From: latta@xcf.Berkeley.EDU (Craig R. Latta)
Newsgroups: ucb.becmug,comp.music,rec.music.makers,rec.music.synth
Subject: ... Monthly Electronic and Computer Music FAQ, via NetJam, Berkeley, part /usr/users/ftp/ftp_public/misc/netjam/doc/FAQ/split/3 of 6 ...
Date: 17 Aug 1992 07:59:59 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
Reply-To: Craig Latta <latta@xcf.Berkeley.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: xcf.berkeley.edu
Followups-To: rec.music.synth



quit programming in BASIC over two decades ago.

The good things about DUB:  It mixes together N "playlists" on the  
fly.  A playlist is a sequence of non-overlapping sounds.  The  
DACPlayer object is pretty clean, the DSPRecorder object (and  
attendant dspRecorder.asm code) knows how to drive the Ariel digital  
mic at different sampling rates.  It records at the same time that it  
plays back.

The bad things about DUB:  There's no real user interface.  The sound  
file names that it opens to play are hardwired in the source code.   
The sound file that it records into is similarly hardwired.  You have  
to launch it from a shell (or more often a debugger) in the directory  
that contains the sound files "track1.snd," "track2.snd," etc.  There  
are features that the low level code supports (dynamic gain control,  
setting the duration of the sounds) that the user interface doesn't  
exploit.

DUB does useful things that many NeXT sound and music aficionados  
have asked about, but my pride prevents me from distributing it  
broadly in its current ugly state.  So let's make a deal: I will give  
the project folder (source code, IB.proj, etc) if you agree to the  
following:
	* You must be able to receive (and send) NeXT mail attachments.
	  (That's how we'll communicate.)
	* You will implement a "safe and sane" user interface for Dub.
	* You already know NeXTstep programming and won't ask me lots
	  of questions (I'm perpetually swamped at work, and I may not
	  have much time to answer your questions.)
	* You will send me the finished application in source form.
	* You will allow me to put the finished application in source
	  form on the archive servers.
	* Most importantly, you won't laugh at me or malign me in public
	  for writing such a mean user interface.

If you can agree to all the above, and you're interested in helping  
the rest of the NeXT community make beautiful music on the NeXT, I  
want to hear from you.

Thanks!

- Robert Poor
  NeXT Developer Marketing
  rpoor@next.com


---


Q: What is "RT", and how can I get it?

A:

Date: Mon, 15 Jul 91 15:17:12 PDT
From: Conrad_Geiger@NeXT.COM
To: nextmusic@silvertone.Princeton.EDU
Subject: Real time sound mixer 

A new real time sound mixing program from Paul Lansky on the net...

conrad

From: paul@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Paul Lansky)
Subject: Real time sound mixer
Date: 14 Jul 91 15:26:45 GMT

I have placed a real-time sound mixing program, RT,  in
pub/music/NeXTrt.tar.Z at princeton.edu.  This was
written by me and Kent Dickey, and essentially allows you
to play arbitrary segments of up to 32 different soundfiles
in 8 tracks, as if they were notes, overlapping, panning,
enveloping and even pitchshifting them.  The limitation on 
the system is essentially disk throughput, which seems to 
allow you to do about 450k bytes per second.  This means 
you can mix two 44k stereo files, 2 22k stereo and one 44k
stereo, etc, at a time.  A really nice feature of the program
is that you can play different channel formats and different
sampling rates at the same time!  If you overload the system
there will be interruptions, but you can also write the mix out
to disk.  


I *think* it is fairly robust now, and easy to use.  I have 

not placed it in the archives since I want to keep tinkering
with it, and so want to keep it in reach. 


Future additions will include a signal editor, and perhaps some
sort of graphic display, although the latter would be tricky, given
that for my current work I often find myself lining up as many as
500 sound segments to play.

I am anxious for feedback and suggestions.  This program will not
work well on 030 machines.  Enjoy it.

Paul Lansky
Music Department
Princeton University
paul@princeton.edu
paul@silvertone.princeton.edu


---

Q: What is "RTLisp", and how can I get it?

A:

Date: Tue, 28 Jan 92 17:14:51 GMT
From: Pete Yadlowsky <pmy@vivaldi.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Subject: new Lisp interface to Lansky's "rt"
Apparently-To: nextmusic@wri.com


RTLisp runs on David Betz's XLisp and is comprised of a set of object
class and function definitions which provide a Lisp interface to
Paul Lansky's NeXT-based, real-time audio mixing software,
`rt'. The rt user arranges audio material temporally,
dynamically and spatially by means of a relatively simple grammar
which is parsed and executed by rt's audio driver program. The 

simplicity of this grammar can make it rather tedious to use,
though, especially in the realization of complex `scores'. Also,
there is no  provision for the programmatic generation of audio
events, so every event must be specified in detail by hand. 


RTLisp was designed to facilitate the process of rt score
creation. It equips the composer with a powerful, interactive
high-level programming environment (Lisp), and lends some
intelligence to tasks such as temporal placement and grouping of
audio events, control of dynamics in the stereo field and rt
`track' assignment. 


RTLisp can be thought of as a sort of rt command compiler. It can run
standalone in a shell window, controlling the rt audio driver
directly, or it can run in conjunction with rt.app, Mr. Lansky's
NextStep interface to the driver. 


RTLisp is available in two different packages. The first, under
NeXTrt.tar, contains rtlisp binaries and scripts merged with a
new version of rt.app, along with an RTLisp chapter in rt.app's
online documentation. The second, rtlisp.tar, does not include
rt.app but does include binaries, lisp source, rt's audio driver
and XLisp and rtlisp documentation. 


anon ftp: uvaarpa.acc.virginia.edu:/pub/next/Apps/NeXTrt.tar.Z
          uvaarpa.acc.virginia.edu:/pub/next/bin/rtlisp.tar.Z
          princeton.edu:/pub/music/NeXTrt.tar.Z
          princeton.edu:/pub/music/rtlisp.tar.Z

---
Peter M. Yadlowsky		|         Laden e-mail runs
Academic Computing Center	| Bumbling, creaking through the net
University of Virginia		|         Sysadmins tremble.
pmy@Virginia.EDU		|			- after Buson



---

Q: Are there programs to convert back and forth between
	human/filter-readable text and MIDI files? How do I get them?

A:

From: Piet van Oostrum <piet%CS.RUU.NL@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU>
Subject:      Announcing MF2T/T2MF
To: Multiple recipients of list EMUSIC-L <EMUSIC-L@AUVM>

Two programs to manipulate standard midifiles.

mf2t is a program that reads a standard midifile (format 0 or 1) and
writes an ASCII representation of it that is both compact and easily parsable.

t2mf is the companion program that reparses the text representation
into a midifile.

Piet van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University,
P.O. Box 80.089, 2508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands
email: piet@cs.ruu.nl

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can do with this program what you like, but if you think it is
useful I would appreciate if you send me some of your midifiles. Not
ones that I can find on the Internet. Please send them uu- or
btoa-encoded. Zoo and Arc archives (encoded) are also OK, Zip and
Lharc may be problematic.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The text representation is chosen such that it is easily recognized and
manipulated by programs like sed, awk or perl. Yet it is also humanly
readable so that it can be manipulated with an ordianary text editor.

In this way you can make changes to your midifiles using these
powerful programs or even in Cobol :=). Or you can write
algorithmic compositions using a familiar programming language.

mf2t/t2mf is available via ftp at the sites returned by 'archie mf2t'
(see the entry on 'archie' above).

by mail-server:

send the following message to
mail-server@cs.ruu.nl (or uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!ruuinf!mail-server):

    begin
    path john@highbrow.edu (PLEASE SUBSTITUTE *YOUR* ADDRESS)
    send MIDI/PROGRAMS/mf2t.zoo
    end

NOTE: *** PLEASE USE VALID INTERNET ADDRESSES IF POSSIBLE. DO NOT USE
ADDRESSES WITH ! and @ MIXED !!!! BITNETTERS USE USER@HOST.BITNET ***

The path command can be deleted if we receive a valid from address in your
message. If this is the first time you use our mail server, we suggest you
first issue the request:
    send HELP
--
Piet* van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University,
Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Telephone: +31 30 531806   Uucp:   uunet!mcsun!ruuinf!piet
Telefax:   +31 30 513791   Internet:  piet@cs.ruu.nl   (*`Pete')


---

Q: What are the requirements of CSound?

A:

The requirements for CSound are somewhat flexible.  I actually compiled a
Mac + (MPW) version of CSound 2-3 years ago, but it took about 8 hours to
make 80 seconds worth of sound!  I suggest you use a system with hardware
floating point and a 32-bit processor (Any Mac II with FPU, a NeXT, Indigo).
As far as memory requirements, that depends on how big your gen function
tables will be.  The same with hard disk size.  If you want to make a
10 minute stereo piece at 44.1K sample rate, you will need 106 megabytes
of disk space.  (10.6 Megs per stereo minute at 44.1K, 11.6 at 48K).
So the answer is...  use as big of a system as you can buy or borrow.


---

Q: Where can I get recordings of electronic music?

A:

Date:         Wed, 20 Nov 1991 13:37:30 EST
From: The Radio Gnome <V2002A%TEMPLEVM.bitnet@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU>
Subject:      Mail order sources for EM
To: Multiple recipients of list EMUSIC-L <EMUSIC-L@AUVM>

Hi,

     Below are some of the places I order/have ordered from along with
some short descriptions.

     Any word of new releases by Georges Boutz or Thom Brennan?


Alcazar              Heavier emphasis on the folk/newage end of things.
Box 429
South Main ST
Waterbury, VT 05676             800-541-9904

Wayside Music          Lots of rare/unusual stuff as well as some
Box 6517               pressings on their own Cuneiform label.
Wheaton, MD 20906-0517

Eurock Distribution    A one person show (Archie Patterson)
Box 13718
Portland, OR 97213

Lotus Records          Carried a lot of rarities.  Last ordered from them
23 High Street         in 1985.
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Staffordshire ST5 1QZ
Great Britain

Mirage Music           Martin Reeds venture.  Used to carry Mark
612 Southmead Road     Shreeves early cassette only releases.
Filton                 Also good cassettes by Ian Boddy and Steve Frost.
Bristol BS12 7RF
Great Britain

Backroads Distribution    More Newagey type stuff but extensive inventory.
417 Tamal Plaza           Also carry New Albion and Erdenklang Labels.
Corte Madera, CA 94925    800-825-4848

Generations Unlimited       They carry David Prescotts tapes and some
199 Strathmore #5           good stuff by Jorge Thomasios
Brighton, MA 02135-5210

The Music Suite Ltd       Carry the complete Adrian Wagner Collection.
Glanyrafon House          Also check out 3 Men Underground.
Cenarth - Newcastle Emyln
Dyfed SA38 9JN
Great Britain

Perry Thompson          He sent me his cassette Sleeping Giants for
70 Sproul Rd.           free.  Its very Burmer-esque.
Malvern, PA 19355

Charles Cohen       Ask about his "Darwin in Chains" cassette and
Box 181             the unreleased(?) "Swizzle Stick"
Riverton, NJ 08077

George Wallace  c/o         All three of his releases are MUSTS in
Larger than Life Music      any EM collection.  Start with Communion.
10 Belmont Sq.
Doylestown, PA 18901

Jesse Clark             His latest, Locked in Heaven is his best, but
710 Eton-Adelphia Rd.   earlier releases are also good, especially
Freehold, NJ 07728      "CAMELIA"

"She has learned that short ideas repeated massage the brain" - Robert Ashley


---

Q: Is there PostScript code available for generating guitar scales?

A:

	Yes, via ftp as:

	anonymous@xcf.berkeley.edu:misc/netjam/lib/scales.ps.mail

---

Q: What are some public-domain (or nearly so) sample-editing programs
	for IBM-PC compatibles?

A:

Date:         Wed, 15 Jan 1992 13:36:00 LCL
From: Achim Haag <UJ69%DKAUNI2.bitnet@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Tetra compositor
To: Multiple recipients of list EMUSIC-L <EMUSIC-L@AUVM>

Hi,

I don't know anything about the Tetra compositor, but I know two
public domain programs, that are quite similar to Soundtracker.
The first is called ScreamTracker (for PC). It has many functions:
play in background, peak level meter, oscilloscope...
Unfortunately it's shareware and the autor wants some $100 before he
will send you a version that can SAVE your own created songs.
It can handle many output devices (PC speaker via PCM, D/A-
converter at an printer port, SoundBlaster (I believe!!!)), but I don't
think it's worth this much.

The second one - MODEDIT - is not quite as comfortably as the Scream-
tracker, but it's public domain and therefore is worth it's money...
Unfortunately it does *not* support SoundBlaster, but I've build
a simple D/A-converter and now I can listen to the sounds on
my stereo.

I've many samples from an amiga-user, so this shouldn't by a problem.

Hope this information is useful  for you.

Bye, Achim


---

Q: What are Patchmix and StochGran and how can I get them?

A:

Date: Wed, 29 Jan 92 14:15:04 GMT-0500
From: mara helmuth <mara@silvertone.Princeton.EDU>
Subject: Patchmix and StochGran
Apparently-To: nextmusic@wri.com


I have put new versions of Patchmix and StochGran at the Princeton
archive (Princeton.edu) in the "pub/music" directory.  These are
both NeXT interfaces.  Patchmix is a graphical front end to Cmix 
which allows you to create instruments by connecting a patch of unit
generator icons.  StochGran is a granular synthesis instrument.
The source code is there, and it is necessary to have Cmix installed
to compile them.  I'm still adding things, so let me know if you use 
them and have suggestions.

Mara Helmuth
mara@woof.columbia.edu
mara@silvertone.princeton.edu

---

Q: What is the IRCAM Signal Editor and how can I get it?

A:

Date: Thu, 30 Jan 92 10:36:18 PST
From: daj@ccrma.Stanford.EDU (David Jaffe)
Subject: Re: SoundKit vs MusicKit
Apparently-To: nextmusic@wri.com

davidfe writes about the problem of using the Music Kit and Sound Kits 
together, playing sound with the Music Kit,then playing sound with the
Sound Kit, then having problems with the DSP.

This is a well-known problem.  Here's what's going on:

The sound kit preempts whatever else is going on when it plays a sound.
So it grabs the "sound-out link from the DSP" that the Music Kit is using.
But it doesn't restore the link.

Basically, the only way to do what you want (currently) is to close (or abort)
the Orchestra, play the sound, and then open the orchestra again.  If you
are using the orchestra in timed mode (the default), you probably want to
finish the performance too.

I.e.:

-playsound {
        [Orchestra abort];
        [Conductor finishPerformance]; 
        [sound play];
}

when sound is done:

-soundIsDone {
        [Orchestra open];
        ...allocate SynthPatches and such, if necessary...
        ...activate Performers if necessary...
        [Conductor startPerformance]; 
}


Future releases of NeXT software should solve this problem.


---

Q: Which glove interfaces with the Max 'glove' object?

A:

Date: Thu, 20 Feb 92 16:03:49 CST
From: James McCartney <james@astro.as.utexas.edu>
To: max@dcs.edinburgh.ac.uk
Subject: power glove

   The glove object uses the Gold Brick ADB interface from Transfinite
Systems. (617) 969-9570 The cost is $169 for a user system or $245 for
the developer model which provides LEDs for monitoring ADB activity
and other stuff.


---

Q: What software reads DCMS files and converts them to something else?

A:

Date: Mon, 24 Feb 92 15:29:58 -0800
From: Phil Burk <phil@mills.edu>
Subject: DMCS -> Copyist files.

Many folks have asked about a conversion program that will read
DMCS files and convert them to something else.  The only program
I know of is Copyist Companion by Nick Didkovsky.  It converts
DMCS files to Dr. T's Copyist compatible files.  The main purpose
is for printing good scores from DMCS files.  Nick has talked about
converting DMCS to MIDIFiles or other formats so ask him and maybe
he will write it.  You can order Copyist Companion from Dr T
or from Nick directly.  Nick is at:
    
    didkovsk@dorsai.com

This program is for the Amiga.


---

Q: 	What is Midi2TeX, and how can I get it?

A:

Date: Wed, 5 Aug 92 10:47 MET
From: KUYKENS@amc.uva.nl
Subject: MIDI2TeX V 1.1 uploaded


     Recently I have finished version 1.1 of the MIDI2TeX translator.
Instead of sending it by e-mail to all users I now have uploaded the
complete package (PC and ST) on ftp site

                obelix.icce.rug.nl
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Craig R. Latta           Experimental Computing Facility                (XCF)
Composer, Software and   ParcPlace Systems, Inc.        (latta@parcplace.com)
    Recording Engineer   NetJam, Berkeley                (netjam-request@xcf)