| > What sorts of things can be done by working this way, that can't be achieved
> by working in an environment like Cecilia or Cynthia ?
> For example, what is the advantage of creating a file in 'vi' etc., compared
> to working in Cynthia/Cecilia.
I think that a graphical front end to Csound could be
used as the final tool in making very simple pieces,
or in particular individual complex sounds. The
place where this becomes a limitation for me in the
way that I work, is when it is time to organize a
large, complex composition.
As yet, present computer hardware available to me is
nowhere near fast enough to consider rendering an
entire five minute composition with thousands or
millions of notes, each time a small adjustment
needs to be heard. My approach to this problem has
paralleled the process of compiling large C programs.
I still use Makefiles (in fact, trees of Makefiles)
where the top level Makefile serves only to mix
individual 'Tracks' of sounds. Mixing is like Linking
in C. It is very fast as compared to recompiling
everything at once.
So, having built a large system like this, I might
go down four levels in the tree to adjust the
granularity of a score generation program that makes
a score for a bass sound in the seventh minute of
track 4, part one. The change triggers a rendering
of the sound itself, a remix of part one, and then
a remix of the whole piece. If the make is run from
the part one level, then just part one can be heard
each time there is a change to the sound, until the
result is satisfactory enough to justify remixing and
auditioning the entire piece.
The other beauty of this system is that variables can
be propagated down the tree from any point, adjusting
global parameters such as max amp, reverb time or
others. All aspects of the entire piece remain
dynamic, and can be easily adjusted years later,
PROVIDED THAT THE BUILD TOOLS ARE STILL AVAILABLE.
I trust that 'make', and 'bash' are not in near
danger of extinction, or loss of support and
development. I don't feel the same way about most
GUI interfaces. Will they follow me to my next
hardware platform? I don't bet on it. I am staying
rooted in command line UNIX as my main engine.
None of this makes the GUI's less usable however. As
I stated previously, I often love to use them when I
need to experiment with parameters, or functions, by
quickly hearing the results of a tweak. The
difference is that I then transport those found
parameters to my makefile tree where I know that
they will always be available for reworking.
There. Now I've given my process away, and my music
will pale in comparison to the new wave of large
Csound compositions that will follow.
Toby
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