Hello,

I've just found pd on my Linux box, I typed pd into the command line an got a box with File, Find, Windows, Media and Help on it.

I clicked on Help then "pd documentation" and was presented with a "Open" dialogue. I guessed at "Manual" then guessed at "index.html", which brought up a browser - but the pd app was blank and unresponsive so I couldn't try anything.

Which was just as well because the documentation assumes that you've used this program before, the initial intro says stuff like :

"Here is a simple Pd patch:

hello world patch

There are four text boxes in this patch: a number box (showing zero), an object box showing "print," and two comments. The number box and the object box are connected, the number box's output to the print box's input. Boxes may have zero or more inputs and/or outputs, with the i" etc ...

So, what is an "object", "number box" etc etc - these are the first mentions of these names in the documentation.

I need a click here, then click there tutorial - can anyone get me started in this forum? Just to make one sine wave with a pitch input? Is there a "go" button somewhere?

Er, help

Cheers much,

Caesura

start here

http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/04/27/pd.html

or buy a copy of this months (August) Sound on Sound

Run the "test audio/midi" patch on the Media menu, don't be afraid to experiment you can't break anything.

Thanks for that - I shall get SOS, I've just looked at the link above ... nowhere in any Pd docs does it mention that you need to select "New" from the "File" menu, always starting with creating an "object", like everyone knows what an "object" is (could be a table leg, an aileron or a water bottle, but I'm guessing, again, that its an oscilator or a MIDI in or, er, what else?).

To use them, insert a new object box from the Put menu, and type "notein" (without the quotation marks) in the box. Follow the same procedure to make a noteout, and connect them as shown on the left side of Figure 4.

On start-up there's no Put menu and connecting "objects" is not explained either.

(There is no "getting started" in the Help menu as advertised by the Test Audio and Midi, er, object, page, thingy, .pd file).

Maybe you expect people to have already used MAX/MSP or jmax etc. If so, you could say that at the top of each doc. Or point them to MAX/MSP/jmax documentation first?

How did you guys/gals start using Pure Data?

Caesura.

>On start-up there's no Put menu and connecting "objects" is not explained either

File->New (creates a new patch) then use the put menu to create a new object (object is a basic element of a patch (a pd program) in puredata) in the empty window you can use the put menu. (The main pd window you see at startup displays debug information, it is not used to create a patch directly)

>How did you guys/gals start using Pure Data?

I'm just starting pd as well, the html help makes sense but you need to fiddle a round with pd to get the hang of it. Don't forget pd is a very complex/capable multimedia programming environment, which needs you to understand music and audio theory to create patches.

Here are my tips:

0. Read the html help and use the examples provided with pd.

1- Read the book Miller(the guy who wrote pd and max) is writing "Theory and Techniques of Electronic Music"

You can download it from http://www.crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/techniques.htm

2- Play with the tutorial patches (help from the menu, then browse / or open from the file menu) try the control examples and then the audio examples

3. Use right mousebutton to select help on any object!

Good luck,

Lech

Thanks for that - I managed to work out these things by random clicking. If I hadn't been so interested in Pd then I wouldn't have persued it because the interface/docs do not give an easy entry to making the first sound (which is easy, actually, but I couldn't have known that).

I think I came across Pd before, couldn't get a sound out of it and gave up. Maybe if the docs were improved then we'd have many, many more users!

Just a thought. Hopefully this forum post might help someone.

My attempt : This Is How To Start (Linux version : v0.1) :

1 At a command prompt type pd
2 From the top menu : File | New - will get a new window, called a patch
3 Put | Object then click anywhere in the new patch window and type osc~ into the box, then click anywhere outside the new osc "object"
3 Put | Object again and this time type dac~ into the box and click outside
4 Put | Number and then click outside
5 Click on the middle of an object to move it around if you like
6 At the bottom of the osc~ object is a short thick line. Move your mouse to this and the curser will change to a circle, then click and drag the resultant line to the short thick line on the top of the dac~ object.
7 Do the same with the Number (bottom short thick line) to the top of the osc~ box (the leftmost one).
8. Edit | Edit mode - select the toggle to be off - or cntrl-e
9 In the parent window (the first one that appeared when pd was run) click the "compute audio" button
10 In the patch window select the Number box and move the mouse upwards - this selects the frequency of the oscillator. You should hear a sinewave with the frequency controlled by the Number box.

Is this right??

Cheers!

Caesura

yay!
that was very useful,thanks caesura.
just what a newbie needs.

Great summary dude! Shame we don't have a FAQ sheet.
Thanks for posting.

Andy