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Diffstat (limited to 'manual')
-rw-r--r-- | manual/HISTORY.txt | 100 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | manual/automata.txt | 178 |
2 files changed, 278 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/manual/HISTORY.txt b/manual/HISTORY.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c90963f --- /dev/null +++ b/manual/HISTORY.txt @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ +version history of maxlib library for pure-data
+
+v 1.5.2 (17. december 2003):
+- modified netclient for not to drop received data: use of syspollfn
+ instead of clock to poll for incoming data, circular recv buffer + +v 1.5 (18. october 2003): +- added some usefull features to arraycopy (i.e. copying just parts of + an array and copying to specified position in destination array) +- new object: nchange +- IRIX 6.5 port (for GCC 3.3) +- OS X binary (Jaguar 10.2.6) + +v 1.4 (22. may 2003): +- updated sources to compile with Pd0.37-test4 +- new object: arraycopy + +v 1.3 (12. april 2003): +- new objects: sync listfifo +- all setup routines renamed to maxlib_<object>_setup() to avoid name + clashes, old names still work via class_addcreator() +- some improvements for the help files + +v 1.2 (30. january 2003): +- new objects: unroute urn split wrap rewrap timebang +- another fix for the makefile +- fixed a bug in netserver (sockets remained open when netserver closed) +- added a 'prepend' option (with additional creation argument) to remote, + patch was supplied by Maurizio Umberto Puxeddu + +v 1.1b2 (23. oktober 2002): +- corrected two small bugs in the makefile (linux only!), thanks to + Hans-Christoph Steiner + +v 1.1b (12. september 2002): +- new object: limit +- match and speedlim have been replaced with the objects from cyclone library +- deleted the (unwanted) debugging printout from nroute + +v 1.1 (26. august 2002): +- new objects: nroute, pong, edge +- arbran 0.1b now allows to (re-)set the arrays dynamically +- match 0.3 now matches any type of data (floats, lists, symbols, anything) +- scale 0.2 allows to dynamically change the creation arguments and to choose + between linear (default) and exponential scale +- MSVC++ workspace contains configuration for Intel Compiler with Pentium 4 + optimizations ("maxlib - Win32 Intel") +- makefile and binary release for Mac OS X (10.1.5) +- BUG FIX: corrected path to helpfiles in rand objects +- BUG FIX: corrected makefile to work under Linux again + +v 1.0 (9th august 2002): +- new objects: netserver, netclient, arbran, beta, bilex, cauchy, expo, + gauss, linear, poisson, triang, weibull +- the help patches now live in doc/5.reference/maxlib, thanks to + Frank Barknecht for suggesting that and for modifying the sources + +v 0.9 (25th july 2002): +- new objects: tilt gestalt temperature + +v 0.8b (21st july 2002): +- now compiles on Linux, thanks to Martin Pi +- new objects: listfunnel + +v 0.8 (4th july 2002): +- new objects: history netrec scale delta velocity +- some small changes to speedlim + +v 0.7 (24th june 2002): +- fixed a bug in average, thanks to Joćo Miguel Pais +- new chord algorhythm: supports up to 67 chord types now + +v 0.6 (7th june 2002): +- added objects: beat rhythm + +v 0.5 (28th mai 2002): +- added objects: netdist mlife subst +- netdist uses the pthreads-win32 library for POSIX multithreading + under NT, thus at least pd0.35-test17 is needed under NT +- made a MSVC++ 6.0 project file + +v 0.4 (16th mai 2002): +- match now also takes lists of floats +- added objects: dist remote step + +v 0.3b (14th mai 2002): +- fixed a zero-division bug in pulse, thanks to Frank Barknecht + +v 0.3 (13th mai 2002): +- added objects: divmod, fifo, iso, lifo, pulse +- made divide, minus, multi & plus 'multi-inlet-ready' + +v 0.2 (7th mai 2002): +- added objects: average, chord, score + +v 0.1b (24th apr. 2002): +- added objects: divide, minus, multi, plus + +v 0.1a (15th apr. 2002, first public release): +- included objects: borax, ignore, match, pitch, speedlim diff --git a/manual/automata.txt b/manual/automata.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f5ff21 --- /dev/null +++ b/manual/automata.txt @@ -0,0 +1,178 @@ +[The following note originally appeared on the emusic-l mailing list. It is +reprinted here with the author's permission] + +From xrjdm@FARSIDE.GSFC.NASA.GOV Wed Nov 23 11:26:39 1994 +Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 15:09:23 -0500 +From: Joe McMahon <xrjdm@FARSIDE.GSFC.NASA.GOV> +Reply to: Electronic Music Discussion List <EMUSIC-L@AMERICAN.EDU> +To: Multiple recipients of list EMUSIC-L <EMUSIC-L@AMERICAN.EDU> +Subject: Automata: the long-awaited summary + +Back in August, I think, I promised to post a quick intro to cellular +automata and how they can be used as a sound-generation tool. Since I'm +going to take a couple of different sources and sum them up with little or +no direct attribution, combined with my own opinions, I'll give everybody +my references *first* so they can delete the article and draw their own +conclusions if they so prefer. + +The primary reference that got me started on all this is one in the CMJ: +Vol 14, No. 4, Winter 1990: "Digital Synthesis of Self-modifying Waveforms +by Means of Cellular Automata" (Jacques Chareyon). Those who are already +familiar with automata may just skip to that article and forget about the +rest of this one. +Note: the article gives a mail address for M. Chareyon, but he did not +answer an inquiry about any available recordings using this technique in +1990. + +So. Anyone still here? Good. + +Cellular automata are a mathematical concept first introduced in the late +1940's. Generally speaking, a cellular automaton consists of a grid of +cells. Each cell may take on any of a number of values - binary automata +(cell on or cell off) are the most commonly studied. Each cell has a +neighborhood, defined more simply as other cells which influence its state. +The exact nature of this influence is defined by what are called transition +rules. The cellular automaton starts off with some cells in any of the +allowable states. for each "step" in the automaton's history, the +neighborhood of every cell is checked, and the state of the cell is +updated. All updates occur simultaneously. + +The transition rule must describe the resulting state of a cell for every +possible configuration of other cells in the neighborhood. For large +numbers of states, the amount of memory required to hold the transition +rule becomes increasingly large, Therefore, some automata use what is known +as a "totalistic" rule. These rules simply sum the values of the cells in +the neighborhood and then assign a result on this basis. The resulting +tables are far smaller. + +Many readers may already be familiar with John Horton Conway's game of +"Life". This is a two-dimensional binary automaton with a totalistic rule. +This makes for a very small rule set: + + i) If fewer than two filled cells (cells with value 1) surround a cell, + it becomes empty next generation. + ii) If more than three filled cells surround a cell, it becomes empty + next generation. +iii) If exactly three cells filled cells surround a cell, it becomes + filled on the next generation. + +This corresponds to a totalistic rule set with a total of 8(2-1)+1 or 9 +rules (one each for the sum values of 0 (no cells with a value) through 9 +(all cells with a value) ).If the transition rule were represented as a +non-totalistic one, the rule set would need 2**8 or 256 entries. There are +many interesting totalistic automata, so giving up detailed description of +every nuance of the transitions to save memory space isn't a big sacrifice. + +Interesting as two dimensional automata are, they really aren't terribly +useful for music making. There have been some experiments which have +attempted to use a two-dimensional automaton to generate MIDI events - +synthesis at the note level, using : + +Battista, T. and M. Giri, 1988. "Composizione Tramite Automi Cellulari." +Atti del VII Cooloquio di Informatica Musicale. Rome, Italy: Edizione Arti +Grafiche Ambrosini, pp. 181-182. + +Edgar, R. and J. Ryan, 1986. "LINA" Exhibition of the 1986 International +Computer Music Conference, San Francisco: Computer Music Association. + +I have not heard any of the music from these efforts, so I certainly can't +pass any judgement on them. For the purposes of this summary, we'll just +look at one-dimensional automata. These use a linear array of cells, with +the neighborhood generally being one or two cells on either side of each +cell. +(This is the type of automaton dealt with in M. Chareyon's article, which I +will be paraphrasing broadly hereafter). + +M. Chareyon's automata are wavetables. A digitized signal is stored as a +linear array of numbers in memory. A totalistic rule is used to determine a +lookup value which indexes into an array containing the resulting value; +this is saved into a second array. After the first array is completely +processed, the roles of the two are swapped and the process is repeated. + +The limiting factor in this process is the number of bits of resolution +being used to generate the sound. For a totalistic rule using a two-cell +neighborhood and 12-bit individual samples, we have 3*(2*12) = 12288 +entries in the rule table. At 2 bytes each, this is 24K of storage. If we +go to 16-bit sample resolution, we have 196608 entries at 2 bytes each for +a total of 393216 bytes, or 384K. + +The key point of M. Charyeon's method is the use of small neighborhoods +with large numbers of cellular states. Since the computation of the new +wavetable is all table lookup, very complex transition rules can be +precomputed and loaded into the tables, allowing the synthesis to +essentially be a fast sum-and-lookup loop to calculate each new wavesample. +>From the article, it appears that M. Chareyon was able to produce 2 or 3 +voices in realtime on a Mac II with a Digidesign Sound Accelerator board. +It seems that it would probably be possible to use an AV Mac to do it +without the board. + +This LASy (Linear Automaton Synthesis) method is closely related to the +Karplus-Strong plucked-string algorithm, in that a wavesample is run +through an algorithm which recirculates the samples to "self-modify" the +wave. In fact, a judicious choice of table entries allows one to very +simply simulate the K-S algoritm directly. + +So what are the sounds like? Some automata produce waveforms which quickly +"ramp-up" to complex spectra and then drop off quickly. Others move to a +steady state and then remain there. Yet others produce never-ending and +unpredictable waveforms, whose harmonic content is constantly changing. + +Obviously enough, the original wavesample can be obtained mathematically, +or by actual sampling and using LASy as a waveshaper. As M. Chareyon notes, +a quick estimate of the number of possible automata for a 2-neighbor +totalistic rule using a 256-entry wavetable with 12-bit entries is +(2**12)**256 * (2**12)**(3*2**12) or about 10**4500 possible automata. Of +course, many, many of these would not be suitable for music (e.g., the 4096 +automata in which all values go to one vlaue in one step, etc.); however, +the number of musically useful automata is still likely to be an immense +number. + +M. Chareyon provides a number of examples of ways to fill out the rule +tables and a number of hints on creating wave tables - generally speaking, +one can create a function which is used to compute the values to be placed +into the table and then fill it so it can simply be loaded and used by the +basic algorithm. His experience in using LASy is that he manages +approximately 50% of the time to produce sounds with the desired +characteristics, and that about 10% of the remaining time he gets +unexpected but useful results which can be used as starting points for +further exploration. + +Again, the important point is that the basic automaton uses wavesamples at +full resolution, calculating a new wavesample for each step of the +automaton; the next wavesample can be played while the new one is being +calculated. Because of the large number of states, mathematical tools for +the analysis of automata and the construction of automata with specifically +desired qualities require too much storage and compute time to make them +useful for LASy purposes. + +Again, much of this article is paraphrased from M. Chareyon's article; I +take no credit for any of the work in this note. I'm just summarizing. + +The following other articles were referenced by M. Chareyon's article: + +Burks, A., ed. 1970. Essays on Cellular Automata. Champaign/Urbana, IL: +University of Illinois Press. + +Chareyon, J. 1988a. "Sound Synthesis and Processing by Means of Linear +Cellular Automata." Proceedings of the 1988 Internation Computer Music +Conference. San Francisco: Computer Music Association. + +Chareyon, J. 1988b. "Wavetable come Automa Cellulare: una Nuova Tecnica di +Sintesi." Atti del VII Colloquio di Informatica Musicale, Rome, Italy: +Edizioni Arti Grafiche Ambrosini, pp. 174-177. + +Farmer, D., T. Toffoli, and S. Wolfram, eds. 1984. Cellular Automata. +North-Holland Physics Publishing. [One of the definitive works on cellular +automata - fairly heavy math, not a popular presentation - JM] + +Gardner, M. 1970. "The Fantastic Combinations of John Conway's New Solitare +Game 'Life'". Scientific American 223(4) 120-123. [A good introduction to +cellular automata, focusing on 'life' in specific. Useful intro if my +1-paragraph summary of automata was confusing :) - JM] + + --- Joe M. + +-- +"At the end of the hour, we'll have information on the sedatives used by +the artists,,," (MST3K) + |