You may have heard about Pure Data (Pd), the open-source cousin to Max/MSP and a powerful tool for visual programming or “patching” music and multimedia. Pd has even appeared in the iPhone app RjDj and creating generative music for EA’s hit game Spore. But actually learning how to use the thing? Or learning some of the more advanced possible techniques in sound synthesis and processing? That’s another matter.

Johannes Kreidler writes to let us know about his new book for people wanting to learn Pd. It starts at the beginning and teaches you not only the ins and outs of the Pd environment, but all of the advanced music processing techniques, as well. (Given the similarity of Pd and Max/MSP, that should make this just about as useful for Max devotees, too.)

The book is available for reading free online, or in paperback format from Wolke Publishing House. It’s available in both English and German. Johannes writes:

This tutorial is designed for self-study, principally for composers. It begins with explanations of basic programming and acoustic principles then gradually builds up to the most advanced electronic music processing techniques. The book’s teaching approach is focused primarily on hearing, which we consider a faster and more enjoyable way to absorb new concepts than through abstract formulas.

The patches described are available for download.

He notes that because Pd is free and open source rather than commercial software, there isn’t a company behind it that can focus on documentation for new users. That’s been a common complaint about Pd, and this book does a lot to fill it — as well as a lot to fill the need for better documentation of sound techniques, as well, for users of any environment. Some of the juicy topics covered:

• Additive, subtractive synthesis
• Sampling
• Waveshaping, modulation synthesis
• Granular synthesis (something I try to eat a bowl of every day, seriously)
• Fourier analysis
• Sequencers
• Connecting to hardware, network transmission and OSC
• Basics of visuals

It’s a really elegantly-organized set of topics, and absolutely of interest to users of Max/MSP and other environments, as well. With this and a new SuperCollider book coming out this spring, we’re really getting some wonderful resources for learning greater ninja skills. Stay tuned, as I hope to create a forum for folks working on learning this stuff.

Resources

Book site, including downloadable patches and online reading:

http://www.pd-tutorial.com

Direct link to downloading all the patches as one zip (thanks, mic, in comments!):

http://www.kreidler-net.de/pd/patches/patches.zip

More info, including the paperback version:

http://www.wolke-verlag.de/musik_u_t/loadbang.html

http://www.buecher-zur-musik.de/assets/s2dmain.html?http://www.buecher-zur-musik.de/53108697370a2cb3f/5310869bc400a7a02.html

Author’s site:
www.kreidler-net.de

The authorship of the book was aided by a grant by the Music University of Freiburg / Germany.

Previous appearances by the author:

A song made from 70,2000 samples

The stock market declines, as a song

More Pd Books

bang | pure data Free, online

Creator Miller Puckette’s own The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music, free online in various formats and also in print

That’s the question I ask at the beginning of the Create Digital Music Winter 08 guide. We’ve filled it with good stuff we love, plus good stuff we hear that you love (via our survey of hundreds of readers for the holiday guide). Via Creative Commons-licensed images, you’ve shared your world of music, and so we share the whole guide as fully free work (it’s got a CC Attribution / ShareAlike license).

Here’s some of what’s inside – we wanted stories that you’d want to live with the whole winter season:

• Circuit bending 101 with Michael Una
• Imagining synths: reflections on the design of electronic instruments with Dan McPharlin, creator of wonderful miniature synths handmade from cardboard
• Tutorial on slicing audio to MIDI in Ableton Live 7, with tips from Live guru Francis Preve plus a free accompanying CDM pack designed by Covert Operators at http://covops.org/cdm
• Holiday Guide, with your favorite gear and software of the year, listening and reading suggestions, and ideas on open hardware from monome creator Brian Crabtree
• Creative tips for surviving winter in Berlin, courtesy monolake (Robert Henke)
• Images from the CDM community and beyond

With the help of graphic editor Nathanael Jeanneret, the results are designed to be an object on paper or read on high-resolution displays. The PDF is available free, with an on-demand print version from Lulu available worldwide (US$19.99 before shipping). I just ordered my print copy rush, so I’ll let you know what it looks like as this is the first time we’ve tried this.

Print Edition + Free PDF Download @ Lulu.com

A big thanks to our sponsors for making this possible:

Ableton Live, our premiere sponsor; now with an unlimited 14-day trial

Audiofile Engineering, makers of Wave Editor for Mac

Highly Liquid DIY MIDI electronics maker

Covert Operators, creators of Live Packs and video tutorials for Ableton Live

I’m really eager to hear what you think.

The Atari Punk Console is one of DIY sonic electronics’ all-time greatest hits. Designed by Forrest M. Mims III — the brilliant electronics artist and engineer whose hand-drawn books were once promoted in Radio Shack — the “Stepped Tone Generator” as it was originally called is an excellent circuit for first-timers or those wanting something simple and adaptable. You can read up on the APC over on Wikipedia, with some good links to what the circuit does.

The Cracklebox is, similarly, a “greatest hit” of electrical noisemaking, a simple, self-contained synthesizer with speakers.

Put them together and add some comic art, and you’ve got the creation you see above, created by Massimiliano Farnea, aka maxfarnea. It’s been watching over the site from the CDM Flickr pool (which has various other stuff like this, as does the pool for our friends at MAKE and some other Flickr pools). So I had to know more. Here’s a quick preview from its creator — and the story behind that fantastic illustration:

Massimiliano writes:

I’m very happy that you like my last noisy gear. I hope to post a video soon, so you can see it in action and hear it.

I suppose that you could imagine its sound, it’s simply an Atari Punk Console (with no modification on schematics) and a Crackle Box, the same LM709 based circuit by Michel Waisvisz. The circuits are coupled with a very simple FET based mixing stage and all the stuff is cased into an metal box and powered by a 9v battery.

I only ask to you to attribute the work to me and the artwork to Alberto Corradi. He is a talented illustrator and comic writer that kindly gave me the permission to reproduce his character on a circuit board by a real etching process.

You can read about him here: http://www.myspace.com/stanzaobscura

Every section of the creature picture is connected to the cracklebox  and the APC circuits, so you can generate weird noise and sounds simply touching it. The eyes light up when the sound is louder.

I love using it with my Korg MiniKP, I can get nice talking effects or really deep and reverberant drone sounds and so I’m planning to record some nice ambient and experimental sessions with it and other toys of mine.

I like that DIY tools and commercial products come together in this way — it’s a convergence of something you’ve made with something made by another.

When those sounds and videos appear, we’ll have them up. But this reminds me to have a look at some of Mims’ old designs. He made a brief appearance on this site in comments. It would be great if someone did a re-release of all his work. Radio Shack I expect won’t, but perhaps MAKE and O’Reilly would — or he’ll self-publish.

He’s not just some eccentric tinkerer, either — not that there’s anything wrong with eccentric tinkerers, but he’s a widely-published scientist. The fact that someone can have the depth and breadth of knowledge he does, but translate sophisticated concepts into readable, friendly illustrations anyone can approach is really inspirational.

Check out:

Forrest M. Mims III (his official site)

And if you don’t own his most popular book (which contains this design), it’s a must-have:

Getting Started in Electronics

And MAKE links (via the same image) to posts on the APC circuit:

Atari Punk Console schematics (via)

and (for the other half of this), another nice sample project:

Homebuilt CrackleBox

I’m not sure whether this means my book helps single guys attract women, or whether it can actually stand in for a romantic life. You be the judge. Anyway, something’s helping sales over on Amazon, so maybe this “ad campaign” worked:

Real World Digital Audio

The most interesting decision for the book, though, is to include remixable music from Gabriel & Dresden, Coldcut, Meat Beat Manifesto, and Jacinta on the CD-ROM in Ableton Live 5/6 format. I like the hands-on approach there; will be curious to hear what remixing readers cook up.

I haven’t seen the book in the flesh yet, but I know a lot of what’s in it, and it should be easily worth the absurdly low pricetag Backbeat put on it:

Last Night a Dj Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey

Fran’s other projects include “working on some new original dance tracks, kibbutzing with Josh Gabriel (of Gabriel & Dresden fame), and continuing to lay the groundwork for that dance label [I] keep talking about.” You can find his sound design in the instrument racks in Live 6, too — more on that later. But here’s the interesting part:

Fran says he’s “putting finishing touches on his patches for a secret new product from Korg“.

Reeeeeally? Knowing Fran, I’m guessing this is software, though I’d love a cute new Korg synth to keep around the place. I’ll just sit here and drool and wait, I guess.

So, other Keyboard writers want to brag about your projects? Jim? Craig? Steve? Mike? Ernie? Can you reveal any secret projects in the process?

Real World Digital Audio review, interview [Matrixsynth]

*Disclaimer: Boookshelf pictured does not represent the wall-obliterating shelf space in my apartment.

What’s striking to me is that Matrix went through and reviewed each chapter individually, something a reviewer normally would never do. It’s funny, because you hear so much about digital supplanting the Web. But I think the Web demonstrates how important books and print are — and vice versa. Writing on the Web is social and interactive; writing print tends to be fairly lonely but more contemplative. The forms and styles are different, too. But the bottom line is, you can learn and experience something different through books, as Matrix says:

I find that I spend most of my time behind a monitor. Being able to take some time off and kick back with a paperback filled with all of this information was refreshing.

I’ve been really reliant on books lately for learning, as I work on developing interactive 3D visual compositions in Max/MSP/Jitter. In the past couple of months, I’ve poured through Foundation Actionscript Animation by Keith Peters, O’Reilly’s JavaScript Definitive guide, the OpenGL red book, and Peachpit’s C Programming: Visual Quickstart Guide, all of which are indispensible for learning 3D in Jitter even though none is dedicated to the application specifically. I think, frankly, there aren’t enough books that deal with underlying techniques rather than an app du jour. And I can personally never get enough of print, even though I know book and magazine sales were down in the last quarter of 2005. (I don’t blame blogs for that, incidentally.)

I’d also be nowhere without books that come on paper. Had I been reading about C on the subway today on a Sony Reader instead of folding a book over my arm while I hung onto the handrail, would it have been the same experience? Hardly. (I probably would have dropped it.) Likewise, while I’ve learned a lot from application-specific books, my favorites remain those that look more generally at technique.

Let’s put a little of these two media together now: got a favorite book for learning about music production? Or are you looking for a specific topic, but haven’t found one that fits it?

Interview Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music

New Book, Real World Digital Audio, Rocks (His headline, not mine, but thanks, Mike!)

The book is now actually hitting shelves. (I wrote earlier that it was online, but brick and mortar distribution took much longer.)

I don’t like talking about myself here (really), so if you want to hear that, head to Mike’s excellent site! More importantly, if you aren’t yet reading GarageSpin, it’s one of my favorite sites. It’s one of the few blogs that effectively covers not only music creation, but online promotion and distribution, all from an artist’s perspective. MikeB’s resume explains part of the reason why: in addition to being a musician and producer, he’s a digital media veteran of RealNetworks and the Harry Fox Agency, among others. And he’d probably make a great interview, though I’d better wait a while, or that would just look weird.

Better idea: we’ll all get together in NYC, and New Yorker area dwellers, you’re invited. More on that soon. Until then, thanks, Mike; you don’t know how nice it is to connect with people after the long, solitary writing process. Pictured: a very comforting sight after over a year on a book (ask any author).

Essential Retro: The Vintage Technology Guide

(See also James’ announcement, Music thing)

Why should CDM readers be buying this book? Because the table of contents looks like a list of everything we love: vintage hi-fi audio gear, retro videogame consoles, early computers, classic toys, and, oh yeah, plenty of vintage synths. James sez:

Since I’m a synth addict, there’s an entire chapter dedicated to electronic musical instruments. I start with a look at some classics like the the ARP Odyssey and Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, but I couldn’t resist including a few modern ‘vintage analog’ devices from Dave Smith, Clavia, and even the real analog growl of the Alesis A6 Andromeda . . .

People can buy signed copies direct from the site for the next few weeks, and it should be available on Amazon in the USA and UK early next week. Priced at $19.95 in the USA, £11.95 in the UK.

Can’t wait to read it; more when I get my copy. Sure, we’re online writers and bloggers, but who said we didn’t love paper?

Real World Digital Audio [Official Book Site]

I launched this project with Peachpit Press because we wanted to compress the broad range of skills you need to master music production with computers — from synthesizing sounds to recording to producing scores to DJing and playing live — into a single book. There are superb books out there on individual topics and individual tools, but I found many of the general books were either out-of-date, had limited coverage of computers, or assumed too much about what you already knew.

Of course, as the production deadline slipped back from January to March, to June, to August, to October, I realized just how big a challenge this would be. Thankfully, there are some incredibly patient people at Peachpit Press, particularly my production editor Cary Norsworthy, who supported the project even as it grew in scope, size, and schedule.)

(More on the book after the jump)

What’s in the book: I’ve just posted the complete Table of Contents on the book site. We survey the basics of how sound works, choosing, setting up, and and optimizing your hardware and software, making quick songs with loops, recording, effects, MIDI, synths and instruments, mixing and mastering, scoring and notation, working with video, and live performance. I don’t get to cover some of the wacky and off-beat stuff I do on CDM, but I still sneak in some some unusual items and advanced tricks.

What’s on the DVD: I have a complete listing on the site, which I’ll update as software updates are released, but I’m most excited about a few items: a folder of my favorite Mac and Windows tools, a free full-functioning copy of the SoundSchool Analog synth from Reaktor (shown below) that accompanies synthesis walkthroughs in the book, and a set of sounds and loops for various programs.

Why I’m so excited, and why I say “we”: I’ve probably learned more from this process than I have from anything else I’ve done. One of the reasons is the fantastic people I got to work with. The production team at Peachpit worked incredibly hard on the details of how the book reads and looks, and I really couldn’t be happier with how it came out. I also was lucky enough to have Jim Aikin as my technical editor; he’s one of my personal heros, one of the best writers in the business, and his name should be in bigger print on the cover because there’s a lot of his knowledge and expertise inside. Jim has some great books of his own, which you can check out on his site, and is a talented musician, to boot. (Amazingly enough, he’s also a published science fiction writer.) Yes, I learned along the way that writing a 584-page book is a wonderfully efficient way to ruin over a year of your life and demolish time for actually making music, but thanks to the efforts of our production team, I can confidently say it was worth it.

Stay tuned: As usual, I’m not happy just releasing a book and being done with it. I’ve got a whole bunch of content that didn’t make the cut for the book as we ran out of space, including interviews with people ranging from digital pioneer Max Mathews to South Park music director D.A. Young; I’ll be posting these over the coming weeks. And I also expect to have some parties and events here in New York and in Los Angeles soon, because I’m up for any excuse for a party.

Thanks for letting me share the culmination of this intensive project, and do let me know what you think of the results. (And thanks for the plugs to Tom at Music thing and Matrix!)

Related:

CDM’s friend James Grahame has his own book out on retro tech — looks like it’ll be great fun to read!

Music with Heart

In a year of trouble for many parts of the world, there are tracks in here that let us share solace.

Music for Sudan: ASAP: The Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project, has already raised US$125,000 for an Oxfam-affiliated local charity in Darfur. Not only does it benefit people in the birthplace of Afrobeat, but each track is a treasure of rich music by artists like Antibalas, Kokolo, Akoya, and Tony Allen (featuring Fela Kuti). It’s the Live8 antidote, entirely assembled by African musicians. The spirit-lifting grooves cost only US$10. Read more on CDM, check out the official site, or buy it from iTunes and other music stores.

Music for New Orleans: For a reminder of why music is vital in times of hardship, cue up any of the tracks on Our New Orleans, a new benefit release from Nonesuch. This isn’t just another benefit album: these are New Orleans musicians, singing and playing their souls out. That’s a lot of soul: artists like Eddie Bo, Beausoleil, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Buckwheat Zydeco, Dr. John . . . I could go on. Read the album cover, and you’ll know this is a must-have. Sounds like home. Buy it from iTunes and other music stores.

Indie Music Online: Our friends at Fake Science are rewriting the rules of online music purchasing: no DRM, low prices ($2 for a whole EP, $5 for an LP), and 60% of your cost goes directly to the artist or small label. If that sounds like music to the ears of someone on your list, the FS folks remind us that gift certificates are available in various denominations. How else will you hear Spycloud (below)? Gift certificates available on the right-hand side dropdown on the FS page.

Good Reading:

These books, all printed this year, seem tailor-made for the CDM audience (well, one by your editor-in-chief), so I can’t resist listing them here, especially as it’s nice sometimes to take a break from the pixels and look at paper.

One of my favorite reads this year was The Art of Digital Music by David Battino and Kelli Richards. (Backbeat Books) David, editor of the O’Reilly Digital Media site, and Kelli, an industry insider and business and technology guru, talked to 56 artists and industry figures about digital music production, ranging from Ableton visionary and electronica artist Robert Henke (Monolake) to Thomas Dolby, Roland founder Ikutaro Kakhashi, and Herbie Hancock. It’s a really unique glimpse into the creative life behind digital music, and it’s one of those books you can just open to any page. Order the book/DVD set on Amazon or go check out details on the official site.

We’ve taken a look inside your studios and other studios on CDM (try a search for studios for a rough idea). So it’s only appropriate that not one but two books for studio voyeurs would debut this year. First, there are the bedroom studios — see previous coverage on CDM of the new Bedroom Rockers book. For more serious studios, see Behind the Beat, a hardcover book plus CD that looks inside the creative spaces of hip hop producers from DJ Shadow to Young Einstein. (That’s the hip-hop version, not Yahoo Serious.) $30 buys you 320 color images, to inspire creativity and gear lust, plus musical tracks from the featured studio.

Lastly, while I’m heavily biased and hate to shamelessly plug my own work, I have to share this one: my book, Real World Digital Audio should be shipping by Christmas, and I couldn’t be more proud of it. It’s a 600-page reference on making music with technology, plus a DVD of extra software and tutorial content. I just got my copies in the mail, and I’m thrilled with the work our team has done it, particularly Jim Aikin, who served as technical editor, and the staff at Peachpit on our production team who stuck with it and put out a book I’m excited to own. The other good news is, because I’m not writing it, I get more time to spend on CDM — and, better yet, music. Now, that’s a gift. More on the book once we know it’s hit shelves (hasn’t happened quite yet but should any day now).

Want to shamelessly plug your book or album? Or tell us about some music or reading we’ve missed that you want? Hit comments, or email me.

And to everyone, happy holidays! (And don’t worry, I’ll bring you lots of stuff to buy all year long.)

Previously:

Holiday Gift Guide: Best Digital Music Picks from Femalemusician.com
Holiday Gift Guide: Best Gift Guides on the Web