Modulations

ParamDrum: new GUI [teaser]

By Peter Dines

From accomplished interface designer Jonathan Style.

EarSlap: SuperCollider Resources and Blog

By Peter Dines

Batuhan Bozkurt programs SuperCollider patches and quarks, and blogs about that and other audio topics at EarSlap.

In his latest post, he shows you how to recreate the THX “Deep note” - you know, “the audience is listening”? He has a full version and, unbelievably, a Twitter version that attempts to capture the essence of the sound in 140 characters! Reminds me of some of the write-only Perl code I’ve seen in the past.

I’ve slacked off on learning SuperCollider this month so I’m going to use this as inspiration to get back in the game.

ParamDrum

By Peter Dines

ParamDrum TR Edition from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

ParamDrum is a Reaktor drum sequencer for people who want a fast, easy way to create unique sounding electronic beat sequences with a MIDI controller. It puts the fun back into creating rhythmic variations that can be saved, recalled and tweaked in live performance or recorded and arranged into the backbone of a track.

It doesn’t have a compressor or reverb – surely you already have these things yourself, right? – what it has is a fast workflow, and the ability to produce sequences that will surprise you as you create them. It’s not a one-button “tada, here’s your beat” randomizer, nor is it a traditional sequencer that expects you to painstakingly determine every detail. It’s a nice balance between the two. I put a lot of effort into the usability and workflow and I hope you’ll find it as much fun as I do to work with.

The most important features:

• Note velocity represents probability a step will trigger
• Enter and delete notes with a MIDI keyboard
• Record per-step automation with MIDI CCs
• Independent sequence length for each of the three sequencers
• Extremely low CPU usage – 1 to 3 percent CPU on my four year old laptop
• fun beat sequences practically fall out of it

Here’s a quick peek at the previous version, which uses some generic samples from the Reaktor factory library and has a different GUI.

Reaktor drum machine with parameter locks from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

Both versions are available for the comically low price of $12.50. Once you have purchased a password, you can open the RAR files on the official ParamDrum drop. A non password protected PDF on the drop has more details on usage and features.

Remember: you need Reaktor 5 in order to use ParamDrum, and you need to enter a valid email address in order to receive the password.

I am a Kontakt dope

By Peter Dines

All this time I’ve been using Kontakt and I never realized it wasn’t necessary to explicitly save instruments separately when working in a host. I knew Kore had recall when you saved a performance, but I didn’t know other hosts would save everything too. That means not just knob positions but sample maps, midi and host automation mappings, effects, channel routings, even scripts, the whole hog. Mind you it doesn’t save the samples embedded, like a monolithic instrument or multi saved from Kontakt, so you still have to have the samples available in whatever directory Kontakt expects to load them from.

I guess I’m too used to working with Reaktor, which necessitates saving ensembles separately from the host’s project file (and has auto save options where you select a default save folder).

Setting up ASIO in Supercollider on Windows

By Peter Dines

This summer I’m going to post things about Supercollider as I learn them, which I hope will help me remember them as well as light a fire under my butt to keep assimilating new things.

This applies to version 3.3 alpha, which seems suspiciously stable for an alpha release.

When you boot the SC server (I’m assuming you know how to do that), this text appears in the post window:

I want to use the last option, the native driver for my card. But how?

In C:\Program Files\SuperCollider\startup.sc, I’ve added a line:

That’s the line from the post window. This is pretty much all you have to do – after you save the file, quit and restart supercollider and you’ll be using a low latency driver.

Reaktor and Processing, take 2

By Peter Dines

Here’s the next iteration with some graphics so it looks a tiny bit less pathetic.

Reaktor, Processing, Osc, take 2 from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

Next, some work on the sound generating side seems in order – detune those partials a little, and deglitch the transition times of the changes in volume.

Reaktor controlled via Processing

By Peter Dines

This is a proof of concept of Processing controlling the partials of an additive oscillator in Reaktor via Open Sound Control. It’s not much to look at or even hear yet, but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Reaktor controlled via Processing from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

The X-position selects one of eight partials and the Y position sets its volume. I really ought to draw some graphics in there so you can see what’s happening. Oh well, one thing at a time.

Reaktor drum machine with parameter locks

By Peter Dines

Another peek at what’s cooking at ReaktorTips Sound Laboratories.

This is a granular drum sampler I’m working on in Reaktor that has Elektron MachineDrum style parameter locks. I think it sounds pretty good so far. Note the ridiculously low CPU usage – 2% to 2.1%

Reaktor drum machine with parameter locks from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

At the moment, the knobs are used to write looping parameter automation per step, and this works great with Kore 2 hardware controllers, but entering percussion sequences must be done with the mouse. I’ve tried using a keyboard to enter data but it’s hard and fiddly to get the exact velocity you want on a given step, and a pain to remove steps.

I’m going to wait till my Maschine arrives and use its drum pads to trigger sequence entry. The sequencer doesn’t send MIDI yet, but the controller does and from everything I’ve heard it’s a joy to use.

ctrlr

By Peter Dines

ctrlr is a cross platform sound editor for your hardware synths. You remember hardware, right? Boxes? Got knobs on top and wires out the back, sometimes got piano keys?

This is the third version (i hope final this time) of an idea for a general purpose MIDI controller VST plugin.

In simple terms, if you have any hardware (or software) that can accept MIDI messages this might be a program for you.

It’s cross-platform and so far there are layouts for Juno-106, Evolver, MBase-01 and Drumstation. The layouts are created and stored in XML so theoretically anyone with a text editor can modify or create their own.

Sadly, I have none of the boxes for which layouts exist, so I can’t do any real testing. I’m hoping this will enable me to eventually create an editor for my underused Alesis Micron.