[sdiy] Jean-Claude Risset, Shephard etc.

[Sean Costello]

PureData apparently runs very well on Linux. The latency on Windows and OS X
is a little high for my tastes. Otherwise, it is very similar to MAX/MSP.
MAX is prettier and easier to use (standalones, better GUI), but PureData is
free.

BTW, PureData's code base was used as the basis for MSP.

Another alternative (for OS X and Linux) is Supercollider. The latest
version, SC3, is free and open source. SC3 differs from PureData and MAX/MSP
in that it is totally text-based, as opposed to the graphic interface of the
MAX-style languages. However, I am finding that I prefer the text based
languages, after many years of both programming and working with visual DSP
interfaces.

SC3 is MUCH better than Csound, in that it is very object oriented, and can
work with arrays of unit generators at a time, which allows you to create
very complicated series and/or parallel algorithms with a small amount of
code. For example, I created a time-variant feedback delay network in SC3,
using only 12 lines of code. A similar layout in MAX/MSP would take up most
of the screen, and have lots of sub-windows. The ease of creating algorithms
with parallel operations in SC3 would be very useful for the Risset-type
illusions, which involve having many unit generators in parallel, set at
different modulation phases.

Note that SC3 has a STEEP learning curve. However, the same can be said of
MAX/MSP and PureData, once you try to get past the simplest examples into
something that generates code.

Sean Costello


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thomas Hudson" <hudson at speakeasy.net>
To: "David J. Hughes" <hughes_david_j at btopenworld.com>
Cc: "Richard Wentk" <richard at skydancer.com>; <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 8:23 AM
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Jean-Claude Risset, Shephard etc.


>
> There are a couple of free alternatives to MAX/MSP. There not quite as
> polished, but are in active development:
>
> Pure Data
> http://www-crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html
> http://pure-data.sourceforge.net/
>
> JMax
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/jmax/