January « 2006 « Cycling 74

Archive for January, 2006

MXJ Class Loading

Monday, January 30th, 2006

This is a quick rundown of how the MXJ class loader works, and the implications for class variables (statics).

Cycling ’74 Shows Surround Processing And Up Mixing Technology

Monday, January 23rd, 2006

OUTSTANDING HIGH-END PROCESSING

NAMM • Anaheim, CA • January 19, 2006 – Cycling ’74, a San Francisco-based music software company, today demonstrated UpMix, a surround processing and upmixing software package for VST and RTAS formats on both MacOS and Windows platforms at the Winter NAMM Expo in Anaheim, California. The flagship plug-in, named UpMix, provides functionality that can speed the repurposing of stereo audio content into a surround environment. By providing a number of algorithms and advanced positioning control, UpMix offers an easy way to move stereo files into an immersive surround environment suitable for film, DVD, HD broadcast and music surround formats.

Five additional plug-ins handle common surround mixing tasks:

-Rotator moves a 6-channel mix in a circular fashion – allowing the point of view to follow the on-screen action.

-ReRoute changes the output channels of the audio to match the system’s internal routing.

-FoldDown gives you the ability to check your surround mix in stereo, with center channel and surround channel gain reduction.

-ReBalance is a simple set of level controls for each of the surround channels.

-LFE-6chan is a low-frequency generator/adjustor.

These tools provide an unprecedented level of control, but are not intended as a replacement for a skilled engineer. When used as part of an engineer’s toolkit, however, they can aid in the creation of a deep, immersive mix. UpMix promises to be a new kind of tool that increases productivity and ease in professional surround production.

Price and Availability

UpMix will be available in the first quarter of 2006 from Cycling ’74 and its dealers and distributors. US suggested retail price is $495.

About Cycling ’74

Cycling ’74 creates and distributes Mac OS and Windows software for audio, video, and multimedia innovators. Products include the Max/MSP/Jitter graphical programming environment, the Pluggo, Mode and Hipno collections of Max/MSP-based audio plug-ins, the Radial loop-based composition and performance system, the Octirama and UpMix advanced surround design tools, and the interactive algorithmic composition program M. Cycling ’74 also releases creative musical and multimedia works through their c74 recording label and audio source libraries for musicians, sound designers and media producers through its Cycles series. http://www.cycling74.com

Graphics available online at http://www.cycling74.com/pressimages.

Cycling ’74, 379A Clementina Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-974-1818, info@cycling74.com

Cycling ’74 Previews New Software For The Lemur Multi-Touch Control Surface

Monday, January 23rd, 2006

NAMM • Anaheim, CA • January 19, 2006 – Cycling ’74 today announced revision software 1.3 for the JazzMutant Lemur Multi-touch control surface. The forthcoming update will be available via download for all current Lemur customers. New software features in version 1.3 allow the Lemur to be reconfigured in powerful ways from a host computer via the OSC (Open Sound Control) protocol.

The Lemur is a hardware controller for new media applications featuring a proprietary LCD touch screen for which users create their own user interfaces. The Lemur sends OSC messages to a Windows or Mac host computer over 100-base T Ethernet. The new version 1.3 software expands the repertoire of OSC commands the host computer can send back to the Lemur, allowing any of the eight types of user interface objects to be changed on the fly. This allows the Lemur to be used both as a controller and a status monitor.

Most intriguing are the new messages for switching among the Lemur’s multiple interface “pages” from the host computer. This means, for example, that a composition could automatically change the interface presented to a performer as a piece progresses. Other new features include new graphic designs for many of the UI objects, six new functions for the Lemur’s powerful built-in mathematical expression language, and new ways to customize the appearance of the standard objects. Version 1.3 continues JazzMutant’s policy of regular updating of the Lemur software since the product was first released in mid-2005. New features added over the past several months include MIDI support, a new “RingArea” UI objects that resembles a super joystick, and a unique time synchronization system.

About Cycling ’74

Graphics available online at http://www.cycling74.com/pressimages.

Cycling ’74, 379A Clementina Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-974-1818, info@cycling74.com

Om NAMMa Shiva (Part N where N=3)

Sunday, January 22nd, 2006

The nature of the booth traffic is visible not only in a relative dearth of exciting action demo photos on my part (I am giving them aforementioned demos, and thus otherwise occupied), but also in my relative lack of trade show mobility. There are a few exceptions.

The path from our booth area toward coffee, soda, and the “facilities” runs right but the Moog booth. I normally got to chat a bit with Bob Moog during the AES rather than NAMM, since he was always mobbed in the booth there. The AES this fall was the first time since his passing that I’d gone to a trade show and paused to realize that I’d never see him again. The Moog booth here has a digital “picture frame” with a rotating set of images taken at various points in Bob’s life, and a large poster that passers-by are invited to sign with messages of thanks and condolence (it’s going back to Moog HQ when things are over). It always seems as though there is a small group of one or three people every time I pass by. The booth is doing a brisk business, but the little corner always seems to have people standing quietly, watching the pictures or reading the large sign. It’s really quite touching.

I also finished the second installment of the Buchla 200e review in the current Sound On Sound and decided that the Buchla booth lay somewhat in a straight line to anothertoilet/soda machine vector, so I detoured with my Pepsi to check things out. Mr Buchla himself graced a minimally decorated booth.

Hardly minimal, I’d say you could only say “minimally decorated” if you’re churlish enough to not count this as decoration

I got to spend a little quality banana-plug time with the new machine, and it certainly sounds pretty cool. Loads of interesting new features, not the least of which is a Thunder finger-pad control panel. VERY nice. Time to start saving….

Anyway, back to stuff about us. One of the things I’ve never remembered to do in previous shows is to actually photograph the booth as it appears when finished early in the morning before the public arrives. For reasons I don’t entirely understand, I remembered this year. Here, we see David, Tim, Darwin, and Ben conferring during the quiet of a tradeshow morning.

It doesn’t stay that way for long.

One of the interesting features of this particular NAMM was the presence in major terms of our friend Scott Wardle, who you may all know as Ms. Pinky. May steel wheels were spun, concentric wisdom was dropped, and much currency of cool was thrown down whenever La Pink was in tha house.

And ditto for that Lemur. Our booth was overrun with them, wrangled by Meg. Come to think of it, she wrangled the booth visitors, too. Keeping them in line with hours of demofortitude.

The rest of us helped out in the north end of the booth by demoing the Lemur editor during the interdemo periods. The south end of the booth was given over to places to view and marvel at our new UpMix collection of plug-ins, Octirama, our troika of plug-in collections, and that machine over there in the corner. Here’s just a sampling of the hordes of pictures I could have snapped if I hadn’t been so busy or thought to give the camera to someone who wasn’t.

Whew. What a whirl.

Om NAMMa Shiva (Part N where N=2)

Sunday, January 22nd, 2006

We’re behind the Apple booth. This is a good thing in that we are beside and right in the demo audio line of fire of the Sony booth; two such circumstances would probably make anyone mad as a hatter.

The booth is an imposing black cube, more or less. I use the term “more or less” because it might be sort of a squatty cube (though imposing at close range). Anyway, the back is apparently a coveted site for having one’s photo taken. I know this because I have taken numerous photos of strangers, since I was sitting in the UpMix Surround Demo Enclosure and Detention Area, which adjoins the Apple border.

There are two interesting things about this imposing black structure. First, there was this guy during booth setup who was assigned to ascend ladder bearing a Sharpie Marker (no, not your Big Boy Tagger Marker (with aromatic esters!)), but the one you address Jiffy Bags with) and color in all the scuffy bits on the booth. It was a time consuming task, and he um… impressed us all with his diligence.

But the more interesting bit concerns the flash bounceback problem. As an example, consider this photo of a Cycling ’74 employee (cough cough) who apparently desired a photo opportunity with Vernon Reid.

Notice that unsightly flash bounceback? What an eyesore! I soon discovered that not shooting portraits head-on was the secret to a good Apple Back Of Booth Picture Opportunity. But I also discovered that clever camera placement and aiming resulted in the following enjoyable photographic special effect:

These hagiographic studies are, in fact, portraits of my colleagues Andrew Pask and Tim Place, whose aid and demeanor in the course of the show thus far must certainly be considered saintly by any reasonable observer.

Om NAMMa Shiva (part N where N=1)

Sunday, January 22nd, 2006

Greetings from the Los Angeles equivalent of a serious cold snap (which equates to an exceptionally nice respite from a Midwestern winter). Yes, it’s NAMM time again….

Reading a copy of David Foster Wallace’s new collection of essays “Consider the Lobster” really puts one in the mind of doing something with extensive footnotes. I suspect that my writerly skills are such that I would be lucky to manage a whole article that mustered enough grace and style to fill a mere single Wallace footnote, so I’ll hyperlink instead.

While I would love to fill these blog entries with exciting tales of attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion and C-beams glittering in the dark by the Tannhauser Gate, it’s a little more day-to-day than that.

I flew into L.A. (no longer the City of Angels – this is Anaheim now, I think) to spend some time with my mate Andrew Pask, generally doing the kind of thing one does when you work in a distributed company and your never actually get to hang out with your workplace buddies. Those piquant New Zealand whites from Trader Joe’s, for example.

No, that means doing work you can’t do as easily when you’re not in the same room (in our case, radiaLization). We also had some pre-show tasks to do, too – we made a trip to Ed Shearmur’s studio to vist with Brian Carraghan and do a little eyeballing/check out of the latest version of our new UpMix surround plug-ins on a ProTools system.

I was somewhat distracted when I realized that I had a finely restored ARP 2500 at the studio (the one you see in “Close Encounters.”) to ooh and aah over.

Fortunately, Andrew’s laser-beam focus saved the day.This business also put me in town in time to pay a visit to a current Culver City hotspot to see Andrew performing with Jeff Kaiser, Stuart Liebig, and Steve Lawson at the Club Tropical.

Andrew’s a longtime genius in terms of marrying his horns to MSP was an amazing thing to hear live, and it was interesting to hear Jeff Kaiser’s almost brand new MSP-based horn rig – the boy’s a quick study. Wow.High-intensity enhanced free improv is one thing, but BACK TO WORK!. A fortifying breakfast on the Sunset Strip (no rockstar sightings. Too early in the day.), and it was off to Anaheim.

I know you all think that trade shows are exciting fun-filled days of meet and greet punctuated by wild nights of partying. Ah, would that were so. Here are some pictures of the process looks like, (sort of). We arrive to find several forlorn tables

and a whole pile of boxes which must be unpacked

The contents are arranged. Carpet tiles for snappy floor patterns

and the spectacular metal frame and spandex Wave Walls.

It’s a day and a half of steady work to produce the apparently simple trade show booth where we spend our NAMMs, filled with software downloading and troubleshooting,

cleaning and logistics,

and general craziness. I never remember to actually take a picture of the real booth with real stuff in it before all the people come – I always remember when we’ve got half the boxes packed up at the end of the show. Maybe this year will be different.Here, Jill (or office manager) and an unnamed person attached to a hand) welcomes you to a Cycling ’74 NAMM booth already in progress.

If progress is the word for it.

iCE Externals Released

Monday, January 9th, 2006

DSPaudio, Inc. announces iCE, a new set of necessary externals for Max/MSP.

iCE allows users to build composing frameworks, data storage and processing systems, and user interfaces for all manner of sequencing directly within Max/MSP. iCE is the Swiss army knife of sequencing and it’s stylish too. Use iCE to quickly build your own fully working sequencer to your own specifications and never touch Logic, Cubase or Pro Tools again. *Note, DSPaudio is addressing multi-tracking in the future, so get ready to work entirely in Max/MSP.

iCE 1.0 externals for Mac OS X are:

ice.key -Reports all keystroke information and provides useful features similar objects do not
ice.pump -Message router for developing UI’s
ice.lattice -Read slowly (2x) “The best data storage and retrieval system we’ve ever seen” ice.mux/demux -Enhanced pack/unpack keeps lists tidy by preserving relative position of list elements
ice.xxx -Additional objects under development which deal with issues cool people care about

iCE allows composers to sequence entirely in Max/MSP employing both old and new paradigms. Embedded sequences (sequencers sequencing other sequencers) are easy to accomplish “a la” OpenMusic or Vision while tracker based pattern sequencing is inherent. Creating your own timeline, poetry sequencer or hybrid tracker is now possible with a minimum of effort.

User microtunings, charmaps and display modes let you work how you want.

ASCII keyboard control of any composition environment is paramount to the environments usefulness. Thus, we’ve done our best to refine existing input mechanisms for maximum UI speed. The ICE UI has been under concept revision and development since 2002 with code, diagrams and prototypes reaching back to 1997. Every keystroke has been painfully thought about, several of us now suffer from stigmata.

Impulse Tracker and Fast Tracker 2 fans will find their old keystrokes are not forgotten and better yet, Max’ers who care not about the past can create their own keyboard maps for all controls.

iCE is being introduced for early adopters at 50% off. Early birds who purchase now can enjoy this discount and are entitled to a 50% discount on the next major revision of iCE. We love you.

You can now purchase 3 years of our work in 30 seconds here: http://order.kagi.com/?GSX

To read more about iCE, view help patchers and get specifications: http://www.dspaudio.com

We designed these tools for our own use and will continue to refine them both based on our goals and your comments. We hope you’ll join us in liberating your events.

Archive for January, 2006

MXJ Class Loading

Om NAMMa Shiva (Part N where N=3)

Om NAMMa Shiva (Part N where N=2)

Om NAMMa Shiva (part N where N=1)

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MIDI Monitor – view all incoming MIDI data with JS and LCD

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