week3

We're continuing to add more to the RTcmix beta documentation, trying to keep pace with what we cover in class. Yikes! Also be sure to check the resources page -- we've recently linked in a new MINC tutorial by Chris Bailey. Well, whaddyaknow? The link is right here! too.

Here are the completed packages we discussed in class:

SNARE.tar.gz -- this implemented that 'snare drum' equation we randomly grabbed from the internet. The basic equation is N + T + N*T where N is noise (random numbers) and T is a "damped sine wave", or a sine wave that we quickly fade out using an envelope.
SIMPLESYNC.tar.gz -- is the first pass at trying a really crude model of a bowed string, using the notion that the bow resets an oscillator at a periodic rate. We change the bow-reset rate using a makegen function, and unfortunately noticed that the pitch we heard was more related to the bow-reset-rate instead of the frequency of the oscillator (the "string"). Oh well. This synthesis technique is equivalent to 'hard-syncing' of oscillators used in may analog synthesizers.
SYNC.tar.gz -- this is a refinement of the SIMPLESYNC instrument that uses the sync-rate for pitch, and dynamically changes the frequency of the oscillator (the "string"). What fun!
PINES.tar.gz -- this is the example of trying to simulate the effect of tiny vortices ("bursts") of air flowing around pine needles. Hey! It sort-of works! We randomly set up occurences of a single cycle of and up-down fluctuation of aur pressure (specified in makegen 1 in the scorefile). The rate is set within constraints, and the duration of each up-down fluctation can also be set in the scorefile.
The result isn't half-bad, especially when a bunch of the instruments (pine needles!) are run together -- run the M2.sco scorefile for an example.
Check out the use of the new RTcmix Orand object to set up the "bursts" within the random constraints.