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Re: [microsound] max/msp, reaktor, csound, etc.



Reaktor

http://www.native-instruments.de/english/2_products/1_reaktor/1_reaktor.html

MAX/MSP

http://www.cycling74.com/community/guide.html

Csound is text based, which means using it is a bit like learning a programming language.  The benefits are immense flexibility.  It's freeware and can be found at http://www.maz-sound.com along with many other freeware synths.  If you wanna get into this program several books attack the subject in a way that'll make you wish you had a PHd.

>I'm not even sure
>what this type (?) of software is called
Modular Softsynths.

>(it's more than a DSP, is it not?)
Hmm, well, your computer with a sound card attached is a digital signal processor.  That's what does, right?  DSP's usually refer to a specialized chip or chips that process digital signals in a neat little package.  So, it's not really a DSP in the sense the nord modular uses DSPs because your computer has a much less specialized function, (although my computer is getting a little too focused on audio these days...)  I realize the way I'm defining DSPs is totally simplified and wrong on many levels.  So I hope the engineers around here can avoid any smackdown on how to define a DSP... ;)

>Are there are pro/con
>comparisons available?
Problems with Csound...  It's not realtime, although I heard somewhere programmers are trying to make a realtime implementation of the Csound engine.  Csound has an interface that is script based.  It may be the hardest synth in the world to program.  Advantages...  It's freeware/shareware and if you have the patience you can probably synthesize any sound imagineable.

Reaktor...  Problems are tied mostly to your computer.  It's PC based.  If your PC is unstable, Reaktor will make it twice as unstable.  Also latency is an issue.  Often cheap sound cards will have a delay.  This can be as much as a eigth note.  So playing live will require some serious chops.  Old midi guitars also had this problem and I saw a guy play complex free jazz with one in tempo while compensating for a 120ms (i'm guessing) latency.  If you can do this, it won't be a problem.  If you can't, get a new soundcard.  Advantages...  The modular interface is good and getting better.  You build synthesizer/samplers.  You can put together basic structures into more complex ones (which can be saved as macros, which keeps you from programming the same envelope generator over and over again) then you can link these macros into the parts of a synthesizer.  You can assign parameters to sliders on screen and/or midi control so you can tweak realtime.

MAX/MSP I don't have a mac.  So, somebody else is gonna have to help.

MAX/MSP is similar to Pure Data, which is best on linux, but runs on other platforms.  Also you might want to look into Buzz, which is shareware.

All these programs have a great online community which can help you learn and get into it. 

>I'm afraid there'd be redundancy.

Maybe, but if you are a both mac and pc person, try them all.  It's about power and interface.  Reaktor and Buzz work for me.  Plenty of overlap, but huge differences.  I can get each program to do similar things (sometimes), but usually one is better or quicker than another.

Rob