I always change a lot of things when creating instruments; I like to
insert new opcodes or change the order of existing ones, or make some
of them conditional.  Commenting out a line instead of deleting it is
a regular occurrence, and I often use in-between lines that are easier
to change:

ascl = aosc * aenv
aleft = ascl
aright = aleft
       outs aleft, aright

instead of:
      outs aosc * aenv, aosc * aenv

is far easier to change later, IMO.  Next might come:

ascl = aosc * aenv
afilt    rezzy ascl, 400, 15
aleft = afilt
;aleft = ascl
aright = aleft
       outs aleft, aright

Then if I want to revert on the fly, I can just remove the semicolon.
I can't imagine experimenting with Csound if I rewrote every command
when I changed something.  Sometimes the nuances that seem the most
basic are the most useful for saving time; time spent reading about
"how Csound works" or how scores are sorted, etc, is never wasted.
The lesser-known score statements are also all very useful: q, x, and
a come to mind.  My point: it's not just knowing intricate opcodes or
sophisticated synthesis that helps with the creative process, but also
knowing some of the simple things that allow you to try more
possibilities in less time.

-Chuckk


On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 10:49 AM, Panos Katergiathis <csound@protocol.gr> wrote:
> Hello all
>
>  I am a spoiled ex-(windows-asio-cubase-vst) user that had (until now)
>  too many "instruments" to play with. I have come to understand that this
>  "wealth" of options has nothing to do with creating music itself, and i
>  am willing to limit my instrument choices to a minimum. Still, since i
>  am not-much-of-an-expert in csound (yet, that is), i am currently
>  limited to very simple instruments that (yes) they keep me interested
>  but not excited at all.
>
>  Of course, i have purchased the "csound catalog" that actually contains
>  some nice instruments (along with some others, not so nice), however i
>  wouldn't know if these instruments represent the cream of what one can
>  do with csound or if they are "mediocre" by today's standards. Surely, i
>  have listened to some extremely exciting instruments in the (long gone?)
>  csound radio page - nothing in the catalog comes close.
>
>  So, the question is forged: what is the easiest and what is the best
>  approach for creating csound instruments? Please share your experience.
>
>  Regards
>
>  Panos
>
>
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>



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