Category Archives: the cosmos
Gimme Friction Baby
Gimme Friction Baby is video game crack. Best stock up on lucky charms, milk and rockstar before starting this one, cuz it’s going to be a long night.
Thanks to PAgent of PAgent’s Progress for the awesome recommendation.
Building Csound from Source
Building Csound
I haven’t forgotten about this place. I’ve just been really wicked busy. I’m going to do my best to make up for it starting right now.
I compiled Csound from source for the first time yesterday, for OS X. The experience wasn’t nearly as bad as I predicted it to be, as things went fairly smoothly. I did have to go google fishing for a few answers that weren’t explained in the build instructions. Though I attribute this more to my lack of understanding of SCons than anything else.
I need start doing my own builds from now on because I’m at a point where I can really use a 64-bit version of Csound (higher audio quality), and there is no prebuilt 64-bit package for my OS of choice. As of right now, my build works in a limited capacity, as I have a few issues to work out. For example, I’ve lost the ability to render in realtime. No biggie. It’s just a matter of time until I get everything working like clockwork.
Exciting stuff, I know.
Tuna Pitch
Helps you tune your guitar (or any similar instrument), with 5 built-in presets, and the option to set all six strings to any note. Also, with the standard EADGBE tuning, there are Drop D, Drop C, Open G, and Open D tuning presets. All this from the comfort of your Dashboard!
I discovered Tuna Pitch while browsing the widget library at Apple.com last night. At the time, my acoustic was equipped with the Seymour Duncan Woody and plugged into my Apogee, so I figured why not give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised that it worked as advertised. It’s rare that I find a widget that is as useful as this.
“my black-sand covered toes”
Tom Wiltshire’s Electric Druid Synth DIY pages
Electric Druid Synth DIY pages.
“I’ve finally got around to something that has been a dream for a long while – building my own synthesizer… So far, I’ve managed to write firmware for two devices, a voltage-controlled LFO and a voltage-controlled ADSR envelope generator, modelled on the CEM 3312 and SSM2056.”
I have a love/hate relationship with sites like these. On one hand, the material is fascinating, and I gain a lot of insight on various ways to approach instrument design in Csound. On the other hand, I sooo wish I had the time to hone my soldering iron skills and learn to program for a microcontroller. There must be something entirely satisfying with the hands on approach.
Link via Matrixsynth.
Modular Instruments Part II
In the previous blog, “Modular Instruments“, I presented an instrument design model that takes advantage of Csound’s modular nature by breaking the common instrument structure apart into three elements: Synth Engine, Memory and Interface. (SEMI)
In todays blog, I create a new synth named MonoSynth based on the original SEMI Simple synth by replacing the zak memory with a memory core based on the chn opcodes, extending functionality of the engine, introducing modulation parameters, and by incorporating a method that links instances of instruments into an audio chain from within the score.
Topics:
- Modular Design
- chn
- Memory
- Signal Routing
- Modulation Instruments
More at The Csound Blog. For more information about Csound, please visit cSounds.com.
Modular Instruments
When designing a virtual instrument in csound, the easiest approach is to create a single self-contained instr. Within this instr, any number of opcodes can be arranged in a near-infinite number of combinations. Each instance of the instr manages its own local memory space/variables/signals. Users customize the interface of the instr by utilizing p-fields.
With this fundamental model of instrument design, it is already apparent that Csound excels in terms of modularity. However, there are many other approaches that expand this concept even further.
Topics:
- Modular Design
- Interface
- Memory
- Synth Engine
- Control Instruments
- Zak
- Macros
More at The Csound Blog. For more information about Csound, please visit cSounds.com.
Hidden Games on Vinyl
“There were a handful of records released in the late 70’s and early 80’s that contained computer programs as part of the audio. This is totally insane, and totally great.”
This is insane. As a musician and avid gamer, I’m surprised I haven’t heard anything about this before.
Link via Kotaku.com.
Hello World! / Sid-Remix
This video is crazy awesome!
Video by Computadora Feliz. Link via c64music!