Re: [LAD] Something like Processing for audio

On Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 03:30:52PM -0400, Darren Landrum wrote:

> >> What we need is a nice and powerful back-end that is wrapped in an
> >> easy-to-learn front end. The best of both worlds, if it's possible.
> >
> > [Paul D.] Why do we need this?
>
> I thought I was clear on this, but I'll restate: We need this so that
> people who are not skilled coders, but have other skills, in math and
> physics and electronics perhaps, can bring their skills to bear in
> making synths and effects while making the coding side as painless as
> possible.

There is a whole world of difference to

- coding a DSP algo that works given a context
  that feeds it one or more sample streams and
  absorbs one or more output streams,

and

- making a module that basically just performs
  that algo but in a context of making music
  with it - e.g. something that can be instantiated
  and deleted in real time, that control signals,
  reacts to asynchronous events, has well defined
  timing, etc. etc.

Given the right framework, for the first you only need
to understand the algo.

The second requires another level of understanding, which
can be a lot more complex than the DSP side, and may
require some coding skills in one form or another.

One of the qualities of tools like Supercollider and
Csound is that they manage to even make the second step
managable to people who are not real coders. They do
that by providing an infrastructure that is a lot more
complex than the one to support just DSP algos, but
you are required to learn how that works, at least on
a functional level.

> The end result will hopefully be synths and effects usable by
> *musicians* and not just other coders.

Why would a synth or effect produced by a math or DSP
expert be any more 'usable' than one made by a 'coder' ?
I'd expect the DSP to be better - but there it ends.
A 'coder' has in fact a much better chance of making
something usable than someone who only knows the math
and DSP side of things.

> I want my musical skills to be all I need to be able
> to make music on Linux.

Why do you expect making music on computers to be easy ?
Normally, to make music, you need not only the skills you
refer to above, but also those to play an instrument.
For traditional instruments that takes years of hard work.
What makes you think it should somehow be easy or automatic
when using a computer ?

Ciao,

-- 
FA
Laboratorio di Acustica ed Elettroacustica
Parma, Italia
Wie der Mond heute Nacht aussieht !
Ist es nicht ein seltsames Bild ?
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