Dubstep in Ruby with Sonic Pi

(Or how to combine Ruby, Education and Audio Synthesis for fun and profit)

Links:

Download Sonic Pi RC: http://sonic-pi.net/get-v2.0
Computer Science: A curriculum for schools 2012: http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/data/uploads/ComputingCurric.pdf
Video explaining harmonics: http://www.mindbites.com/lesson/4603-physics-in-action-standing-waves-on-a-rope

Gists
recreating the thx deep note in 30 lines: https://gist.github.com/xavriley/418f8283af2fbe95fc90

Funky drummer: https://gist.github.com/xavriley/dd6b61c24c3aed28c892

ASCII Drum tab player: https://gist.github.com/xavriley/cdacb93dc127eafd1f16

Wobble bass: https://gist.github.com/xavriley/92dbba5de1c78177c33d

Auto dubstep: https://gist.github.com/xavriley/71b255775829b486249b

Transcript

1. Dubstep in Ruby with Sonic Pi Tuesday, 10 June 14
2. (Or how to combine Ruby, Education and Audio Synthesis for fun and profit) Tuesday, 10 June 14
3. download Sonic Pi 2.0 RC here: http://sonic-pi.net/get-v2.0 Tuesday, 10 June 14
4. @xavriley Tuesday, 10 June 14
5. Nothing to do with Sonic Pi, all views my own... Tuesday, 10 June 14
6. Outline on teaching programming audio synthesis 101 tour of SonicPi Dubstep Tuesday, 10 June 14
7. on teaching programming Tuesday, 10 June 14
8. Why does Sonic Pi matter? Tuesday, 10 June 14
9. Tuesday, 10 June 14
10. GCSE Computing 2014 Tuesday, 10 June 14
11. Computer Science: A curriculum for schools endorsed by * Google * Microsoft * Intellect (UK STEM trade assoc.) Computer Science: A curriculum for schools 2012 Tuesday, 10 June 14
12. training for industry, by industry = lobotomy (possibly...) Tuesday, 10 June 14
13. “ It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. Edsger Dijkstra Tuesday, 10 June 14
14. what he’s saying here is this: It matters what you learn first Tuesday, 10 June 14
15. We need hackers People who are self-motivated to learn, through playing with code Tuesday, 10 June 14
16. Ruby is the perfect language to start hacking Tuesday, 10 June 14
17. “Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic far beyond all we do here!” Albus Dumbledore Tuesday, 10 June 14
18. made for classrooms designed for Raspberry Pi simple and fun to program Making Computer Science Audible Tuesday, 10 June 14
19. lets you synthesize audio in *RUBY* a “real” language with transferable skills that’s FUN to program in Tuesday, 10 June 14
20. works on Raspberry Pi AND OSX, Linux and windows Tuesday, 10 June 14
21. demo Tuesday, 10 June 14
22. Outline on teaching programming audio synthesis 101 tour of SonicPi Dubstep Tuesday, 10 June 14
23. Audio Synthesis 101 Tuesday, 10 June 14
24. Tuesday, 10 June 14
25. ALL ABOUT WAVES Tuesday, 10 June 14
26. ALL ABOUT WAVES (we need to know this to make wobble bass later...) Tuesday, 10 June 14
27. Sine Waves and harmonics Tuesday, 10 June 14
28. Sine wave Pure, sterile sounding no ‘edges’ (no harmonics) Tuesday, 10 June 14
29. demo Tuesday, 10 June 14
30. demo natural harmonics a.k.a. harmonic series video: http://www.mindbites.com/lesson/4603-physics-in- action-standing-waves-on-a-rope Tuesday, 10 June 14
31. All sounds have a mix of natural + unnatural harmonics Tuesday, 10 June 14
32. Any sound can be recreated with enough sine waves see Fourier Transform Tuesday, 10 June 14
33. Tuesday, 10 June 14
34. Not a Sine (a Sawtooth wave!) Loads of crazy harmonics Tuesday, 10 June 14
35. Not a Sine Loads of crazy harmonics ! Different x-axis ! Tuesday, 10 June 14
36. Some more synth jargon Tuesday, 10 June 14
37. ADSR Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release Tuesday, 10 June 14
38. Image: https://flic.kr/p/61T21q Tuesday, 10 June 14
39. ADSR Think “loudness over time” Tuesday, 10 June 14
40. Noise Many/All the sine waves at once (no fundamental) Tuesday, 10 June 14
41. Image: http://memegenerator.net/instance/50615527 Tuesday, 10 June 14
42. Additive Subtractive FM (Frequency modulation) Synthesis Tuesday, 10 June 14
43. Different ways of getting the sound you want Tuesday, 10 June 14
44. comb filter, sawtooth, square wave, eq, pitchshift, flange, phase cancellation, reverb, distortion, zawa, 808, audio rates, control rates, LFO, slicer, delay, compression, FFT, pink noise, brown noise, white noise, wave shaping, red-and- yellow-and-pink-and-green-noise... Tuesday, 10 June 14
45. comb filter, sawtooth, square wave, eq, pitchshift, flange, phase cancellation, reverb, distortion, zawa, 808, audio rates, control rates, LFO, slicer, delay, compression, FFT, pink noise, brown noise, white noise, wave shaping, red-and- yellow-and-pink-and-green-noise... Ask me on twitter Tuesday, 10 June 14
46. Outline on teaching programming audio synthesis 101 tour of SonicPi Dubstep Tuesday, 10 June 14
47. tour of Sonic Pi Tuesday, 10 June 14
48. synths Tuesday, 10 June 14
49. synths Tuesday, 10 June 14
50. effects Tuesday, 10 June 14
51. samples Tuesday, 10 June 14
52. samples Psst... you don’t actually need “in_thread do ... end” for this to work Tuesday, 10 June 14
53. samples You can also use any .wav file that’s available via a local filepath Tuesday, 10 June 14
54. Outline on teaching programming audio synthesis 101 tour of SonicPi Dubstep Tuesday, 10 June 14
55. DUBSTEP Tuesday, 10 June 14
56. DUBSTEP Wobble bass 6/4 rhythms Funky hi-hats Samples Tuesday, 10 June 14
57. demo + dojo Tuesday, 10 June 14
58. for people just viewing slides I’m linking to gists of all my examples recreating the thx deep note in 30 lines: https:// gist.github.com/xavriley/418f8283af2fbe95fc90 Funky drummer: https://gist.github.com/xavriley/ dd6b61c24c3aed28c892 ASCII Drum tab player: https://gist.github.com/xavriley/ cdacb93dc127eafd1f16 Wobble bass: https://gist.github.com/xavriley/ 92dbba5de1c78177c33d Auto dubstep: https://gist.github.com/xavriley/ 71b255775829b486249b Tuesday, 10 June 14
59. Outline on teaching programming audio synthesis 101 tour of SonicPi Dubstep Tuesday, 10 June 14
60. See also Overtone (Clojure) SuperCollider Max MSP / Ableton Tuesday, 10 June 14
61. Conclusion teach! github! make tunes! Tuesday, 10 June 14
62. THANKS! feedback/questions to @xavriley Tuesday, 10 June 14