MOTM

Typing "waterfall spectra audio PC windows" into Google gets almost 200 hits :) Loot and lots of
software out there.

Before MOTM, I was toying with designing a modular synth design called Titan. The "VCO" board had
256 waveforms (sines, saw, whatever) with 0.1dB amplitude adjustments on each one. The pc boards
were about 14" x 8" and the estimated cost was about $4500 each. They plugged into a Fibre
Channel backplane. Wheee!!!

Paul S.

A useful freeware for file analysis is a program called Lemur. It will 
give you a waterfall sonogram of your sound file.
I use it a lot with Csound and Kyma. You can also use Lemur in the 
reverse way of feeding it pictures and translate them into sounds.
here's a link
http://shoko.calarts.edu/~tre/CompMusMac/

I do a lot of "hand made" additive in Kyma. You can get very interesting 
results if you use a slightly richer sound than a digital sine wave. For 
instance, filtered banks of noise.

It would be very interesting to use ex MAX/MSP via a MIDI to CV 
controlling a set of MOTM osc. You could easily build a front panel for 
your MOTM modules with all the fourier functions in MAX/MSP.

This hybrid concept is a very interesting discussion. Kyma has opened 
the door by making their interface code available, thus resulting in a 
MAX/MSP opcode that communicates directly to Kyma via the firewire port. 
This gives you a lot of features MIDI can't provide. Speed, bandwidth, 
control info with audio rate, etc. How about a firewire port on the new 
MOTM Midi to CV module? What do you say Paul?

Take care!
Tobias

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, Tobias Enhus <tobias@m...> wrote:
> A useful freeware for file analysis is a program called Lemur. It 
will 
> give you a waterfall sonogram of your sound file.
> I use it a lot with Csound and Kyma. You can also use Lemur in the 
> reverse way of feeding it pictures and translate them into sounds.
> here's a link
> http://shoko.calarts.edu/~tre/CompMusMac/
> 
Man - it really bums me out that all the stuff is for MAC based OS!
Now I don't mean to open any cans with worms in them on this oftened 
heated debate (I really just don't care) , but if anyone has found 
programs/utilities like these in PC land please post on the list.
It all looks like fun stuff!

I know there's some stuff out there but haven't updated or surfed too 
recently for it - 

Now I don't quite know where it all fits in with MOTM, at this point, 
but maybe a rehashing, replaying of the last 20 years will spawn some 
new tidbits to tweak with...who knows.

Just please don't invent ANYTHING, that will lead back to 'new' rap 
or hiphop music...(ok this is an oxymoron)

Thanks,
Rog

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Schreiber" <synth1@a...> wrote:
> Typing "waterfall spectra audio PC windows" into Google gets almost 
200 hits :) Loot and lots of
> software out there.
> 
Yes - and I think too that its somewhat worth mentioning here that 
the spectral software, etc...is much prettier to look at than do much 
else with...

I do not mean to minimize their overall value or anything, but having 
worked with way too expensive FFT/waveform/spectrum analyzers-a long 
time ago at a then very rich utility at which I still work - I can 
tell you that their value in creating sounds is minimal, especially 
compared to a human with imagination!

A post recently said FFT was a DSP thing - very correct - thats why 
FFT is everywhere in the digital signal analysis world: because its 
really easy to DO on a 'puter - but it don't tell you much about 
sounds, especially ones that have any phasing, pyscho 'movement' in 
them (i.e. the really cool sounds)because there's too much going on!

They are fun to look at for while however and you can learn alot 
about sound structure, etc...especially for basis analog stuff but 
the fun wears off quickly once you get the hang of it...unless of 
course your goal is creating visual art, like something that can be 
effectively projected up into the sky, on a cloud, or at night - 
that'd be totally cool...

Ok - i'll shut up,

Rog

You can get a used Mac 9500 Power PC loaded up for $75. Yep, $75. Bought a G4 fully loaded used
for $425. If you have 42 synths, it's *OK* to have 2 computers :)

Paul S.

I would partly agree.  If you examine plots of the sound of one 
instrument at varying pitches and amplitudes you will very quickly 
get the idea that there is a lot more going on than you can see in 
the plots, because they vary so much.  This is why additive 
synthesis in itself doesn't yield too much in the way of interesting 
sounds.  However it is a good starting point for gaining an 
understanding of how to synthesize a traditional instrument.  And it 
can be combined with things like modulation and filtering to bring 
it to life.  I'm just interested in using it as a tool to gain 
insight into what is happening in a particular sound.  It would be 
equally interesting if an analysis tool could easily show you the 
frequency response of an instrument body, if it could be done 
without sticking transducers all over the place and then applying a 
variety of excitation sources.
BTW I've downloaded a trial version of a program called SpectraPLUS 
for the pc from soundtechnology.com.  I have emailed them since I 
can't find anywhere what the cost of a fully licensed version is and 
I can't get through on the phone.  It looks fairly capable, but I 
bet I can't afford it.

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Schreiber" <synth1@a...> wrote:
> You can get a used Mac 9500 Power PC loaded up for $75. Yep, $75.
Bought a G4 fully loaded used
> for $425. If you have 42 synths, it's *OK* to have 2 computers :)

I have 9 PCs.  Does that mean it's OK to have 189 synths? 

:-)

Harry

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world; those who understand
binary and those who don't."