[Csnd] New ambient piece using wavetable synthesis (tabmorphak) & a few other examples/links

The Csound Mailinglist
1

https://soundcloud.com/st-csound/arimatheegaeve-on-the-edge

Description: …on the edge, this algorithmic piece attempts to balance between ambient music and something that could fall dangerously out of control at any moment.

Created in Csound using a single wavetable instrument that utilizes 100 waveforms & a crude but fairly effective spectral delay.

On my main page profile page below there’s a few other relatively new files as well, some other short wavetable examples that use the same instr but different wavetable sets. Plus a short Padsynth example that uses three different timbres created using the padsynth GEN opcode - some bar chimes, a lush pad & some other bell like sounds.

I’m also trying to start making some simple opcode examples available thru my github page, maybe help some other newbies like me get their feet wet.

https://github.com/ST-Music

It’s a bit of a mess, I’m new to this. For now you can find some things under csound-examples, main, branches.

Best,
Scott

ST Music
https://soundcloud.com/st-csound
https://soundcloud.com/stoons-1

https://youtube.com/channel/UCGhwmkS1uWmX6mhTIQ0IDsg

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2

Hey Scott!

Great!

Can you share your Code? I’m interestet how you create this huge amount of Wavetables. Always thought about diving deeper in the wavtable synthesize department of csound but i never knew how to create these table in a systematic and convenient way.

Best,
Philipp

3

Hi again Philipp, hope all is well with you.

First, thanks again for sharing the soundscape code, got me starting to look into using arrays and the use of the directory opcode. Very useful. And in part led me into finding a reasonable way to load all the waveforms for a wavetable.

I know you’re familiar with Csound but for the benefit of anyone else who reads this:

I realized that arrays were going to be difficult for wavetables but fortunately came across ftsamplebank:
https://csound.com/docs/manual/ftsamplebank.html

tabmorpha or tabmorphak seem to work well for this task. They’re really flexible although in some respects the manual example didn’t really explain to me, clearly, just how versatile they are (unlike many, for me some technical explanations take time & practical use to sink in) so I put up a few examples on github that may help others put the weightpoint, ktabnum1 & ktabnum2 pieces together.

https://github.com/ST-Music/csound-examples/tree/tabmorphak

There’s a few basic examples there that attempt to partially explain those parameters, as well as a basic wavetable template that can load 100 waveforms. If there are less in the directory, then those table numbers have to be deleted or commented out from the tabmorphak parameters or there will be errors (table not found).

There are some nice single sample waveforms here to get started:

https://www.adventurekid.se/akrt/waveforms/adventure-kid-waveforms/

If anyone comes across other good resources please let me know =)

The template just basically runs thru the wavetable from the first to last waveform, but I’d definitely recommend that anyone interested in this idea digs a little deeper into the weightpoint, ktabnum1 & ktabnum2 parameters.

Questions or comments always welcome.

Best,
Scott

ST Music
https://soundcloud.com/st-csound
https://soundcloud.com/stoons-1

https://youtube.com/channel/UCGhwmkS1uWmX6mhTIQ0IDsg

4

Hi Scott,
this is a nice piece! Great usae of the wavetable oscillator and the delay! I was surprised not to hear a piece awash with lush, morphing textures. Good on you, for showing that wavetable synthesis has more to offer than that.

Best wishes and thanks for shariing,

Jeanette

Apr 8 2023, ST Music has written:

5

Hey Scott, I just listened to the thing on SoundCloud.

I like your approach. I would be interested to see the code for the whole piece on SoundCloud, or did you assemble sounds created in Csound using a DAW?

Best,
Mike

6

Hi Michael, glad you liked it & thanks for listening. I sent you a copy.

As you can see it was all all done and rendered as a whole in Csound. I did load the rendered audio in Roland Zentracker for Android to add some bus compression & a bit of eq but that’s it.

While the compress2 opcode is quite good I didn’t feel like bothering with it, much easier in a DAW with a graphical interface so you can see what the compressor is doing & adjust accordingly.

As you probably know part of the trick with these randomized algorithmic pieces is just rendering a few times till you get a take you like. That’s where the monitor/fout instr is handy, so you can just stop rendering if it isn’t going in the direction you’d like.

Best,

Scott

7

Thanks as always, Jeanette.

Well, there was a tiny bit of the good old wavetable pad thing there but just a single low note at a time, didn’t want it too invasive. To me added a nice touch though, often just a deep almost sine rumble & others creeping forward with some saw like washes with a little bit of a noise quality. Took a few renderings, sometimes the pad completely took over & had a mind of its own =)

Best wishes & good luck with the competition this week!

Scott