| Simplifed version of how to get Cecilia going with Red Hat 4.0 Linux
(Kernel 2.0.18).
I got the Csound binary distribution file from:
ftp://mustec.bgsu.edu/pub/linux
(Thanks Simon Kagedal!)
unzipped it and put the csound executable in
/usr/local/bin/
Got the gzipped tar Cecilia distribution file
ftp://ftp.musique.umontreal.ca/pub/sgi/cecLINUX1.75.tar.gz
and unpacked its contents into:
/usr/local/lib/cecilia/BuiltIn
/Graphics
/dev
/doc
and read the README file there.
In my /root/.bashsrc file, I added the lines:
export CEC_LIBRARY=/usr/local/lib/cecilia
export SFDIR=/usr/temp/csound/
export SADIR=/usr/temp/csound/
export SSDIR=/usr/temp/csound/
This is very different from the setup.html instructions in the
Cecilia documentation, which assume the "csh" shell rather than
"bash" which is the default for Linux. (Don't forget the leading "/"
before "usr"!! - I did.)
Also, this doco indicates that it is not absolutely necessary to add
SFDIR, SADIR and SSDIR to the environment. In reality it seems that
they must set be in order for Cecilia to start up for the first time.
The README text file in /usr/local/lib/cecilia/ does indicate that
these should be set first.
Then I looked around to see where the "wish" tk interpreter was. It
was not in /usr/local/bin as the file:
/usr/local/lib/cecilia/BuiltIn/dev/xcec
was expecting, so I altered xcec's first line to read:
#!/usr/bin/wish
//Begin symbolic link drama:
Then, following the Linux specific instructions in README
("Make a symbolic link to 'xcec' and move the link to
somewhere in your executable path." I directly (using
Midnight Commander) created a symbolic link:
/usr/bin/xcec
which pointed to
/usr/local/lib/cecilia/dev/xcec
I tried to run Cecilia, by starting up an Xterm, and as root,
from /root, typing xcec. The error report was:
bash: /bin/xcec: No such file or directory
After a lot of experimentation, which included errors such
as "invalid command name "doCecilia", I found that I could run
it if I changed to the /usr/local/lib/cecilia/dev/ directory
and typed:
wish xcec.
For reasons unknown the problem was solved by directly creating
the link in /bin/ instead:
/bin/xcec = symbolic link to /usr/local/lib/cecilia/dev/xcec
However I later found that creating a symbolic link in the
same directory as xcec:
/usr/local/lib/cecilia/dev/cec = symbolic link to:
/usr/local/lib/cecilia/dev/xcec
and then moving it - again with Midnight Commander - to
/usr/local/bin/cec worked fine. What the difference is
between a freshly created symbolic link and one which
has been moved from somewhere else, I could not figure,
but . . .
Then I found that it was OK to create directly a symbolic
link of a name other than "xcec" in /usr/local/bin/ - so
the problem with having a symbolic link called:
/usr/local/bin/xcec
was apparently related to both its location and the fact that
its name was the same as the file it was pointing to.
// End symbolic link drama.
In conclusion, one way or another, create a symbolic link to:
/usr/local/lib/cecilia/dev/xcec
in a directory in your executable path, but make sure the link has a
name other than "xcec"!
My link is now:
/usr/local/bin/cec
Then from a fresh Xterm, I typed cec (Actually when I first got
Cecilia running, I was doing it without a symobolic link.)
A small Cecilia window popped up!!!! This is what I will call the
"Main" menu. Subsequenly a multi-pane "Module" window is spawned.
When I first ran it, I had a lot of trouble since I did not realise
that there were in fact two windows - the Main one must have become
hidden somehow.
Then I fired up Netscape to read through the Cecilia .html
documentation. The same can be achieved with the Help function in
either Cecilia window.
I tried reading in some existing .orc and .sco files. Cecilia
defaulted to the directory which the Xterm ran from, (/root) and there
doesn't seem to be a way of telling it a directory to get .orcs and
.scos or its module files from, so now I will cd to an appropriate
work directory before typing cec.
I loaded the orc and sco file of xanadu.
Looked at the html doco, got stuck where is says "What happens when
you push 'Preview' or 'Write' in the Main window." but was confused
since now I was in a big "Module" window and had not realised that
there was a smaller one somewhere else.
Continuing reading the documentation to "jump.html" it took a while to
realise that the "Button-3 opcode insert featured involved using the
third button of the trackball, after placing the active cursor in one
of the score, orchestra or tk_interface windows. (I had previously
figured out how to open the tk_interface window from the Sections
menu, and had created a new Module, and saved it as the doco
instructed.
(Then, before I could explore it, the Button 3 system stopped
working in the tk_interface section for reasons unknown. I also had
one glitch where the module window stayed on screen when I paged to a
separate area of the 9 screen virtual window.)
So I closed the program down, and ran it again. This I rediscovered
the Main window and things started to become clearer!
I don't have a lot of guidance beyond this stage. There is a
learning curve here (another damn language to learn (tcl/tk, and some
rethinking of how to use Csound - whilst I am trying to learn C++ and
the finer points of HTML . . . ), but I can see that Cecilia will be a
very worthwhile reason for learning this stuff.
I was able to get the csound program to compile, by going back to the
Main window and pressing "Write".
I really like the coloured highlighting of .orc and .sco key words and
comments! ("Edit: Colorize" in the Module Editeur window.
Alternatively set the "Sections: Colorize on parse" - but it takes
longer to load a new module then . . .)
After while I figured out how to move the pane borders by dragging
the boxes on the right which label them.
Initially when I tried to compile the unmodified Xanadu piece, by
pressing Write in the Main window, I got a window for Csound graphics,
which I clicked on, and not much more. Csound was evidently cooking -
as evidenced by the CPU usage graph, but it was not clear what was
happening. In the Main window, "Windows: Open Csound window" should
be checked to see Csound's text output.
I found the Main Window "Options: Sample Type" to select .WAV file
output (and input?) but I think I had to edit the .AIFF from the
actual file name in the soundOUT box.
Then I closed this module and went to the small window, to do File,
New Module,
I chose Delay and explored it a little, mainly playing with the
impressive graphs, without much of a care as to what I was doing.
Then I tried to "Write" it, but it needed an input sound - so I gave
it a mono 44.1kHz wav file - which it said "ERROR! Audio file is not
valid".
It recognised it at mono 16 bit RIFF WAVE format etc . ..
These WAV files were definitely OK - and it would complain about an
.aiff file too. (It recognised it but still complained about an
error.) I tried feeding it a .WAV file I had just created with
Cecilia, and it complained about this too.
This may just be an erroroneous error report, since the Delay module
seemed to be happy with the .WAV file I gave it, producing an output
file which was not garbage.
To Do:
1 - Upgrade my kernel to something like 2.1.40 so it has the Open
Sound System sound card drivers which should work with my gleaming new
Zefiro digital audio I/O sound card (http://www.zefiro.com and
http://www.4front-tech.com)
2 - Explore the free, well documented and excellent looking "snd"
editor from Stanford and configure Cecilia to work with it.
http://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/CCRMA/Software/snd/snd.html
Lots more reading and work to do. I think that once I have my
brains around all this, Cecilia will be a fine thing indeed!
Thanks Alexandre and Jean !!!
- Robin
- Robin Whittle rw@firstpr.com.au http://www.firstpr.com.au -
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