Re: [Octal-dev] Fourier Transforms and samples

[Dave O'Toole]

address@hidden wrote:

>   playing. We have: DSP effects applied to sampled sound with some use
>   of Fourier description approximation, and digital synthesizer
>   methods using various Fourier description formats (of which I expect
>   Octal is one--what is the web site for Octal?). From my perspective,

The web site is http://www.gnu.org/software/octal

Aside from the use of notes to specify fundamental frequencies, Octal
doesn't have a preferred fourier description method; nobody's locked
into anything. An individual "machine" plugin may use any format it
wishes for its "patches." 

Most of what you're describing here, in terms of music systems, sounds
much more like Csound or related languages than like trackers. Please
read the webpage--you probably won't be happy if you think of Octal in
this way, as a sort of competitor to MPEG-4 SA. Octal is a replacement
for Buzz, not CSound--that is, it's a tracker and not an audio synthesis
language. It's for both live and studio performance, in real-time using
the techniques of tracking. 

Like almost all trackers, its primary technique is in utilising sounds
(whether waves or patches for mini-synth plugins) created in other
environments--using many tools to do the work. In this scenario, a
"fourier" synth plugin could be made, which generates sound based on a
fourier description rendered by an external tool. So you can create
patches and then load them into Octal.  

You might also want to check out the article I wrote on tracking, at
www.creativelinux.com. Part of it goes over problems with things like
CSound (this is the reason people continue to write music systems even
though Csound exists. :-) 

>   And it may be the case that some approaches are not interested in or
>   related to Fourier descriptions, but the primary emphasis should be
>   Fourier descriptions because our human awareness of sound is
>   essentially Fourier because the ear performs that transform and
>   provides a Fourier description to the brain.  We hear, in our brain
>   or awareness, Fourier descriptions.  And it is that medium we should
>   concentrate on.

In terms of the "medium", what tracking chooses is the sample. 

-- 
@@@ david o'toole
@@@ address@hidden
@@@ www.gnu.org/software/octal