I'm still alive.

I know it's been a very long time since I've updated this blog, but I'm still here and I think it's about time I started looking at Supercollider again. Watch this space.

'Harmoniser' with Tartini

A little patch I made today following on from the auto chip tune stuff from before. This time a 'harmoniser' type effect made with the same Tartini type resynthesising, using a live input. I've got 'harmoniser' in inverted commas because frankly it isn't very harmonic, but it's a start I suppose. Here's the code.

(
SynthDef("Harm", {|offSet1, offSet2, output, osc1, osc2, mix, pitch1, pitch2, fader|

    var sound = SoundIn.ar;
    var pitch = Tartini.kr(sound)[0];
    var amp = Amplitude.ar(sound);
    pitch = Median.kr(5, pitch); // smooth
    pitch = pitch.min(10000).max(10); // limit
    pitch1 = pitch.cpsmidi.round + 40;
    pitch2 = pitch.cpsmidi.round + 60;
        
        pitch1 = pitch1.midicps;
    pitch2 = pitch2.midicps;        
    
    osc1 = Saw.ar(pitch1, amp * 2); // resynthesise
    osc2 = Pulse.ar(pitch2, 0.2, amp * 2);
    mix = Mix.ar([osc1, osc2]);
    fader = XFade2.ar(sound, mix, -0.5);
    output = FreeVerb.ar(fader, 0.3, 0.1, 0.9); // bit of reverb just to taste
    Out.ar(0, output);
    
    }).memStore;
    
    
)

x = Synth("Harm");

Here Im using Tartini to determine the pitch of the input, then using fairly roundabout method converting it to two lots of midi notes, adding to it to increase the pitch then sending it to some oscillators and finally mixing it back with the original input. If you change the numbers that I've added to the pitches here,

pitch1 = pitch.cpsmidi.round + 40;
pitch2 = pitch.cpsmidi.round + 60;



you should be able to change the 'harmony'.

There may be a better method to shift the synthesised pitches, I'm not sure but this does seem to work.
It sort of sound okay with some guitar or vocal input, but really bad with anything more complex.

Installing bbcut2 in OS X

I've just upgraded to OS X Snow Leopard and apart from it giving me the ability to take up serpents, drink any deadly thing and not be hurt etc, I also found myself reinstalling SuperCollider from scratch, including all the extensions, quarks and what have you that I had in my previous install.
Everything went smoothly with the exception of bbcut, which took a bit of work. I had the same problem when I installed it the first time round, but I ended up taking such as circuitous route to getting it working that I couldn't remember what I'd done by the time I'd finished. This time I took a more systematic approach and I've isolated the problem.
The latest version of the extension pack provided with the standard SC install includes some, but not all of the Ugens and classes that come with bbcut. If you follow the install instructions that come with bbcut you'll end up with conflicts and the class library won't compile.
To get it to work you'll need to leave out the three ugens in the bbcut2 ugens folder and the machinelistening classes from the bbcut2 classes folder when moving the bbcut folders to your SC directory. These seem to be the source of the conflicts and if you copy over the rest of the files as described in the bbcut2 help file it should all be okay.
If you've already copied these into your SC folder you'll need to make sure you delete the version of the files that come with bbcut and replace the them with the versions that come with the standard SC download, they are different and only the ones from the standard SC download will work. And that's jazz.

I've no idea how this goes on other platforms but I imagine there might be similar problems.

à bientôt.

Wicki - not wiki

Another soupçon of useful code from the SC-Users list, a Wicki keybord, as used by the Wicki system.
What's the Wicki system? I'm not entirely sure, but it seems to be a way of learning to play music with a type writer style keyboard. There's some background info available here and here.
This bit of code is a class that creates a Wicki keyboard, it is a bit long so I won't reproduce it on this blog, but you can download it here, along with a bit of test code. You can use the keyboard to record and playback sequences of notes, which are stored in an array, probably easier than typing frequencies or midi values directly into patterns and do things like transpose the entire sequence.
As with all SC classes you'll need to put it in the extensions folder and recompile the language before it'll work. The wickiTest file in the zip shows of some of the class methods, but it doesn't mention the startRecording and stopRecording methods. If you want to record an a array of notes you'll need to set it up by doing something like
m.startRecording
and then
m.stopRecording
when you're done.

From Den Haag

Some great code from tn8, via the SC-Users list, the source code from a piece that she performed at the SC symposium. You can download it here.
It's a fantastic track and it's pretty rare to see the complete source for a song written entirely in SC, so it's worth a look.

Comb Filter Effect

Another handy snippet of code pulled from the SC-Users list once again. Credit for this goes to Kernal, kernel@audiospillage.com.
The gui should be mostly self explanatory I think, but if you want to use this with other inputs besides the test sound you'll need to set the input bus and send your sound through that.

// parrallel comb filters implemented as effect return

// send the synth defs(
(
SynthDef("ImpulseTest", {|bus = 3|
       
       Out.ar(bus, [Impulse.ar(SinOsc.kr(0.23).range(0.5,23), 0.5)]);
       
}).send(s);
);

(
SynthDef("CombUnit",{|  d1 = 0.001, d2 = 0.001, d3 = 0.001, d4 = 0.001, d5 = 0.001,
                                       t1 = 1, t2 = 1, t3 = 1, t4 = 1, t5 = 1,
                                       f1 = 20000, f2 = 20000, f3 = 20000, f4 = 20000, f5 = 20000,
                                       vol = 1, inBus = 3, outBus = 0|
                                       
       var in, out, c1, c2, c3, c4, c5;

       in = In.ar(inBus, 1);

       c1 = LPF.ar(CombC.ar(in, 1, d1, t1), f1);
       c2 = LPF.ar(CombC.ar(in, 1, d2, t2), f2);
       c3 = LPF.ar(CombC.ar(in, 1, d3, t3), f3);
       c4 = LPF.ar(CombC.ar(in, 1, d4, t4), f4);
       c5 = LPF.ar(CombC.ar(in, 1, d5, t5), f5);
       
       out = (c1 + c2 + c3 + c4 + c5) * 0.2;
       
       Out.ar([outBus, outBus + 1], out * vol);

}).send(s);
);
)



// create the synth
(
       var grp, node, testNode, wComb, testRunning = 0, inputBus = 3;
       
       s.sendMsg("s_new", "CombUnit", node = s.nextNodeID, 1, 1);
       // s.sendMsg("g_new",grp = s.nextNodeID,1,1); // create group @ tail of default node
       
       wComb = SCWindow("C O M A", Rect(100, 300, 720, 220))
               .onClose_({
                       if(testRunning == 1, s.sendMsg("n_free", testNode));
                       s.sendMsg("n_free", node);
               })
               .front;
       
       // input bus
       SCNumberBox(wComb, Rect(10, 10, 30, 20))
               .value_(3)
               .action_({|v|
                       inputBus = v.value;
                       s.sendMsg("n_set", node, "inBus", inputBus);
                       if(testRunning == 0, s.sendMsg("n_set", testNode, "bus", inputBus));
               });
       
       SCStaticText(wComb, Rect(45, 10, 100, 20))
               .string_("Input Bus");
       
       // output bus
       SCNumberBox(wComb, Rect(150, 10, 30, 20))
               .value_(0)
               .action_({|v| s.sendMsg("n_set", node, "outBus", v.value)});
       
       SCStaticText(wComb, Rect(185, 10, 100, 20))
               .string_("Output Bus");
       
       // audio test
       SCButton(wComb, Rect(300, 10, 100, 20))
               .states_([
                       ["Start Test", Color.green, Color.black],
                       ["Stop Test", Color.red, Color.black]
               ])
               .action_({
                       if(testRunning == 0, {
                               s.sendMsg("s_new", "ImpulseTest", testNode = s.nextNodeID, 0, 1, "bus", inputBus);
                               testRunning = 1;
                       },{
                               s.sendMsg("n_free", testNode);
                               testRunning = 0;
                       });
               });
       
       // comb frequencies
       SCStaticText(wComb, Rect(10, 40, 100, 20)).string_("Comb Frequencies");
       5.do{|i|
               var box;
               
               box = SCNumberBox(wComb, Rect(10, 60 + (i * 25), 40, 20))
                       .value_(950);
                       
               SCStaticText(wComb, Rect(55, 60 + (i * 25), 15, 20)).string_("Hz");
               
               SCSlider(wComb, Rect(80, 60 +  (i * 25), 130, 20))
                       .value_(0.5)
                       .action_({|v| var time, freq;
                               freq = [1, 20000, 6].asSpec.map(v.value);
                               time = 1.0 / freq;
                               s.sendMsg("n_set", node, i, time);
                               box.value_(freq.asInteger);
                       })
       };
       
       // resonances
       SCStaticText(wComb, Rect(250, 40, 100, 20)).string_("Resonances");
       5.do{|i|
               var box;
               
               box = SCNumberBox(wComb, Rect(250, 60 + (i * 25), 30, 20))
                       .value_(50);
                       
               SCStaticText(wComb, Rect(285, 60 + (i * 25), 15, 20)).string_("%");
               
               SCSlider(wComb, Rect(300, 60 + (i * 25), 150, 20))
                       .value_(0.5)
                       .action_({|v|
                               s.sendMsg("n_set", node, i+5, [0, 9, 4].asSpec.map(v.value));
                               box.value_(v.value * 100);
                       });
       };
       
       // low pass frequencies
       SCStaticText(wComb, Rect(555, 40, 100, 20)).string_("Low Pass Frequencies");
       5.do{|i|
               var box;
               
               box = SCNumberBox(wComb, Rect(490, 60 + (i * 25), 40, 20)).value_(20000);
               SCStaticText(wComb, Rect(535, 60 + (i * 25), 15, 20)).string_("Hz");
               
               SCSlider(wComb, Rect(555, 60 + (i * 25), 150, 20))
                       .value_(1)
                       .action_({ |v| var freq;
                               freq = [20, 20000, \exp].asSpec.map(v.value);
                               s.sendMsg("n_set", node, i+10, freq);
                               box.value_(freq);
                       });
       };
       
       // volume control
       SCStaticText(wComb, Rect(10, 190, 70, 20)).string_("Volume");
       SCSlider(wComb, Rect(80, 190, 625, 20))
               .value_(1)
               .action_({|v| s.sendMsg("n_set", node, "vol", [0, 1, 4].asSpec.map(v.value))});
)

More 140 character SuperCollider Tweets

Even SuperCollidists aren't immune to the memetic allure of Twitter, there's been a whole load of 140 character SuperCollider programmes appearing both on Twitter and on the SC Users list. Thankfully someone has been kind enough to collect them all up and put them on this page here, at the SC Wiki. Smashing.

Here's a couple of my favorites,

from Fredrik Olofsson

{RHPF.ar(GbmanN.ar([2300,1150]),LFSaw.ar(Pulse.ar(4,[1,2]/8,1,LFPulse.ar(1/8)/5+1))+2)}.play

And from the Venerable Dan

{LocalOut.ar(a=DynKlank.ar(`[LocalIn.ar.clip2(LFPulse.kr([1,2,1/8]).sum/2)**100*100],Impulse.ar(10)));HPF.ar(a).clip2!2}.play//#supercollider