Hi
Learning PD (Pure Data) is a steep learning curve, but a rewarding one. However...
I have been working for three years on an interactive music system, which analyses incoming audio and re-synthesises phrases of the audio stream according to similarities in the parametric analysis of the audio. When approaching PD I already had a background in MAX/Msp programming, and so thought that PD would enable me to create software with the same flexibility as MAX patches but without the commercial investment. As a student this was very important, but as a believer that my patches might bring about new tools for, and ways of thinking about interactive performance this became doubly important.
After three years I have not published a single patch. I'll tell you why.
Without documentation a patch can be frustrating to use, especially if it contains multiple abstractions (sub-patches which are called from within a "master" patch). Very few of us are so financially enamoured (rich) to have the time to create such documentation or so philanphropic, and the creative process within such a flexible working environment is such that ideas frequently overtake the realisation of such ideas. Furthermore, my patches make use of many externals. Some of these are muli-platform, but others are not. Windows and OSX users (for example) will find that my patches do not work because the ggee library has not been ported to Windows! (Gunther, this would be a good thing!)
PD as a multi-platform application invites diversity of development amongst the community of users, who make everything from routing systems to music to multimedia and graphics with it. The lack of a common "clique mentality" (such as exists within the Apple Macintosh community, particularly with regards to MAX/Msp) can inhibit the sharing of source information (patches), yet in another more profound way it encourages this by being platform-independent and open-source. How many MAX/Msp sites contain source code (patches)? MAX/Msp allows the user to make an app out of his or her patch, thus making any abstractions or uses of objects unusable to the one who downloads this software. People are protective of their ideas, especially in a global media network such as the internet! Does open source mean open access to all? There are lots of issues with regard to this which extend far beyond the PD-user community, and the debate goes on!
I'm a french guy, I would like to participate on the possible translation
of PD
documentation in French, Do you think it will be happened?
ja kan prata en liten svenska, mais je voudrais a (speak) francais tres bon! Do it!
I'm working on an interactive (sensors convert to midi) sampler with PD, I
will
put it on the web. If anyone is working about the same idea, may be we can give ourself some
stuff.
I've made a modification of the pitch-shifter engine (pd documentation) combined with a playback engine, so that we can do any sample at any pitch with any timestretch parameter. I'll put it on my site when my site is up and running (sorry I can't do better right now!).
Best, Ed