What is the simplest (most elegant) way of storing and retrieving (replaying) value sequences?

I have the following in my patch:
[metro 300]
|
[random 8]
|
[+1]
|
[numbox]

How can I sample a sequence of 12 numbers, replay it back to numbox twice and sample another sequence of 12 random numbers, replay it ... etc?

I'm experimenting with pack / unpack, but so far I'm not getting anything useful out of them.

Any ideas or directions would be highly appreciated.

Is it possible to use [textfile] to output each character of the text rather than each line? I have a long sequence of numbers (such as 91247...) and would like the patch to spit out 9, 1, 2, 4, 7... so that I can then use something like [sel] to trigger the corresponding bangs. What would be the best approach?

Many thanks in advance!

Is it possible to change [counter] step size - I mean instead of counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... (in increments of 1), can it be used to count in increments of 0.005 such as 0.031, 0.036, 0.041, 0.046... ? I could probably use [/ 500] or something afterwards and get a similar result, but I was wondering if this could be set for counter internally?

Thanks!

I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with this patch - it seems to be eating way too much CPU power (40% on my Pentium M 1.6GHz). When metro is unticked, it seems to half the CPU usage. But even 20% seems a bit too high.

What I am trying to do is crossfade between the two noise sources. As soon as the crossfade starts, filter frequency has to start going up incrementally. Is there an easier / more efficient way to achieve this?

I would be grateful for any advice / comment.

Many many thanks!

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/noise_test.pd

Just wondering how you guys do surround panning? For example, panning a mono source around in a quadraphonic speaker setup?

Any ideas / links / suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi All,

I am using the method described

to crossfade between two Quicktime video clips. Both 640x480, 25fps, compressed using Photo-JPEG codec at 75%, approximately 15 seconds in length each. This task seems impossible - the CPU jumps to and stays at 100%. My machine is Pentium M Centrino 1.6GHz with 1.5GB of RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 (64MB). Video editing software I use has no problem crossfading two DV-PAL clips at 720x576 in real time. Even then CPU doesn't go above 50%.

Is it an issue with GEM on Windows? Would doing this from Linux be more efficient? Perhaps my ATI drivers? I'm using the latest. My machine too slow? Well, it's not the fastest, but I'm only trying to play two clips at less than full-frame SD resolution... Should I forget about crossfading two clips at 720x576?... Perhaps not the most efficient codec?

Only 2 weeks to go before I have to exhibit my piece at a gallery. Is GEM not the way to go? vvvv? PiDiP? Jitter? What are your experiences?

Any ideas / advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Vytis

I03.resynthesis.pd patch is pretty much everything I need for my current sound design project, but the problem is that I need to automate it... So how do I...?

1. Store/recall different curves from the table? Can I save these as text files or something?
2. Morph between these stored curves at a certain speed?

The idea is that I use this principle to shape the spectrum of white noise, and then use bangs or [metro] to switch between these stored spectrum curves. It should smoothly morph between curves at a pre-set speed (using [line] perhaps?). In a similar fashion to GRM Tools preset morphing. That would be superb!

Any advice / implementation examples would be very much appreciated!

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

Hi,

I'm experimenting with an Arduino board (talking to PD via Pduino). It's sending data in quite large steps (I guess this is due to analogue value -> digital sampling rate which I'm increased to maximum).

Is there a way to smooth value changes? So that if it jumps in four steps: 100 - 121 - 210 - 300, the values would be smoothed to 100, 101, 102, 103, 104 ... 298, 299, 300? Is that possible? I tried using "average", but it seems to introduce a LOT of latency. I understand that there will be a slight latency, but have you got any tips how to implement this for a realtime controller?

Thanks!

Brilliant! Thank you both.
tabwrite / tabread + count worked great!
Cheers.

Here's textfile.txt with numbers

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/textfile.txt

Hi Malestrom!

Many thanks for your response. It does sound like a very neat way of doing exactly what I want to achieve, however I'm afraid it's not working over here - I must be doing something silly. I've attached the patch - would be most grateful for any further directions. Does it happen too fast so that I can't see it? Is it possible to define how fast you want the list to drip?

Thanks!

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/dripping_numbers.pd

Are you using ASIO driver? I get really low latency with my integrated card using Asio4All generic driver, as well as Edirol FA-101 firewire interface using its own ASIO driver. I've been running PD on Windows XP for quite a while now, and I'm very pleased overall.

My laptop is a few generations behind yours (Pentium M 1.6GHz) so you should be able to achieve even lower latencies using Asio4All.

Good luck!

Wow, this is amazing ClaudiusMaximus! I don't mind replacing almost everything with non-GUI objects. That sounds like a really great workaround.
I'll do some tests / comparisons and post the results.
THANKS!

Thanks for your comments!

I had a suspicion it was a graphics-related issue. I've posted earlier about my CPU hitting 100% when trying to do relatively simple things with GEM.

I'm on Windows XP and I always try to have the latest drivers for my video card. It appears that latest is not always better - out of interest I've now downgraded to the old (2004) drivers supplied by the OEM - and the same patch that was hitting 100% before is now floating around 40%! Great!

However, while the patch I attached to this thread is using less CPU, it's still around 20%. So I did a bit of investigation and it appears that a process called "wish84.exe" is responsible for that. WTF? It's using 19-20% while pd.exe itself is only using 1%, just like all of you suggested. At first I thought it was a virus, but google search results mention it in relation to Cygwin. Whatever. If I try to kill wish84, it kills pd as well. So what is it?...

Anyway, thanks for all your help. I've learnt so much at this place - my MA final project is now entirely PD-based. It's getting easier and easier to make up new things and realise concepts / ideas. Possibilities are endless indeed. You are all amazing!

Now I just need to shoot the thief (wish84.exe)

Thanks!

I've got an Arduino Diecimila which works perfectly with PD. It really is super simple to set up!

1. Download Pduino AND Firmata:
http://at.or.at/hans/pd/objects.html
2. Download Arduino Software for your operating system:
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
3. Attach your Arduino board via USB cable, launch Arduino Software and open "Standard_Firmata" from Firmata/examples. Upload this to your board.
4. Launch PD and open "arduino-test.pd"
5. Select the right COM port (click on each one until PD message window reports something positive). Then enable the PIN you've got your sensor attached to. Value in a relevant box will start updating. If you haven't got a sensor but just want to make sure it's working, click "Pulse all outputs". An LED on the board will start flashing repeatedly.

That's all you need to get going.
Let us know how it goes.

Good luck!

Hi

Here's the patch. Pretty simple. I would very much appreciate it if you could take a look and see if there are any possible flaws. Also, what would be the most efficient way of running it full screen? Should I set my desktop resolution to something as low as 800x600 to improve playback?

I've just noticed that my Photo-JPEG Quicktime has a bitrate of 13Mbps which is very high IMHO! Maybe that's the cause. I'll re-encode my clips and see if that helps.

THANKS!

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/video-xfade.pd

sunji, this patch is precisely what I was looking for!!! Thank you so much! Wow!

I used vector graphics package Xara to create the illustration. Its blend tool automatically generates shapes between objects. It's open-source and therefore completely free for Linux, however you'd have to pay for its more advanced version for Windows. If you are interested:
http://www.xaraxtreme.org/
http://www.xara.com/

This forum is amazing!
Thank all of you guys so much! Thanks hardoff, ClaudiusMaximus, domien and sunji! Your help is very much appreciated.

domien - I guess that for white noise the result of "morphing" or "crossfading" will probably sound very similar. So perhaps you are right.

... But what I'm thinking about is that the process of morphing should also affect frequencies inbetween. I've drawn this quick sketch to illustrate it:

Red curve is table1, Blue is table2, Black - transition. As you can see, it affects frequencies in between which I don't think is the case with crossfading.

Such morphing possibility would make PD a most powerful sound design platform for synthesising very complex sounds in a rather user-friendly way. I came to this conclusion when altering curves in real time, it produced some very realistic bird call sounds, car brake squeaks and creaks etc. I don't think that this can be achieved with regular crossfading.

Am I asking too much?

I'd like to take this opportunity to say that this forum is simply amazing! I've learnt so much in the last couple of weeks. It has encouraged me to actually start using PD for my sound design work. I'll certainly share my patches as soon as I develop something interesting.

Thanks guys!

This is amazing, thank you!

I don't want to sound like I'm nit-picking - your patch is close to what I'm trying to achieve, but is it possible to actually *morph* the frequency curve, rather than crossfade the volume...? So that each frequency band adjusts to a value from table2?

MANY THANKS!

Thanks for your incredibly quick response, hardoff!

1. curve->textfile->curve works perfectly! Incredible!

2. But I'm not quite sure where you mean the original [tabreceive~ ] is in the resynthesis patch... [tabreceive~ $0-gain] in the fft-analysis window I assume? But where exactly do I connect those [*~ ] objects? I tried several locations, but it doesn't seem to do anything... Also how do I trigger them? Where do I send my bangs? Also, what defines the speed of crossfade?

I very much appreciate your help, sorry if I sound dumb or annoying with these questions.

THANKS THANKS THANKS!