newbie questions about keyboard-organ.ck

[octavius]

Hi,

Firs time poster. I'm new to electronic music and after checking out csound and chuck I've started digging around some of the sample code. Chuck looks pretty cool.

I've been looking at the keyboard-organ sample and have a couple of questions about it. I learn new languages best by trying to change samples to make them do what I'd like. So... here are a couple of questions:

1. can I prevent this example from needing to output the keys that I press while playing the organ? whether I'm doing this in a command shell, or in miniAudicle, the keys I press are sent to standard output... so it appears. (i'm using the windows version)

2. when I press a key while another is still pressed, it appears that the sound from the first key stops... at least that is how it sounds to me... maybe my untrained ear just can't hear the first key anymore... how could I modify this code to allow the sound from the first key to continue through the second key? that would make this more like a true organ.

3. does chuck support file IO? i think it would be pretty cool to modify the organ to save the keys to a .ck file, that could then be sent to chuck and chuck would replay the keys.

If I can get these changes working, I'll post my code.

Thanks!

[Kassen]

Welcome on board!

1) I'm not sure I understand this issue. In what ways are the keys being send to output? Are you sure you weren't accidentally also running something else at the same time? I'm looking at the code for keyboard organ right now and it should only affect the pitch of the sound, not output in some other way.

2)Yes, that's right. This example only uses one pitch at a time as there is only one sound-source. If you want more "voices" (a voice means a sound-source, with more "voices" you'll have more at a time, like a choir) you will need to write some infrastructure for it. There is a good example on this in /examples/midi/polyphonic.ck See if you can follow that (this might be hard if you don't use midi). I could write it for you but I feel it would be more educational if you'd try on your own first. Shout if this is beyond you now; it's hard to estimate the level of knowledge in people you just meet. I (or somebody else) will help you if this makes no sense to you at the moment.

3) Not yet... but it's in the works. Word on the street has it that a early version of file I/O will be in the next update.

[octavius]

Thanks!

Regarding #1:
I'm not running anything else that I'm aware of, unless it is some background Windows thing, but I don't notice this behavior in anything else. I notice the kb.ck has the same behavior... after I exit the program (ctrl-c) all of the keys that I pressed while it was running are then sent to the shell.

Regarding #2:
I'll take a look at that other code. I don't use MIDI yet but I'll see if I can figure it out. Just knowing that it is possible gives me the extra motivation to see what I can figure out.

Regards

[Kassen]

1) Oh, wait, yes. That's a known problem and is indeed a bug. I had a bit of trouble understanding exactly what you meant and thought you were seeing characters *while* the example was running.

2)Yes, completely possible. Basically anything that can be done in digital sound generation is possible, as long as you know exactly what you want. That doesn't mean it's all easy, of course... This one would probably be a little more advanced as a first project but far from impossible; actually quite a few people have started ChucKing by taking on a project that looked a bit harder at first. Just jump in at the deep and; I guarantee you we won't let your drown :¬).

[octavius]

So, for #1, is there a simple code change I could make to prevent the characters from spitting back?

BTW, in the command line version, the come out when I quit (ctrl-c). In the MA version, they appear right away, and get inserted into the code, wherever the cursor happens to be when I invoke it.

Thanks again

[rogan]

This is a lame workaround, but in MA, I usually type into a new, blank document.

[Kassen]