Re: [microsound] building blocks

[Frank Barknecht <fbar@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hallo,
David Powers hat gesagt: // David Powers wrote:

> I somewhat agree...  I find myself occupying a mid-point.  I wish to
> support as much open source software as is practically possible.  And
> I'm very interested in building bottom up type applications.  On the
> other hand, I am just starting with PD, I'm new to Linux, and I'm a
> novice programmer (python and C++).  I can't wait 3-4 years to be an
> expert at this way of making music!

In my experience it's not Pd (or Max) as a software, that's taking the
most time to learn, but the "stuff around it", that is a lot of
algorithms, for composing and for synthesis and for other things.
Basically all the stuff, the "Computer Music Tutorial" is talking
about. 

Pd itself, as Max, is a very simple software from the user's
perspective. You have a handful of objects, which basically all deal
with numbers, and you write words to create the objects ("speaking the
Pd/Max language"), and you draw connections between words. That's all:
no complicated syntax or sophisticated language features (as in SC or
Common Music), no compile-edit-run cycle (as in Csound). 

This simplicity - which surely has its downfalls - is the number one
reason why the Max-like programs became as successful as they are
today. 

(Side note: During his keynote to the pd~convention in Graz, Miller
Puckette talked about possible solutions for a certain shortcoming in
Pd's "data structure" subsystem and said, that he could think of a lot
of intelligent solutions to this problem, but that he hadn't yet found
a *stupid* solution. So the problem still persists. That's the Pd
spirit.)

OTOH: As Pd is not useable without at least a basic understanding of
general principles in fields like math, sound synthesis, harmonics,
digital sound processing (or graphics, if you want to use GEM, Jitter
etc.) it enforces users to deal with this stuff. However everything
they learn about these topics will be their own possession from then
on. They were not just learning keyboard shortcuts in ProTools or
something like that, which is only valuable as long as you use
ProTools. 

And in your case: As you already have knowledge about music, sound
etc. your learning curve will be much, much flatter than for a
complete beginner in this field. 

You won't need 3-4 years, you will just need some weeks, or 2-3 months
at most. Hey, you even already started to learn Python, which is
really great to get a grip of some software development principles,
which aren't even needed to use Pd (but they come in very handy as you
advance).

Ciao
-- 
 Frank Barknecht                               _ ______footils.org__
             
          _ __latest track: "scans" _ http://footils.org/cms/show/41

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