All-new pieces

[gogins]

Now that Tzimtzum is finished, create a new album of all-new pieces. This will include my submission for the next NYCEMF so I need to really get going here.

Oops! -- it's 2023 and I have one month to make my NYCEMF piece. At least I (seem to have) finished Cycles.js, my adaption of a few ideas from Tidal Cycles to CsoundAC in the HTML5 environment.

[gogins]

The direction I will push here is simply deepening the RIFS/Lindenmayer system approach. Any other recursive/irreducible generative processes that I find, also.

The title as with Tzimtzum should reflect both my spiritual intention and the compositional thinking.

[gogins]

"Irreducible" is αμείωτος in Greek, vetari in Latin, and possibly tanmatra in Sanskrit. No, tanmatra is not right.

[gogins]

In terms of artistic quality, Tzimtzum is a partial success. All of the pieces sound good to me, but in most of the tracks, the pull into the piece is counterbalanced by flaws that almost but not quite pull me out of the piece.

In this new album, the objectives are:

• Most listeners will not notice any flaws that pull them out of the piece.
• There will be a clearer delineation of larger scale structures and contrasts.
• There will be new Csound instruments with new sounds.
• I will include at least one piece with evoked harmonies
• I will include at least one piece using an IFS in PITva space.
• I will include at least one piece that quotes and processes recorded sound materials.

[gogins]

• [x] Porphyry-v7.4.1.py
• [ ] Snow-Voice for NYCEMF 2023, no more than 10 minutes.
• [ ] Title
• [ ] Program notes
• [ ] Publication

[gogins]

Possible sources for ideas:

• [ ] https://www.shadertoy.com/view/3t3yR4
• [ ] Dragon curve, every time the cursor turns there is a note or chord.
• [ ] Sierpinski (155 characters).
• [ ] Monjori , beautiful shader possibly useful for visualization of audio.
• [ ] Psychedelic Menger sponges.
• [ ] Circlescape.
• [ ] Orbital CA
• [ ] http://fisica.ufpr.br/viana/artigos/2022/PhysRevE.106.034203.pdf
• [ ] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-70210-6_44 establishes important connections, may take a while to digest.
• [ ] Tidal Cycles in Python from 2022 ICMC: https://www.fulcrum.org/epubs/8910jx22c?locale=en#page=42.
• [ ] Siren is SmallTalk from Pope, this puts SCORE11 into Siren.
• [ ] http://bbattey.dmu.ac.uk/Words/Battey-2004-OS-VCMN.pdf
• [ ] Would it be possible to rewrite strings in such a way that a cycle is constantly filled by a changing rewrite without it getting too big? It's got to be possible. It's kind of like a cellular automaton but potentially more musically transparent.
• [ ] https://github.com/royJackman/SineCircleMappings
• [ ] https://github.com/Elektromatic/circleMaps is very nice, too bad it's written in Pure Data. The Euclidean Rhythms stuff looks useful.
• [ ] https://github.com/joydeepsingha105/CML_to_Cellular_automaton
• [ ] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167278919304737
• [ ] https://github.com/dbkaplun/euclidean-rhythm
• [ ] https://github.com/mkontogiannis/euclidean-rhythms

[gogins]

A feature of Cycles is that Nodes can have state that interacts with the state of other Nodes, i.e. can communicate outside of the cycler graph. This could be used e.g. for interpolating envelopes across cycles.

[gogins]

For snow-voice:

• [x] Add a global Node to the piece that will harmonize the Score produced by the other Nodes.
• [x] Arrange instruments with more "snow-like" voices, e.g. Blower, Bamboo, SeidelHarmonicOscillator.
• [ ] Implement coupling between Cycles, especially to vary tempo and dynamics.
• [x] SATB arrangement of differential Cycles, each containing a different sequence, all but bass including intervals of rest.
• [x] Refactor controls.
• [ ] Change Sweeper range, or replace it to fit in the bass range.
• [ ] Put in controls for Blower texture.
• [ ] Put in Euclidean rhythms.

[gogins]

In Cycler, timer drift is too large, thus timer interval is zero, causes all kinds of problems. Probably fixable.

    // Correct for timer drift, which is measured every cycle.
    let timer_drift;
    if (this.cycle_count > 1) {
      timer_drift = this.expected_performance_time - this.current_performance_time;
    } else {
      timer_drift = 0;
    }
    // The correction applies the drift in reverse.
    let cycle_interval = Math.max(0, this.time_node_duration - timer_drift);

The problem is that this.expected_performance_time is for the next cycle, but we want it for this cycle.

I think this is fixed, will need to do regression testing.

[gogins]

To get input values into compositional classes with a minimum of coding, pass to those classes a reference to the input DOM object. Wrong. Get the DOM object using document.getElementById and store it in the instance. Also requires use of parseFloat as the value is a string that is not always correctly parsed by default.

[gogins]

What are the correct circle map parameter ranges? Apparently omega from 0 to 1, and kappa from 0 to whatever, I set it from 0 to 10.

[gogins]

I'm not going to be able to use cycles.js because I can't stack stacks.

Switching back to NW.js on Linux, will vary one of the Poustinia cycles because csound.node on Linux has the most features. Critical tasks:

• [x] Get one of the NW.js pieces to render to audio. The issue (at least on Linux) is the behavior of CsOptions versus Csound.setOutput. Csound.setOutput works if e.g. dac:plughw:2,0 is used and not just dac. A better solution would be nice.
• [x] Get rid of the audio hum. I ordered balanced audio cables. Hum is simply all gone. Why didn't I do this before? Works on the Mac as well, either through the USB-to-headphone jack to line out, or through the USB bus extender to the Scarlett.
• [x] Figure out how to run NW.js pieces in a better way.
• [ ] Make sure I don't make something too reminiscent of something already performed.
• [x] Fix parameter initialization in NW.js? I can't access the dat.gui parameter saving menu.
• [x] There seems to be a problem: Failed to create WebGPU Context Provider but this is an async issue, perhaps. Works in Firefox, but is slow. Trying to create it asynchronously did not help. WebGPU may be in flux, wait and check later.
• [x] Menu item for debugging.
• [x] Menu item for quitting the piece.
• [ ] Update Csound instruments.
• [x] Use either the C++ opcodes or CsoundAC with WebAssembly to generate the score. CsoundAC.js (WASM) won't run in NW.js, must use C++.

[gogins]

There's no hum from the Scarlett with headphones, so the hum is from the speakers or the cables to the speakers. The hum comes from using unbalanced audio cables. I can get rid of the hum by turning the speaker volume down and the computer volume up. I should get balanced audio cables. I ordered 2 3' cables TRS to XLR from B&H.

[gogins]

I used to be able to run NW.js pieces without installing nwjs in the piece's directory. That no longer seems to be possible. I'll research that.

On Windows and Linux, you can put the files of your app in the same folder of NW.js binaries and then ship them to your users. Make sure nw (or nw.exe) is in the same folder as package.json. Or you can put the files of your app in a folder named package.nw in the same folder as nw (or nw.exe).

On Mac, put the files of your app into a folder named app.nw in nwjs.app/Contents/Resources/ and done.

It’s the recommended way to pack your app.

I'm trying with just a symbolic link to the nw executable. Doesn't work.

I'm trying with just a symbolic link from the piece directory to nwjs/package.nw. That seems to work.

[gogins]

The audio level is way too low. Not sure if that's 0dbfs or lack of parameters settings or what. It's 0dbfs, perhaps Csound 6.18 fixed a bug.

[gogins]

These are all (I think) of the pieces of mine that were performed at the NYCEMF. That's ten years. Jesus!

• [x] 2022 _Red Leaves Version 8.4.3.5_. Doesn't seem to be online. After the festival I will upload it to YouTube.
• [x] 2021 Porphyry v7.4.2. Oops! I thought I could schedule this if I had nothing else, but I completely forgot it has already been performed, without much of a response. I listen to it sometimes and I like it, and parts of it quite a bit, and Brad liked it, but...?
• [x] 2020 _Poustinia Version 6_. I like this enough to listen to it every now and then. But there was an even better version I made in Australia that I seem to have lost.
• [x] 2019 silence-2003-07-07-19.52.47.py. I don't think I could make anything out of this.
• [x] 2018 Parachronic. Not bad, but has artifacts.
• [x] 2017 Unperformed experiments have no results, visual music.
• [x] 2016 Scrims, visual music. I think this is the more successful of my visual music pieces.
• [x] 2015 Telamon. Not bad.
• [ ] 2014 csound-2005-03-06–03.38.18b.py. Holds up, got applause.
• [ ] 2013 Blue Leaves 5a. Holds up.
• [x] 2012 No festival?
• [x] 2011 No festival?
• [x] 2010 I had no piece in this one.
• [x] 2009 I had no piece in this one.

Are there other pieces I could resurrect for the NYCEMF? Sound fractals? cloud-music?

[gogins]

There is a problem with extended characters in the csd text. I'm not sure where this happens but the C++ opcodes example works just fine, so it is probably not Csound's fault.

Checking with grep --color='auto' -P -n "[\x80-\xFF]" file shows no problem.

Trying a JavaScript variable instead of a text area. No help, would need many escapes.

Problem is &note in the csd TextArea which gets HTML encoded. Changing to & note works in a csd and compiles from NW.js, but then crashes, no idea why.

All of this reminds me why I switched to the C++ and WebServer opcodes.

I had forgotten vst3opcodes don't work for Pianoteq because it does not support VST3 on Linux.

Audacity on Linux is now an AppImage and won't run except from its own directory. Fixed with this script named ~/.local/bin/audacity containing only (cd ~/Downloads && ./audacity-linux-3.3.2-x64.AppImage $1). But that needs the full path to the file to be opened.

[gogins]

I now have a working environment that I can use for snow-voice. It is based on Read Leaves v8.4.3.5 from last year.

The environment runs entirely in Csound, on Linux, using the C++ opcodes and the Web server opcodes. There are things I would like to see but they are not urgent:

• Should be able to get the same business working on macOS.
• Start and stop the performance from the browser; would mean running Csound in a kind of server mode and using the JSON-RPC interface to compile the orchestra and perform the score. Should be possible, but I'm not doing this now.
• Some way to shut everything down in one step from the browser.

New set of tasks:

• [ ] Define and normalize all instruments.
• [ ] New score generator with more variety of texture.
• [ ] Return early from some addresses of iteration?
• [ ] Put in scales and modulations.
• [ ] Fixing some notes being out of tune (Seidel?).
• [ ] Add setDurationFromZero and getDurationFromZero to Csound stubs.

[gogins]

How to get more variety of texture? First, let's try to specify what that means.

• [ ] Like, but not too like, minimalism, developing variation, sonata, fugue.
• [ ] Distinct contrasts and surprises in tempo, dynamics, range, density, harmony.

How to do this with Lindenmayer systems is not too opaque. IFS are harder.

• [ ] Use several IFS but in code of transformations, switch conditionally between them, more flexible than RIFS.

In general, to change the shape of the attractor (which is more or less pulling the score into shape), if you want a note in the score, the transformations must put a copy of the attractor on that note; and if you want to avoid having a note in the score, the transformations must move the attractor away from that note.

There are several ways this can be done. The easiest way is to increase the number of transformations and use a RIFS to avoid putting notes in some parts of the score, by means of zeros in the transition matrix. Another way is to shear or rotate the attractor away from that note.

[gogins]

The score is partway through the iterations of the contraction but before the fixed point. Keep in mind, at the fixed point, there is an infinite number of notes stacked up on each audible note of the score.

At any time, if a note is to be written in the score, the iteration for the score must include that note. For that to happen, at least one of the transformations in that iteration must have moved the pen to write that note. And if a note is to be excluded from the score, all of the transformations in that iteration must have moved the pen away from that note.

For linear transformations, this means that changes in the contour of the score must involve transformations that do not simply tile the score with transformations. Instead, there must be shears, rotations, or null entries in the recurrence matrix. Alternatively, some or all of the transformations can be nonlinear, e.g. multiply one of the elements of the transformation matrix by an exponential of the level of iteration, or use some nonlinear difference equation for that dimension of the transformation.

[gogins]

Now the things to try are:

• [x] Add BandedWG.
• [x] Add Harpsichord.
• [x] Add Xing.
• [x] Add FilteredSines.
• [x] Try scales and modulations.
• [x] Have 4 x 3 transformations, and put holes in the recurrence matrix.
• [ ] In some or all transformations, add a factor that is an exponent of the depth of recursion.

[gogins]

• [x] ZakianFlute has an obtrusive treble. OK for now.
• [x] ZakianFlute builds up too many instances. There were two releasing envelopes, now only one releases. Other instruments also have many instances.
• [x] Some of the other pads may be too loud. OK for now.
• [x] STKBowed may not work for this piece, try Sweeper instead. No need.
• [x] Try changing notes using only the piano.

[gogins]

Bottom line, we have a good orchestra and some variety of structure. The main thing this piece needs is more variety of structure.

• [x] Try doubling durations. No help.
• [x] Try halving durations. Might help, not sure. Using this for now.
• [x] Try modulating one level of recursion earlier. Nice, but no modulations, and too sparse for this piece.
• [x] Try modulating one level of recursion later. Different, not sure if better, trying with full arrangement. No, not really better.

[gogins]

I am moving discussion of snow-crash, now that I have settled on some basics, to a new issue.