Elastic Rhythm in Signal-Synchronised Sequencing Objects for Pure Data

This paper presents a family of objects for manipulating polyrhythmic sequences and isorhythmic relationships, in both the signal and event domains. These work together and are tightly synchronised to an audio phase signal, so that relative temporal relationships can be tempo-manipulated in a linear fashion. Many permutations of polyrhythmic sequences including incomplete tuplets, scrambled elements, interleaved tuplets and any complex franctional relation can be realised. Similarly, these many be driven with controllable isorhythmic generators derived from a single driver, so that sequences of different fractionally related lengths may be combined and synchronised. It is possible to use signals to drive audio playback that are directly generated, so that disparate sound files may be combined into sequences. A set of sequenced parameters are included to facilitate this process.

Poscolonial Peruvian Sheep and Their Digital Dreams: Pure Data as a Tool for Conceptual Reconfiguration in Peruvian Musical Education

In this work, I discuss the use of Pure Data as the main tool for the development of paradigmatic changes in Peruvian musical education, through the implementation of the Laboratorio de Música Electroacústica y Arte Sonoro of the Universidad Nacional de Música in Lima - Perú. This analysis is made taking under consideration the particularities present in the development of the study of technology-based music in the country and the historical shortcoming that have marked that development. This work complements my previous research regarding the relevance of specific social narratives present through the history of the nation in regards to technology and musical innovation. In that sense, it presents a historical that seeks to revert the course of a musical learning history that excludes technology based musical practices associated with Pure Data, from becoming part of the official processes for musical creation in the country.

[vstplugin~] – A Pd external for hosting VST plugins

[vstplugin~] is a cross-platform Pure Data external for hosting VST 2 and VST 3 plugins that has been developed at the IEM in Graz. The external provides an extensive set of features which span several topics, such as channel layout, plugin search, real-time safety, GUI editor, parameter automation, preset management, MIDI events, transport and timing, bridging and sandboxing, multithreading and offline processing. We show the development process and discuss previous work in this area. We also cover the history of the VST technology, explain the differences between the VST 2 and VST 3 SDK and offer insight into their inner workings. Finally, we discuss possible improvements and extensions for the future.

The Null Piece and Reality Check

Two frameworks are described, within the larger framework of Pure Data, that aim to facilitate the creation and preservation of electronic music that is performed live in real time. These are not part of Pd itself, because they are more directly tailored to a specific application space than Pd should be. They are nonetheless designed, like Pd, to minimize any unnecessary stylistic imposition on creators of electronic music. The Null Piece is a starting point for building live performance patches. It provides basic audio routing and parameter control while leaving other choices as free as possible. Reality Check is an attempt to aid in the long-term maintenance of a musical realization by verifying whether a piece still runs as intended despite the inevitable evolution of hardware and software.

Scheduling and Sequencing Musical Events in Pure Data with Scheme for Pd

Scheme for Pd is a newly released open-source external for Pure Data, enabling scripting Pd with s7 Scheme Lisp. In this experience report, the author introduces Scheme for Pd and demonstrates its use for scheduling and sequencing musical events in s7 Scheme.

Pd and Audio Programming in the 21st Century

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Pure Data, this essay discusses the development of audio programming up to the present, and considers the role that Pd can continue to play in the computer music of the future.

Analysis and resynthesis of real instruments using Pure Data and the MKMR library

In this experience report, I present my method for synthesizing realistic sounding instruments. Starting from the analysis of a marimba sample to how to recreate it using additive synthesis while reducing the number of objects, memory and CPU load. This synthesized model only uses pd vanilla objects, allowing an ease of implementation with projects using libpd. The instrument detailed in this article and many more are part of my open-source library: mkmr. This repository is a compilation of vanilla made abstractions with different categories such as: oscillators, filters, effects, instruments, waveshapers, sequencers, etc.

Beats + Sample Manipulation in Pure Data with Raspberry Pi

Musical work for the Dossier “A quarter of century of Pd: past, present and future” [note by editor]

EXC!TE SNARE DRUM — Making an Audio Plugin with Pure Data inside

This report describes how we made a VST3 plugin containing Pure Data and integrated libpd into VCV Rack, iPlug2 and the VST3SDK. The plugin is a real-time snare drum synthesizer using an exciter-resonator model. We discovered an undesirable effect in Pd where the computationally cheap 4-point interpolation on delread4~ creates audible artefacts, effecting our wave-guide. Our solution to this issue was to implement our own interpolation object based on advice from Cyrille Henry posted to the Pd mailing list in 2008. The implementation was taken from Julius O. Smith‘s Digital Audio Resampling reference book.

Pandemics, Delays, and Pure Data: on ‘afterlives’ (2020), for Flute and Live Electronics and Visuals

The essay addresses creative and technical aspects of the piece ‘afterlives’ (2020), for flute and live electronics and visuals. Composed and premiered in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the composition employs audiovisual processes based on different audiovisual techniques: phase-vocoders, buffer-based granulations, Ambisonics spatialization, and variable delay of video streams. The resulting sounds and images allude to typical situations of social interaction via video conferencing applications. ‘Afterlives’ relies on an interplay between current, almost-current, and past moments of the audiovisual streams, which dephase the performer’s images and sounds. I have avoided, in text, delving deeper into the Pure Data abstractions and or into the musical analysis of my composition. The main purpose of the text is rather to present compositional/technical elements of ‘afterlives’ and discuss how they enable new experiences of time.