jnissa

These buttons turn on and off (or mark for creation) various sound-producing and graphics threads in java. These can be used to limit the machine load, although the handy CPU Load Slider discussed below is perhaps a better approach. I tested jnissa on an 800 Mhz pentium, an iMac, and a 266 Mhz pentium (laptop). It runs ok on on the faster pentium and iMac, but I had to really limit the load on the older (266) pentium.

Of course, as with jlooch, these little buttons are also useful if you really can't stand some of the sounds.

NOTE ABOUT AUDIO GLITCHING:  Unfortunately, java has a fairly sad sense of priority. Activities like creating windows with cutesy graphics can pre-empt the audio synthesis engine thread (oh how good Sun is with audio...), so you may hear clicks or gaps in the audio with the graphics engaged. It seems to run ok as an applet under Internet Explorer on both Windows and Mac machines, but if the audio is suffering try turning off the graphics.

Phil's latest version of JSyn does in fact address this problem by raising the audio synthesis thread priority. You will have to run the program as root (or su) under Linux to take advantage of this feature, however.

If the button is in the green/+ state (), it means the thread is running or is marked for running; in the red/- state () it signals that the thread is stopped.

The graphics on checkbox determines whether or not the applet will try to do any of the happy little graphics algorithms I've put into the code. Each audio thread has a particular little drawing program associated with it. I've stared at them for hours. Yes. I have. You can too.

As amazingly cool as the little graphics thingies are, they can get truly obnoxious when they start popping themselves up in front of the editor windows you are using to fix bug report number 71872871. The graphics bg checkbox invokes the java window toBack() method, which should put the graphics behind other stuff already on the screen. It does in fact do this under Linux, but I'm not so sure that it works properly running as an IE applet. Oh well.

NOTE ABOUT THE GRAPHICS WINDOWS:  If you run jnissa standalone under Linux, you will see the little windows pop up on the screen with no borders, etc. This is my artistic intention fulfilled! If you run it as an applet, however, those doggoned powers-that-be insist on identifying all my carefully-crafted graphics boxes with "Warning: Applet Window". Yeah, I know, security and all that... but I'm an ... Artist! an Artist! I tell you! I will the World into Being! My creative vision is absolute! Leave me alone, you Philistines of constrained thinking!!!! I revel in my solipsism!!!! I glory in the unadulterated aloneness of my private existence!!!! ...,. .,. .. . .

These are left as an exercise for the reader to figure out.

This slider sets a CPU usage percentage above which it will not schedule new threads. Basically, this means that you can try to lessen how much strain is put on the CPU while running jnissa. The trade-off is that the music won't be as 'layered' -- fewer threads will overlap as you move the slider towards the left. This (along with turning off the graphics) can help run the applet on slower machines. If you move the slider completely to the left it will pretty much shut down any activity in the jnissa applet.

The Ancient History of jnissa

Well, actually there really isn't much "Ancient History" behind jnissa. Check out the Ancient History of jlooch for some background information, though.

Ok, I lied. There is some history, primarily related to the synthesis algorithm used. jnissa doesn't use any sampled guitar or plucked sounds -- it's all created by an algorithm developed by Charles Sullivan (back when he was an undergraduate!) extending the basic Karplus-Strong ("plucked string") synthesis technique. Amazing guy, Charlie. I've had hours of endless enjoyment through the years fooling with this algorithm, and what you hear with jnissa is almost entirely generated by this synthesis method.

You can read how this approach works in Charlie's original article published in the Fall, 1990 Computer Music Journal (vol. 14, #3): Extending the Karplus-Strong Algorithm to Synthesize Electric Guitar Timbres with Distortion and Feedback. The Computer Music Journal is published quarterly by the MIT Press. Alternatively, you can download the source code for the objects I wrote implementing this algorithm in JSyn. There's even a nice, terse README file included to hopelessly confuse the unsuspecting code-hacker.

Some More Semi-Silly Answers to Semi-Silly Questions

Q. Why is it called jnissa?

"Nissa" is the name of our cat. "Looch" (as in the earlier JSyn app jlooch) was the name of our dog. Fair is fair. Looch died awhile ago, but Nissa is still alive and meowing, daddy-oh.


Q. Why the occasional references to old-fashioned, outdated 'hipster' lingo?

Like, I'm completely hip to this question. I can dig where you're comin' from. Swingin' on the flip-side. Something about cats, dad. Gonesville.


Q. How does jnissa work?

As If By Magic!

Check the source code if'n' ya really wants an answer to this question.


Q. Why won't it run properly on my machine XXX?

This is an extremely fascinating and interesting question. Although time and space prevent me from going into great detail here, I can say briefly that the question warrants deep consideration and will most likely engage issues of great importance. One good suggestion is to scan the answer to a similar question rhetorically posed (and answered) in the Semi-Silly Answers to Semi-Silly Questions section of the jlooch web page. I am certain that it will address more specific points that are beyond the scope of the present document. As in any human endeavor, the hope is that all that ends will indeed end well. In truth, each one of us can partly judge our success and/or failure by the point in our striving towards completion that we declare, unequivocally, "our goal has been attained". Thus it is, and ever shall be.


Q. Whoa -- that was quite an answer! But are there any known bugs?

Of course.

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