Music Interface Design with SuperCollider and smartphones

Music Interface Design
Introduction to
SuperCollider & OSC
Amir Rahimzadeh
codemusicians@gmail.com
Music Interface Design - Amir Rahimzadeh

Music Interface Design – What my brain looks like.

Music Interface Design – What is SuperCollider?
• Free
• Real-time
• Cross-Platform
• Programming Language
• Audio Synthesis & Algorithmic Composition
http://supercollider.github.io/

Music Interface Design – SuperCollider Basics
2 basic components
Server <-OSC-> Client
“scsynth” <-OSC-> “sclang”
OSC … Open Sound Control

Music Interface Design – Download & Install
• Download: http://supercollider.github.io/
• Download all Tutorials: http://tinyurl.com/qhv49aw
• Install
• Open SuperCollider

Music Interface Design – Warning
To protect your ears and loudspeakers always set your system
to the lowest level before starting a sound !!!

Music Interface Design – Making sound
1) Boot the server: s.boot;
2) Make a sound: ({SinOsc.ar(440)}).play;
3) Execute a command: mark all code, “shift+enter”
4) Stop Playback: “cmd + .”

Music Interface Design – Manipulating sound via Mouse
MouseX.kr(220,440)
Maps horizontal mouse cursor position
to the values between 220 and 440.

Music Interface Design – Review
What have you learned so far?
• Functions/Ugens take arguments
• Function arguments can be constant or other functions/Ugens
(e.g. MouseX.kr())
• The difference between audio rate and control rate
• How to find the arguments of a function using the help
browser
• How to use function MouseX as control value

Music Interface Design – Assignment 1
Assignment 1: Difficulty: Easy
• Add to the preceding example a control over the amplitude of
the sinusoid using the vertical mouse position on your screen.
The amplitude shoud vary between 0 and 1.
Hint: To change the amplitude the sinusoid has to be multiplied. There are 2 ways
to achieve that. Make use of the help browser to determine which argument has
to be changed. Argument “phase“ can be set to 0.

Assignment 2: Difficulty: Medium
• Replace the manual control over the amplitude (MouseY.kr)
from the previous example by a sine oscillator with a
frequency of 1 Hz that continuously varies the amplitude.
• Would you use SinOsc.ar or SinOsc.kr for the amplitude
control? Why?
Hint: There are 2 ways to achieve that.

Assignment 3: Difficulty: Advanced
• Replace the constant frequency of 1Hz of the SinOsc that
controls the amplitude in the previous assignment by MouseY.
The frequency of amplitude change should vary between 1
and 10Hz according to the position of the mouse cursor in
vertical direction.
Hint: There are 2 ways to achieve that.

Music Interface Design – Setting up control from iPhone (1)
• iPhone/iPad: Download & Install GyrOSC
• Other smartphones: Download & Install qOSC

Get the IP address of your pc/mac
Mac: “Terminal” -> “ifconfig”
Search for: “inet 192.168.2.102” (actual numbers will vary)
Windows 2000 / XP / Vista:
“Start Menu” -> “Run” -> “cmd /k ipconfig /all”
Search for: “IPv4 Address”

Configure GyrOSC qOSC
Ziel IP Adresse:
set it to match the
IP address of your Mac/PC.
Port: set it to 57120
the standard port
SuperCollider listens
to incoming messages.

Receiving GyrOSC control values in SuperCollider
• Set up an OSC Responder in SuperCollider
• Output the received control values (from pressing buttons in
GyrOSC) to SC’s “Post Window”
s.boot;
OSCresponder(nil, "/gyrosc/button",
{
arg t, r, msg;
msg.postln;
}
).add;

Music Interface Design – Setting up control from qOSC (5)
Receiving qOSC control values in SuperCollider
• Set up an OSC Responder in SuperCollider
• Output the received control values (from pressing buttons in qOSC)
to SC’s “Post Window”
s.boot;
OSCresponder(nil, "/btn14/0",
{
arg t, r, msg;
msg.postln;
}
).add;

Music Interface Design – Synth Definitions
• Until now Ugens to create sound
{ SinOsc.ar(440) }.play;
• For more flexibility and control -> SynthDef
Synth Definitions tell the server how various Ugens are interconnected.
SynthDef(SineSynth, // Define the synth
{
arg freq=440;
var sig;
sig = SinOsc.ar(freq);
Out.ar(0, sig);
}).send(s);
x = Synth.new(SineSynth); // Create an instance of the synth
x.set(freq, 220); // Change the frequency of the running synth to 220 Hz

Music Interface Design – Change the frequency from iPhone
Change frequency on button press
OSCresponder(nil, "/gyrosc/button",
{
arg t, r, msg;
msg.postln;
x.set(freq, 110*msg[1]); // msg[1]…button number
}
).add;

Music Interface Design – Play MIDI scale from iPhone
Mapping button numbers to MIDI notes
• Changing: x.set(freq, 110*msg[1]);
• to: x.set(freq, midicps(69+msg[1]));
“midicps” … maps MIDI notes to frequency in Hz.

Music Interface Design – Envelopes ADSR & Perc
EnvGen.ar(Env.adsr(0,0.1,1,0.3)) *sig;
EnvGen.ar(Env.perc) * sig;

Music Interface Design – Playing Chords
Create Amin7 chord on button1 press
Corresponding MIDI notes are: 69, 72, 76, 79
Synth.new(SinSynth, [freq1, midicps(69)]);

Music Interface Design – Trigger Samples from iPhone (1)
• Samples have to be *.wav files.
• Set the path to the sample directory:
~path = "~/Desktop/Super Collider Tutorials/Samples/".standardizePath;
• Load sample into a variable
a = Buffer.read(s,~path ++ "BD.wav" );

• Define a synth for sample playback
SynthDef(Samples,
{
arg buf = 0;
var sig;
sig = PlayBuf.ar(1, buf, BufRateScale.kr(buf));
sig = sig*EnvGen.ar(Env.adsr(0,0.1,1,0.3), doneAction: 2);
Out.ar([0,1], sig);
}).add;

• Playback Sample
Synth.new(Samples, [buf, a]);
• Put that command into an OSCResponder

Music Interface Design Course
8 week Course – Start: September 2015
Dates:
05.09. / 12.09. / 03.10. / 10.10
17.10. / 24.10. / 31.10. / 07.11.

Details
• 1 interface per workshop including:
– automatic melody generation
– automatic chord generation
– touchless interaction using magnets
– real-time voice processing
– air drums
– air guitar
– Understand physics of the sensors used
• last 2 workshops:
develop your instruments
What‘s possible?
http://tinyurl.com/opwlsbk
http://tinyurl.com/iTraktor
Register NOW at
Course Fee: 320 € / 8 weeks

Music Interface Design with SuperCollider and smartphones

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Music Interface Design with SuperCollider and smartphones