Re: [linux-audio-user] cross platform FOSS audio software list

On 1/29/07, Ken Restivo <ken@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
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> On Mon, Jan 29, 2007 at 03:30:59PM -0500, Chuckk Hubbard wrote:
> > I think jackd and Rosegarden are strictly Linux. And Alsa Modular Synth,
> > fwiw.
> > My favorite audio apps are Csound and Pure Data, both amazing FOSS
> > audio apps, but not exactly mainstream or friendly. Extremely
> > powerful, though.
> > http://www.csounds.com
> > http://puredata.info
> >
>
> A lot of people rave about these. But what do they *do*? What do they sound like? It seems like they're audio programming languages. What things have people built/recorded with them?
>
> Is there a "Made with [Csound|PD|Max/MSP]" somewhere?

They are indeed audio programming languages. Lots of people use them
to study Digital Signal Processing and digital filters. I used Pure
Data to create a sequencer for alternate tuning systems that fit my
needs, as none existed that did. I think Pure Data's strength is its
data structures, which allow you to make a list of any number of
qualities for lists of items; I used them for the notes in my system,
and plan on using them for automations. People also use Pd to do
video manipulations, which I don't know much about.
Just from what I know, Csound does granular, FM, mixing, MIDI, all
kinds of filtering (there are LOTS of kinds), AM, scanned synthesis,
waveguide, wave terrain, formant synthesis, FFT, phase vocoding,
convolution, morphing, sample playback, and dynamics processing. It
does more that I don't understand too. One thing I love is that it
can play any frequency whatsoever, not just the Big 12. This is all
in addition to the usual math and "if" statement stuff of regular
programming languages.

There used to be a pretty extensive set of internet radio shows with
all Csound stuff at csounds.com, but none of them seem to be there
now. This guy has some good Pure Data stuff:

http://obiwannabe.co.uk/html/music/music.html
I think you have to use Pure Data to hear his compositions, though.

I think Tobias Enhaus' Csound piece here is the best one:
http://www.csounds.com/compositions/index.html

I'm embarrassed that I can't produce more examples, but it is true
that both Csound and Pd can sound like absolutely anything. The
distinction is in how they're used more than what they do.

-Chuckk
Received on Tue Jan 30 08:15:06 2007