Hi all,
My name ist Tom and i live in Bochum, Germany. As a retired analytical chemist, I just a few days ago stumbled over the Z<ynthian Project. “Chapeau” - I am quite excited about this great group and development, so I immediately orderd a kit, and I’m waiting for it to arrive …
Some info about my background:
… I’m not a professional musician nor programmer; only had to work with some (offline) signal processing like FFT and 2D chromatographic spectra.
… as an amateur musician I play piano and brass instruments (trombone, trumpet, cornet), for which i want to examine and create better sound files which sound more realistic than the ones i have found so far.
… I’m also also interested in early music scale temperaments (to find out how instruments and music would sound like in the old days")
… Add “simple” sensors/controllers to MIDI equipment like a breath controller for wind instruments
… and - don’t laugh too loud ;-)) - trying to develop something similar to the old Fairlight CMI for new sounds
like dynamic harmonics / overtones.
I do want to contribute and share experiences as much as I can and I will be delighted when you user group members will be shooting (meaningful) holes and criticisms into my proposals to
Nice to hear that there is a new Zynthian user in Germany (I am from Berlin - or nearby Berlin). If you want to create sample files take a look a Polyphone. It is a great tool for creating SF2 soundfonts.
Yeah! Fairlights are very nice dinosaurs of sound A dedicated plugin would be a very nice tool.
… I will try hard to see you at Berlin Maker Faire …
… Yes, i have already stumbled over “Polyphone”, for for some unknown reason i cannot get it running on my laptop.
For the “Fairlight” project, I’m still in the “proof of concept” phase, because i cannot make up my mind which sort of software to use, like C, some or all of the Python Libraries, PD, MAX/MSP, Super Collider, Csound (!!?), or some of the more commercial packets like “Morphine” from Fruity Loops. (Just starting now th explore the Linux world for additional candidates).
I appears to me that the open Zynthian concept will bring essential help to integrate these different possibilites into just one single “Music Software Bus” system ;-))))
Regards, Tom
I think interpreter languages (like python) will not work - or you have to code the engine in C/C++/… - but this make no sense, so you will go to write most of the code in this language.
Also don’t forget to look for a suitable plugin standard. LV2 is my favorite but there is also VST, JUCE, … But LV2 is directly supported in MOD-UI.
. I will look into Faust ASAP, and I have until now no clue about using/programming plugins - one more building site (sigh), but may be very well worth-while.
… Thanks also for the comment about Python! But what I seem to have assimilated so far is that Python compiles into some interim machine code and then uses interpreters of this for the different platforms and processors - just a bit similar to JAVA and other multi-platform programs. In some Forum I have also read that for some processors there may already be compilers in the works which will produce exe files (or DLL?). But maybe i have misunderstood some of the points. Anyway, I agree that such python sound development is probably not very much suited for stage performances, but it could help in offline productions e.g. by using some extensive rendering process for wav, ogg or mp3…
… Concerning LV2, VST, or JUCE I’ll probably need to discover some starting point “learning for dummies”, so all this will keep me busy fow quite a while, but my Zynthian kit has to arrive first - again: your valuable hints (also on other topics in this forum) are most welcome and extremely helpful…
Thanks! If you can arrange to take part at #MFB2017 I can try to give some of my knowledge about creating plugins and sound engines to you (and others who want to know something about this). But I must say: I don’t know everything. I just learned some parts over the last year of Zynthian
I don’t want to slowdown too much, but I think Python & Co are really something for offline processing. Also they might be very fast and optimized - they are slower than compiled machine code for a CPU. For offline processing or developing algorithms they might be usable. Perhaps for realtime processing - if it scales for the CPU. So give it a try if you think it can solve the problem!
(I am from Berlin - or nearby Berlin). If you want to create sample files take a look a 
A dedicated plugin would be a very nice tool.
