| I have read the document about the new "Csound based" Structured
Audio component of the developing "MPEG-4 Synthetic/Natural Hybrid
Coding" standard. See Eric Scheirer's site:
http://sound.media.mit.edu/~eds/mpeg4/
Irrespective of whatever MPEG-4 develops into, this is a very
important development and I urge all those with a long term interest
in software synthesis to read up on this.
I see it as taking the best of the Csound concepts and rewriting
them in a way that a "client" system, typically consisting of a
control CPU and one or more DSPs, can execute (the new equivalents
of) the orchestra and score files. This client could be in a PC, in
a Unix multi-CPU system, or on a chip on a sound card. It could be
used for big-time composition - or as a noise maker for a video
game. (Also usable for ka.....).
In a sense this looks like a "Postscript" for music, or sound in
general. It can handle sound coming from a distant source or
locally. It can, in principle, operate interactivly via local sound,
keyboard, sensor and graphic I/O.
Instruments can be called (instantiated) as the piece is playing -
ending the restriction in Csound in which only the score or a MIDI
input can instantiate an instrument.
The whole thing can talk to the outside world via a Java program . .
. All it needs is CORBA to be fully buzzwork compliant!
I think there is still lots of work to do. There are single
dimensional arrays, and these can be global. This greatly eases the
problems of inter-(intrument-instance) communication. However there
is not a way of telling the instance at init time or later which
array to deal with.
The language is being designed to support parallel execution on
multiple CPUs. This is challenging stuff, but very welcome indeed.
The orchestra can be driven by MIDI and score events, and by
commands from the control CPU. It retains the Csound structure of
instruments and op-codes (ugens). Sending new op-codes and
instruments to the client is done by sending the C++ like orchetra
source code to the client, which then compiles it.
Nomenclature is a bit of a problem with this new project. It seems
destined to be known as SAOL - Structured Audio Orchestra Language -
although this is just part of the whole thing. The full term of
"MPEG-4 Structured Audio" is a bit too much of a mouthful, even as an
acronym, unless the cryptic "M4SA" is adopted.
Check this out and join the mailing list pointed to at the above
site. The greeting message gives some background on how this
project evolved. It is early days. This could be the start of a
very important language - ultimately more important than MIDI (it
incorporates MIDI). It is not all things to all people, but it is a
very important initiative.
I will be posting some detailed feedback to the list soon, and will
put it on my WWW site for those who join later.
Congrats to Eric and his MIT colleagues for this work!
My impression of MIT holding an elevated status in the universe of
geekdom and eclectic pursuits was stengthened after reading of Eric's
other interests and seeing the *serious* orientation of what is on
the outside of his head. The stuff on the inside is serious too:
check his paper on beat-tracking. This involves analysing sound to
find rhythms, in this case without having to identify notes etc.
- Robin
. Robin Whittle .
. http://www.ozemail.com.au/~firstpr firstpr@ozemail.com.au .
. 11 Miller St. Heidelberg Heights 3081 Melbourne Australia .
. Ph +61-3-9459-2889 Fax +61-3-9458-1736 .
. Consumer advocacy in telecommunications, especially privacy .
. .
. First Principles - Research and expression - music, .
. music industry, telecommunications .
. human factors in technology adoption.
. .
. Real World Interfaces - Hardware and software, especially .
. for music .
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To: csound@maths.ex.ac.uk
From: Richard Wentk
Subject: Re: Many Thanks for Csound
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Chris
Being completely subjective here, I think a much more impressive piece is
the Face on Mars in the Bath archive. I suppose it might be a tad tonal for
some tastes, but I think it's a *really* good bit of PR for Csound. I drag
it out and listen to whenever I feel like kicking my PC, and Csound, out
onto the lawn and abusing the remains violently with a blowtorch. :)
As for complaining - I suggest you actually try making some music first. In
fact try to match the quality and richness of the sounds available from a
good modern MIDI tone module, but without cheating and going down the
sample playback route. (Which is boringly easy to do, although effective.)
You may find you feel a little more sympathetic after some hands-on
experience. :)
Cheers,
R.
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From: jpff@maths.bath.ac.uk
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Subject: Re: off-topic but (NOT!) very important!!!!
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Message written at 22 Mar 1997 23:46:31 +0000
In-reply-to: <199703221832.NAA00244@ns25mHz.escape.com> (message from Noel
Bush on Sat, 22 Mar 97 13:32:13 -0500)
Noel writes...
> I am currently working on a virus to include in Csound v3.46 that will
> force all Csound composers to state in no uncertain terms their
> position on the moral value of MIDI. The results will be compiled via
> automatic email, rendered aurally, and submitted to television
> stations worldwide as a substitute for the test pattern soundtrack.
Please make sure I have the source code for consistency. Would that
work count as a public outout for the Research Assesment Exercise for
me?
==John ff
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To: csound@maths.ex.ac.uk
From: Richard Wentk
Subject: Re: Back to the future/ GUI ?!?!?
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At 08:28 23/03/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Is there going to be a Windows GUI for C-Sound?!
I thought there already was, kind of - Russell Pinkston's Patchwork.
Did you have something else in mind?
:)
R.
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Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 18:16:47 +0100
From: Gabriel Maldonado
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To: Csound Mailing List , jpff@maths.bath.ac.uk
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Sorry,
I didn't want to spark off a "PENPAL" war. I received the warning
message from a friend. I only believed there could be the possiblity of
virus presence in the executable attachment of an email message. Excuse
me for my ingenuousness.
--
Gabriel Maldonado
mailto:g.maldonado@agora.stm.it
http://www.agora.stm.it/G.Maldonado/home2.htm
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From: Gabriel Maldonado
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To: Csound Mailing List , jpff@maths.bath.ac.uk
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Sorry,
I didn't want to spark off a "PENPAL" war. I received the warning
message from a friend. I only believed there could be the possiblity of
virus presence in the executable attachment of an email message. Excuse
me for my ingenuousness.
--
Gabriel Maldonado
mailto:g.maldonado@agora.stm.it
http://www.agora.stm.it/G.Maldonado/home2.htm
|