N voice library (beta, feedback wanted)

[andrew]

continuing discussions from:

Standardize SC synth engine commands

Norns: ideas

yeah go for it. i have some half-baked versions of such a thing extending PolySub engine. i think the reason it’s still half-baked is that i find it clunky and/or restrictive to deal with a rich array of sound parameters (as above) for a given synth structure, and also make their ranges/handles generic: it’s nicer for me to have e.g. detuning hz scriptable in its native unit. and “philosophically” i also think this leads to deeper consideration of the specific architecture as compositional m…

I’m sharing a proposal for a community library of synthesis engines based on a shared communication standard.

the goal

to open up a variety of use cases beyond typical poly synth stuff, without complicating the synth engine, + opening up some nice interactions for lua script authors. I’m proposing four basic assumptions around such an engine:

• there are n voices
• all the voices are the same (share the same parameters)
• one parameter must set frequency in hz
• one parameter must set the peak level of an envelope, or the volume/presence of a sound

usage

what I’ve worked on is a lua syntax for communicating with such an engine, here’s an overview:

nv.name(name) : select engine from the nv lib
nv.init(n) : initialize n voices
nv.vc : list of voices and parameters per voice (e.g. nv.vc[1].hz = 440 )
nv.all : list of global parameters, summed (multiplied if .hz) with voice parameters per voice
.hz : required parameter, frequency in hz
.peak : required prameter, specifies the peak of an envelope or volume of a sound
vc.list : list of additional parameter keys supplied by engine
nv.active : list of active voices, populated via engine polls
nv.free: list of free voices, populated via engine pools
nv.id(id) : voice allocator, assigns an id to a free voice & returns the voice if id does not exist, or returns actice voice if exists
nv.update() : sends table data to supercollider

in the repo I sketched up three example scripts - a regular poly-synth with a couple niche features, two simultaneous, asynchronously-enveloped arps, and a 20 voice MEGADRONE - all using the same engine and syntax

andr-ew/nv

next steps

what do you think ? what haven’t I considered ?

this is the front end - given my limited comfort with supercollider, I’m seeking help with working on the back-end standard, modifying PolySub and coming up with engine params and polls to best suit the spec laid out in this lua lib. (I * assume * it would be best for the engine to receive per-voice values in a batch format, and send free/active states back to lua in a poll)

from there I can fill out the middle !

(aside: I’m not super attached to names of things, though I enjoy super concise character counts for stuff like this)

[tyleretters]

this is an awesome idea. i would definitely be keen on making an “n voice library” structure for arcologies that would read all these and store the voice for you.

[andrew]

I’m back ! I’ve got more or less a working draft of this going with PolySub

andr-ew/nv

(be careful with drone.lua, for some reason the level initializations aren’t working properly)

I decided to store parameter values supercollider rather than lua and updated the spec to match. so there’s an Engine_Nv superclass that other engines inherit from, which means a lua helper file is optional rather than required. it seems like it works … but certainly still getting by bearings with SC

there are some bugs but the examples mostly work !