programming

David “Fingers” Haynes rocks the Korg NanoPad at the 2009 LIMS show.

Haynes is using the NanoPad to control Toontrack Superior Drummer 2.0. Read more…

Johannes Kreidler’s Programming Electronic Music in Pd is a free textbook intended to make working the music programming language Pd accessible.

Abstract:

Pd was initiated by American software engineer Miller Puckette, who previous co-developed the well known and similarly structured software Max/Msp. Pd is not commercial software; i.e., it was not developed by a corporation and is not for sale. Instead, it is “open source”: its source code is not the (patented) property of a corporation, but is rather freely available to all. One drawback to this is that a detailed operating manual for users who lack programming experience has not existed until now. In contrast to a corporation— which has a monetary interest in ensuring that first-time users can easily operate new software—the open source movement lacks such a driving force to make itself accessible. This book is an attempt to fill that gap.

This tutorial is designed for self-study, principally for composers. It begins with explanations of basic programming and acoustic principles then gradually builds up to the most advanced electronic music processing techniques. The book’s teaching approach is focused primarily on hearing, which we consider a faster and more enjoyable way to absorb new concepts than through abstract formulas.

The patches described are available for download.

The book can also be purchased as a paperback. Details at the Pd Tutorial site.

This is a demo of Audioxygen’s Gemini VSTi, a huge fat soft synth for Windows .

Description:

This Synthesizer combines a huge fat, analogue sound with unique step sequencers and radical distortion. It excels in Raging Techno baselines, Psy/Goa FX, Hardstyle screams, Shimmering pads, Massive Trance leads and much more.

Key features:

• Huge, fat analogue sound with unique detuning algorithm.
• Radical Resonance and Distortion behavior down to the lowest sub frequencies.
• Unique dual step sequencers which can modulate each other for stunning sequences.
• Super-easy to operate. Every knob turn really changes the sound, like Macro controls.

Yeah – they describe it as huge, fat and analogue twice, which is doubly redundant. Why? Because huge and fat go hand in hand with analogue, right? Especially when you use the UK spelling for analogue, which equals huge and fat.

They’ve got a free demo at the site, though, so check it out and let us know how huge, fat, radical and raging this virtual analogue bad boy can get.

Direct Download Gemini VSTi
E 19,-  / $25,-  / £17,-

via audioxygen

This video tries to answer the question “What is MIDI?”

via SynthGnosis:

Midi stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Midi is not sound whatsoever, rather, it is a signal. That is one misconception about it. In this video I’ll explain the basics of it for those who don’t know what it is and what it can do for you.

Midi is simply sending a signal to your computer or some other musical device. Since it’s dealing with signals, just think of a midi controller being like a videogame console controller (SNES!) that sends a signal when you press a button on the pad, or being just like the keyboard (typing) that’s sitting right in front of you.

Midi is a little more advanced than the signaling that I talked of above because it deals with music, and with music there are a lot of variables. For example we have a velocity range which goes from 0 to 127, and velocity is how hard or soft you hit a key on your controller. It also tells whichever hardware or software that you’re sending the signal to exactly which note you’re playing and how long you hold it for. It can get a bit more advanced, but those are the basics.

Midi is a great way to record sort of a ‘DI’ and go back to replace or switch out the sounds of a synthesizer or piano performance. Learning the basics of midi is essential to any musician these days, and you don’t necessarily have to play keys to fool with it. Anyone can PROGRAM midi.

Alex McLean’s hack2009052204 demonstrates command-line techno with Haskell, an open source functional programming language.