers like Stéphane Rollandin are writing for the open source version called Squeak.

Stéphane is porting his MIDI/Csound GeoMaestro environment to Squeak as MuO, and it looks pretty interesting.

Synaesthesia and SuperCollider

Here's a SuperCollider-oriented blog that contains some good stuff:

Synaesthesia and the Affect of Programming in SuperCollider
Forming a relationship with [SuperCollider] code in order to realise the body as an immersive environment.

A few plug-ins I'm trying out this week

Here are a few of the plug-ins I'm trying out this week (in Logic, my DAW) and why:

	Pianoteq 2.3 I already can make really nice piano sounds with the Logic 8 EXS24-based sampler presets (Bosendorfer, Steinway, Yamaha) but this is a physically-modeled piano, not a sample-derived player, so it has a low footprint (at the expense of CPU cycles) and presumably, greater sonic flexibility. I'm hoping to get some unusual sounds that depart from what you might expect a piano to sound like.
	Automat1 1.01 I don't use subtractive synthesis all that much, but this one is freeware so I usually pick up a couple of things like this and see if I can make any good sounds quickly.
	Automaton This is by Audio Damage, and I'm a big fan of their plug-ins. This might evolve into some interesting things if feed the right source input sounds.
	Nodal This might be overly complicated, but it looks like an interesting user interface which may or may not generate interesting music.

SoundHack Delay Trio plug-ins

Tom Erbe, the developer of SoundHack, today released a new version of the freeware SoundHack Delay Trio plug-ins.

All three are derived from a hermite interpolated delay line with variable modulation, and a feedback loop with DC blocking and saturation. Pitch shifting is achieved with a dual head crossfading delay (ala Eltro Tempophon/Dennis Gabor/Pierre Schaeffer phonogene) and is decidedly low-fi. The saturating feedback also allows them to be great drone and noise generators.

The three plugins are +delay, which presents all classic delay effects; +pitchdelay, which is essentially the same plugin with controls oriented toward pitch shifting; and finally +bubbler, which is a granular delay in which grains are pulled from the delay line with randomized start time, delay time and pitch shift.

Version 6.05 can be considered the first real release. Windows users should uninstall previous versions. Windows is for VST and RTAS, Mac is for VST, RTAS and AU, all are freeware.

Windows - http://music.ucsd.edu/~tre/soft/SDT605.zip
Mac - http://music.ucsd.edu/~tre/soft/SDT605.dmg
Manual - http://music.ucsd.edu/~tre/soft/SDT605Manual.pdf

Audio Damage plug-in videos

I'm a big fan of Audio Damage plug-ins and a regular reader of Chris Randall's blog so I was happy to see that Chris is putting out some useful video tutorial and example videos of how to use some of the plug-ins, particular Dr. Device, which is a complex filtering/effects plug-in.


Dr. Device Overview... from Audio Damage on Vimeo.

Demystifiying Sound Design: 15 Online Resources [CDM]

Posted today on Create Digital Music by W. Brent Latta:

Waveforms, pictured by altemark

Composer, musician, and sound designer W. Brent Latta knows something about sound design, currently working professionally on sound for games with Amaze Entertainment. As an enthusiast of what it takes to craft sound, he’s put together a list for us of where to go to learn more and hone your abilities, from fundamentals to the specifics required by film/video and games. -Ed.

Sound design is a fundamental aspect of nearly every form of digital media, from music production to games to commercial radio. Sometimes seen as a ‘dark art’, sound design can also be viewed as difficult and mysterious, often deterring would-be creators. Here are 15 sound design resources to help rookies and veterans alike.

Fundamentals

The fundamentals of sound design rest firmly on the core fundamentals of audio engineering. Without a working knowledge of basic audio engineering, your road to becoming a sound designer could be a long one. Here are some resources to help get you off on the right foot.

1. AudioTuts.com is a great place to start learning basic and advanced techniques for audio production. Even if you have no interest in producing music, taking the time to work through both sound design and music production tutorials will quickly give you practical, hands-on experience with the techniques you’ll need to get your sound design career moving.

2. Sound On Sound has a voluminous archive of audio, music and production tutorials. These range from the most fundamental techniques of sound synthesis, all the way up to specific techniques using outboard effects processors.

3. Digital Pro Sound has a nice archive of tutorials and articles covering a range of applications, plug-ins, and general techniques.

Sound For Film

Sound design master Randy Thom. Courtesy Skywalker Sound.

Sound for film has a long and proud history, with a level of camaraderie and support that is not often found in other aspects of various media industries. As sound designers, we are fortunate to have a plethora of amazing individuals who help promote our work, keep us informed, and help us keep up on the latest and greatest news and tech. Here are a few film-specific sites that are worth checking out.

4. FilmSound is perhaps the most comprehensive site on the web regarding the topic of sound and music for film. Contributors include legendary sound designers such as Randy Thom, Ben Burtt and Walter Murch. There’s even a section specifically for beginners!

5. FilmSoundDaily is relatively new to the blogosphere, but is highly recommended for unique, personal approach, its thorough interviews, and plenty of audio and video content.

6. SyncSoundCinema is an interesting blog covering field production and recording. Product reviews and announcements, as well as industry commentary make for a useful daily read.

Sound For Games

The New Media Team’s video game collection, also known as Things Gamers See In Their Dreams. Photo by wisekris

Now that we’re moving into my neck of the woods, I’m happy to share with you some of my favorite sites covering the topics of audio for games. While many of the techniques are the same, the specific application of sound in games can vary widely from film, television and radio. Here are a few sites to give you a head-start on audio for games.

7. GamaSutra is one of the premier sites on the web for news, articles, interviews, and industry reports on games. Their archives are replete with interesting game audio articles covering a range of topics including adaptive music, voiceover recording, production pipelines and development methodology. In addition, Gamasutra has sections devoted to job-hunting and education, for those who are just getting started.

8. GANG is the Game Audio Network Guild, is the largest game audio community in the world. It is a non-profit organization devoted to the promotion, education and growth of the game audio community. The majority of the resources are available to members-only, but with the recent site overhaul, there are a number of new features that are available for those who are interested in joining but want more information first.

9. Music4Games is devoted to all aspects of music for video games, including soundtrack reviews, interviews with top composers, and even reviews of software used frequently in the production of game music. This is a great site for learning about the movers and shakers of the game music industry.

10. IASIG “exists to allow developers of audio software, hardware, and content to freely exchange ideas about improving the performance of interactive applications by influencing hardware, software, and tool design.” Comprised of a wide variety of individuals from across the interactive entertainment industry, the IASIG has working to improve the lives of game developers and game audio designers for over 13 years.

11. sound-music-interactive-games is a blog I recently stumbled upon. While much of the content is linked from other, previously mentioned sites, it is all focused on game-audio, and contains thoughtful and amusic commentary from Richard Stevens.

Communities and Lists

Making the right connections: patch bay photographed by José Ramón de Lothlórien’s.

I’m happy to say that the sound design community is generally welcoming, informative, and a fun place to work and play. Here are some great places where you can begin to network with fellow composers and sound designers. As a general rule, newbies are welcome in all of these communities, though the signal-to-noise ratio here is very high. Posts are almost always ‘on-topic’, and searching the archives for previously answered questions is mandatory.

12. GameAudioForum is an excellent place to learn, share ideas, and network with other game audio professionals.

13. GameAudioPro is a Yahoo! mailing list devoted to learning more about sound design for games. While there isn’t a much traffic here as on GameAudioForum, this is a great way to stay connected if you don’t want to spend a lot of time searching through web forums.

14. sound_design is another Yahoo! discussion group. This particular group is a veritable who’s-who of the film, television and game sound world. The level of professionalism here is extremely high, and while rookies are welcome, asking rookie questions is somewhat frowned upon, as most rookie questions are readily answered elsewhere (in the archives or on other websites). I’ve been a ‘lurker’ on this site for two years and have yet to ask a question. Even so, I’ve learned a great deal by simply reading the posts of others.

A Random Must Read Site

15. USO is a site with a wide ranging scope covering topics such as sound design, production, technique, interviews and digital signal processing. This is one of my favorite daily visits, with a great sense of humor, and reverence for audio creators everywhere. Highly recommended!

Thomas Henry's VCO Cookbook

Perhaps because of my fond TRS-80 comported memories of childhood visits to Radio Shack , I've always had a soft spot for analog music circuit type books by Thomas Henry and Craig Anderton so it was with some interest that I noticed recently that Magic Snake Electronics is taking control of Henry's old Midwest Analog works and issuing some newer books (Lulu, PDF, and spiral bound) such as the VCO Chip cookbook, reviewed recently in Make.


Link: Discussion Form at electro-music.com

Cymbal Synthesis with SuperCollider

Researcher Dan Stowell has an interesting walk through of cymbal synthesis with SuperCollider that starts with a spectrogram of a real cymbal crash and goes step by step through synthesizing something similar.

ScGraph: 3D Graphics Server for SuperCollider

Here's a quick blog post from Florian Paul Schmidt about ScGraph, his 3D graphics server for SuperCollider. Looks very interesting.

Interview with Vince Clarke

Vince Clarke is a seminal synthpop figure, from his days with Depeche Mode and Yaz (Yazoo in the U.K.) to his remixing and work with Erasure. Here is a recent Native Instruments interview with Vince, who now makes his home in Maine.

[ YouTube: Synthesizer Programming with Vince part 1]
[ citation from MatrixSynth blog ]

Interview with Pierre Henry

This 1995 interview with Pierre Henry appears most recently in the interesting and experimental blog <Gluon Symmetry.

This interview was made possible thanks to Jerome Noetinger of Metamkine. For those who would like to read more on the life of Pierre Henry, Michel Chion wrote a biography in 1980, published by Fayard in Paris, and available from Metamkine, 13 rue de la Drague, 38600 Fontaine, France. The interview and text are by and © Ios Smolders, and originally appeared in issue 44 of Vital magazine, in 1995. This version has been slightly edited by Brian Duguid; some quotes by Ios, Henry and Michel Chion have been altered to make them read better in English.

SuperCollider lecture notes on MutantSounds.com

In addition to his SuperCollider lecture notes based on a course he teaches at Queen's University, Jason Dixon's MutantSounds.com web site has a nice variety of interesting tidbits and resources.

SuperCollider Quarks

SuperCollider Quarks are extensions for the SuperCollider programming language, distributed using the Quarks package-manager built into SuperCollider. To install any of these quarks, execute Quarks.install("thequarkname") in SuperCollider, or Quarks.gui for a graphical installer.

CSound Instrument TOOTorial

If you're just starting out in CSound or have always been curious, the cSounds.com instrument design TOOTorial is a good place to start.

Eric Levy playing the Minimoog Voyager (video)

I'm still a sucker for MOOG synthesizers. Here's a video of Eric Levy of Garaj Mahal tearing up the Minimoog Voyager at NAMM 2008.

OHM early gurus of electronic music

Ohm - The Early Gurus of Electronic Music

From http://areafutura.blogspot.com/2 — this survey of early electronic music might be a good place to start if you don't already have some of these works. Still, why are so many listed as "edited"?

1. Clara Rockmore - "Tchaikovsky: Valse Sentimentale"
2. Olivier Messiaen - "Oraison" (performed by Ensemble D'Ondes De Montreal)
3. Pierre Schaeffer - "Etude aux Chemins de Fer"
4. John Cage - "Williams Mix"
5. Herbert Eimert / Robert Beyer - "Klangstudie II"
6. Otto Luening - "Low Speed"
7. Hugh Le Caine - "Dripsody"
8. Louis and Bebe Barron - "Main Title from Forbidden Planet"
9. Oskar Sala - "Concertando rubato"
10. Edgard Varese - "Poem Electronique"
11. Richard Maxfield - "Sine Music"
12. Tod Dockstader - "Apocalypse Part II"
13. Karlheinz Stockhausen - "Kontakte"
14. Vladimir Ussachevsky - "Wireless Fantasy"
15. Milton Babbitt - "Philomel" (edited)
16. MEV - "Spacecraft" (edited)

OHM 1 - The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music 1948-1980

1. Raymond Scott - "Cindy Electronium"
2. Steve Reich - "Pendulum Music (I)" (performed by Sonic Youth)
3. Pauline Oliveros - "Bye Bye Butterfly"
4. Joji Yuasa - "Projection Esemplastic for White Noise"
5. Morton Subotnick - "Silver Apples of the Moon Part 1" (edited)
6. David Tudor - "Rainforest Version I" (edited)
7. Terry Riley - "Poppy Nogood"
8. Holger Czukay - "Boat-Woman-Song" (edited)
9. Luc Ferarri - "Music Promenade" (edited)
10. Francois Bayle - "rosace 3"
11. Jean-Claude Risset - "Mutations" (edited)
12. Iannis Xenakis - "Hibiki-Hana-Ma" (edited)
13. La Monte Young - "Drift Study 31 I 69 12:17:30 - 12:49:58 PM NYC" (edited)

OHM 2 - The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music 1948-1980

1. Charles Dodge - "He Destroyed Her Image"
2. Paul Lansky - "Her Song"
3. Laurie Spiegel - "Appalachian Grove 1"
4. Bernard Parmegiani - "En Phase / Hors Phase"
5. David Behrman - "On the Other Ocean" (edited)
6. John Chowning - "Stria" (edited)
7. Maryanne Amacher - "Living Sound Patent Pending"
8. Robert Ashley - "Automatic Writing" (edited)
9. Alvin Curran - "Canti Illuminati" (edited)
10. Alvin Lucier - "Music On A Long Thin Wire" (edited)
11. Klaus Schulze - "Melange"
12. Jon Hassell - "Before And After Charm (La Notte)" (edited)
13. Brian Eno - "Unfamiliar Winds (Leeks Hills)"

OHM 3 - The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music 1948-1980

Eric Singer's Slime-O-Tron

I kind of like the phrase "Conductive Slime". Eric Singer is always up to interesting things, particularly with alternative controllers. Eric is also known in conjunction with Brooklyn-based LEMUR, the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots.

Kymatica Software: AlgoScore

AlgoScore is a graphical timeline software environment that produces audio output via CSound and runs on OS X and Leopard. For a while, I was looking to write software like this, so I'll be very interested in taking a look, it seems quite polished. For OS X, you do need X11, CsoundLib and JACK OSX. I'll be checking on the MacIntel/Leopard compatbility of the CSound prerequisites shortly.

Tristram Cary

Both MusicThing and CreateDigitalMusic reported on the passing of Tristram Cary this week. RIP. There is some video here of an Australian Documentary called What the Future Sounded Like.

Max 5

There's a lot of new stuff in Max 5 which came out this week. The upgrade including MSP and Jitter (they are now all bundled together) is $199. If you use ElectroTap's TapTools, there is a TapTools 3 beta version available and an upgrade will you get the production version when it is released.

IXI tutorials for SuperCollider and PureData

: tutorials :

These IXI tutorials cover basic SuperCollider, PureData, using Python and a hacked DIY gamepad sensor interface.

Birdcall Synthesis Tutorial in PureData

Perhaps more than you ever wanted to know about birdcall synthesis (in PureData) can be found at Obiwannabe, home of a set of interesting tutorials on Practical Synthesis Sound Design by Andy Farnell. PureData (.pd) files and sound examples are part of the tutorials.

Noise Toy Kit - the loud objects

Electronic noise group the loud objects has this DIY Noise Toy Kit which is detailed in this Make blog including sound samples and a basic tutorial.

Electronics for Music Synthesis

Aaron Lanterman of Georgia Tech has posted a helpful syllabus and videos for his course Electronics for Music Synthesis. If you've been itching to know more about synthesis at the level of Op Amps and Oscillators, dig in! Aaron also maintains a DIY datasheet for DIY synth building.

Rodrigo Constanzo's Instruments

Rodrigo Constanzo has a great collection of instruments on this page — bent electronics, home built stuff, and even Max/MSP patches.

Logic video tutorials

Here's the first Logic video tutorial in a series put together by David Earl of Pyramind, San Francisco. Click here to see his YouTube user page which has the complete set so far.

Though they cost about $40 each, MacProVideo also has some useful video tutorials you can buy as well. And of course, if you are starting out in Logic, check out Apple's site and the the Apple Pro Training books - I found the 2 volume Logic 7 books have a bit more information than the current Logic 8 book.

Interview with Monome

Here's a interesting video interview with Monome, known for their innovative hardware controller.

Using a Wii controller with Max/MSP

At the SEAMUS 2008 conference in Salt Lake City, Jeff Stolet of the University of Oregon did a fun piece using 2 Wii controllers to control a Max/MSP patch which in turn processed live video and sound. Here's a useful Max object developed by Masayuki Akamatsu which uses the Bluetooth API to let you use a Wii remote with Max/MSP 4.6.

DIY Leslie Speaker

I'm definitely going to try and build a homemade leslie speaker - plug-ins will only get you so far!