On Jan 21, 2008 10:43 PM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 1. MIDI is limited but more or less universally spoken. Serious > algocompsynth *must* involve support of MIDI. CSound recognized this > years ago. I think that means file storage, input, output, etc. The keyboard produces MIDI, which is fed into a MIDI rendering engine (possibly csound) or saved to a file. > 3. There are a number of specialized Linux distros for audio. The three > that I know the most about are Studio64, Jack Audio Distribution (JAD) > and dyne:bolic. Almost all of them have a patched low-latency kernel, > and all of them use something called the Jack Audio Connection Kit. They > may still have to support both OSS and ALSA, but as I noted in another > post, ALSA had support years ago for sound cards that weren't supported > by free-as-in-freedom OSS drivers. So, serious algocompsynth on Linux > *must* have a low-latency patched kernel, ALSA, and the Jack Audio > Connection Kit. This is for live performance computer-in-the-middle effects processing and similar, particularly when multiple audio programs are in simultaneous use. It's not required for the production or playback of anything. > So the question in my mind is, "Should the XO be a platform for serious > algocompsynth, or should it be what the project says it is -- an > educational project for children to explore and discover?" Do children > need MIDI, CSound, low-latency kernels, Jack, Lisp and Java? I don't > really think so. Good point. It's easy to forget that. > By the way -- as far as microtonal and xentonal and "world music scales" > are concerned, MIDI's pitch bends are an awkward hack. Serious > *microtonal* algocompsynth practitioners either have to spend time > working around MIDI or use something else. You don't need to abuse pitch bends. MIDI lets you redefine the pitches of the notes. You can redefine middle C to be 1234 Hz if you like. _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel