First off: it’s not unreasonable to feel overwhelmed. There is so much to learn!
But you don’t have to know everything in order to do get something fun done. I think focusing on patterns is a good habit - on making music rather than signal processing (you can get a long, long way using other people’s synths)
Eli Fieldsteel’s tutorials are fantastic. He’s putting his entire courses on youtube.
Yep, His manual is next for me. Thank you
Download ModaLisp here
https://forum.ircam.fr/projects/detail/modalys/
Post below into New window and hit run script or command Y.
play with the numbers and see what happens. I think it sounds more raw and real than SC. I haven’t touched any docs on it yet. I want make sample material with it. But it can be sequenced with Max
There is an examples folder, the lisp one.
;;;-*-Mode: Lisp; Package: MODALYS -*-
;;;----------------------------------------------------------------------
;;; Modalys, example 7.
;;;----------------------------------------------------------------------
(new)
(load-component "key")
;;;
;;; make objects, and four "key" components (recall that keys are
;;; initially closed)
;;;
(defvar my-tube)
(setq my-tube
(set-pitch
(make-object 'closed-open-tube
(modes 7)
(radius0 .01)
(radius1 .1)
(freq-loss 22)
(const-loss 12))
'length 155.5635))
(defvar my-reed)
(setq my-reed (make-object 'bi-two-mass
(small-mass .000001)
(large-mass .000001)
(stiffness0 330)
(stiffness1 20)
(freq-loss0 160)
(freq-loss1 110)))
;;; the key component takes as arguments the tube, a pitch
;;; (in semitones above the tube's fundamental), and the radius
;;; of the key hole )
(defvar my-key1)
(setq my-key1
(make-instance 'key :tube my-tube :key-semitones 2 :radius 5e-3))
(defvar my-key2)
(setq my-key2
(make-instance 'key :tube my-tube :key-semitones 1 :radius 5e-3))
(defvar my-key3)
(setq my-key3
(make-instance 'key :tube my-tube :key-semitones 15 :radius 5e-3))
(defvar my-key4)
(setq my-key4
(make-instance 'key :tube my-tube :key-semitones 7 :radius 5e-3))
(defvar keys)
(setq keys (list my-key1 my-key2 my-key3 my-key4))
;;;
;;; make reed-tube interaction (make midi controller for breath,
;;; and scale breath pressure to vary between 20 and 1000
;;;
(defvar my-reed-rdt)
(setq my-reed-rdt (make-access my-reed (const 1) 'trans0))
(defvar my-tube-rdt)
(setq my-tube-rdt (make-access my-tube (const 0) 'long))
(defvar midi-ctlr)
(setq midi-ctlr (make-controller 'midi-file 1 "Examples/midi/wx7-staccato.mid"
1 ; midi channel
(list 2))) ; midi ctlr number
(make-connection 'reed my-tube-rdt my-reed-rdt 0.001
(make-controller 'scale 1 0 127 20 1000 midi-ctlr)
(const 0.000276)) ; reed active area
;;;
;;; clamp base of reed
;;;
(defvar my-reed-clp)
(setq my-reed-clp (make-access my-reed (const 0) 'trans0))
(make-connection 'position my-reed-clp (const 0))
;;;
;;; setq output
;;;
(defvar my-tube-out)
(setq my-tube-out (make-access my-tube (const .1) 'long))
(make-point-output my-tube-out)
;;;
;;; this part is interesting. the MIDI file is used only for breath
;;; information. we write some commands so that every time a note ends
;;; (i.e. the breath pressure falls to zero) we send some messages to open
;;; or close keys so that the next note will have a different pitch.
;;;
(defun note1 ()
(key/open (first keys)))
(defun note2 ()
(key/open (second keys)))
(defun note3 ()
(key/open (third keys)))
(defun note4 ()
(key/open (fourth keys)))
(defun note5 ()
(key/close (fourth keys))
(key/close (third keys)))
(defun note6 ()
(key/close (second keys))
(key/close (first keys)))
(defvar notelist)
(setq notelist (list (function note1) (function note2)
(function note3) (function note4)
(function note5) (function note6)))
;;;
;;; every time the "do-next-note" function is called, messages are
;;; sent to the keys to play the next note. if "do-next-note" is called
;;; and there are no more notes left, an error is signalled
;;;
(defun do-next-note ()
(if notelist
(progn
(funcall (car notelist)) ; call the first function on the list
(setq notelist (cdr notelist)))))
;;;
;;; make a scheme controller, whose input is the midi controller setq'd
;;; above. every time the pressure drops below 20 (on a scale of 0 to 127),
;;; the "do-next-note" function is called
;;;
(defvar in-note)
(setq in-note nil)
(make-controller 'foreign-call 0 -1
(lambda (inputs output)
(declare (ignore output))
(if in-note
(if (< (vget inputs 0 0) 20)
(progn (do-next-note)
(setq in-note nil)))
(if (> (vget inputs 0 0) 20)
(setq in-note t))))
(list midi-ctlr))
;;;
;;; make samples and play sound
;;;
(run 3)
(play)
the interface was Scheme in the old times - now a custom Lisp? - would be fantastic to run from SC (I see they have a Max interface…) hmmm
Yes, sc would be wonderful
Check this
He drops in modal objects for the 3d object in the max app, I don’t know how that is setup, it’s works with Max and openmusic , I don’t see a way to access his patches. Also midi files are used but they are breath controller cc, also loads graphic files from matlab, and presumably a free version of an app like matlab. ?
His book is great, but the videos are worth looking at.
I find it useful to have different ways of getting the information into my head. I certainly need to see things now than once.
He has a LOT of course material on YouTube. I’ve watched most of it