From: Max M (maxmcorp@worldonline.dk)
Date: Thu Jan 13 2000 - 10:34:52 MST
From: James Rogers <jamesr@best.com>
> I am not a huge proponent of buying the latest, greatest synth technology.
> You get far more mileage by learning how to really use an older synth than
> by blowing money on the next hot machine to come off the assembly line. A
> master programmer using an old Oberheim will almost always do something
> more interesting than Joe Preset with the latest mass market Roland box.
I must add that I have just recently discovered csound
(http://www.csound.org) It runs on almost any platform imaginable.
In all of my years of writing music I have never experienced anything like
it. It is the first time that it is actually true that the imagination is
the only limitation.
There is no limits in the number of oscilators, samples, envelope
genereators, LFO's etc that you can use. It has build in vocoder, filters,
reverbs, acoustic modeling etc. Anything I have ever heard about in a
synth/sampler is in there.
The only drawback is that there isn't much realtime about it. You write code
and it renders the sounds.
You feed it two files: a score and an orchestra. It then renders these
sounds into a sound file. (Wav or Aif)
It has a lot more possibilities for being expressive than MIDI as you can
define your own parameters for your instruments and then use these
parameters in the sequencer.
Furthermore the instruments can be more musically intelligent than stand
alone synths as they are far more integrated with the sequencer.
Piano's are for nonexpressive wimps ;-)
Currently I am writing a program that will create music. Render it to a
.wav. Compress it to MP3 and then publish it on my website. Total automation
:-)
When I am done it will be able to write any number of tracks in my style,
with lot's of expression and feeling. So far it is comming along nicely, but
is not yet ready for publishing.
My idea with is is that I wan't to make >H music, and how better to do that
than with music written by me with the aid of Intelligence Amplification.
The only thing I find difficult is auto generating the lyrics.
Anybody who has an interrest in electronic music, and programming should
really give csound a go.
Here is a simple example of how it looks.
This is the Orchestra file with the synthesizer definitions
------------------------------------------
instr 1 ; Kraftwerk kickdrum
k_eg_1 line 1, p3, 0
a_bd_1 diskin "sounds/Kraftkik.aif", p5
a_envelopedSound = k_eg_1 * a_bd_1 * 0.5
out a_envelopedSound
endin
instr 2 ; bass
idur = p3 ; Duration
iamp = p4 ; Amplitude
icps = cpspch(p5) ; Frequency
iwave = 1 ; Selected wave form 1=Saw, 2=Square/PWM, 3=Tri/Saw-Ramp-Mod
isine = 1
imaxd = 1/ icps*2 ; Allows pitch bend down of two octaves
;The envelope generator
k_eg_1 line 1, idur, 0
;The VCO
a_vco_1 vco iamp, icps, iwave, 0.5, 1, imaxd
;The lowpass ressonant filter
a_vco_1 lowpass2 a_vco_1, k_eg_1*1000, 5
;Controlling the volume of the vco with the envelope
a_vco_1 = a_vco_1 * k_eg_1
out a_vco_1 ; Ouput and amplification
endin
------------------------------------------------
This is the score file with the sequence data
------------------------------------------------
t 0 480
; a sine wave function table
f1 0 256 10 1
/*
i1 1 .2 0. 1
;i1 2 . . .
i1 3 . . .
;i1 4 . . .
;i1 5 . . .
;i1 6 . . .
;i1 7 . . .
;i1 8 . . .
i1 9 . . .
;i1 10 . . .
i1 11 . . .
;i1 12 . . .
;i1 13 . . .
;i1 14 . . .
;i1 15 . . .
;i1 16 . . .
;p1 p2 p3 p4 p5
i2 1 1 1000 6.01
i2 2 . . .
i2 3 . . 6.03
i2 4 . . 6.01
i2 5 . . .
i2 6 . . .
i2 7 . . 6.07
i2 8 . . 6.01
i2 9 . . .
i2 10 . . 6.03
i2 11 . . 6.01
i2 12 . . .
i2 13 . . .
i2 14 . . .
i2 15 . . 6.07
i2 16 . . 6.05
*/
e
------------------------------------------------
Max M
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