Life, Audio, and Computers According to Richard

A change

2011-04-07T20:08:00.001+01:00

Well here we are back again full circle again. I recently gained the perfect job for me but have lost it so now I'm back where I was 6 months ago. So I've had to think things through and I've decided to try something different. I'm giving audio development stuff a rest indefinitely for the time being and I've decided I'm going to take the time to learn Linux. Now this is a big change for me as I love windows and a lot of tools that are windows only, but I now feel like I'd like to learn something new and maybe pitch in help eventually when i'm not too noobish. So I've got Ubuntu loaded on my laptop and I must say I'm quite loving it. The new Natty is quite good if completely different to previous versions thanks to Unity. I think I'll stick with it for the time being as I have a feeling some of the shortcomings will eventually be fixed in later versions.
Anyway maybe I'll do something audio based for linux or I might even try doing something with 3D like opengl and just make something that hopefully looks cool.

My New VST Plugin Site

2010-08-17T19:31:00.000+01:00

Hi there I know it's been a long time since the last update on here but I've been busy. The fruits of my labour can now be seen by following the link. I've finally released my first public VST which is called BoomComb. It is a MIDI tuneable comb filter VST effect, so go check it out for yourselves.

Anyway I'll still keep this blog up and will consider maybe writing stuff in it such as random thoughts that may pass through my mind.

A Basic Sine Oscillator

2009-11-05T19:34:00.001Z

I’ve decided to do my first technical post. I recently joined Google Wave and started a new wave for people to put up snippets of code to do with music DSP. Currently Google Wave is invite only, so to make sure other people don’t miss out what goes on there I decided to post it on my blog.

Below you will find the code for a basic sine Oscillator. This class could be used to generate more complex waveforms through use of Fourier. Of course running many of these Oscillators at the audio rate is not a good idea as most likely the CPU would not be able to handle it. A better way of generating more complex waveforms would be to use a bandlimited mip mapped wavetable.

One thing to Note with this class is that the process function works sample by sample and this is not recommended. A better way of doing it would be to receive a block of samples in process and store the output in there. But I will leave that for the reader to work out ;).

// Oscillator.h
// A basic Class for generating a sine
#include <cmath>

class Oscillator
{
    private:
        float SampleRate_;
        float Freq_;
        float Phase_;
        float PhaseInc_;

    public:
        Oscillator();
        static const float PI;
        void SetFrequency(float freq);
        void SetSampleRate(float sampleRate);
        float Process();
};

// Oscillator.cpp
// Main implementation of Oscillator

#include "Sine.h"
#include <cmath>

const float Oscillator::PI = 4.f * atanf(1.f);

Oscillator::Oscillator()
{
    SampleRate_ = 44100.f;
    Phase_ = 0;
    SetFrequency(440.f);
}

void Oscillator::SetSampleRate(float sampleRate)
{
    SampleRate_ = sampleRate;
    SetFrequency(Freq_);
}

void Oscillator::SetFrequency(float freq)

{
    Freq_ = freq;
    PhaseInc_ = 2.f * PI * Freq_ / SampleRate_;
}

float Oscillator::Process()
{
    // Get the current output for the current phase
    float out = sinf(Phase_);

    // Increment our phase
    Phase_ += PhaseInc_;

    // Make sure it hasn't gone too far
    if (Phase_ > 2.f * PI)
        Phase_ -= 2.f * PI;

    return out;
}

The code below is how the class can be used. The image at the top shows what our sine looks like. In the picture I have only shown one period of the waveform. If you wish to work out how many samples are in period at a certain sample rate then this simple formula can be used:-

sample period = SampleRate / Frequency ∴ 44100 / 1000 = 44.1 samples

// Main.cpp
// This code is for testing the Oscillator class

#include "Oscillator.h"
#include <fstream>

int main()
{
    Oscillator osc;
    osc.SetFrequency(1000.f);
    std::ofstream outFile("c:\\Temp\\SineTest.txt");
    // Always make sure you check the file you are opening is safe :D
    
    float sin[1024];
    
    for (int i = 0; i < 1024; i++)
        sin[i] = osc.Process();

    for (int i = 0; i < 1024; i++)
        outFile << sin[i] << std::endl;
    
    outFile.close();

    return 0;
}

I hope this has been useful and if so please leave a comment or any feedback. If your confused about anything please get in touch and I will try and help.

LastGraph

2009-10-30T13:45:00.002Z

Found this interesting site called Lastgraph that allows you to graph your listening habits from last.fm. As you may or may not know about me I'm big into last.fm. It's a great website for discovering new music. Thanks to it I've discovered so much new music that I probably would never have listened to without. Stuff such as the Junior Boys that upon first glance they tick all the boxes of something I should hate, yet are actually really good!

Unyaffs Windows Binary

2009-10-26T23:38:00.001Z

I recently got an Android phone, specifically the Samsung i7500. While playing around with editing the android system and playing with custom android ROMs, I noticed that Android uses IMG files which have their contents stored as YAFFS. To extract the contents of these files you have to use UNYAFFS. The trouble is this program needs to be compiled for windows. So to make life a little easier I thought I’d try and save everyone the trouble.

To get it click here.

To use the program extract the RAR file somewhere. Open up a command prompt at that location and type:-

unyaffs <image_file_name>

And on another front. I know this site doesn’t get updated much but fear not I am diligently working away on these VST plugins. But I only want to get them out in the open when they are ready. I will try and post some stuff on here soon ;)

Graduation

2009-07-22T09:58:00.002+01:00

Well that time finally came as I graduated on the 16th of July. After all these years I’m now being released into the real world. So I thought I’d share some of the pictures from graduation with the world out there.

The day was really nice. There was a ceremony where we got to shake the deans hand and all that. After that there was a reception where there was free food and drink. I really wanted to get as much out of that as possible but didn’t really sadly :).

Anyway I’ve now finally qualified for a Bsc Music Technology Software Development. And hopefully in the future you’ll see my work in some VST plugin companies such as fxPansion or even Izotope plugins :D. Anyway who knows what the future holds for me.

ps. Yes I do know my tie is wrong in some of the pictures :P

Nord Lead 2 Rack Take Apart

2009-06-30T23:04:00.002+01:00

Last night I decided to take apart my Nord Lead 2 synthesizer so that I could give it a clean. As I was taking it apart I decided that it would be a good idea to get pictures of it naked, as I know how much everyone likes looking at circuits.

If your curious about the main specs of the Nord Lead 2 I would recommend having a look at them at Planet Groove.

Here is the main outputs of the synth. Starting on the very left there is a PCMCIA slot for adding more storage so that more patches can be stored. Next along we have the usual MIDI in and out ports. The next 2 1/4 inch jack inputs are for a sustain and control pedal. After these 2 inputs we have 4 outputs that are used to output for each of the 4 voices as the Nord Lead 2 is 4 part multitimbral.

Once the screws were loosened the top cover could be slid off to reveal the main circuitry which is made up of a power supply convertor and another section that is for the synthesis and other DSP.

Above can be seen the main circuitry for the power supply.

Above can be seen the main synthesis circuitry. You can see the slot for the PCMCIA on the right. The ribbon controller at the bottom is connected to all the pots on the front panel of the Nord. Just above the ribbon controller is a marked chip which stores the firmware. This can be replaced is it is a DIL package.

The picture above shows the back of the front panel and the Potentiometers that are connected to the front for knob twiddling. The ribbon controller can be seen that was mentioned earlier.

Once the screws that attach the input circuitry to the front panel have been removed You can then see all the chips and switches that are part of the front. Most likely these chips are for multiplexing the controls.

Well I hope you enjoyed this. I’m sorry if some of the pictures are a little fuzzy or have a flash in them but I have a rubbish camera. Anyway thanks for looking at this. Until the next time ;)

VST Effect Template

2009-06-23T16:25:00.003+01:00

I have decided to put my VST Effect template out there for people to use as I know how hard it is to get started in doing this kind of stuff. Anyway this is just a starting point for creating a VST effect and is based on the Steinberg Again example but with some modifications. The template is for use in Visual Studio 2008.

One thing to note with this is the VST SDK 2.4 is not provided due to the licence (Now we don’t want me getting sued by Steinberg now do we :D).

To get the template working follow these steps:-

Go to the Steinberg 3rd party developer page and select the 2.4 VST SDK. You’ll have to make an account with them.
Download my template and unrar it.
Open the Steinberg Zip file and copy the folder vstsdk2.4 to \VST Effect Template\VST Template
Open project and get playing

To obtain my Template go ***Here***

I hope to soon put up some more articles on DSP soon and more source. I will also put up the VSTi and VSTGUI template projects as soon as I clean up the current ones I use.

General Update On Projects

2009-05-29T13:04:00.002+01:00

(Picture Unrelated)

Ok now with the release of simpleSID there is still lots to be done to it. But there are also other projects that needs my time. So I’ve decide that it would be best if I could integrate simpleSID with my other projects.

You may be wondering what these other project could be, well… As can be seen from my past posts I also dabble in a little VST programming so I’ve decided to make a VST that use’s a model of the 6581 filter as a starting point. I’ll release the results of this when it’s ready.

Another project that needs to be addressed is taking simpleSID and implementing it as a VST but with some added features. These ideas are being sketched out at the moment, and of course simpleSID needs a huge code clear out first. If anyone has anything they want to see in a SID VST don’t hesitate to contact me.

So don’t despair people I'm still working away but now with University out the way updates shall be more often.

simpleSID Released

2009-05-11T16:30:00.002+01:00

The time has finally come as I have decided to release my Dissertation onto the internet under a GNU general public license v2. This was created at the University of Huddersfield as I was curious about how emulations worked and wanted to try my hand at creating one.

Its called simpleSID and is a cycle based emulation of the 8580 SID chip. I have not dealt with the 6581 as there are some interesting characteristics of that chip that make it hard to model.

You can download the source over at the simpleSID google code page. So go ahead and have a look at the code. It also contains a GUI application built with MFC used for testing and is useful for someone interested in experimenting with the SID and discovering how it works. Also I must express that this is very beta software so you have been warned.

Here is some preview sounds so you can get to hear it. They are just the basic waveforms the SID emulation generates.

Samples

simpleSID

My First VST Synthesizer

2009-03-23T17:46:00.002Z

Today I finished my first VST instrument with a GUI. It is for an assignment for University so it is not the most practical. Above you can see a screenshot of what it look like (don’t laugh). The plug was made using C++ and the oscillator is based around a wavetable. The filter is a 12dB/Oct State Variable filter. The envelopes also have exponential decays to model the sound of some Analog Synths. If anyone wants to try it give me a buzz in the comments below and I'll send you a copy to play with. I warn that this is very early software so it is not optimised in anyway.

Update:

As the GUI was a little sucky I changed the knobs and some of buttons to make it look nice :)

I’ve decided to let this out into the wild to see what people think and to find out what problems might exist. And I'll work on improving this such as adding new features. If anyone wants to see something added just give us a buzz and i’ll see what i can do.

Just click ~~here~~ to try it

I have removed as on further testing there are some horrible GUI bugs and other minor bugs so I have decided to take off. That will teach me as a developer to always make sure I test test and test some more. I am now working on something new which started from some of the initial ideas of this which is looking to be a lot better. And as soon as it’s ready I’ll put it here for some of you ;).

SID Emulation Update

2009-03-13T13:17:00.004Z

Hello everyone sorry to have not blogged in ages its just that I got engulfed in the workload. Anyway I am not dead and have been working very hard on my SID emulation which I have just about finished. I have based it around the PAL version of a 8580 as that was the easiest to get working and also because the 6581 has some interesting peculiarities due to some of the hacks Bob Yannes did.
The emulation I have created is only cycle based for the time being so it clocks for so may cycles then renders that sample. It uses linear interpolation if it has to go a sample between clock cycles it can work out the value.Now I release this is not ideal but it works. So sinc resampling is on my todo list as this would be ideal way of dealing with the output of the SID.

Above you can see a teaser screenshot of the GUI for testing purposed. As soon as I iron out some of the bugs I'll post it up on here for people to play with for learning purposes. I'll also provide the source but I'll look into that a little later.

Press Play on Tape: Retro Action

2009-01-21T17:48:00.002Z

Found this little beauty from the incredible Press Play on Tape C64 cover band. These guys in the past have done covers of Martin Galway’s Comic Bakery and the classic Monkey Island theme tune. In this video they have mixed some of my favourite things such as retro computers and scantily clad women. Enjoy my friends :D

Thanks to C64Glen for this.

C64 Take Apart

2009-01-11T14:46:00.020Z

Its finally come my post with the take apart of the Commodore 64. This is the C64C that I got off of Ebay. Its not as cool as the original breadbox one, but when I next have some money might just get my hands on one and do a take apart of it. The commodore is one of my favourite computers. For my dissertation I am working on creating on emulation of the sound chip of the C64 and this take apart will show that chip and the other parts that make up the C64 for all you techno geeks and cyberpunks out there. Before we start I must apologize for the glare in the pictures its just that I have a rubbish digital camera but I don't think it obstructs the picture so I have decided to continue with it.

On the side of the C64 we have to control ports used for connecting a joysticks or even a mouse that could be used with the GEOS operating system which was a GUI OS for the C64. We also have on the side a power switch and a din plug used for supplying power.

On the back of the machine starting from left to right we first have the cartridge slot that allows the C64 to be expanded and they also used make game cartridges. The switch next to this is used to select which TV channel is used. Next to the switch we have a DIN connector that allows the machine to output audio and a composite video signal. This connector also can also be used to input audio into the SID chip which is very important for my project. Next the AV DIN we have another DIN which is a serial port used to communicate with printers or disk drives. After the DIN we have a rectangular slot that is used to connect the commodore cassette unit to the machine. And the final connector on the back is a User Port connector that allows the C64 to communicate with various devices such as a VICMODEM. I currently have sourced connectors that fit this slot and am working on creating a PC64 cable and a RS232 cable. The creation of these will be next blog posts.

On the back of the machine we have screws that once are unscrewed we can then take off the top case. The top case has a power connector for the power LED's on the front of the case.
Underneath the keyboard we have a dusty cardboard electro magnetic shield used to protect the main electronic circuitry of the C64. The keyboard rests on 2 metal stands so the keyboard does not lay on the bottom case.

Once the keyboard is removed and the ribbon controller for the keyboard is disconnected and the main board is unscrewed from the bottom case we are left with this, the main “motherboard” of the C64.

The chip that is in the centre of this
picture is the SID chip. This little chip is a 3 voice synthesizer capable of 4 types of waveforms for each voice and was used for sound effects and music. If your curious about how this sounds go on over to the High Voltage SID collection and download the collection. To play the files you will need a suitable player such as Sidplay or if you are on OS X try Sidplay OS X. I would recommend listening to Rob Hubbard or Martin Galway's tunes as these guys are some of the best C64 composers if not the best? The SID in this machine is labelled as a 8580R5 which means that it is one of the newer chips.

To the left of the SID chip is a chip labelled 8565R2. This chip is the VIC-II. The version in my machine is a PAL version and is a HMOS-II version. The VIC is responsible for the graphics and sprites. Some SID tunes are also done on an interrupt caused by the VIC chip when it refreshes a certain pixel. This interrupt is called a raster interrupt. And when this happens calls the play routine for the SID tune.

The chip on the right that is labelled 6526A is used to communicate with serial ports such as the user port plug on the back of the machine and input from the keyboard. It is a CIA chip and also has a timer on board.

The image above is zoomed up from the SID chip so you can see on the left the 2 din connecters that were described earlier on the back of the machine. Next to the DIN connector we have a RF modulator that will mix audio and video signals by modulating them together so they can be output on a aerial lead for output to a television. Next to this we then have the cartridge expander port. Back in the day you could by cartridges that would fit onto here and could contain games or could even contain a Machine Code Monitor which would allow you to view memory locations and disassemble them or assemble commands at memory locations.

The chip in the centre of this picture which is labelled 8500 is the CPU of the C64. This chip has been manufactured using the HMOS process. The CPU is clocked at a speed 1Mhz and the official name of this CPU is the 6510. The 6510 uses the same instruction set as the 6502 but the only difference is the the 6510 has an 8bit general purpose input output port which was used to bank switch the memory mapped input output. In the C64 each chip is allocated an address on the address bus. But because the CPU can only access 16bits which means 65536 bytes this meant that the input output devices had to be mapped against memory locations. Because of this the 6510 CPU allows bank switching so as to switch a bank between memory or input output devices.

Well I hopped you enjoyed my short tour of the C64. As you can see the machine was quite an amazing machine and some people are still writing software and demos for this machine pushing it to the limits.

If you have the time or see anything wrong with this article please send me feedback on it so I can continually improve it. That’s it for now until next time ;)

Whats Going On?

2009-01-06T19:43:00.003Z

Hey up everyone. I know its been a little while since I did an update and that is because of the work load I have been under so while I have some spare time I've decided to give you guys an update on what's happening before the real work starts again. Well these have been the most difficult days of my life ever, even worse than failing last year. I recently some thieving bastards have gone and burgled my house up at University. They broke a window at the back of the house and then got in through there. From there they got one of the fire extinguishers in the hallway and preceded to break my bedroom door down. They managed to breakdown the door and get in my room. They then took my TV, Playstation 3 + Games, Computer, and monitor. They also completely trashed my room and ransacked all my draws and bags. Not only did they steal that stuff they also stole some of my clothes such as my favourite hoodies' such as the one I got in Germany at the Full Moon Festival. They did all of this over the Christmas period so suffice to say it sucked the Christmas spirit out of me. But luckily I have some good friends and family that have been a tremendous amount of support and would like to thank the following people for helping me in no particular order Mum, Grandma, Ravepants, Tombob, and Marcus Lee. The damage has been done and I've lost a lot of years work that is irreplaceable but luckily thanks to the help of my Grandma I have a new on the way that looks to be pretty good as it is being built for audio. It is a shame that I am not building it but I do not have the time at the moment to do it.

I also found the Christmas and new years very stressful due to all of this and pushed things to far with drugs due to the depression of it all. Drugs have a way of accentuating the worst characteristics of a person and this time it really showed as I am the first to admit I'm not the most calm, sensible, and Normal person. It really put things in perspective and shows that now I have experienced and understood drugs its time to move on as it is not a way forward.
Anyways this is a setback to my work but I will not let it destroy me and I will succeed as the goal is so close and life will start to come together for me however crazzy looking it is right now I just have to have faith.

I am soon to start building a PC64 cable that I can use to upload C64 binaries from my PC to the memory of the C64. In the new year I will upload details of how I built this cable along with pictures. I also promise to start blogging my research on the Commodore 64 SID chip for all my readers. As soon as I get back to University I got a blog post lined up and all it needs is to take some hardware Pr0n pictures to go with it but you guys will see when it comes as it is a secret for now
New Year is going to be good! In the words of that classic 80's band Yazz "The only way is up. Baby!"
Richard White PLUR (Peace Love Unity Respect)

New Look

2008-12-13T00:40:00.003Z

Just having a redesign and updating the blogger theme. In the next few days there should be minor changes but I think i'm going to settle on this theme for the time being. Anyway I have setup a new myspace page which is just for me. The old myspace page is still there but it is an artist page dedicated to my old breakcore project Chid(who might come back one day!).
Some small bit news is that i'm on the last bit of the term before going back for christmas. Just have to finish my electronics assignment by monday. Anyways as soon as i'm home I am going to publish some of my research on the commodore 64 SID chip. And as soon as I have a working build ready i'll post it up on here for people to try. And while on the subject of the software build I think it'll be windows only but we'll see as it would be ace for there to be an os x build.
Anyways wish me luck for the rest of the term as there is still a lot of work to do.

Test

2008-11-25T09:50:00.005Z

Ok I'm writing this post before I go off and do my creative programming test. The test is on the audio programming language called Reaktor. Luckily I did do this test last year so I am hoping it is not to different. I really should not be doing this test cause I did do it last year but I'm going to see if I can get away with it!
Anyway I am really hoping this will go fine but you know how it is with tests they can bring out the nerves.
This weekend was very special for me as I was host to all my friends from home. It was a marvelous weekend of craziness and non stop psychedelic trance that everyone found too intense except me. It was great to see all lmy friends again before we all split up again untill the next time we can meet. My friend Jimmy is going to work in the swiss alps in France and Bryn is going back to uni in Norwhich. Michael is left in Northampton but I feel he is getting restless with his job and wants a change.
Having them all up reminded me just how homesick a really am. Usually with being at uni I feel homesick near the start. This year it has taken me ages to feel homesick. Now I am very much looking forward to the christmas holidays where I will get to see me good old mucker ravepants again. Well I guess there is not to long to wait, and my Birthday is nearby!
Anyway I must now depart for a test and hopefully I should do better than last year!

Poster Presentation

2008-11-24T11:36:00.006Z

Today have sent of my poster for printing. The poster is for my Dissertation as we have a poster presentation where our poster will explain what our Dissertation is about. We then have to stand in front of our poster at the exhibition and then talk about it if anyone is interested.
My Dissertation is about the Commodore 64 SID chip. I am going to make a software recreation of this legendary sound synthesis chip. If your interested in seeing my poster please click the title link above to download. The file is in PDF so you will only need adobe reader or preview.
I would like to give a big thanks to Barrie to giving his free time helping me create this as he does graphic design for a job and would help me straight away after work and continue doing this stuff.
Next week I will post up some of my reserach about the SID chip

Hard Drive Rotary Controller

2008-11-13T20:26:00.001Z

HDDJ: hard drive as rotary input - Hack a Day

over on the hackaday blog found an interesting controller that they have been working on. It is an old hard drive that has been chaged into a controller. Now imagine if they got this fed into some sort of audio scrubber, now that would be cool. Imagine the look on the audiences face when they see you scratching on a hard drive plate. Its just uber geek DJ.

The Stribe

2008-11-13T14:52:00.004Z

I found this very interesting controller that could could be used for a midi controller. It is a crossbetween a LED bargrapgh and ribbon controller. Kinda reminds me of the controls that would be in a futuristic spaceship.
You can buy a kit of one of these but at the moment I don't have the time to build one, what with my Dissertation. Still I think this has gotta be one of the coolest controllers i've seen.

the stribe
a unique midi controller

tags: midi, controller

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Recompile of foo_g15lcd

2008-11-12T16:54:00.002Z

I am huge fan of Foobar with its many plug-ins that allow you to extend the program into anything you could imagine. I use Foobar and also have a Logitech G15 keyboard. This keyboard features a LCD screen. The screen is very useful for displaying current track information. I have a plug-in for Foobar that makes use of this display but the author has not updated the plug-in to use the latest SDK. Luckily the author has open sourced this so I was then able to recompile it against the latest SDK. the recompiled version can be found here

the original Hydrogenaudio thread is also worth a read as well.