i didn't think of sending my reply to jim's email to the pdlist

also, so i'm doing it now.

                         scott

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 13:48:51 -0800 (PST) From: J. Scott Hildebrand jscotth@mailbox.ucdavis.edu To: Jim Aikin midiguru23@sbcglobal.net Subject: Re: [PD] PD 4 EM

 Hey Jim! I'll write some responses after each question.

On Thu, 20 Feb 2003, Jim Aikin wrote:

I've been assigned to write a feature on Pd for an upcoming issue of Electronic Musician. This will be mainly introductory -- letting people know that Pd exists, what it can do, what it's like to work with it, etc.

The feature will be much stronger if I have some input from folks in the Pd user community. If you have 30 seconds, I'd love to get some feedback or commentary on the following points:

1. What do you use Pd for? Have you used it in any performances or

recordings you'd like others to know about?

 I'm doing spatial audio research at UC Davis in California. I'm an

undergraduate student studying music and computer science. Pd is an environment that invites art and technology to come together, but it's a STEEP learning curve and might not be accessable to the non-tech-savvy. It's a very useful programming environment for me because it's open-source, low-latency, real-time, and graphical as much as it can be. I do a lot of programming "under the hood" but all of the control knobs/sliders are all built in... so is all of the audio in/out. The project I'm specifically working on utilizes HRTFs (Head Related Transfer Functions), convolution, and headtracking to spatialize and move around a sound in 3-D space.

2. Are there musical tasks that you feel Pd is *not* especially well

suited for? What are they? Are there limitations you're hoping will be addressed in future updates?

 I think that as a synthesis program, it could be a bit more

attractive. Maybe modeling it a bit after Native Instruments' Reaktor would be a good thing, and maybe make it a little easier for purely artist-type people to get involved.

3. What are your favorite online resources for learning Pd and/or

extending it?

http://iem.kug.ac.at/mailinglists/pd-list/ http://www-crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/Pd_documentation/index.htm http://iem.kug.ac.at/pd/externals-HOWTO/ http://iem.kug.ac.at/pd/

                         -Scott Hildebrand
                          UC Davis, CIPIC Interface Lab

Thanks in advance for any and all responses. I can't promise to quote you directly in the article, but your feedback will be incredibly useful.

--Jim Aikin

---

PD-list mailing list PD-list@iem.kug.ac.at http://iem.kug.ac.at/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pd-list

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981