A Programmer's Guide to Sound and Music

Talk I gave at Technologieplauscherl #50 at Tabakfabrik in Linz on 16.8.2017

Topics:
Audio Basics
Music Theory
Synths
MIDI
Filters
Effects
NanoLoop
PureData
SonicPi
REAPER

Transcript

1. A Programmer’s Guide to Sound and Music by Paul Klingelhuber Technologieplauscherl 50 16.8.2017
2. Whoami Paul Klingelhuber Software Developer at currently on parental leave - thanks boss “My hobby is to collect hobbies” Disclaimer: Not at all a trained musician in any way!
3. Why you should still listen to me Learned some technical basics at FH Hagenberg (Signalprocessing) Participated in an online course about music editing Lots of youtube & internet research Played around a lot as a hobby “Produced and edited ” 2 albums 3rd time Technologieplauscher
4. About this talk Style of this talk loosely inspired by: DEF CON Talk “How to build a processor in 10 minutes or less” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSuq3Ry9PLQ Expect: ~50 slides, 3 programming languages, fast talking
5. Source: https://www.animationsource.org/talespin/en/multim_screens/&id_film=9&id_screenshot=0&deb=840&display=60 Please keep questions until the end, it’s going to be a precision landing (hopefully)
6. 3 Minute Audio Basics
7. Analogue vs Digital Source: www.electronicproducts.com Would you like to know more?
8. Time vs Frequency Domain Would you like to know more? Source: www.sharetechnote.com
9. Frequency Domain & Compression MP3 & JPEG Compression both make heavy use of frequency-domain for their compression. High quality 40% quality 15% quality half size & 5% quality
11. 2 Minute Synths Teaser
12. How does a Synth work? Oscillator: https://codepen.io/nousernamefound/pen/wejLPY?editors=0010# Frequency controlled by keyboard
13. Which of these are Synths? Source: Photos by Paul Klingelhuber
14. 1 Minute MIDI
15. Musical Instrument Digital Interface MIDI is ONLY a control protocol (note, control & other events) And some standards for the hardware (jacks) Source: https://midi-protocol.wikispaces.com/03-MIDI+Message
16. MIDI in DAWs Source: https://sourceforge.net/p/qtractor/wiki/Manual%20-%204%20Qtractor--An%20Overview/
17. MIDI in DAWs Source: https://sourceforge.net/p/qtractor/wiki/Manual%20-%204%20Qtractor--An%20Overview/ Note on Note off Velocity Pitch
18. 2 Minute Envelopes
19. Envelopes https://codepen.io/nousernamefound/pen/vJEewz?editors=0010 Source: https://www.teachmeaudio.com/recording/sound-reproduction/sound-envelopes/
20. 2 Minute Filters
21. Low-, High- & Band-Pass Filters Simple Lowpass Filter: https://codepen.io/nousernamefound/pen/eRrwVm?editors=0010# Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7105962
22. 1 Minute Effects
23. Delay Effect https://codepen.io/nousernamefound/pen/NgBqyp?editors=0010 Source http://wallpapercave.com/w/zkc4zR1
24. 5 Minute Music Theory
25. Scales What we all learned: C Major Scale - “and then it gets complicated”
26. Scales - What you should actually remember By Hyacinth - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20584534 By Tcolgan001 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10719680
27. Modes - What you should actually remember By Hyacinth - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20584534 By User:Tcolgan001 - Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10705942
28. Chords Set of 2+ harmonic notes played simultaneously Lots of different notations Lots of different kinds You can approach them from a scale or from semitones E.g. major triad: 1,3,5 of scale By User:Tcolgan001 (Own work) CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons By Hyacinth - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20584534
29. Rhythm 3/4 4/4 etc. Example of 4/4 Sheet music view DAW Midi editor view Source: Paul Klingelhuber, Screenshots of Reaper DAW
30. Rhythm 3/4 4/4 etc. Example of 3/4 Sheet music view DAW Midi editor view Source: Paul Klingelhuber, Screenshots of Reaper DAW
31. Other Examples Very short notes Accidentals Source: Paul Klingelhuber, Screenshots of Reaper DAW
32. Tempo Beats Per Minute Hip Hop is around 80-115 BPM Techno is generally around 120-135 Hardstyle is around 150 BPM Drum and Bass averages a BPM of 160-180 See https://music.stackexchange.com/a/4563
33. 2 Minute Synths
34. Classic Synth Sounds
35. Typical Synth Parts Oscillators and/or Wavetables Polyphony Filters Envelopes Arpeggiator LFOs All arranged in some (semi) fixed way.
36. 1 Minute Modular Synths
37. Moog By Kimi95 at Italian Wikipedia (http://www.vintagesynth.com/moog/m55_5whole.jpg) CC BY 3.0
38. Doepfer By Nina Richards. CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
39. Source: http://www.idreamofwires.org/
40. 2 Minute Visual Audio Programming
41. Visual Audio Programming A few popular tools often associated with interactive arts scene MaxMSP VVVV PureData Demo!
42. Source: Screenshot of PD
43. 2 Minute Music-Making on Phones
44. NanoLoop Simple but powerful software to create music on the fly Exists even as a cartridge for the original Gameboy Also available for Android, iOS, GameBoy Advance Demo!
45. Source: Screenshot of NanoLoop Patterns of Track Tracks Sequence Switch to Arrange UI (arrange patterns to full song) Switch to Synth Settings UI
46. 2 Minute Sonic Pi
47. Sound Programming Environment Sonic Pi uses SuperCollider Audio-Synthesis-Engine (like Overtone does) Live coding Synths & samples included Beginner-friendly - integrated help & examples DEMO!
48. 2 Minute DAW
49. Digital Audio Workstations Software like REAPER, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Pro Tools, Reason, Cubase, … Basic Features of any DAW: • Tracks/Channels (MIDI & Audio) • Plugins (VST) / Instruments / Effects • Mixer Demo!
50. Wrap-up & Call-To-Action #1 If you have only the slightest interest in music, Go and play around with some tool(s)
51. Call To Action #2 More “Programmers Guide To _____________” talks! Graphics Animation 3D Video Writing Games ?
52. Thank you! www.insanewombat.com www.paukl.at Mail paul.klingelhuber@gmail.com Twitter @thistestuser
53. Links #1 - Videos “drum programming genres from 78bpm to 340bpm” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PItUDGA9x38 Amen Break in Music https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8e4fSxY4vDy-BalGxJzRVg/videos Amen Break in music is a bit like the “Wilhelm Scream” in film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf8aBFTVNEU Other famous samples/breaks http://www.whosampled.com/news/2010/04/29/the-10-most-sampled-breakbeats-o f-all-time/
54. Links #2 - Videos cont. “I dream of wires” Modular Synth Documentary Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAabyhhwC68 Live coding music with SonicPi example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1RxpJkvqpY Recreating a Daft Punk song in SonicPi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cydH_JAgSfg Why it’s impossible to Tune a Piano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hqm0dYKUx4
55. Links #3 - Videos cont. “Cuckoo Music” Musician demoing lots of music making hardware https://www.youtube.com/user/cuckoomusic/videos “The REAPER Blog” Blog/Videos about using the REAPER DAW https://www.youtube.com/user/audiogeekzine/videos http://reaperblog.net/
56. Links #3 - Software PureData [Open-Source graphical visual programming w/ audio features] https://puredata.info/ Reaper [powerful free-to-try DAW] https://www.reaper.fm/ Sonic-Pi [Open-Source audio programming language] http://sonic-pi.net/ NanoLoop [simple, powerful sequencer - TRY IT!] https://www.nanoloop.com/
57. Links #4 - Learning Materials Berklee Coursera online courses on music production https://www.coursera.org/specializations/music-production FrankJavCee HowTo Videos [70% comedy, 30% educational] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBuAOcHcmnSwnsm4hptsJHM1fyJRWAerY