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Robots for Robots → General Hardware / Software Discussion → Writing Software
the only thing i know of is max/msp which is kind of like programming, havent tried it though
does anyone write any kind of plug ins? VSTs? do you have a preferred language? what would you recommend to someone with substantial programming experience?
thx
I think I'm learning Max this semester & the new version of Abelton will have the ability to use Max. Otherwise I know some people who use Supercollider & ChuCk.
reaktor
I'm pretty experienced in vvvv. Audio capabilities are quite limited in there though, reaktor might be a good option!
There are others though that are similar to reaktor and cheaper I think.
a c++ base class called Audioeffectx or something
The API is defined in C++. The SDK comes with good simple examples you can strip clean for your starting point. Ofcourse you don't really need to use C++ for the actual effect code if you don't want to. The difficult part with writing your VST/VSTi is the discrete math you have to have a handle with if you want to do DSP.
You don't really need to write your own plugins if you just want to experiment. Reaktor is good for that since you can run it as a VST plugin. Supercollider and Max/Msp come with bunch of readymade signal blocks too but it's lot harder to integrate them to your DAW setup. If only there was decent OSC support in DAW software we wouldn't have to be stuck with piece of shit operating system midi implementations.
For recreational programming sound right now I'd go with either Supercollider (if you prefer a Smalltalk style syntax) or ChucK (if you are more comfortable with a C/Java style syntax). Neither is aimed at plugins, I don't see that as a issue because I personally stopped caring about plugins after I got into programming for sound but it may be a issue if you want your work to work in a DAW or would like to distribute/sell it, in that case the C++ VST developers kit will be the way to go.
There is CSound but I feel that right now it's mainly of historical relevance; I quite like my modern language constructs.
Then there are a whole series of graphical systems; MAX/MSP or the free (as in freedom) PureData alternative, Reaktor, Tassman, Synthedit, etc. These are often seen as "easier" than text-based programming. Depending on one's temperament that may well be true but in the general case I think that once you are comfortable with the system and beyond a certain level of complexity that no longer holds.
There is no shortage of options and it really depends on what you would like to do, how much time you are willing to invest and what you feel comfortable with. If you are mainly interested in experimenting with weird sounds it would be a waste to start with reading the bigest tome on filter design in pure ASM for embedded chips that you can find, for example.
I'd suggest looking at ChucK and SuperCollider first, especially because you are already comfortable with code. At the very least look around at some of these options before investing months and/or hundreds of bucks.
I use Max/MSP. I spent about a year staring at it before everything clicked. But it's worth the wait. I've done more experimental shows where I've written the software for the gig on the train up.
Cool!
The next step is of course to turn the writing of the software into the performance itself;
http://toplap.org
I've seen that done successfully in Max as well. In fact there's a event for that collaboratively coming up in your hometown;
http://blankpages.fr/
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