NYQUIST REFERENCE MANUAL Version 3.09 Copyright 2013 by Roger B. Dannenberg 27 December 2014 Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science Pittsburgh, PA 15213, U.S.A. . Preface This manual is a guide for users of Nyquist, a language for composition and sound synthesis. Nyquist grew out of a series of research projects, notably the languages Arctic and Canon. Along with Nyquist, these languages promote a functional style of programming and incorporate time into the language semantics. Please help by noting any errors, omissions, or suggestions you may have. You can send your suggestions to Dannenberg@CS.CMU.EDU (internet) via computer mail, or by campus mail to Roger B. Dannenberg, School of Computer Science, or by ordinary mail to Roger B. Dannenberg, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890, USA. Nyquist is a successor to Fugue, a language originally implemented by Chris Fraley, and extended by George Polly and Roger Dannenberg. Peter Velikonja and Dean Rubine were early users, and they proved the value as well as discovered some early problems of the system. This led to Nyquist, a reimplementation of Fugue by Roger Dannenberg with help from Joe Newcomer and Cliff Mercer. Ning Hu ported Zheng (Geoffrey) Hua and Jim Beauchamp's piano synthesizer to Nyquist and also built NyqIDE, the Nyquist Integrated Development Environment for Windows. Dave Mowatt contributed the original version of NyquistIDE, the cross-platform interactive development environment. Dominic Mazzoni made a special version of Nyquist that runs within the Audacity audio editor, giving Nyquist a new interface and introducing Nyquist to many new users. Many others have since contributed to Nyquist. Chris Tchou and Morgan Green worked on the Windows port. Eli Brandt contributed a number of filters and other synthesis functions. Pedro J. Morales, Eduardo Reck Miranda, Ann Lewis, and Erich Neuwirth have all contributed nyquist examples found in the demos folder of the Nyquist distribution. Philip Yam ported some synthesis functions from Perry Cook and Gary Scavone's STK to Nyquist. Pedro Morales ported many more STK instruments to Nyquist. Dave Borel wrote the Dolby Pro-Logic encoding library and Adam Hartman wrote stereo and spatialization effects. Stephen Mangiat wrote the MiniMoog emulator. Phil Light recorded the drum samples and wrote drum machine software. The Xmusic library, particularly the pattern specification, was inspired by Rick Taube's Common Music. The functions for generating probability distributions were implemented by Andreas Pfenning. Starting with Version 3, Nyquist supports a version of SAL, providing an alternative to Lisp syntax. SAL was designed by Rick Taube, and the SAL implementation in Nyquist is based on Taube's original implementation as part of his Common Music system. The current NyquistIDE includes contributions from many. Chris Yealy and Derek D'Souza implemented early versions of the envelope editor. Daren Makuck and Michael Rivera wrote the original equalizer editor. Priyanka Raghavan implemented the sound browser. Dmitry Portnoy wrote the original "UPIC" editor. Many others have made contributions, offered suggestions, and found bugs. If you were expecting to find your name here, I apologize for the omission, and please let me know. I also wish to acknowledge support from CMU, Yamaha, and IBM for this work. . 1. Introduction and Overview Nyquist is a language for sound synthesis and music composition. Unlike score languages that tend to deal only with events, or signal processing languages that tend to deal only with signals and synthesis, Nyquist handles both in a single integrated system. Nyquist is also flexible and easy to use because it is based on an interactive Lisp interpreter. With Nyquist, you can design instruments by combining functions (much as you would using the orchestra languages of Music V, cmusic, or Csound). You can call upon these instruments and generate a sound just by typing a simple expression. You can combine simple expressions into complex ones to create a whole composition. Nyquist runs under Linux, Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows NT, 2000, XP, and Vista, and it produces sound files or directly generates audio. Recent versions have also run on AIX, NeXT, SGI, DEC pmax, and Sun Sparc machines. (Makefiles for many of these are included, but out-of-date). Let me know if you have problems with any of these machines. To use Nyquist, you should have a basic knowledge of Lisp. An excellent text by Touretzky is recommended [Touretzky 84]. Appendix IV is the reference manual for XLISP, of which Nyquist is a superset. Starting with Version 3, Nyquist supports a variant of SAL, which is also available in Common Music. Since there are some differences, one should generally call this implementation ``Nyquist SAL;'' however, in this manual, I will just call it ``SAL.'' SAL offers most of the capabilities of Lisp, but it uses an Algol-like syntax that may be more familiar to programmers with experience in Java, C, Basic, etc. 1.1. Installation Nyquist is a C++ program intended to run under various operating systems including Unix, Mac OS X, and Windows. Nyquist is based on Lisp, but it includes its own Lisp interpreter (a modified version of XLISP), so you do not need to install some other Lisp to run Nyquist. Other Lisp systems are not compatible with Nyquist. Most Nyquist users run Nyquist under the Nyquist IDE, which is written in Java and depends on the Java runtime system. Most systems already have Java, but if you do not, you will need to install it. When you install the Nyquist IDE, you will automatically get Nyquist and a set of runtime libraries. There are generally two ways to install Nyquist: - Get a pre-compiled version of the Nyquist IDE for Windows or Mac OS X. The Windows version comes packaged in an installer that installs and configures the Nyquist IDE. The Mac OS X version unpacks to a complete OS X application. - Compile from sources. There is one set of sources for Mac, Windows, and Unix. Instructions for building applications from the sources are provided in the files sys/win/README.txt, sys/mac/README.txt, and sys/unix/README.txt. You can download source code and precompiled versions from the Nyquist project on SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/projects/nyquist). The latest source code can be obtained via Subversion (svn) using the following: svn co svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/nyquist/code/trunk/nyquist nyquist or by checking out nyquist using a graphical interface svn client such as TortoiseSVN for Windows. 1.1.1. Troubleshooting All versions of Nyquist includes a Readme.txt file with additional information. Additional information and instructions on installation can be found in: - sys/win/README.txt - sys/mac/README.txt - sys/unix/README.txt 1.2. Using NyquistIDE The program named NyquistIDE is an ``integrated development environment'' for Nyquist. When you run NyquistIDE, it starts the Nyquist program and displays all Nyquist output in a window. NyquistIDE helps you by providing a Lisp and SAL editor, hints for command completion and function parameters, some graphical interfaces for editing envelopes and graphical equalizers, and a panel of buttons for common operations. A more complete description of NyquistIDE is in Chapter 2. For now, all you really need to know is that you can enter Nyquist commands by typing into the upper left window. When you type return, the expression you typed is sent to Nyquist, and the results appear in the window below. You can edit files by clicking on the New File or Open File buttons. After editing some text, you can load the text into Nyquist by clicking the Load button. NyquistIDE always saves the file first; then it tells Nyquist to load the file. You will be prompted for a file name the first time you load a new file. 1.3. Using SAL SAL mode means that Nyquist reads and evaluates SAL commands rather than Lisp. The SAL mode prompt is "SAL> " while the Lisp mode prompt is "> ". When Nyquist starts it normally enters SAL mode automatically, but certain errors may exit SAL mode. You can reenter SAL mode by typing the Lisp expression (sal). In SAL mode, you type commands in the SAL programming language. Nyquist reads the commands, compiles them into Lisp, and evaluates the commands. Commands can be entered manually by typing into the upper left text box in NyquistIDE. 1.4. Command Line When run from the command line, Nyquist (usually the command is ny) looks for some options and some files to load. There are several options. The -Rpaths option gives Nyquist a list of paths (separated by semicolons) to directories where Nyquist is allowed to read files. Files in any subdirectories of the listed directories can also be read, along with the directories themselves. This option can be used to restrict access to files. The -Wpaths option gives Nyquist a list of paths (separated by semicolons) to directories where Nyquist is allowed to write files (including sound files). If -W is used, Nyquist will not open audio output to play sounds and will not allow access to Open Sound Control. This option can be used to protect files from accidentally malicious code. (If you are truly worried about Nyquist code, you should run Nyquist in a virtual machine or other isolated machine. It is unlikely that Nyquist is secure from all attacks.) The -Lrun-time-limit option gives Nyquist a run time limit. If the limit is exceeded, Nyquist prints an error message and exits. The time is based on actual work rather than CPU seconds or wall time. One unit of run time is on the order of 10ms of CPU time (for a medium speed computer in 2014), but you can use the GET-RUN-TIME function to read the internal run-time counter to see how much computation you have done. The -Mmemory-limit option gives Nyquist a memory limit. If the limit (in megabytes) is exceeded, Nyquist prints an error message and exits. The limit includes all XLISP data (cons cells, strings, etc.) plus sample blocks and tables allocated for signal processing. The -Ttranscript-file-name option copies console output to a transcript file. The -V option sets verbose mode. If set, any files specified on the command line to be loaded are loaded with the verbose option. Additionally, the command line can name files to be loaded. Nyquist begins by loading init.lsp, which by default is in the nyquist/runtime directory. This file loads all the standard Nyquist functions. After that, Nyquist will load any other files named on the command line. Finally, Nyquist expects to find search paths in the XLISPPATH environment variable (or for Windows, see installation instructions; the path is saved in the Windows Registry). Normally, you must set XLISPPATH for Nyquist to find init.lsp and the definitions of most Nyquist functions. Be sure you have system.lsp in nyquist/runtime. Part of the installation process copies the appropriate system.lsp from nyquist/sys/* to nyquist/runtime where it can be found and loaded by init.lsp. 1.5. Helpful Hints Under Win95 and Win98, the console sometimes locks up. Activating another window and then reactivating the Nyquist window should unlock the output. (We suggest you use JNyqIDE, the interactive development environment rather than a console window.) You can cut and paste text into Nyquist, but for serious work, you will want to use the Lisp load command. To save even more time, write a function to load your working file, e.g. (defun l () (load "myfile.lsp")). Then you can type (l) to (re)load your file. Using SAL, you can type define function l () load "myfile.lsp" and then exec l() to (re)load the file. The Emacs editor is free GNU software and will help you balance parentheses if you use Lisp mode. In fact, you can run nyquist (without the IDE) as a subprocess to Emacs. A helful discussion is at //http://www.audacity- forum.de/download/edgar/nyquist/nyquist-doc/examples/emacs/main.html. If you use Emacs, there is also a SAL mode (the file is sal-mode.el) included with the Common Music distribution, which you can find on the Web at sourceforge.net. The NyquistIDE also runs Nyquist as a subprocess and has built-in Lisp and SAL editors. If your editor does not help you balance parentheses, you may find yourself counting parens and searching for unbalanced expressions. If you are confused or desperate and using Lisp syntax, try the :print t option of the load function. By looking at the expressions printed, you should be able to tell where the last unbalanced expression starts. Alternatively, type (file-sexprs) and type the lisp file name at the prompt. This function will read and print expressions from the file, reporting an error when an extra paren or end-of-file is reached unexpectedly. 1.6. Using Lisp Lisp mode means that Nyquist reads and evaluates Nyquist expressions in Lisp syntax. Since Nyquist is build on a Lisp interpreter, this is the ``native'' or machine language of Nyquist, and certain errors and functions may break out of the SAL interpreter, leaving you with a prompt for a Lisp expression. Alternatively, you can exit SAL simply by typing exit to get a Lisp prompt (> ). Commands can be entered manually by typing into the upper left text box in NyquistIDE. 1.7. Examples We will begin with some simple Nyquist programs. Throughout the manual, we will assume SAL mode and give examples in SAL, but it should be emphasized that all of these examples can be performed using Lisp syntax. See Section 6.2 on the relationship between SAL and Lisp. Detailed explanations of the functions used in these examples will be presented in later chapters, so at this point, you should just read these examples to get a sense of how Nyquist is used and what it can do. The details will come later. Most of these examples can be found in the file nyquist/demos/examples.sal. Corresponding Lisp syntax examples are in the file nyquist/demos/examples.lsp. Our first example makes and plays a sound: ;; Making a sound. play osc(60) ; generate a loud sine wave This example is about the simplest way to create a sound with Nyquist. The osc function generates a sound using a table-lookup oscillator. There are a number of optional parameters, but the default is to compute a sinusoid with an amplitude of 1.0. The parameter 60 designates a pitch of middle C. (Pitch specification will be described in greater detail later.) The result of the osc function is a sound. To hear a sound, you must use the play command, which plays the file through the machine's D/A converters. It also writes a soundfile in case the computation cannot keep up with real time. You can then (re)play the file by typing: exec r() This (r) function is a general way to ``replay'' the last thing written by play. 15 Note: when Nyquist plays a sound, it scales the signal by 2 -1 and (by default) converts to a 16-bit integer format. A signal like (osc 60), which ranges from +1 to -1, will play as a full-scale 16-bit audio signal. 1.7.1. Waveforms Our next example will be presented in several steps. The goal is to create a sound using a wavetable consisting of several harmonics as opposed to a simple sinusoid. In order to build a table, we will use a function that computes a single harmonic and add harmonics to form a wavetable. An oscillator will be used to compute the harmonics. The function mkwave calls upon build-harmonic to generate a total of four harmonics with amplitudes 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, and 0.0625. These are scaled and added (using +) to create a waveform which is bound temporarily to *table*. A complete Nyquist waveform is a list consisting of a sound, a pitch, and T, indicating a periodic waveform. The pitch gives the nominal pitch of the sound. (This is implicit in a single cycle wave table, but a sampled sound may have many periods of the fundamental.) Pitch is expressed in half-steps, where middle C is 60 steps, as in MIDI pitch numbers. The list of sound, pitch, and T is formed in the last line of mkwave: since build-harmonic computes signals with a duration of one second, the fundamental is 1 Hz, and the hz-to-step function converts to pitch (in units of steps) as required. define function mkwave() begin set *table* = 0.5 * build-harmonic(1.0, 2048) + 0.25 * build-harmonic(2.0, 2048) + 0.125 * build-harmonic(3.0, 2048) + 0.0625 * build-harmonic(4.0, 2048) set *table* = list(*table*, hz-to-step(1.0), #t) end Now that we have defined a function, the last step of this example is to build the wave. The following code calls mkwave the first time the code is executed (loaded from a file). The second time, the variable *mkwave* will be true, so mkwave will not be invoked: if ! fboundp(quote(*mkwave*)) then begin exec mkwave() set *mkwave* = #t end 1.7.2. Wavetables When Nyquist starts, several waveforms are created and stored in global variables for convenience. They are: *sine-table*, *saw-table*, and *tri-table*, implementing sinusoid, sawtooth, and triangle waves, respectively. The variable *table* is initialized to *sine-table*, and it is *table* that forms the default wave table for many Nyquist oscillator behaviors. If you want a proper, band-limited waveform, you should construct it yourself, but if you do not understand this sentence and/or you do not mind a bit of aliasing, give *saw-table* and *tri-table* a try. Note that in Lisp and SAL, global variables often start and end with asterisks (*). These are not special syntax, they just happen to be legal characters for names, and their use is purely a convention. 1.7.3. Sequences Finally, we define my-note to use the waveform, and play several notes in a simple score. Note that the function my-note has only one command (a return command), so it is not necessary to use begin and end. These are only necessary when the function body consists of a sequence of statements: define function my-note(pitch, dur) return osc(pitch, dur, *table*) play seq(my-note(c4, i), my-note(d4, i), my-note(f4, i), my-note(g4, i), my-note(d4, q)) Here, my-note is defined to take pitch and duration as parameters; it calls osc to do the work of generating a waveform, using *table* as a wave table. The seq function is used to invoke a sequence of behaviors. Each note is started at the time the previous note finishes. The parameters to my-note are predefined in Nyquist: c4 is middle C, i (for eIghth note) is 0.5, and q (for Quarter note) is 1.0. See Section 1.8 for a complete description. The result is the sum of all the computed sounds. Sequences can also be constructed using the at transformation to specify time offsets. See sequence_example.htmdemos, sequence for more examples and explanation. 1.7.4. Envelopes The next example will illustrate the use of envelopes. In Nyquist, envelopes are just ordinary sounds (although they normally have a low sample rate). An envelope is applied to another sound by multiplication using the mult function. The code shows the definition of env-note, defined in terms of the note function in the previous example. In env-note, a 4-phase envelope is generated using the env function, which is illustrated in Figure 1. Figure 1: An envelope generated by the env function. ; env-note produces an enveloped note. The duration ; defaults to 1.0, but stretch can be used to change ; the duration. ; Uses my-note, defined above. ; define function env-note(p) return my-note(p, 1.0) * env(0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 0.5, 0.4) ; try it out: ; play env-note(c4) While this example shows a smooth envelope multiplied by an audio signal, you can also multiply audio signals to achieve what is often called ring modulation. See the code and description in demos/scratch_tutorial.htm for an interesting use of ring modulation to create ``scratch'' sounds. In the next example, The stretch operator (~)is used to modify durations: ; now use stretch to play different durations ; play seq(seq(env-note(c4), env-note(d4)) ~ 0.25, seq(env-note(f4), env-note(g4)) ~ 0.5, env-note(c4)) In addition to stretch, there are a number of transformations supported by Nyquist, and transformations of abstract behaviors is perhaps the fundamental idea behind Nyquist. Chapter 3 is devoted to explaining this concept, and further elaboration can be found elsewhere [Dannenberg 89]. 1.7.5. Piece-wise Linear Functions It is often convenient to construct signals in Nyquist using a list of (time, value) breakpoints which are linearly interpolated to form a smooth signal. Envelopes created by env are a special case of the more general piece-wise linear functions created by pwl. Since pwl is used in some examples later on, we will take a look at pwl now. The pwl function takes a list of parameters which denote (time, value) pairs. There is an implicit initial (time, value) pair of (0, 0), and an implicit final value of 0. There should always be an odd number of parameters, since the final value (but not the final time) is implicit. Here are some examples: ; symetric rise to 10 (at time 1) and fall back to 0 (at time 2): ; pwl(1, 10, 2) ; a square pulse of height 10 and duration 5. ; Note that the first pair (0, 10) overrides the default initial ; point of (0, 0). Also, there are two points specified at time 5: ; (5, 10) and (5, 0). (The last 0 is implicit). The conflict is ; automatically resolved by pushing the (5, 10) breakpoint back to ; the previous sample, so the actual time will be 5 - 1/sr, where ; sr is the sample rate. ; pwl(0, 10, 5, 10, 5) ; a constant function with the value zero over the time interval ; 0 to 3.5. This is a very degenerate form of pwl. Recall that there ; is an implicit initial point at (0, 0) and a final implicit value of ; 0, so this is really specifying two breakpoints: (0, 0) and (3.5, 0): ; pwl(3.5) ; a linear ramp from 0 to 10 and duration 1. ; Note the ramp returns to zero at time 1. As with the square pulse ; above, the breakpoint (1, 10) is pushed back to the previous sample. ; pwl(1, 10, 1) ; If you really want a linear ramp to reach its final value at the ; specified time, you need to make a signal that is one sample longer. ; The RAMP function does this: ; ramp(10) ; ramp from 0 to 10 with duration 1 + one sample period ; ; RAMP is based on PWL; it is defined in nyquist.lsp. ; 1.8. Predefined Constants For convenience and readability, Nyquist pre-defines some constants, mostly based on the notation of the Adagio score language, as follows: - Dynamics Note: these dynamics values are subject to change. lppp = -12.0 (dB) lpp = -9.0 lp = -6.0 lmp = -3.0 lmf = 3.0 lf = 6.0 lff = 9.0 lfff = 12.0 dB0 = 1.00 dB1 = 1.122 dB10 = 3.1623 - Durations s = Sixteenth = 0.25 i = eIghth = 0.5 q = Quarter = 1.0 h = Half = 2.0 w = Whole = 4.0 sd, id, qd, hd, wd = dotted durations. st, it, qt, ht, wt = triplet durations. - PitchesPitches are based on an A4 of 440Hz. To achieve a different tuning, set *A4-Hertz* to the desired frequency for A4, and call (set-pitch-names). This will recompute the names listed below with a different tuning. In all cases, the pitch value 69.0 corresponds exactly to 440Hz, but fractional values are allowed, so for example, if you set *A4-Hertz* to 444 (Hz), then the symbol A4 will be bound to 69.1567, and C4 (middle C), which is normally 60.0, will be 60.1567. c0 = 12.0 cs0, df0 = 13.0 d0 = 14.0 ds0, ef0 = 15.0 e0 = 16.0 f0 = 17.0 fs0, gf0 = 18.0 g0 = 19.0 gs0, af0 = 20.0 a0 = 21.0 as0, bf0 = 22.0 b0 = 23.0 c1 ... b1 = 24.0 ... 35.0 c2 ... b2 = 36.0 ... 47.0 c3 ... b3 = 48.0 ... 59.0 c4 ... b4 = 60.0 ... 71.0 c5 ... b5 = 72.0 ... 83.0 c6 ... b6 = 84.0 ... 95.0 c7 ... b7 = 96.0 ... 107.0 c8 ... b8 = 108.0 ... 119.0 - Miscellaneous ny:all = ``all the samples'' (i.e. a big number) = 1000000000 1.9. More Examples More examples can be found in the directory demos, part of the standard Nyquist release. The file demos/examples_home.htm is an index to all the demo descriptions. In this directory, you will find the following and more: - How to make arpeggios (demos/arpeggiator.htm and arp.sal) - Gong sounds by additive synthesis(demos/pmorales/b1.lsp and demos/mateos/gong.lsp) - Risset's spectral analysis of a chord (demos/pmorales/b2.lsp) - Bell sounds (demos/pmorales/b3.lsp, demos/pmorales/e2.lsp, demos/pmorales/partial.lsp, and demos/mateos/bell.lsp) - Drum sounds by Risset (demos/pmorales/b8.lsp - Shepard tones (demos/shepard.lsp and demos/pmorales/b9.lsp) - Random signals (demos/pmorales/c1.lsp) - Buzz with formant filters (demos/pmorales/buzz.lsp) - Computing samples directly in Lisp (using Karplus-Strong and physical modelling as examples) (demos/pmorales/d1.lsp) - FM Synthesis examples, including bell, wood drum, brass sounds, tuba sound (demos/mateos/tuba.lsp and clarinet sounds (demos/pmorales/e2.lsp) - Rhythmic patterns (demos/rhythm_tutorial.htm) - Drum Samples and Drum Machine (demos/plight/drum.lsp). (See Section 14.18). 2. The NyquistIDE Program The NyquistIDE program combines many helpful functions and interfaces to help you get the most out of Nyquist. NyquistIDE is implemented in Java, and you will need the Java runtime system or development system installed on your computer to use NyquistIDE. The best way to learn about NyquistIDE is to just use it. This chapter introduces some of the less obvious features. If you are confused by something and you do not find the information you need here, please contact the author. 2.1. NyquistIDE Overview The NyquistIDE runs the command-line version of Nyquist as a subtask, so everything that works in Nyquist should work when using the NyquistIDE and vice-versa. Input to Nyquist is usually entered in the top left window of the NyquistIDE. When you type return, if the expression or statement appears to be complete, the expression you typed is sent to Nyquist. Output from Nyquist appears in a window below. You cannot type into or edit the output window text. The normal way to use the NyquistIDE is to create or open one or more files. You edit these files and then click the Load button. To load a file, NyquistIDE saves the file, sets the current directory of Nyquist to that of the file, then issues a load command to Nyquist. In this case and several others, you may notice that NyquistIDE sends expressions to Nyquist automatically for evaluation. You can always see the commands and their results in the output window. Notice that when you load a selected file window, NyquistIDE uses setdir to change Nyquist's current directory. This helps to keep the two programs in sync. Normally, you should keep all the files of a project in the same directory and avoid manually changing Nyquist's current directory (i.e. avoid calling setdir in your code). Arranging windows in the NyquistIDE can be time-consuming, and depending on the operating system, it is possible for a window to get into a position where you cannot drag it to a new position. The Window:Tile menu command can be used to automatically lay out windows in a rational way. There is a preference setting to determine the height of the completion list relative to the height of the output window. Many of the key commands for editing files are standard and built into Java. In particular, Control-Z is the ``undo'' command, even on OS X where you would expect to use Command-Z. A special command, ``Copy to Lisp,'' or Control-U (Command-U on OS x)copies the selection and enters it into the input window as if it had been typed there. 2.2. The Button Bar There are a number of buttons with frequently-used operations. These are: - Info M Print information about Nyquist memory utilization, including the number of free cons cells, the number of garbage collections, the total number of cons cells, the total amount of sample buffer memory, and the amount of memory in free sample buffers. - Break M Send a break character to XLISP. This can be used to enter the debugger (the break loop) while a program is running. Resume by typing (co). - SAL/Lisp M Switch modes. The button names the mode (SAL or Lisp) you will switch to, not the current mode. For example, if you are in Lisp mode and want to type a SAL command, click the SAL button first. - Top M Enters (top) into Nyquist. If the XLISP prompt is 1> or some other integer followed by ``>'', clicking the Top button will exit the debug loop and return to the top-level prompt. - Replay M Enters (r) into Nyquist. This command replays the last computed sound. - F2-F12 M Enters (f2) etc. into Nyquist. These commands are not built-in, and allow users to define their own custom actions. - Browse M Equivalent to the Window:Browse menu item. (See Section 2.4.) - EQ M Equivalent to the Window:EQ menu item. (See Section 2.6.) - EnvEdit M Equivalent to the Window:Envelope Edit menu item. (See Section 2.5.) - NewFile M Equivalent to the File:New menu item. Opens a new file editing window for creating and loading a Lisp or SAL program file. - OpenFile M Equivalent to the File:Open menu item. Opens an existing Lisp or SAL program file for editing and loading. - SaveFile M Equivalent to the File:Save menu item (found on the editing window's menu bar). Saves the contents of an editing window to its associated file. - Load M Equivalent to the File:Load menu item (found on the editing window's menu bar). Performs a Save operation, then sends a command to Nyquist that loads the file as a program. - Mark M Sends a Control-A to Nyquist. While playing a sound, this displays and records the approximate time in the audio stream. (See Section 7.5 for more detail.) 2.3. Command Completion To help with programming, NyquistIDE maintains a command-completion window. As you type the first letters of function names, NyquistIDE lists matching functions and their parameters in the Completion List window. If you click on an entry in this window, the displayed expression will replace the incompletely typed function name. A preference allows you to match initial letters or any substring of the complete function name. This is controlled by the ``Use full search for code completion'' preference. In addition, if you right click (or under Mac OS X, hold down the Alt/Option key and click) on an entry, NyquistIDE will display documentation for the function. Documentation can come from a local copy or from the online copy (determined by the ``Use online manual instead of local copy'' preference). Documentation can be displayed within the NyquistIDE window or in an external browser (determined by the ``Use window in NyquistIDE for help browser'' preference.) Currently, the external browser option does not seem to locate documentation properly, but this should be fixed in the future. 2.4. Browser If you click on the Browse button or use the Window:Browse menu command, NyquistIDE will display a browser window that is pre-loaded with a number of Nyquist commands to create sounds. You can adjust parameters, audition the sounds, and capture the expression that creates the sound. In many cases, the expression checks to see if necessary functions are defined, loading files if necessary before playing the sound. If you want to use a sound in your own program, you can often simplify things by explicitly loading the required file just once at the beginning of your file. Since Nyquist now supports a mix of Lisp and SAL, you may find yourself in the position of having code from the browser in one language while you are working in the other. The best way to handle this is to put the code for the sound you want into a function defined in a Lisp (.lsp) or SAL (.sal) file. Load the file (from Lisp, use the sal-load command to load a SAL file), and call the function from the language of your choice. 2.5. Envelope Editor The envelope editor allows you graphically to design and edit piece-wise linear and exponential envelopes. The editor maintains a list of envelopes and you select the one to edit or delete using the drop down list in the Saved Envelopes List area. The current envelope appears in the Graphical Envelope Editor area. You can click to add or drag points. Alternatively, you can use the Envelope Points window to select and edit any breakpoint by typing coordinates. The duration of the envelope is controlled by the Stop field in the Range area, and the vertical axis is controlled by the Min and Max fields. When you click the Save button, all envelopes are written to Nyquist. You can then use the envelope by treating the envelope name as a function. For example, if you define an envelope named ``fast-attack,'' then you can create the envelope within a Nyquist SAL program by writing the expression fast-attack(). These edited envelopes are saved to a file named workspace.lsp in the current directory. The workspace is Nyquist's mechanism for saving data of all kinds (see Section 13.4.5). The normal way to work with workspaces is to (1) load the workspace, i.e. load "workspace", as soon as you start Nyquist; (2) invoke the envelope editor to change values in the workspace; and (3) save the workspace at any time, especially before you exit NyquistIDE. If you follow these steps, envelopes will be preserved from session to session, and the entire collection of envelopes will appear in the editor. Be sure to make backups of your workspace.lsp file along with your other project files. The envelope editor can create linear and exponential envelopes. Use the Type pull-down menu to select the type you want. Envelopes can be created using default starting and ending values using pwl or pwe, or you can specify the initial values using pwlv or pwev. The envelope editor uses pwl or pwe if no point is explicitly entered as the initial or final point. To create a pwlv or pwev function, create a point and drag it to the leftmost or rightmost edge of the graphical editing window. You will see the automatically generated default starting or ending point disappear from the graph. Exponential envelopes should never decay to zero. If you enter a zero amplitude, you will see that the envelope remains at zero to the next breakpoint. To get an exponential decay to ``silence,'' try using an amplitude of about 0.001 (about -60dB). To enter small values like this, you can type them into the Amplitude box and click ``Update Point.'' The Load button refreshes the editor from data saved in the Nyquist process. Normally, there is no need to use this because the editor automatically loads data when you open it. 2.6. Equalizer Editor The Equalizer Editor provides a graphical EQ interface for creating and adjusting equalizers. Unlike the envelope editor, where you can type any envelope name, equalizers are named eq-0, eq-1, etc., and you select the equalizer to edit using a pull-down menu. The Set button should be use to record changes. 2.7. UPIC Editor The UPIC Editor is inspired by the UPIC system by Iannis Xenakis at the Centre d'Edudes de Mathematique et Automatique Musicales (CEMaMu). The UPIC Editor is accessed by the ``Upic Edit'' menu item in the ``Window'' menu of the NyquistIDE. Once opened, you can draw pitch contours in the main panel by pressing the left mouse button and dragging with the mouse down. Contours represent tones in a frequency vs. time coordinate system. Any contour can be deleted by right-clicking (or shift-clicking on an Apple computer) to select the contour (indicated by the color red), and typing the Delete key. A collection of contours can be saved to a file and later retrieved using the items in the File menu (use the File menu in the UPIC Editor window, not in the main NyquistIDE window.) The file is a SAL program in a special format that can be parsed by the UPIC Editor. The file can also be loaded into Nyquist using the File:Load menu item, or by executing a load command in Nyquist. The panel at the top of the editor offers control over various parameters. The Name box is a Nyquist variable name. This name takes effect when you save a file from the UPIC Editor. The variable name is stored in the file so that when a UPIC Editor-generated file is loaded into Nyquist, the data is assigned to this variable name. The data is a list of contours, where each contour specifies a waveform, an envelope, and a list of time-frequency coordinates. The next item in the panel is the Waveform box. The Waveform box names a waveform for a contour. Default waveforms are sinusoid, triangle, and sawtooth, but you can type in your own names. The currently selected waveform is stored with the contour when it is created (entered by drawing). You cannot change or edit the waveform name associated with a contour once the contour is created, but you can always delete the contour and replace it. The Envelope box names an envelope for a contour. The envelope names a Nyquist function. The default, upic-env is a trapezoid shape with an onset time and offset time of 10ms. As with waveforms, the envelope is stored with each contour when the contour is created and cannot be edited. The Stop Time box gives the duration of the drawing area in seconds. The Min Freq box gives the minimum frequency (at the bottom of the drawing area), and the Max Freq box gives the maximum frequency (at the top of the drawing area). The vertical frequency axis can use a linear scale corresponding to frequency in Hertz or a logarithmic scale corresponding to semitones. The ``linear'' checkbox selects the linear scale. When any of these parameters (described in this paragraph and delimited by the border labeled ``Range'' on the control panel) is changed, you must press the Update Range button for the change to take effect. The Background menu lets you display a grid that indicates pitch locations. The ``C's'' item draws a line at C in every visible octave. E.g. middle C is about 260 Hz, so a reference line will be drawn near 260 Hz. Lines will be drawn around 130 Hz (an octave below middle C), and around 520 Hz (an octave above middle C), etc. The ``GrandStaff'' menu item draws reference lines for each line of the grand staff commonly used for piano music. The pitches are G2, B2, D3, F3, A3, E4, G4, B4, D5, and F5. Finally, you can load a picture using the Background:Load Picture... menu item. Then, the Background:Show Picture menu item toggles whether the picture is displayed or not. This feature allows you to trace an image. (For example, see the Sonic Self-Portrait at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rbd.) You may wish to use an image editor to lighten the image so that superimposed contours will be more visible. Each change to the Range data, background choice, and each entry of a contour is an action that you can undo or redo with the Undo and Redo buttons. To convert UPIC data into sound, first load upic.sal and load a file generated by the UPIC Editor. Now, suppose the variable name used is upicdata. You can play the data by writing play upic(upicdata) If you created your own names for waveforms or envelopes, you must be sure that these exist before calling the upic function. Each waveform must be the name of a variable which is set to a Nyquist wave table. (See Section 1.7.1 for information on how to create a wave table.) Also, each envelope must name a function with no parameters that will return an amplitude envelope. The following is the built-in definition for upic-env: define function upic-env() return env(0.01, 0.01, 0.01, 1, 1, 1) To make a custom envelope function named upic-smooth with a 0.2 second attack and a 0.3 second decay, you could write: define function upic-smooth() return env(0.2, 0.01, 0.3, 1, 1, 1) 3. Behavioral Abstraction In Nyquist, all functions are subject to transformations. You can think of transformations as additional parameters to every function, and functions are free to use these additional parameters in any way. The set of transformation parameters is captured in what is referred to as the transformation environment. (Note that the term environment is heavily overloaded in computer science. This is yet another usage of the term.) Behavioral abstraction is the ability of functions to adapt their behavior to the transformation environment. This environment may contain certain abstract notions, such as loudness, stretching a sound in time, etc. These notions will mean different things to different functions. For example, an oscillator should produce more periods of oscillation in order to stretch its output. An envelope, on the other hand, might only change the duration of the sustain portion of the envelope in order to stretch. Stretching a sample could mean resampling it to change its duration by the appropriate amount. Thus, transformations in Nyquist are not simply operations on signals. For example, if I want to stretch a note, it does not make sense to compute the note first and then stretch the signal. Doing so would cause a drop in the pitch. Instead, a transformation modifies the transformation environment in which the note is computed. Think of transformations as making requests to functions. It is up to the function to carry out the request. Since the function is always in complete control, it is possible to perform transformations with ``intelligence;'' that is, the function can perform an appropriate transformation, such as maintaining the desired pitch and stretching only the ''sustain'' portion of an envelope to obtain a longer note. 3.1. The Environment The transformation environment consists of a set of special variables. These variables should not be read directly and should never be set directly by the programmer. Instead, there are functions to read them, and they are automatically set and restored by transformation operators, which will be described below. The transformation environment consists of the following elements. Although each element has a ``standard interpretation,'' the designer of an instrument or the composer of a complex behavior is free to interpret the environment in any way. For example, a change in *loud* may change timbre more than amplitude, and *transpose* may be ignored by percussion instruments: *warp* Time transformation, including time shift, time stretch, and continuous time warp. The value of *warp* is interpreted as a function from logical (local score) time to physical (global real) time. Do not access *warp* directly. Instead, use local-to-global(t) to convert from a logical (local) time to real (global) time. Most often, you will call local-to- global(0). Several transformation operators operate on *warp*, including at (@), stretch (~), and warp. See also get-duration() and get-warp(). *loud* Loudness, expressed in decibels. The default (nominal) loudness is 0.0 dB (no change). Do not access *loud* directly. Instead, use get-loud() to get the current value of *loud* and either loud or loud-abs to modify it. *transpose* Pitch transposition, expressed in semitones. (Default: 0.0). Do not access *transpose* directly. Instead, use get-transpose() to get the current value of *transpose* and either transpose or transpose-abs to modify it. *sustain* The ``sustain,'' ``articulation,'' ``duty factor,'' or amount by which to separate or overlap sequential notes. For example, staccato might be expressed with a *sustain* of 0.5, while very legato playing might be expressed with a *sustain* of 1.2. Specifically, *sustain* stretches the duration of notes (sustain) without affecting the inter-onset time (the rhythm). Do not access *sustain* directly. Instead, use get-sustain() to get the current value of *sustain* and either sustain or sustain-abs to modify it. *start* Start time of a clipping region. Note: unlike the previous elements of the environment, *start* has a precise interpretation: no sound should be generated before *start*. This is implemented in all the low-level sound functions, so it can generally be ignored. You can read *start* directly, but use extract or extract-abs to modify it. Note 2: Due to some internal confusion between the specified starting time and the actual starting time of a signal after clipping, *start* is not fully implemented. *stop* Stop time of clipping region. By analogy to *start*, no sound should be generated after this time. *start* and *stop* allow a composer to preview a small section of a work without computing it from beginning to end. You can read *stop* directly, but use extract or extract-abs to modify it. Note: Due to some internal confusion between the specified starting time and the actual starting time of a signal after clipping, *stop* is not fully implemented. *control-srate* Sample rate of control signals. This environment element provides the default sample rate for control signals. There is no formal distinction between a control signal and an audio signal. You can read *control-srate* directly, but use control-srate or control-srate-abs to modify it. *sound-srate* Sample rate of musical sounds. This environment element provides the default sample rate for musical sounds. You can read *sound-srate* directly, but use sound-srate or sound-srate-abs to modify it. 3.2. Sequential Behavior Previous examples have shown the use of seq, the sequential behavior operator. We can now explain seq in terms of transformations. Consider the simple expression: play seq(my-note(c4, q), my-note(d4, i)) The idea is to create the first note at time 0, and to start the next note when the first one finishes. This is all accomplished by manipulating the environment. In particular, *warp* is modified so that what is locally time 0 for the second note is transformed, or warped, to the logical stop time of the first note. One way to understand this in detail is to imagine how it might be executed: first, *warp* is set to an initial value that has no effect on time, and my-note(c4, q) is evaluated. A sound is returned and saved. The sound has an ending time, which in this case will be 1.0 because the duration q is 1.0. This ending time, 1.0, is used to construct a new *warp* that has the effect of shifting time by 1.0. The second note is evaluated, and will start at time 1. The sound that is returned is now added to the first sound to form a composite sound, whose duration will be 2.0. *warp* is restored to its initial value. Notice that the semantics of seq can be expressed in terms of transformations. To generalize, the operational rule for seq is: evaluate the first behavior according to the current *warp*. Evaluate each successive behavior with *warp* modified to shift the new note's starting time to the ending time of the previous behavior. Restore *warp* to its original value and return a sound which is the sum of the results. In the Nyquist implementation, audio samples are only computed when they are needed, and the second part of the seq is not evaluated until the ending time (called the logical stop time) of the first part. It is still the case that when the second part is evaluated, it will see *warp* bound to the ending time of the first part. A language detail: Even though Nyquist defers evaluation of the second part of the seq, the expression can reference variables according to ordinary Lisp/SAL scope rules. This is because the seq captures the expression in a closure, which retains all of the variable bindings. 3.3. Simultaneous Behavior Another operator is sim, which invokes multiple behaviors at the same time. For example, play 0.5 * sim(my-note(c4, q), my-note(d4, i)) will play both notes starting at the same time. The operational rule for sim is: evaluate each behavior at the current *warp* and return the sum of the results. (In SAL, the sim function applied to sounds is equivalent to adding them with the infix + operator. The following section illustrates two concepts: first, a sound is not a behavior, and second, the sim operator and the at transformation can be used to place sounds in time. 3.4. Sounds vs. Behaviors The following example loads a sound from a file in the current directory and stores it in a-snd: ; load a sound ; set a-snd = s-read(strcat(current-path(), "demo-snd.aiff")) ; play it ; play a-snd One might then be tempted to write the following: play seq(a-snd, a-snd) ;WRONG! Why is this wrong? Recall that seq works by modifying *warp*, not by operating on sounds. So, seq will proceed by evaluating a-snd with different values of *warp*. However, the result of evaluating a-snd (a variable) is always the same sound, regardless of the environment; in this case, the second a-snd should start at time 0.0, just like the first. In this case, after the first sound ends, Nyquist is unable to ``back up'' to time zero, so in fact, this will play two sounds in sequence, but that is a result of an implementation detail rather than correct program execution. In fact, a future version of Nyquist might (correctly) stop and report an error when it detects that the second sound in the sequence has a real start time that is before the requested one. How then do we obtain a sequence of two sounds properly? What we really need here is a behavior that transforms a given sound according to the current transformation environment. That job is performed by cue. For example, the following will behave as expected, producing a sequence of two sounds: play seq(cue(a-snd), cue(a-snd)) This example is correct because the second expression will shift the sound stored in a-snd to start at the end time of the first expression. The lesson here is very important: sounds are not behaviors! Behaviors are computations that generate sounds according to the transformation environment. Once a sound has been generated, it can be stored, copied, added to other sounds, and used in many other operations, but sounds are not subject to transformations. To transform a sound, use cue, sound, or control. The differences between these operations are discussed later. For now, here is a ``cue sheet'' style score that plays 4 copies of a-snd: ; use sim and at to place sounds in time ; play sim(cue(a-snd) @ 0.0, cue(a-snd) @ 0.7, cue(a-snd) @ 1.0, cue(a-snd) @ 1.2) 3.5. The At Transformation The second concept introduced by the previous example is the @ operation, which shifts the *warp* component of the environment. For example, cue(a-snd) @ 0.7 can be explained operationally as follows: modify *warp* by shifting it by 0.7 and evaluate cue(a-snd). Return the resulting sound after restoring *warp* to its original value. Notice how @ is used inside a sim construct to locate copies of a-snd in time. This is the standard way to represent a note-list or a cue-sheet in Nyquist. This also explains why sounds need to be cue'd in order to be shifted in time or arranged in sequence. If this were not the case, then sim would take all of its parameters (a set of sounds) and line them up to start at the same time. But cue(a-snd) @ 0.7 is just a sound, so sim would ``undo'' the effect of @, making all of the sounds in the previous example start simultaneously, in spite of the @! Since sim respects the intrinsic starting times of sounds, a special operation, cue, is needed to create a new sound with a new starting time. 3.6. The Stretch Transformation In addition to At (denoted in SAL by the @ operator, the Stretch transformation is very important. It appeared in the introduction, and it is denoted in SAL by the ~ operator (or in LISP by the stretch special form). Stretch also operates on the *warp* component of the environment. For example, osc(c4) ~ 3 does the following: modify *warp*, scaling the degree of "stretch" by 3, and evaluate osc(c4). The osc behavior uses the stretch factor to determime the duration, so it will return a sound that is 3 seconds long. Restore *warp* to its original value. Like At, Stretch only affects behaviors. a-snd ~ 10 is equivalent to a-snd because a-snd is a sound, not a behavior. Behaviors are functions that compute sounds according to the environment and return a sound. 3.7. Nested Transformations Transformations can be combined using nested expressions. For example, sim(cue(a-snd), loud(6.0, cue(a-snd) @ 3)) scales the amplitude as well as shifts the second entrance of a-snd. Why use loud instead of simply multiplying a-snd by some scale factor? Using loud gives the behavior the chance to implement the abstract property loudness in an appropriate way, e.g. by including timbral changes. In this case, the behavior is cue, which implements loudness by simple amplitude scaling, so the result is equivalent to multiplication by db-to-linear(6.0). Transformations can also be applied to groups of behaviors: loud(6.0, sim(cue(a-snd) @ 0.0, cue(a-snd) @ 0.7)) 3.8. Defining Behaviors Groups of behaviors can be named using define (we already saw this in the definitions of my-note and env-note). Here is another example of a behavior definition and its use. The definition has one parameter: define function snds(dly) return sim(cue(a-snd) @ 0.0, cue(a-snd) @ 0.7, cue(a-snd) @ 1.0, cue(a-snd) @ (1.2 + dly)) play snds(0.1) play loud(0.25, snds(0.3) ~ 0.9) In the last line, snds is transformed: the transformations will apply to the cue behaviors within snds. The loud transformation will scale the sounds by 0.25, and the stretch (~) will apply to the shift (@) amounts 0.0, 0.7, 1.0, and 1.2 + dly. The sounds themselves (copies of a-snd) will not be stretched because cue never stretches sounds. Section 7.3 describes the full set of transformations. 3.9. Overriding Default Transformations In Nyquist, behaviors are the important abstraction mechanism. A behavior represents a class of related functions or sounds. For example, a behavior can represent a musical note. When a note is stretched, it usually means that the tone sustains for more oscillations, but if the ``note'' is a drum roll, the note sustains by more repetitions of the component drum strokes. The concept of sustain is so fundamental that we do not really think of different note durations as being different instances of an abstract behavior, but in a music programming language, we need a way to model these abtract behaviors. As the tone and drum roll examples show, there is no one right way to ``stretch,'' so the language must allow users to define exactly what it means to stretch. By extension, the Nyquist programmer can define how all of the transformations affect different behaviors. To make programming easier, almost all Nyquist sounds are constructed from primitive behaviors that obey the environment in obvious ways: Stretch transformations make things longer and At transformations shift things in time. But sometimes you have to override the default behaviors. Maybe the attack phase of an envelope should not stretch when the note is stretched, or maybe when you stretch a trill, you should get more notes rather than a slower trill. To override default behaviors, you almost always follow the same programming pattern: first, capture the environment in a local variable; then, use one of the absolute transformations to ``turn off'' the environment's effect and compute the sound as desired. The following example creates a very simple envelope with a fixed rise time to illustrate the technique. define function two-phase-env(rise-time) begin with dur = get-duration(1) return pwl(rise-time, 1, dur) ~~ 1.0 end To ``capture the environment in a local variable,'' a with construct is used to create the local variable dur and set it to the value of get-duration(1), which answers the question: ``If I apply use the environment to stretch something whose nominal duration is 1, what is the resulting duration?'' (Since time transformations can involve continuous time deformations, this question is not as simple as it may sound, so please use the provided function rather than peeking inside the *warp* structure and trying to do it yourself.) Next, we ``turn off'' stretching using the stretch-abs form, which in SAL is denoted by the ~~ operator. Finally, we are ready to compute the envelope using pwl. Here, we use absolute durations. The first breakpoint is at rise-time, so the attack time is given by the rise-time parameter. The pwl decays back to zero at time dur, so the overall duration matches the duration expected from the environment encountered by this instance of two-phase-env. Note, however, that since the pwl is evaluated in a different environment established by ~~, it is not stretched (or perhaps more accurately, it is stretched by 1.0). This is good because it means rise-time will not be stretched, but we must be careful to extend the envelope to dur so that it has the expected duration. 3.10. Sample Rates The global environment contains *sound-srate* and *control-srate*, which determine the sample rates of sounds and control signals. These can be overridden at any point by the transformations sound-srate-abs and control-srate-abs; for example, sound-srate-abs(44100.0, osc(c4) will compute a tone using a 44.1Khz sample rate even if the default rate is set to something different. As with other components of the environment, you should never change *sound-srate* or *control-srate* directly. The global environment is determined by two additional variables: *default-sound-srate* and *default- control-srate*. You can add lines like the following to your init.lsp file to change the default global environment: (setf *default-sound-srate* 44100.0) (setf *default-control-srate* 1102.5) You can also do this using preferences in NyquistIDE. If you have already started Nyquist and want to change the defaults, the preferences or the following functions can be used: exec set-control-srate(1102.5)exec set-sound-srate(22050.0) These modify the default values and reinitialize the Nyquist environment. 4. Continuous Transformations and Time Warps Nyquist transformations were discussed in the previous chapter, but all of the examples used scalar values. For example, we saw the loud transformation used to change loudness by a fixed amount. What if we want to specify a crescendo, where the loudness changes gradually over time? It turns out that all transformations can accept signals as well as numbers, so transformations can be continuous over time. This raises some interesting questions about how to interpret continuous transformations. Should a loudness transformation apply to the internal details of a note or only affect the initial loudness? It might seem unnatural for a decaying piano note to perform a crescendo. On the other hand, a sustained trumpet sound should probably crescendo continuously. In the case of time warping (tempo changes), it might be best for a drum roll to maintain a steady rate, a trill may or may not change rates with tempo, and a run of sixteenth notes will surely change its rate. These issues are complex, and Nyquist cannot hope to automatically do the right thing in all cases. However, the concept of behavioral abstraction provides an elegant solution. Since transformations merely modify the environment, behaviors are not forced to implement any particular style of transformation. Nyquist is designed so that the default transformation is usually the right one, but it is always possible to override the default transformation to achieve a particular effect. 4.1. Simple Transformations The ``simple'' transformations affect some parameter, but have no effect on time itself. The simple transformations that support continuously changing parameters are: sustain, loud, and transpose. As a first example, Let us use transpose to create a chromatic scale. First define a sequence of tones at a steady pitch. The seqrep ``function'' works like seq except that it creates copies of a sound by evaluating an expression multiple times. Here, i takes on 16 values from 0 to 15, and the expression for the sound could potentially use i. Technically, seqrep is not really a function but an abbreviation for a special kind of loop construct. define function tone-seq() return seqrep(i, 16, osc-note(c4) ~ 0.25) Now define a linearly increasing ramp to serve as a transposition function: define function pitch-rise() return sustain-abs(1.0, 16 * ramp() ~ 4) This ramp has a duration of 4 seconds, and over that interval it rises from 0 to 16 (corresponding to the 16 semitones we want to transpose). The ramp is inside a sustain-abs transformation, which prevents a sustain transformation from having any effect on the ramp. (One of the drawbacks of behavioral abstraction is that built-in behaviors sometimes do the wrong thing implicitly, requiring some explicit correction to turn off the unwanted transformation.) Now, pitch-rise is used to transpose tone-seq: define function chromatic-scale() return transpose(pitch-rise(), tone-seq()) Similar transformations can be constructed to change the sustain or ``duty factor'' of notes and their loudness. The following expression plays the chromatic-scale behavior with increasing note durations. The rhythm is unchanged, but the note length changes from staccato to legato: play sustain((0.2 + ramp()) ~ 4, chromatic-scale()) The resulting sustain function will ramp from 0.2 to 1.2. A sustain of 1.2 denotes a 20 percent overlap between notes. The sum has a stretch factor of 4, so it will extend over the 4 second duration of chromatic-scale. If you try this, you will discover that the chromatic-scale no longer plays a chromatic scale. You will hear the first 4 notes going up in intervals of 5 semitones (perfect fourths) followed by repeated pitches. What is happening is that the sustain operation applies to pitch-rise in addition to tone-seq, so now the 4s ramp from 0 to 16 becomes a 0.8s ramp. To fix this problem, we need to shield pitch-rise from the effect of sustain using the sustain-abs transformation. Here is a corrected version of chromatic-scale: define function chromatic-scale() return transpose(sustain-abs(1, pitch-rise()), tone-seq()) What do these transformations mean? How did the system know to produce a pitch rise rather than a continuous glissando? This all relates to the idea of behavioral abstraction. It is possible to design sounds that do glissando under the transpose transform, and you can even make sounds that ignore transpose altogether. As explained in Chapter 3, the transformations modify the environment, and behaviors can reference the environment to determine what signals to generate. All built-in functions, such as osc, have a default behavior. The default behavior for sound primitives under transpose, sustain, and loud transformations is to sample the environment at the beginning of the note. Transposition is not quantized to semitones or any other scale, but in our example, we arranged for the transposition to work out to integer numbers of semitones, so we obtained a chromatic scale anyway. Transposition only applies to the oscillator and sampling primitives osc, partial, sampler, sine, fmosc, and amosc. Sustain applies to osc, env, ramp, and pwl. (Note that partial, amosc, and fmosc get their durations from the modulation signal, so they may indirectly depend upon the sustain.) Loud applies to osc, sampler, cue, sound, fmosc, and amosc. (But not pwl or env.) 4.2. Time Warps The most interesting transformations have to do with transforming time itself. The warp transformation provides a mapping function from logical (score) time to real time. The slope of this function tells us how many units of real time are covered by one unit of score time. This is proportional to 1/tempo. A higher slope corresponds to a slower tempo. To demonstrate warp, we will define a time warp function using pwl: define function warper() return pwl(0.25, .4, .75, .6, 1.0, 1.0, 2.0, 2.0, 2.0) This function has an initial slope of .4/.25 = 1.6. It may be easier to think in reciprocal terms: the initial tempo is .25/.4 = .625. Between 0.25 and 0.75, the tempo is .5/.2 = 2.5, and from 0.75 to 1.0, the tempo is again .625. It is important for warp functions to completely span the interval of interest (in our case it will be 0 to 1), and it is safest to extend a bit beyond the interval, so we extend the function on to 2.0 with a tempo of 1.0. Next, we stretch and scale the warper function to cover 4 seconds of score time and 4 seconds of real time: define function warp4() return 4 * warper() ~ 4 Figure 2: The result of (warp4), intended to map 4 seconds of score time into 4 seconds of real time. The function extends beyond 4 seconds (the dashed lines) to make sure the function is well-defined at location (4, 4). Nyquist sounds are ordinarily open on the right. Figure 2 shows a plot of this warp function. Now, we can warp the tempo of the tone-seq defined above using warp4: play warp(warp4(), tone-seq()) Figure 3 shows the result graphically. Notice that the durations of the tones are warped as well as their onsets. Envelopes are not shown in detail in the figure. Because of the way env is defined, the tones will have constant attack and decay times, and the sustain will be adjusted to fit the available time. Figure 3: When (warp4) is applied to (tone-seq-2), the note onsets and durations are warped. 4.3. Abstract Time Warps We have seen a number of examples where the default behavior did the ``right thing,'' making the code straightforward. This is not always the case. Suppose we want to warp the note onsets but not the durations. We will first look at an incorrect solution and discuss the error. Then we will look at a slightly more complex (but correct) solution. The default behavior for most Nyquist built-in functions is to sample the time warp function at the nominal starting and ending score times of the primitive. For many built-in functions, including osc, the starting logical time is 0 and the ending logical time is 1, so the time warp function is evaluated at these points to yield real starting and stopping times, say 15.23 and 16.79. The difference (e.g. 1.56) becomes the signal duration, and there is no internal time warping. The pwl function behaves a little differently. Here, each breakpoint is warped individually, but the resulting function is linear between the breakpoints. A consequence of the default behavior is that notes stretch when the tempo slows down. Returning to our example, recall that we want to warp only the note onset times and not the duration. One would think that the following would work: define function tone-seq-2 () return seqrep(i, 16, osc-note(c4) ~~ 0.25) play warp(warp4(), tone-seq-2()) Here, we have redefined tone-seq, renaming it to tone-seq-2 and changing the stretch (~) to absolute stretch (~~). The absolute stretch should override the warp function and produce a fixed duration. If you play the example, you will hear steady sixteenths and no tempo changes. What is wrong? In a sense, the ``fix'' works too well. Recall that sequences (including seqrep) determine the starting time of the next note from the logical stop time of the previous sound in the sequence. When we forced the stretch to 0.25, we also forced the logical stop time to 0.25 real seconds from the beginning, so every note starts 0.25 seconds after the previous one, resulting in a constant tempo. Now let us design a proper solution. The trick is to use absolute stretch (~~) as before to control the duration, but to restore the logical stop time to a value that results in the proper inter-onset time interval: define function tone-seq-3() return seqrep(i, 16, set-logical-stop(osc-note(c4) ~~ 0.25, 0.25)) play warp(warp4(), tone-seq-3()) Notice the addition of set-logical-stop enclosing the absolute stretch (~~) expression to set the logical stop time. A possible point of confusion here is that the logical stop time is set to 0.25, the same number given to ~~! How does setting the logical stop time to 0.25 result in a tempo change? When used within a warp transformation, the second argument to set-logical-stop refers to score time rather than real time. Therefore, the score duration of 0.25 is warped into real time, producing tempo changes according to the enviroment. Figure 4 illustrates the result graphically. Figure 4: When (warp4) is applied to (tone-seq-3), the note onsets are warped, but not the duration, which remains a constant 0.25 seconds. In the fast middle section, this causes notes to overlap. Nyquist will sum (mix) them. 4.4. Nested Transformations Transformations can be nested. In particular, a simple transformation such as transpose can be nested within a time warp transformation. Suppose we want to warp our chromatic scale example with the warp4 time warp function. As in the previous section, we will show an erroneous simple solution followed by a correct one. The simplest approach to a nested transformation is to simply combine them and hope for the best: play warp(warp4(), transpose(pitch-rise(), tone-seq())) This example will not work the way you might expect. Here is why: the warp transformation applies to the (pitch-rise) expression, which is implemented using the ramp function. The default behavior of ramp is to interpolate linearly (in real time) between two points. Thus, the ``warped'' ramp function will not truly reflect the internal details of the intended time warp. When the notes are moving faster, they will be closer together in pitch, and the result is not chromatic. What we need is a way to properly compose the warp and ramp functions. If we continuously warp the ramp function in the same way as the note sequence, a chromatic scale should be obtained. This will lead to a correct solution. Here is the modified code to properly warp a transposed sequence. Note that the original sequence is used without modification. The only complication is producing a properly warped transposition function: play warp(warp4(), transpose( control-warp(get-warp(), warp-abs(nil, pitch-rise())), tone-seq())) To properly warp the pitch-rise transposition function, we use control-warp, which applies a warp function to a function of score time, yielding a function of real time. We need to pass the desired function to control-warp, so we fetch it from the environment with get-warp(). Finally, since the warping is done here, we want to shield the pitch-rise expression from further warping, so we enclose it in warp-abs(nil, ...). An aside: This last example illustrates a difficulty in the design of Nyquist. To support behavioral abstraction universally, we must rely upon behaviors to ``do the right thing.'' In this case, we would like the ramp function to warp continuously according to the environment. But this is inefficient and unnecessary in many other cases where ramp and especially pwl are used. (pwl warps its breakpoints, but still interpolates linearly between them.) Also, if the default behavior of primitives is to warp in a continuous manner, this makes it difficult to build custom abstract behaviors. The final vote is not in. 5. More Examples This chapter explores Nyquist through additional examples. The reader may wish to browse through these and move on to Chapter 7, which is a reference section describing Nyquist functions. 5.1. Stretching Sampled Sounds This example illustrates how to stretch a sound, resampling it in the process. Because sounds in Nyquist are values that contain the sample rate, start time, etc., use sound to convert a sound into a behavior that can be stretched, e.g. sound(a-snd). This behavior stretches a sound according to the stretch factor in the environment, set using stretch. For accuracy and efficiency, Nyquist does not resample a stretched sound until absolutely necessary. The force-srate function is used to resample the result so that we end up with a ``normal'' sample rate that is playable on ordinary sound cards. ; if a-snd is not loaded, load sound sample: ; if not(boundp(quote(a-snd))) then set a-snd = s-read("demo-snd.aiff") ; the SOUND operator shifts, stretches, clips and scales ; a sound according to the current environment ; define function ex23() play force-srate(*default-sound-srate*, sound(a-snd) ~ 3.0) define function down() return force-srate(*default-sound-srate*, seq(sound(a-snd) ~ 0.2, sound(a-snd) ~ 0.3, sound(a-snd) ~ 0.4, sound(a-snd) ~ 0.6)) play down() ; that was so much fun, let's go back up: ; define function up() return force-srate(*default-sound-srate*, seq(sound(a-snd) ~ 0.5, sound(a-snd) ~ 0.4, sound(a-snd) ~ 0.3, sound(a-snd) ~ 0.2)) ; and write a sequence ; play seq(down(), up(), down()) Notice the use of the sound behavior as opposed to cue. The cue behavior shifts and scales its sound according to *warp* and *loud*, but it does not change the duration or resample the sound. In contrast, sound not only shifts and scales its sound, but it also stretches it by resampling or changing the effective sample rate according to *warp*. If *warp* is a continuous warping function, then the sound will be stretched by time-varying amounts. (The *transpose* element of the environment is ignored by both cue and sound.) Note: sound may use linear interpolation rather than a high-quality resampling algorithm. In some cases, this may introduce errors audible as noise. Use resample (see Section 7.2.2) for high-quality interpolation. In the functions up and down, the *warp* is set by stretch (~), which simply scales time by a constant scale factor. In this case, sound can ``stretch'' the signal simply by changing the sample rate without any further computation. When seq tries to add the signals together, it discovers the sample rates do not match and uses linear interpolation to adjust all sample rates to match that of the first sound in the sequence. The result of seq is then converted using force-srate to convert the sample rate, again using linear interpolation. It would be slightly better, from a computational standpoint, to apply force-srate individually to each stretched sound rather than applying force-srate after seq. Notice that the overall duration of sound(a-snd) ~ 0.5 will be half the duration of a-snd. 5.2. Saving Sound Files So far, we have used the play command to play a sound. The play command works by writing a sound to a file while simultaneously playing it. This can be done one step at a time, and it is often convenient to save a sound to a particular file for later use: ; write the sample to a file, ; the file name can be any Unix filename. Prepending a "./" tells ; s-save to not prepend *default-sf-dir* ; exec s-save(a-snd, 1000000000, "./a-snd-file.snd") ; play a file ; play command normally expects an expression for a sound ; but if you pass it a string, it will open and play a ; sound file play "./a-snd-file.snd" ; delete the file (do this with care!) ; only works under Unix (not Windows) exec system("rm ./a-snd-file.snd") ; now let's do it using a variable as the file name ; set my-sound-file = "./a-snd-file.snd" exec s-save(a-snd, 1000000000, my-sound-file) ; play-file is a function to open and play a sound file exec play-file(my-sound-file) exec system(strcat("rm ", my-sound-file)) This example shows how s-save can be used to save a sound to a file. This example also shows how the system function can be used to invoke Unix shell commands, such as a command to play a file or remove it. Finally, notice that strcat can be used to concatenate a command name to a file name to create a complete command that is then passed to system. (This is convenient if the sound file name is stored in a parameter or variable.) 5.3. Memory Space and Normalization Sound samples take up lots of memory, and often, there is not enough primary (RAM) memory to hold a complete composition. For this reason, Nyquist can compute sounds incrementally, saving the final result on disk. However, Nyquist can also save sounds in memory so that they can be reused efficiently. In general, if a sound is saved in a global variable, memory will be allocated as needed to save and reuse it. The standard way to compute a sound and write it to disk is to pass an expression to the play command: play my-composition() Often it is nice to normalize sounds so that they use the full available dynamic range of 16 bits. Nyquist has an automated facility to help with normalization. By default, Nyquist computes up to 1 million samples (using about 4MB of memory) looking for the peak. The entire sound is normalized so that this peak will not cause clipping. If the sound has less than 1 million samples, or if the first million samples are a good indication of the overall peak, then the signal will not clip. With this automated normalization technique, you can choose the desired peak value by setting *autonorm-target*, which is initialized to 0.9. The number of samples examined is *autonorm-max-samples*, initially 1 million. You can turn this feature off by executing: exec autonorm-off() and turn it back on by typing: exec autonorm-on() This normalization technique is in effect when *autonorm-type* is quote(lookahead), which is the default. An alternative normalization method uses the peak value from the previous call to play. After playing a file, Nyquist can adjust an internal scale factor so that if you play the same file again, the peak amplitude will be *autonorm-target*, which is initialized to 0.9. This can be useful if you want to carefully normalize a big sound that does not have its peak near the beginning. To select this style of normalization, set *autonorm-type* to the (quoted) atom quote(previous). You can also create your own normalization method in Nyquist. The peak function computes the maximum value of a sound. The peak value is also returned from the play macro. You can normalize in memory if you have enough memory; otherwise you can compute the sound twice. The two techniques are illustrated here: ; normalize in memory. First, assign the sound to a variable so ; it will be retained: set mysound = sim(osc(c4), osc(c5)) ; now compute the maximum value (ny:all is 1 giga-samples, you may want ; smaller constant if you have less than 4GB of memory: set mymax = snd-max(mysound, NY:ALL) display "Computed max", mymax ; now write out and play the sound from memory with a scale factor: play mysound * (0.9 / mymax) ; if you don't have space in memory, here's how to do it: define function myscore() return sim(osc(c4), osc(c5)) ; compute the maximum: set mymax = snd-max(list(quote(myscore)), NY:ALL) display "Computed max", mymax ; now we know the max, but we don't have a the sound (it was garbage ; collected and never existed all at once in memory). Compute the soun ; again, this time with a scale factor: play myscore() * (0.9 / mymax) You can also write a sound as a floating point file. This file can then be converted to 16-bit integer with the proper scaling applied. If a long computation was involved, it should be much faster to scale the saved sound file than to recompute the sound from scratch. Although not implemented yet in Nyquist, some header formats can store maximum amplitudes, and some soundfile player programs can rescale floating point files on the fly, allowing normalized soundfile playback without an extra normalization pass (but at a cost of twice the disk space of 16-bit samples). You can use Nyquist to rescale a floating point file and convert it to 16-bit samples for playback. 5.4. Frequency Modulation The next example uses the Nyquist frequency modulation behavior fmosc to generate various sounds. The parameters to fmosc are: fmosc(pitch modulator table phase) Note that pitch is the number of half-steps, e.g. c4 has the value of 60 which is middle-C, and phase is in degrees. Only the first two parameters are required: ; make a short sine tone with no frequency modulation ; play fmosc(c4, pwl(0.1)) ; make a longer sine tone -- note that the duration of ; the modulator determines the duration of the tone ; play fmosc(c4, pwl(0.5)) In the example above, pwl (for Piece-Wise Linear) is used to generate sounds that are zero for the durations of 0.1 and 0.5 seconds, respectively. In effect, we are using an FM oscillator with no modulation input, and the result is a sine tone. The duration of the modulation determines the duration of the generated tone (when the modulation signal ends, the oscillator stops). The next example uses a more interesting modulation function, a ramp from zero to C , expressed in hz. More explanation of pwl is in order. This 4 operation constructs a piece-wise linear function sampled at the *control-srate*. The first breakpoint is always at (0, 0), so the first two parameters give the time and value of the second breakpoint, the second two parameters give the time and value of the third breakpoint, and so on. The last breakpoint has a value of 0, so only the time of the last breakpoint is given. In this case, we want the ramp to end at C , so we cheat a bit by 4 having the ramp return to zero ``almost'' instantaneously between times 0.5 and 0.501. The pwl behavior always expects an odd number of parameters. The resulting function is shifted and stretched linearly according to *warp* in the environment. Now, here is the example: ; make a frequency sweep of one octave; the piece-wise linear function ; sweeps from 0 to (step-to-hz c4) because, when added to the c4 ; fundamental, this will double the frequency and cause an octave sweep ; play fmosc(c4, pwl(0.5, step-to-hz(c4), 0.501)) The same idea can be applied to a non-sinusoidal carrier. Here, we assume that *fm-voice* is predefined (the next section shows how to define it): ; do the same thing with a non-sine table ; play fmosc(cs2, pwl(0.5, step-to-hz(cs2), 0.501), *fm-voice*, 0.0) The next example shows how a function can be used to make a special frequency modulation contour. In this case the contour generates a sweep from a starting pitch to a destination pitch: ; make a function to give a frequency sweep, starting ; after seconds, then sweeping from ; to in seconds and then ; holding at for seconds. ; define function sweep(delay, pitch-1, sweep-time, pitch-2, hold-time) begin with interval = step-to-hz(pitch-2) - step-to-hz(pitch-1) return pwl(delay, 0.0, ; sweep from pitch 1 to pitch 2 delay + sweep-time, interval, ; hold until about 1 sample from the end delay + sweep-time + hold-time - 0.0005, interval, ; quickly ramp to zero (pwl always does this, ; so make it short) delay + sweep-time + hold-time) end ; now try it out ; play fmosc(cs2, sweep(0.1, cs2, 0.6, gs2, 0.5), *fm-voice*, 0.0) FM can be used for vibrato as well as frequency sweeps. Here, we use the lfo function to generate vibrato. The lfo operation is similar to osc, except it generates sounds at the *control-srate*, and the parameter is hz rather than a pitch: play fmosc(cs2, 10.0 * lfo(6.0), *fm-voice*, 0.0) What kind of manual would this be without the obligatory FM sound? Here, a sinusoidal modulator (frequency C ) is multiplied by a slowly increasing ramp 4 from zero to 1000.0. set modulator = pwl(1.0, 1000.0, 1.0005) * osc(c4) ; make the sound play fmosc(c4, modulator) For more simple examples of FM in Nyquist, see demos/warble_tutorial.htm. Another interesting FM sound reminiscent of ``scratching'' can be found with a detailed explanation in demos/scratch_tutorial.htm.. 5.5. Building a Wavetable In Section 1.7.1, we saw how to synthesize a wavetable. A wavetable for osc also can be extracted from any sound. This is especially interesting if the sound is digitized from some external sound source and loaded using the s-read function. Recall that a table is a list consisting of a sound, the pitch of that sound, and T (meaning the sound is periodic). In the following, a sound is first read from the file demo-snd.nh. Then, the extract function is used to extract the portion of the sound between 0.110204 and 0.13932 seconds. (These numbers might be obtained by first plotting the sound and estimating the beginning and end of a period, or by using some software to look for good zero crossings.) The result of extract becomes the first element of a list. The next element is the pitch (24.848422), and the last element is T. The list is assigned to *fm-voice*. if not(boundp(quote(a-snd))) then set a-snd = s-read("demo-snd.aiff") set *fm-voice* = list(extract(0.110204, 0.13932, cue(a-snd)), 24.848422, #T) The file demos/examples.sal contains an extensive example of how to locate zero-crossings, extract a period, build a waveform, and generate a tone from it. (See ex37 through ex40 in the file.) 5.6. Filter Examples Nyquist provides a variety of filters. All of these filters take either real numbers or signals as parameters. If you pass a signal as a filter parameter, the filter coefficients are recomputed at the sample rate of the control signal. Since filter coefficients are generally expensive to compute, you may want to select filter control rates carefully. Use control-srate-abs (Section 7.3) to specify the default control sample rate, or use force-srate (Section 7.2.2) to resample a signal before passing it to a filter. Before presenting examples, let's generate some unfiltered white noise: play noise() Now low-pass filter the noise with a 1000Hz cutoff: play lp(noise(), 1000.0) The high-pass filter is the inverse of the low-pass: play hp(noise(), 1000.0) Here is a low-pass filter sweep from 100Hz to 2000Hz: play lp(noise(), pwl(0.0, 100.0, 1.0, 2000.0, 1.0)) And a high-pass sweep from 50Hz to 4000Hz: play hp(noise(), pwl(0.0, 50.0, 1.0, 4000.0, 1.0)) The band-pass filter takes a center frequency and a bandwidth parameter. This example has a 500Hz center frequency with a 20Hz bandwidth. The scale factor is necessary because, due to the resonant peak of the filter, the signal amplitude exceeds 1.0: play reson(10.0 * noise(), 500.0, 20.0, 1) In the next example, the center frequency is swept from 100 to 1000Hz, using a constant 20Hz bandwidth: play reson(0.04 * noise(), pwl(0.0, 200.0, 1.0, 1000.0, 1.0), 20.0) For another example with explanations, see demos/wind_tutorial.htm. 5.7. DSP in Lisp In almost any signal processing system, the vast majority of computation takes place in the inner loops of DSP algorithms, and Nyquist is designed so that these time-consuming inner loops are in highly-optimized machine code rather than relatively slow interpreted lisp code. As a result, Nyquist typically spends 95% of its time in these inner loops; the overhead of using a Lisp interpreter is negligible. The drawback is that Nyquist must provide the DSP operations you need, or you are out of luck. When Nyquist is found lacking, you can either write a new primitive signal operation, or you can perform DSP in Lisp code. Neither option is recommended for inexperienced programmers. Instructions for extending Nyquist are given in Appendix I. This section describes the process of writing a new signal processing function in Lisp. Before implementing a new DSP function, you should decide which approach is best. First, figure out how much of the new function can be implemented using existing Nyquist functions. For example, you might think that a tapped-delay line would require a new function, but in fact, it can be implemented by composing sound transformations to accomplish delays, scale factors for attenuation, and additions to combine the intermediate results. This can all be packaged into a new Lisp function, making it easy to use. If the function relies on built-in DSP primitives, it will execute very efficiently. Assuming that built-in functions cannot be used, try to define a new operation that will be both simple and general. Usually, it makes sense to implement only the kernel of what you need, combining it with existing functions to build a complete instrument or operation. For example, if you want to implement a physical model that requires a varying breath pressure with noise and vibrato, plan to use Nyquist functions to add a basic pressure envelope to noise and vibrato signals to come up with a composite pressure signal. Pass that signal into the physical model rather than synthesizing the envelope, noise, and vibrato within the model. This not only simplifies the model, but gives you the flexibility to use all of Nyquist's operations to synthesize a suitable breath pressure signal. Having designed the new ``kernel'' DSP operation that must be implemented, decide whether to use C or Lisp. (At present, SAL is not a good option because it has no support for object-oriented programming.) To use C, you must have a C compiler, the full source code for Nyquist, and you must learn about extending Nyquist by reading Appendix I. This is the more complex approach, but the result will be very efficient. A C implementation will deal properly with sounds that are not time-aligned or matched in sample rates. To use Lisp, you must learn something about the XLISP object system, and the result will be about 50 times slower than C. Also, it is more difficult to deal with time alignment and differences in sample rates. The remainder of this section gives an example of a Lisp version of snd-prod to illustrate how to write DSP functions for Nyquist in Lisp. The snd-prod function is the low-level multiply routine. It has two sound parameters and returns a sound which is the product of the two. To keep things simple, we will assume that two sounds to be multiplied have a matched sample rate and matching start times. The DSP algorithm for each output sample is simply to fetch a sample from each sound, multiply them, and return the product. To implement snd-prod in Lisp, three components are required: 1. An object is used to store the two parameter sounds. This object will be called upon to yield samples of the result sound; 2. Within the object, the snd-fetch routine is used to fetch samples from the two input sounds as needed; 3. The result must be of type SOUND, so snd-fromobject is used to create the result sound. The combined solution will work as follows: The result is a value of type sound that retains a reference to the object. When Nyquist needs samples from the sound, it invokes the sound's ``fetch'' function, which in turn sends an XLISP message to the object. The object will use snd-fetch to get a sample from each stored sound, multiply the samples, and return a result. Thus the goal is to design an XLISP object that, in response to a :next message will return a proper sequence of samples. When the sound reaches the termination time, simply return NIL. The XLISP manual (see Appendix IV describes the object system, but in a very terse style, so this example will include some explanation of how the object system is used. First, we need to define a class for the objects that will compute sound products. Every class is a subclass of class class, and you create a subclass by sending :new to a class. (setf product-class (send class :new '(s1 s2))) The parameter '(s1 s2) says that the new class will have two instance variables, s1 and s2. In other words, every object which is an instance of class product-class will have its own copy of these two variables. Next, we will define the :next method for product-class: (send product-class :answer :next '() '((let ((f1 (snd-fetch s1)) (f2 (snd-fetch s2))) (cond ((and f1 f2) (* f1 f2)) (t nil))))) The :answer message is used to insert a new method into our new product-class. The method is described in three parts: the name (:next), a parameter list (empty in this case), and a list of expressions to be evaluated. In this case, we fetch samples from s1 and s2. If both are numbers, we return their product. If either is NIL, we terminate the sound by returning nil. The :next method assumes that s1 and s2 hold the sounds to be multiplied. These must be installed when the object is created. Objects are created by sending :new to a class. A new object is created, and any parameters passed to :new are then sent in a :isnew message to the new object. Here is the :isnew definition for product-class: (send product-class :answer :isnew '(p1 p2) '((setf s1 (snd-copy p1)) (setf s2 (snd-copy p2)))) Take careful note of the use of snd-copy in this initialization. The sounds s1 and s2 are modified when accessed by snd-fetch in the :next method defined above, but this destroys the illusion that sounds are immutable values. The solution is to copy the sounds before accessing them; the original sounds are therefore unchanged. (This copy also takes place implicitly in most Nyquist sound functions.) To make this code safer for general use, we should add checks that s1 and s2 are sounds with identical starting times and sample rates; otherwise, an incorrect result might be computed. Now we are ready to write snd-product, an approximate replacement for snd-prod: (defun snd-product (s1 s2) (let (obj) (setf obj (send product-class :new s1 s2)) (snd-fromobject (snd-t0 s1) (snd-srate s1) obj))) This code first creates obj, an instance of product-class, to hold s1 and s2. Then, it uses obj to create a sound using snd-fromobject. This sound is returned from snd-product. Note that in snd-fromobject, you must also specify the starting time and sample rate as the first two parameters. These are copied from s1, again assuming that s1 and s2 have matching starting times and sample rates. Note that in more elaborate DSP algorithms we could expect the object to have a number of instance variables to hold things such as previous samples, waveform tables, and other parameters. 6. SAL Nyquist supports two languages: XLISP and SAL. In some sense, XLISP and SAL are the same language, but with differing syntax. This chapter describes SAL: how it works, SAL syntax and semantics, and the relationship between SAL and XLISP, and differences between Nyquist SAL and Common Music SAL. Nyquist SAL is based on Rick Taube's SAL language, which is part of Common Music. SAL offers the power of Lisp but features a simple, Algol-like syntax. SAL is implemented in Lisp: Lisp code translates SAL into a Lisp program and uses the underlying Lisp engine to evaluate the program. Aside from the translation time, which is quite fast, SAL programs execute at about the same speed as the corresponding Lisp program. (Nyquist SAL programs run just slightly slower than XLISP because of some runtime debugging support automatically added to user programs by the SAL compiler.) From the user's perspective, these implementation details are hidden. You can enter SAL mode from XLISP by typing (SAL) to the XLISP prompt. The SAL input prompt (SAL> ) will be displayed. From that point on, you simply type SAL commands, and they will be executed. By setting a preference in the NyquistIDE program, SAL mode will be entered automatically. It is possible to encounter errors that will take you from the SAL interpreter to an XLISP prompt. In general, the way to get back to SAL is by typing (top) to get back to the top level XLISP interpreter and reset the Nyquist environment. Then type (sal) to restart the SAL interpreter. 6.1. SAL Syntax and Semantics The most unusual feature of SAL syntax is that identifiers are Lisp-like, including names such as ``play-file'' and even ``*warp*.'' In SAL, most operators must be separated from identifiers by white space. For example, play-file is one identifier, but play - file is an expression for ``play minus file,'' where play and file are two separate identifiers. Fortunately, no spaces are needed around commas and parentheses. In SAL, whitespace (any sequence of space, newline, or tab characters) is sometimes necessary to separate lexical tokens, but otherwise, spaces and indentation are ignored. To make SAL readable, it is strongly advised that you indent SAL programs as in the examples here. The NyquistIDE program is purposely insistent about SAL indentation, so if you use it to edit SAL programs, your indentation should be both beautiful and consistent. As in Lisp (but very unlike C or Java), comments are indicated by semicolons. Any text from an unquoted semicolon to the end of the line is ignored. ; this is a comment ; comments are ignored by the compiler print "Hello World" ; this is a SAL statement As in Lisp, identifiers are translated to upper-case, making SAL case-insensitive. For example, the function name autonorm can be typed in lower case or as AUTONORM, AutoNorm, or even AuToNoRm. All forms denote the same function. The recommended approach is to write programs in all lower case. SAL is organized around statements, most of which contain expressions. We will begin with expressions and then look at statements. 6.1.1. Expressions 6.1.1.1. Simple Expressions As in XLISP, simple expressions include: - integers (FIXNUM's), such as 1215, - floats (FLONUM's) such as 12.15, - strings (STRING's) such as "Magna Carta", and - symbols (SYMBOL's) such as magna-carta. A symbol with a leading colon (:) evaluates to itself as in Lisp. Otherwise, a symbol denotes either a local variable, a formal parameter, or a global variable. As in Lisp, variables do not have data types or type declarations. The type of a variable is determined at runtime by its value. Additional simple expressions in SAL are: - lists such as {c 60 e 64}. Note that there are no commas to separate list elements, and symbols in lists are not evaluated as variables but stand for themselves. Lists may contain numbers, booleans, symbols, strings, and other lists. - Booleans: SAL interprets #t as true and #fas false. (As far as the SAL compiler is concerned, t and nil are just variables. Since these are the Lisp versions of true and false, they are interchangeable with #t and #f, respectively.) A curious property of Lisp and Sal is that false and the empty list are the same value. Since SAL is based on Lisp, #f and {} (the empty list) are equal. 6.1.1.2. Operators Expressions can be formed with unary and binary operators using infix notation. The operators are: - + - addition, including sounds - - - subtraction, including sounds - * - multiplication, including sounds - / - division (due to divide-by-zero problems, does not operate on sounds) - % - modulus (remainder after division) - ^ - exponentiation - = - equal (using Lisp eql) - != - not equal - > - greater than - < - less than - >= - greater than or equal - <= - less than or equal - ~= - general equality (using Lisp equal) - & - logical and - | - logical or - ! - logical not (unary) - @ - time shift - @@ - time shift to absolute time - ~ - time stretch - ~~ - time stretch to absolute stretch factor Again, remember that operators must be delimited from their operands using spaces or parentheses. Operator precedence is based on the following levels of precedence: @ @@ ~ ~~ ^ / * % - + ~= <= >= > ~= = ! & | 6.1.1.3. Function Calls A function call is a function name followed by zero or more comma-delimited argument expressions enclosed within parentheses: list() piano-note(2.0, c4 + interval, 100) Some functions use named parameters, in which case the name of the argument with a colon precedes the argument expression. s-save(my-snd(), ny:all, "tmp.wav", play: #t, bits: 16) 6.1.1.4. Array Notation An array reference is a variable identifier followed by an index expression in square brackets, e.g.: x[23] + y[i] 6.1.1.5. Conditional Values The special operator #? evaluates the first argument expression. If the result is true, the second expression is evaluated and its value is returned. If false, the third expression is evaluated and returned (or false is returned if there is no third expression): #?(random(2) = 0, unison, major-third) #?(pitch >= c4, pitch - c4) ; returns false if pitch < c4 6.1.2. SAL Statements SAL compiles and evaluates statements one at a time. You can type statements at the SAL prompt or load a file containing SAL statements. SAL statements are described below. The syntax is indicated at the beginning of each statement type description: this font indicates literal terms such as keywords, the italic font indicates a place-holder for some other statement or expression. Bracket [like this] indicate optional (zero or one) syntax elements, while braces with a plus {like this}+ indicate one or more occurrences of a syntax element. Braces with a star {like this}* indicate zero or more occurrences of a syntax element: { non-terminal }* is equivalent to [ {non-terminal}+ ]. 6.1.2.1. begin and end begin [with-stmt] {statement}+ end A begin-end statement consists of a sequence of statements surrounded by the begin and end keywords. This form is often used for function definitions and after then or else where the syntax demands a single statement but you want to perform more than one action. Variables may be declared using an optional with statement immediately after begin. For example: begin with db = 12.0, linear = db-to-linear(db) print db, "dB represents a factor of", linear set scale-factor = linear end 6.1.2.2. chdir chdir expression The chdir statement changes the working directory. This statement is provided for compatibility with Common Music SAL, but it really should be avoided if you use NyquistIDE. The expression following the chdir keyword should evaluate to a string that is a directory path name. Note that literal strings themselves are valid expressions. chdir "/Users/rbd/tmp" 6.1.2.3. define variable [define] variable name [= expression] {, name [= expression]}* Global variables can be declared and initialized. A list of variable names, each with an optional initialization follows the define variable keywords. (Since variable is a keyword, define is redundant and optional in Nyquist SAL, but required in Common Music SAL.) If the initialization part is omitted, the variable is initialized to false. Global variables do not really need to be declared: just using the name implicitly creates the corresponding variable. However, it is an error to use a global variable that has not been initialized; define variable is a good way to introduce a variable (or constant) with an initial value into your program. define variable transposition = 2, print-debugging-info, ; initially false output-file-name = "salmon.wav" 6.1.2.4. define function [define] function name ( [parameter] {, parameter}* ) statement Before a function be called from an expression (as described above), it must be defined. A function definition gives the function name, a list of parameters, and a statement. When a function is called, the actual parameter expressions are evaluated from left to right and the formal parameters of the function definition are set to these values. Then, statement is evaluated. The formal parameters may be positional parameters that are matched with actual parameters by position from left to right. Syntactically, these are symbols and these symbols are essentially local variables that exist only until statement completes or a return statement causes the function evaluation to end. As in Lisp, parameters are passed by value, so assigning a new value to a formal parameter has no effect on the actual value. However, lists and arrays are not copied, so internal changes to a list or array produce observable side effects. Alternatively, formal parameters may be keyword parameters. Here the parameter is actually a pair: a keyword parameter, which is a symbol followed by a colon, and a default value, given by any expression. Within the body of the function, the keyword parameter is named by a symbol whose name matches the keyword parameter except there is no final colon. define function foo(x: 1, y: bar(2, 3)) display "foo", x, y exec foo(x: 6, y: 7) In this example, x is bound to the value 6 and y is bound to the value 7, so the example prints ``foo : X = 6, Y = 7''. Note that while the keyword parameters are x: and y:, the corresponding variable names in the function body are x and y, respectively. The parameters are meaningful only within the lexical (static) scope of statement. They are not accessible from within other functions even if they are called by this function. Use a begin-end statement if the body of the function should contain more than one statement or you need to define local variables. Use a return statement to return a value from the function. If statement completes without a return, the value false is returned. 6.1.2.5. display display string {, expression}* The display statement is handy for debugging. At present, it is only implemented in Nyquist SAL. When executed, display prints the string followed by a colon and then, for each expression, the expression and its value are printed, after the last expression, a newline is printed. For example, display "In function foo", bar, baz prints In function foo : bar = 23, baz = 5.3 SAL may print the expressions using Lisp syntax, e.g. if the expression is ``bar + baz,'' do not be surprised if the output is ``(sum bar baz) = 28.3.'' 6.1.2.6. exec exec expression Unlike most other programming languages, you cannot simply type an expression as a statement. If you want to evaluate an expression, e.g. call a function, you must use an exec statement. The statement simply evaluates the expression. For example, exec set-sound-srate(22050.0) ; change default sample rate 6.1.2.7. if if test-expr then true-stmt [else false-stmt] An if statement evaluates the expression test-expr. If it is true, it evaluates the statement true-stmt. If false, the statement false-stmt is evaluated. Use a begin-end statement to evaluate more than one statement in then then or else parts. if x < 0 then x = -x ; x gets its absoute value if x > upper-bound then begin print "x too big, setting to", upper-bound x = upper-bound end else if x < lower-bound then begin print "x too small, setting to", lower-bound x = lower-bound end Notice in this example that the else part is another if statement. An if may also be the then part of another if, so there could be two possible if's with which to associate an else. An else clause always associates with the closest previous if that does not already have an else clause. 6.1.2.8. when when test statement The when statement is similar to if, but there is no else clause. when *debug-flag* print "you are here" 6.1.2.9. unless unless test statement The unless statement is similar to when (and if) but the statement is executed when the test expression is false. unless count = 0 set average = sum / count 6.1.2.10. load load expression The load command loads a file named by expression, which must evauate to a string path name for the file. To load a file, SAL interprets each statement in the file, stopping when the end of the file or an error is encountered. If the file ends in .lsp, the file is assumed to contain Lisp expressions, which are evaluated by the XLISP interpreter. In general, SAL files should end with the extension .sal. 6.1.2.11. loop loop [with-stmt] {stepping}* {stopping}* {action}+ [finally] end The loop statement is by far the most complex statement in SAL, but it offers great flexibility for just about any kind of iteration. The basic function of a loop is to repeatedly evaluate a sequence of action's which are statements. Before the loop begins, local variables may be declared in with-stmt, a with statement. The stepping clauses do several things. They introduce and initialize additional local variables similar to the with-stmt. However, these local variables are updated to new values after the action's. In addition, some stepping clauses have associated stopping conditions, which are tested on each iteration before evaluating the action's. There are also stopping clauses that provide additional tests to stop the iteration. These are also evaluated and tested on each iteration before evaluating the action's. When some stepping or stopping condition causes the iteration to stop, the finally clause is evaluated (if present). Local variables and their values can still be accessed in the finally clause. After the finally clause, the loop statement completes. The stepping clauses are the following: repeat expression Sets the number of iterations to the value of expression, which should be an integer (FIXNUM). for var = expression [ then expr2 ] Introduces a new local variable named var and initializes it to expression. Before each subsequent iteration, var is set to the value of expr2. If the then part is omitted, expression is re-evaluated and assigned to var on each subsequent iteration. Note that this differs from a with-stmt where expressions are evaluated and variables are only assigned their values once. for var in expression Evaluates expression to obtain a list and creates a new local variable initialized to the first element of the list. After each iteration, var is assigned the next element of the list. Iteration stops when var has assumed all values from the list. If the list is initially empty, the loop action's are not evaluated (there are zero iterations). for var [from from-expr] [[to | below | downto | above] to-expr] [by step-expr] Introduces a new local variable named var and intialized to the value of the expression from-expr (with a default value of 0). After each iteration of the loop, var is incremented by the value of step-expr (with a default value of 1). The iteration ends when var is greater than the value of to-expr if there is a to clause, greater than or equal to the value of to-expr if there is a below clause, less than the value of to-expr if there is a downto clause, or less than or equal to the value of to-expr if there is a above clause. (In the cases of downto and above, the default increment value is -1. If there is no to, below, downto, or above clause, no iteration stop test is created for this stepping clause. The stopping clauses are the following: while expression The iterations are stopped when expression evaluates to false. Anything not false is considered to mean true. until expression The iterations are stopped when expression evaluates to true. The finally clause is defined as follows: finally statement The statement is evaluated when one of the stepping or stopping clauses ends the loop. As always, statement may be a begin-end statement. If an action evaluates a return statement, the finally statement is not executed. Loops often fall into common patterns, such as iterating a fixed number of times, performing an operation on some range of integers, collecting results in a list, and linearly searching for a solution. These forms are illustrated in the examples below. ; iterate 10 times loop repeat 10 print random(100) end ; print even numbers from 10 to 20 ; note that 20 is printed. On the next iteration, ; i = 22, so i >= 22, so the loop exits. loop for i from 10 to 22 by 2 print i end ; collect even numbers in a list loop with lis for i from 0 to 10 by 2 set lis @= i ; push integers on front of list, ; which is much faster than append, ; but list is built in reverse finally set result = reverse(lis) end ; now, the variable result has a list of evens ; find the first even number in a list result = #f ; #f means "false" loop for elem in lis until evenp(elem) finally result = elem end ; result has first even value in lis (or it is #f) 6.1.2.12. print print expr {, expr}* The print statement prints the values separated by spaces and followed by a newline. [Note that in the original SAL, the newline is printed before the values, not after.] print "The value of x is", x 6.1.2.13. return return expression The return statement can only be used inside a function. It evaluates expression and then the function returns the value of the expression to its caller. 6.1.2.14. set set var op expression {, var op expression}* The set statement changes the value of a variable var according to the operator op and the value of the expression. The operators are: = The value of expression is assigned to var. += The value of expression is added to var. *= The value of var is multiplied by the value of the expression. &= The value of expression is inserted as the last element of the list referenced by var. If var is the empty list (denoted by #f), then var is assigned a newly constructed list of one element, the value of expression. ^= The value of expression, a list, is appended to the list referenced by var. If var is the empty list (denoted by #f), then var is assigned the (list) value of expression. @= Pushes the value of expression onto the front of the list referenced by var. If var is empty (denoted by #f), then var is assigned a newly constructed list of one element, the value of expression. <= Sets the new value of var to the minimum of the old value of var and the value of expression. >= Sets the new value of var to the maximum of the old value of var and the value of expression. ; example from Rick Taube's SAL description loop with a, b = 0, c = 1, d = {}, e = {}, f = -1, g = 0 for i below 5 set a = i, b += 1, c *= 2, d &= i, e @= i, f <= i, g >= i finally display "results", a, b, c, d, e, f, g end 6.1.2.15. with with var [= expression] {, var [= expression]}* The with statement declares and initializes local variables. It can appear only after begin or loop. If the expression is omitted, the initial value is false. The variables are visible only inside the begin-end or loop statement where the with statement appears. Even in loop's the variables are intialized only when the loop is entered, not on each iteration. 6.1.2.16. exit exit [nyquist] The exit statement is unique to Nyquist SAL. It returns from SAL mode to the XLISP interpreter. (Return to SAL mode by typing ``(sal)''). If nyquist is included in the statement, then the entire Nyquist process will exit. 6.2. Interoperability of SAL and XLISP When SAL evaluatas command or loads files, it translates SAL into XLISP. You can think of SAL as a program that translates everything you write into XLISP and entering it for you. Thus, when you define a SAL function, the function actually exists as an XLISP function (created using Lisp's defun special form). When you set or evaluate global variables in SAL, these are exactly the same Lisp global variables. Thus, XLISP functions can call SAL functions and vice-versa. At run time, everything is Lisp. 6.2.1. Function Calls In general, there is a very simple translation from SAL to Lisp syntax and back. A function call is SAL, for example, osc(g4, 2.0) is translated to Lisp by moving the open parenthesis in front of the function name and removing the commas: (osc g4 2.0) Similarly, if you want to translate a Lisp function call to SAL, just reverse the translation. 6.2.2. Symbols and Functions SAL translates keywords with trailing colons (such as foo:) into Lisp keywords with leading colons (such as :foo), but SAL keywords are not treated as expressions as they are in Lisp. You cannot write open("myfile.txt", direction: output:) because SAL expects an expression after direction. A special form keyword is defined to generate a Lisp keyword as an expression. The argument is the keyword without a colon, e.g. open("myfile.txt", direction: keyword(output)). Alternatively, you can write the Lisp-style keyword with the leading colon, e.g. open("myfile.txt", direction: :output). In Nyquist SAL, the hash character (#), can be used as a prefix to a Lisp function name. For example, the following command is not legal because print is a SAL command name, not a legal function name: set v = append(print(a), print(b)). (Here the intent is to print arguments to append). However, you can use the hash character to access the Lisp print function: set v = append(#print(a), #print(b)). 6.2.3. Playing Tricks On the SAL Compiler In many cases, the close coupling between SAL and XLISP gives SAL unexpected expressive power. A good example is seqrep. This is a special looping construct in Nyquist, implemented as a macro in XLISP. In Lisp, you would write something like: (seqrep (i 10) (pluck c4)) One might expect SAL would have to define a special seqrep statement to express this, but since statements do not return values, this approach would be problematic. The solution (which is already fully implemented in Nyquist) is to define a new macro sal-seqrep that is equivalent to seqrep except that it is called as follows: (sal-seqrep i 10 (pluck c4)) The SAL compiler automatically translates the identifier seqrep to sal-seqrep. Now, in SAL, you can just write seqrep(i, 10, pluck(c4)) which is translated in a pretty much semantics-unaware fashion to (sal-seqrep i 10 (pluck c4)) and viola!, we have Nyquist control constructs in SAL even though SAL is completely unaware that seqrep is actually a special form. 7. Nyquist Functions This chapter provides a language reference for Nyquist. Operations are categorized by functionality and abstraction level. Nyquist is implemented in two important levels: the ``high level'' supports behavioral abstraction, which means that operations like stretch and at can be applied. These functions are the ones that typical users are expected to use, and most of these functions are written in XLISP. The ``low-level'' primitives directly operate on sounds, but know nothing of environmental variables (such as *warp*, etc.). The names of most of these low-level functions start with ``snd-''. In general, programmers should avoid any function with the ``snd-'' prefix. Instead, use the ``high-level'' functions, which know about the environment and react appropriately. The names of high-level functions do not have prefixes like the low-level functions. There are certain low-level operations that apply directly to sounds (as opposed to behaviors) and are relatively ``safe'' for ordinary use. These are marked as such. Nyquist uses both linear frequency and equal-temperament pitch numbers to specify repetition rates. Frequency is always specified in either cycles per second (hz), or pitch numbers, also referred to as ``steps,'' as in steps of the chromatic scale. Steps are floating point numbers such that 60 = Middle C, 61 = C#, 61.23 is C# plus 23 cents, etc. The mapping from pitch number to frequency is the standard exponential conversion, and fractional pitch numbers (pitch-69)/12 are allowed: frequency=440*2 . There are many predefined pitch names. By default these are tuned in equal temperament, with A4 = 440Hz, but these may be changed. (See Section 1.8). 7.1. Sounds A sound is a primitive data type in Nyquist. Sounds can be created, passed as parameters, garbage collected, printed, and set to variables just like strings, atoms, numbers, and other data types. 7.1.1. What is a Sound? Sounds have 5 components: - srate M the sample rate of the sound. - samples M the samples. - signal-start M the time of the first sample. - signal-stop M the time of one past the last sample. - logical-stop M the time at which the sound logically ends, e.g. a sound may end at the beginning of a decay. This value defaults to signal-stop, but may be set to any value. It may seem that there should be logical-start to indicate the logical or perceptual beginning of a sound as well as a logical-stop to indicate the logical ending of a sound. In practice, only logical-stop is needed; this attribute tells when the next sound should begin to form a sequence of sounds. In this respect, Nyquist sounds are asymmetric: it is possible to compute sequences forward in time by aligning the logical start of each sound with the logical-stop of the previous one, but one cannot compute ``backwards'', aligning the logical end of each sound with the logical start of its successor. The root of this asymmetry is the fact that when we invoke a behavior, we say when to start, and the result of the behavior tells us its logical duration. There is no way to invoke a behavior with a direct specification of when to stop[Most behaviors will stop at time 1, warped according to *warp* to some real time, but this is by convention and is not a direct specification.]. Note: there is no way to enforce the intended ``perceptual'' interpretation of logical-stop. As far as Nyquist is concerned, these are just numbers to guide the alignment of sounds within various control constructs. 7.1.2. Multichannel Sounds Multichannel sounds are represented by Lisp arrays of sounds. To create an array of sounds the XLISP vector function is useful. Most low-level Nyquist functions (the ones starting with snd-) do not operate on multichannel sounds. Most high-level functions do operate on multichannel sounds. 7.1.3. Accessing and Creating Sound Several functions display information concerning a sound and can be used to query the components of a sound. There are functions that access samples in a sound and functions that construct sounds from samples. sref(sound, time) [SAL] (sref sound time) [LISP] Accesses sound at the point time, which is a local time. If time does not correspond to a sample time, then the nearest samples are linearly interpolated to form the result. To access a particular sample, either convert the sound to an array (see snd-samples below), or use snd-srate and snd-t0 (see below) to find the sample rate and starting time, and compute a time (t) from the sample number (n):t=(n/srate)+t0 Thus, the th lisp code to access the n sample of a sound would look like: (sref sound (global-to-local (+ (/ n (snd-srate sound)) (snd-t0 sound)))) Here is why sref interprets its time argument as a local time: > (sref (ramp 1) 0.5) ; evaluate a ramp at time 0.5 0.5 > (at 2.0 (sref (ramp 1) 0.5)) ; ramp is shifted to start at 2.0 ; the time, 0.5, is shifted to 2.5 0.5 If you were to use snd-sref, which treats time as global, instead of sref, which treats time as local, then the first example above would return the same answer (0.5), but the second example would return 0. Why? Because the (ramp 1) behavior would be shifted to start at time 2.0, but the resulting sound would be evaluated at global time 0.5. By definition, sounds have a value of zero before their start time. sref-inverse(sound, value) [SAL] (sref-inverse sound value) [LISP] Search sound for the first point at which it achieves value and return the corresponding (linearly interpolated) time. If no inverse exists, an error is raised. This function is used by Nyquist in the implementation of time warping. snd-from-array(t0, sr, array) [SAL] (snd-from-array t0 sr array) [LISP] Converts a lisp array of FLONUMs into a sound with starting time t0 and sample rate sr. Safe for ordinary use. Be aware that arrays of floating-point samples use 14 bytes per sample, and an additional 4 bytes per sample are allocated by this function to create a sound type. snd-fromarraystream(t0, sr, object) [SAL] (snd-fromarraystream t0 sr object) [LISP] Creates a sound for which samples come from object. The starting time is t0 (a FLONUM), and the sample rate is sr. The object is an XLISP object (see Section IV.11 for information on objects.) A sound is returned. When the sound needs samples, they are generated by sending the message :next to object. If object returns NIL, the sound terminates. Otherwise, object must return an array of FLONUMs. The values in these arrays are concatenated to form the samples of the resulting sound. There is no provision for object to specify the logical stop time of the sound, so the logical stop time is the termination time. snd-fromobject(t0, sr, object) [SAL] (snd-fromobject t0 sr object) [LISP] Creates a sound for which samples come from object. The starting time is t0 (a FLONUM), and the sample rate is sr. The object is an XLISP object (see Section IV.11 for information on objects. A sound is returned. When the sound needs samples, they are generated by sending the message :next to object. If object returns NIL, the sound terminates. Otherwise, object must return a FLONUM. There is no provision for object to specify the logical stop time of the sound, so the logical stop time is the termination time. snd-extent(sound, maxsamples) [SAL] (snd-extent sound maxsamples) [LISP] Returns a list of two numbers: the starting time of sound and the terminate time of sound. Finding the terminate time requires that samples be computed. Like most Nyquist functions, this is non-destructive, so memory will be allocated to preserve the sound samples. If the sound is very long or infinite, this may exhaust all memory, so the maxsamples parameter specifies a limit on how many samples to compute. If this limit is reached, the terminate time will be (incorrectly) based on the sound having maxsamples samples. This function is safe for ordinary use. snd-fetch(sound) [SAL] (snd-fetch sound) [LISP] Reads samples sequentially from sound. This returns a FLONUM after each call, or NIL when sound terminates. Note: snd-fetch modifies sound; it is strongly recommended to copy sound using snd-copy and access only the copy with snd-fetch. snd-fetch-array(sound, len, step) [SAL] (snd-fetch-array sound len step) [LISP] Reads sequential arrays of samples from sound, returning either an array of FLONUMs or NIL when the sound terminates. The len parameter, a FIXNUM, indicates how many samples should be returned in the result array. After the array is returned, sound is modified by skipping over step (a FIXNUM) samples. If step equals len, then every sample is returned once. If step is less than len, each returned array will overlap the previous one, so some samples will be returned more than once. If step is greater than len, then some samples will be skipped and not returned in any array. The step and len may change at each call, but in the current implementation, an internal buffer is allocated for sound on the first call, so subsequent calls may not specify a greater len than the first. When an array is returned, it will have len samples. If necessary, snd-fetch-array will read zeros beyond the end of the sound to fill the array. When this happens, *rslt* is set to a FIXNUM number of samples in the array that were read from the sound before the physical stop time of the sound. If all samples in the array are ``valid'' samples from the sound (coming from the sound before the sound terminates), *rslt* is set to NIL. The *rslt* variable is global and used to return extra results from other functions, so programs should not assume *rslt* is valid after subsequent function calls. Note: snd-fetch-array modifies sound; it is strongly recommended to copy sound using snd-copy and access only the copy with snd-fetch-array. snd-flatten(sound, maxlen) [SAL] (snd-flatten sound maxlen) [LISP] This function is identical to snd-length. You would use this function to force samples to be computed in memory. Normally, this is not a good thing to do, but here is one appropriate use: In the case of sounds intended for wavetables, the unevaluated sound may be larger than the evaluated (and typically short) one. Calling snd-flatten will compute the samples and allow the unit generators to be freed in the next garbage collection. Note: If a sound is computed from many instances of table-lookup oscillators, calling snd-flatten will free the oscillators and their tables. Calling (stats) will print how many total bytes have been allocated to tables. snd-length(sound, maxlen) [SAL] (snd-length sound maxlen) [LISP] Counts the number of samples in sound up to the physical stop time. If the sound has more than maxlen samples, maxlen is returned. Calling this function will cause all samples of the sound to be computed and saved in memory (about 4 bytes per sample). Otherwise, this function is safe for ordinary use. snd-maxsamp(sound) [SAL] (snd-maxsamp sound) [LISP] Computes the maximum of the absolute value of the samples in sound. Calling this function will cause samples to be computed and saved in memory. (This function should have a maxlen parameter to allow self-defense against sounds that would exhaust available memory.) Otherwise, this function is safe for ordinary use. This function will probably be removed in a future version. See peak, a replacement ( page 30). snd-play(expression) [SAL] (snd-play expression) [LISP] Evaluates expression to obtain a sound or array of sounds, computes all of the samples (without retaining them in memory), and returns. Originally, this was a placeholder for a facility to play samples directly to an audio output device, but playback is now accomplished by s-save. Meanwhile, since this function does not save samples in memory or write them to a disk, it is useful in determining how much time is spent calculating samples. See s-save (Section 7.5) for saving samples to a file, and play (Section 7.5) to play a sound. This function is safe for ordinary use. snd-print-tree(sound) [SAL] (snd-print-tree sound) [LISP] Prints an ascii representation of the internal data structures representing a sound. This is useful for debugging Nyquist. This function is safe for ordinary use. snd-samples(sound, limit) [SAL] (snd-samples sound limit) [LISP] Converts the samples into a lisp array. The data is taken directly from the samples, ignoring shifts. For example, if the sound starts at 3.0 seconds, the first sample will refer to time 3.0, not time 0.0. A maximum of limit samples is returned. This function is safe for ordinary use, but like snd-from-array, it requires a total of slightly over 18 bytes per sample. snd-srate(sound) [SAL] (snd-srate sound) [LISP] Returns the sample rate of the sound. Safe for ordinary use. snd-time(sound) [SAL] (snd-time sound) [LISP] Returns the start time of the sound. This will probably go away in a future version, so use snd-t0 instead. snd-t0(sound) [SAL] (snd-t0 sound) [LISP] Returns the time of the first sample of the sound. Note that Nyquist operators such as add always copy the sound and are allowed to shift the copy up to one half sample period in either direction to align the samples of two operands. Safe for ordinary use. snd-print(expression, maxlen) [SAL] (snd-print expression maxlen) [LISP] Evaluates expression to yield a sound or an array of sounds, then prints up to maxlen samples to the screen (stdout). This is similar to snd-save, but samples appear in text on the screen instead of in binary in a file. This function is intended for debugging. Safe for ordinary use. snd-set-logical-stop(sound, time) [SAL] (snd-set-logical-stop sound time) [LISP] Returns a sound which is sound, except that the logical stop of the sound occurs at time. Note: do not call this function. When defining a behavior, use set-logical-stop or set-logical-stop-abs instead. snd-sref(sound, time) [SAL] (snd-sref sound time) [LISP] Evaluates sound at the global time given by time. Safe for ordinary use, but normally, you should call sref instead. snd-stop-time(sound) [SAL] (snd-stop-time sound) [LISP] Returns the stop time of sound. Sounds can be ``clipped'' or truncated at a particular time. This function returns that time or MAX-STOP-TIME if he programmer has not specified a stop time for the sound. Safe for ordinary use. soundp(sound) [SAL] (soundp sound) [LISP] Returns true iff sound is a SOUND. Safe for ordinary use. stats() [SAL] (stats) [LISP] Prints the memory usage status. See also the XLISP mem function. Safe for ordinary use. This is the only way to find out how much memory is being used by table-lookup oscillator instances. 7.1.4. Miscellaneous Functions These are all safe and recommended for ordinary use. db-to-linear(x) [SAL] (db-to-linear x) [LISP] Returns the conversion of x from decibels to linear. 0dB is converted to 1. 20dB represents a linear factor of 10. If x is a sound, each sample is converted and a sound is returned. If x is a multichannel sound, each channel is converted and a multichannel sound (array) is returned. Note: With sounds, conversion is only performed on actual samples, not on the implicit zeros before the beginning and after the termination of the sound. Sample rates, start times, etc. are taken from x. db-to-vel(x [, float]) [SAL] (db-to-vel x [float]) [LISP] Returns the conversion of x from decibels to MIDI velocity using a rule that maps -60 dB to 1 and 0 dB to 127. The MIDI velocity varies linearly with the square root of amplitude. The default value of float is nil and the result is a FIXNUM clipped to fall in the legal range of 1-127, but if a non-nil value is provided, the result is a FLONUM that is not rounded or clipped. The input parameter must be a FIXNUM or FLONUM. Sounds are not allowed. follow(sound, floor, risetime, falltime, lookahead) [SAL] (follow sound floor risetime falltime lookahead) [LISP] An envelope follower intended as a commponent for compressor and limiter functions. The basic goal of this function is to generate a smooth signal that rides on the peaks of the input signal. The usual objective is to produce an amplitude envelope given a low-sample rate (control rate) signal representing local RMS measurements. The first argument is the input signal. The floor is the minimum output value. The risetime is the time (in seconds) it takes for the output to rise (exponentially) from floor to unity (1.0) and the falltime is the time it takes for the output to fall (exponentially) from unity to floor. The algorithm looks ahead for peaks and will begin to increase the output signal according to risetime in anticipation of a peak. The amount of anticipation (in seconds) is given by lookahead. The algorithm is as follows: the output value is allowed to increase according to risetime or decrease according to falltime. If the next input sample is in this range, that sample is simply output as the next output sample. If the next input sample is too large, the algorithm goes back in time as far as necessary to compute an envelope that rises according to risetime to meet the new value. The algorithm will only work backward as far as lookahead. If that is not far enough, then there is a final forward pass computing a rising signal from the earliest output sample. In this case, the output signal will be at least momentarily less than the input signal and will continue to rise exponentially until it intersects the input signal. If the input signal falls faster than indicated by falltime, the output fall rate will be limited by falltime, and the fall in output will stop when the output reaches floor. This algorithm can make two passes througth the buffer on sharply rising inputs, so it is not particularly fast. With short buffers and low sample rates this should not matter. See snd-avg for a function that can help to generate a low-sample-rate input for follow. See snd-chase in Section 7.6.3 for a related filter. gate(sound, lookahead, risetime, falltime, floor, threshold) [SAL] (gate sound lookahead risetime falltime floor threshold) [LISP] Generate an exponential rise and decay intended for noise gate implementation. The decay starts when the signal drops below threshold and stays there for longer than lookahead (a FLONUM in seconds). (The signal begins to drop when the signal crosses threshold, not after lookahead.) Decay continues until the value reaches floor (a FLONUM), at which point the decay stops and the output value is held constant. Either during the decay or after the floor is reached, if the signal goes above threshold, then the ouptut value will rise to unity (1.0) at the point the signal crosses the threshold. Because of internal lookahead, the signal actually begins to rise before the signal crosses threshold. The rise is a constant-rate exponential and set so that a rise from floor to unity occurs in risetime. Similary, the fall is a constant-rate exponential such that a fall from unity to floor takes falltime. hz-to-step(freq) [SAL] (hz-to-step freq) [LISP] Returns a step number for freq (in hz), which can be either a number of a SOUND. The result has the same type as the argument. See also step-to-hz (below). linear-to-db(x) [SAL] (linear-to-db x) [LISP] Returns the conversion of x from linear to decibels. 1 is converted to 0. 0 is converted to -INF (a special IEEE floating point value.) A factor of 10 represents a 20dB change. If x is a sound, each sample is converted and a sound is returned. If x is a multichannel sound, each channel is converted and a multichannel sound (array) is returned. Note: With sounds, conversion is only performed on actual samples, not on the implicit zeros before the beginning and after the termination of the sound. Start times, sample rates, etc. are taken from x. linear-to-vel(x [, float]) [SAL] (linear-to-vel x [float]) [LISP] Returns the conversion of x from linear amplitude to MIDI velocity using a rule that maps -60 dB to 1 and 0 dB to 127. The MIDI velocity varies linearly with the square root of amplitude. The default value of float is nil and the result is a FIXNUM clipped to fall in the legal range of 1-127, but if a non-nil value is provided, the result is a FLONUM that is not rounded or clipped. The input parameter must be a FIXNUM or FLONUM. Sounds are not allowed. log(x) [SAL] (log x) [LISP] Calculates the natural log of x (a FLONUM). (See s-log for a version that operates on signals.) set-control-srate(rate) [SAL] (set-control-srate rate) [LISP] Sets the default sampling rate for control signals to rate by setting *default-control-srate* and reinitializing the environment. Do not call this within any synthesis function (see the control-srate-abs transformation, Section 7.3). set-sound-srate(rate) [SAL] (set-sound-srate rate) [LISP] Sets the default sampling rate for audio signals to rate by setting *default-sound-srate* and reinitializing the environment. Do not call this within any synthesis function (see the sound-srate-abs transformation, Section 7.3). set-pitch-names() [SAL] (set-pitch-names) [LIS] Initializes pitch variables (c0, cs0, df0, d0, ... b0, c1, ... b7). A440 (the default tuning) is represented by the step 69.0, so the variable a4 (fourth octave A) is set to 69.0. You can change the tuning by setting *A4-Hertz* to a value (in Hertz) and calling set-pitch-names to reinitialize the pitch variables. Note that this will result in non-integer step values. It does not alter the mapping from step values to frequency. There is no built-in provision for stretched scales or non-equal temperament, although users can write or compute any desired fractional step values. step-to-hz(pitch) [SAL] (step-to-hz pitch) [LISP] Returns a frequency in hz for pitch, a step number or a SOUND type representing a time-varying step number. The result is a FLONUM if pitch is a number, and a SOUND if pitch is a SOUND. See also hz-to-step (above). get-duration(dur) [SAL] (get-duration dur) [LISP] Gets the actual duration of of something starting at a local time of 0 and ending at a local time of dur times the current sustain. For convenience, *rslt* is set to the global time corresponding to local time zero. get-loud() [SAL] (get-loud) [LISP] Gets the current value of the *loud* environment variable. If *loud* is a signal, it is evaluated at local time 0 and a number (FLONUM) is returned. get-sustain() [SAL] (get-sustain) [LISP] Gets the current value of the *sustain* environment variable. If *sustain* is a signal, it is evaluated at local time 0 and a number (FLONUM) is returned. get-transpose() [SAL] (get-transpose) [LISP] Gets the current value of the *transpose* environment variable. If *transpose* is a signal, it is evaluated at local time 0 and a number (FLONUM) is returned. get-warp() [SAL] (get-warp) [LISP] Gets a function corresponding to the current value of the *warp* environment variable. For efficiency, *warp* is stored in three parts representing a shift, a scale factor, and a continuous warp function. Get-warp is used to retrieve a signal that maps logical time to real time. This signal combines the information of all three components of *warp* into a single signal. If the continuous warp function component is not present (indicating that the time warp is a simple combination of at and stretch transformations), an error is raised. This function is mainly for internal system use. In the future, get-warp will probably be reimplemented to always return a signal and never raise an error. LOCAL-to-global(local-time) [SAL] (local-to-global local-time) [LISP] Converts a score (local) time to a real (global) time according to the current environment. osc-enable(flag) [SAL] (osc-enable flag) [LISP] Enable or disable Open Sound Control. (See Appendix II.) Enabling creates a socket and a service that listens for UDP packets on port 7770. Currently, only two messages are accepted by Nyquist. The first is of the form /slider with an integer index and a floating point value. These set internal slider values accessed by the snd-slider function. The second is of the form /wii/orientation with two floating point values. This message is a special case to support the DarwiinRemoteOsc program which can relay data from a Nintendo WiiMote device to Nyquist via OSC. The two orientation values control sliders 0 and 1. Disabling terminates the service (polling for messages) and closes the socket. The previous state of enablement is returned, e.g. if OSC is enabled and flag is nil, OSC is disabled and T (true) is returned because OSC was enabled at the time of the call. This function only exists if Nyquist is compiled with the compiler flag OSC. Otherwise, the function exists but always returns the symbol DISABLED. Consider lowering the audio latency using snd-set- latency. Warning: there is the potential for network-based attacks using OSC. It is tempting to add the ability to evaluate XLISP expressions sent via OSC, but this would create unlimited and unprotected access to OSC clients. For now, it is unlikely that an attacker could do more than manipulate slider values. snd-set-latency(latency) [SAL] (snd-set-latency latency) [LISP] Set the latency requested when Nyquist plays sound to latency, a FLONUM. The previous value is returned. The default is 0.3 seconds. To avoid glitches, the latency should be greater than the time required for garbage collection and message printing and any other system activity external to Nyquist. vel-to-db(x) [SAL] (vel-to-db x) [LISP] Returns the conversion of x from MIDI velocity to decibels using a rule that maps MIDI velocity 1 to -60 dB and 127 to 0 dB. The amplitude is proportional to the square of MIDI velocity. The input x can be a FIXNUM or FLONUM but not a sound. The result is a FLONUM. db-to-vel(x) [SAL] (db-to-vel x) [LISP] Returns the conversion of x from decibels to MIDI velocity using a rule that maps 0 dB to MIDI velocity 127 and -60 dB to MIDI velocity 1. The MIDI velocity is proportional to the square root of the amplitude. The input x can be a FIXNUM or FLONUM but not a sound. The result is a FLONUM. vel-to-linear(x) [SAL] (vel-to-linear x) [LISP] Returns the conversion of x from MIDI velocity to linear amplitude ratio using a rule that maps MIDI velocity 1 to -60 dB (0.001) and 127 to unity gain. The amplitude is proportional to the square of MIDI velocity. The input x can be a FIXNUM or FLONUM but not a sound. The result is a FLONUM. linear-to-vel(x) [SAL] (linear-to-vel x) [LISP] Returns the conversion of x from lineary amplitude to MIDI velocity using a rule that maps unity gain to 127 and -60 dB (0.001) to MIDI velocity 1. The velocity is proportional to the square root of the linear amplitude. The input x can be a FIXNUM or FLONUM but not a sound. The result is a FLONUM. 7.2. Behaviors 7.2.1. Using Previously Created Sounds These behaviors take a sound and transform that sound according to the environment. These are useful when writing code to make a high-level function from a low-level function, or when cuing sounds which were previously created: cue(sound) [SAL] (cue sound) [LISP] Applies *loud*, the starting time from *warp*, *start*, and *stop* to sound. cue-file(filename) [SAL] (cue-file filename) [LISP] Same as cue, except the sound comes from the named file, samples from which are coerced to the current default *sound-srate* sample rate. sound(sound) [SAL] (sound sound) [LISP] Applies *loud*, *warp*, *start*, and *stop* to sound. control(sound) [SAL] (control sound) [LISP] This function is identical to sound, but by convention is used when sound is a control signal rather than an audio signal. 7.2.2. Sound Synthesis These functions provide musically interesting creation behaviors that react to their environment; these are the ``unit generators'' of Nyquist: const(value [, duration]) [SAL] (const value [duration]) [LISP] Creates a constant function at the *control-srate*. Every sample has the given value, and the default duration is 1.0. See also s-rest, which is equivalent to calling const with zero, and note that you can pass scalar constants (numbers) to sim, sum, and mult where they are handled more efficiently than constant functions. env(t , t , t , l , l , l , [dur]) [SAL] 1 2 4 1 2 3 (env t t t l l l dur) [LISP] 1 2 4 1 2 3 Creates a 4-phase envelope. t is the duration of phase i, and l is the i i final level of phase i. t is implied by the duration dur, and l is 0.0. 3 4 If dur is not supplied, then 1.0 is assumed. The envelope duration is the product of dur, *stretch*, and *sustain*. If t + t + 2ms + t is 1 2 4 greater than the envelope duration, then a two-phase envelope is substituted that has an attack/release time ratio of t /t . The sample 1 4 rate of the returned sound is *control-srate*. (See pwl for a more general piece-wise linear function generator.) The effect of time warping is to warp the starting time and ending time. The intermediate breakpoints are then computed as described above. exp-dec(hold, halfdec, length) [SAL] (exp-dec hold halfdec length) [LISP] This convenient envelope shape is a special case of pwev (see Section 7.2.2.2). The envelope starts at 1 and is constant for hold seconds. It then decays with a half life of halfdec seconds until length. (The total duration is length.) In other words, the amplitude falls by half each halfdec seconds. When stretched, this envelope scales linearly, which means the hold time increases and the half decay time increases. force-srate(srate, sound) [SAL] (force-srate srate sound) [LISP] Returns a sound which is up- or down-sampled to srate. Interpolation is linear, and no prefiltering is applied in the down-sample case, so aliasing may occur. See also resample. lfo(freq [, duration, table, phase]) [SAL] (lfo freq duration table phase) [LISP] Just like osc (below) except this computes at the *control-srate* and frequency is specified in Hz. Phase is specified in degrees. The *transpose* and *sustain* is not applied. The effect of time warping is to warp the starting and ending times. The signal itself will have a constant unwarped frequency. fmlfo(freq [, table, phase]) [SAL] (fmlfo freq [table phase]) [LISP] A low-frequency oscillator that computes at the *control-srate* using a sound to specify a time-varying frequency in Hz. Phase is a FLONUM in degrees. The duration of the result is determined by freq. maketable(sound) [SAL] (maketable sound) [LISP] Assumes that the samples in sound constitute one period of a wavetable, and returns a wavetable suitable for use as the table argument to the osc function (see below). Currently, tables are limited to 1,000,000 samples. This limit is the compile-time constant max_table_len set in sound.h. build-harmonic(n, table-size) [SAL] (build-harmonic n table-size) [LISP] Intended for constructing wavetables, this function returns a sound of length table-size samples containing n periods of a sinusoid. These can be scaled and summed to form a waveform with the desired harmonic content. See page 2 for an example. control-warp(warp-fn, signal, [wrate]) [SAL] (control-warp warp-fn signal wrate) [LISP] Applies a warp function warp-fn to signal using function composition. If wrate is omitted, linear interpolation is used. warp-fn is a mapping from score (logical) time to real time, and signal is a function from score time to real values. The result is a function from real time to real values at a sample rate of *control-srate*. See sound-warp for an explanation of wrate and high-quality warping. mult(beh , beh , ...) [SAL] 1 2 (mult beh beh ...) [LISP] 1 2 Returns the product of behaviors. The arguments may also be numbers, in which case simple multiplication is performed. If a number and sound are mixed, the scale function is used to scale the sound by the number. When sounds are multiplied, the resulting sample rate is the maximum sample rate of the factors. prod(beh , beh , ...) [SAL] 1 2 (prod beh beh ...) [LISP] 1 2 Same as mult. pan(sound, where) [SAL] (pan sound where) [LISP] Pans sound (a behavior) according to where (another behavior or a number). Sound must be monophonic. Where may be a monophonic sound (e.g. (ramp) or simply a number (e.g. 0.5). In either case, where should range from 0 to 1, where 0 means pan completely left, and 1 means pan completely right. For intermediate values, the sound to each channel is scaled linearly. Presently, pan does not check its arguments carefully. prod(beh , beh , ...) [SAL] 1 2 (prod beh beh ...) [LISP] 1 2 Same as mult. resample(sound, srate) [SAL] (resample sound srate) [LISP] Similar to force-srate, except high-quality interpolation is used to prefilter and reconstruct the signal at the new sample rate. Also, the result is scaled by 0.95 to reduce problems with clipping. (See also sound-warp.) scale(scale, sound) [SAL] (scale scale sound) [LISP] Scales the amplitude of sound by the factor scale. Identical function to snd-scale, except that it handles multichannel sounds. Sample rates, start times, etc. are taken from sound. scale-db(db, sound) [SAL] (scale-db db sound) [LISP] Scales the amplitude of sound by the factor db, expressed in decibels. Sample rates, start times, etc. are taken from sound. scale-srate(sound, scale) [SAL] (scale-srate sound scale) [LISP] Scales the sample rate of sound by scale factor. This has the effect of linearly shrinking or stretching time (the sound is not upsampled or downsampled). This is a special case of snd-xform (see Section 7.6.2). shift-time(sound, shift) [SAL] (shift-time sound shift) [LISP] Shift sound by shift seconds. If the sound is f(t), then the result is f(t-shift). See Figure 5. This is a special case of snd-xform (see Section 7.6.2). Figure 5: The shift-time function shifts a sound in time according to its shift argument. sound-warp(warp-fn, signal [, wrate]) [SAL] (sound-warp warp-fn signal [wrate]) [LISP] Applies a warp function warp-fn to signal using function composition. If the optional parameter wrate is omitted or NIL, linear interpolation is used. Otherwise, high-quality sample interpolation is used, and the result is scaled by 0.95 to reduce problems with clipping (interpolated samples can exceed the peak values of the input samples.) warp-fn is a mapping from score (logical) time to real time, and signal is a function from score time to real values. The result is a function from real time to real values at a sample rate of *sound-srate*. See also control-warp. If wrate is not NIL, it must be a number. The parameter indicates that high-quality resampling should be used and specifies the sample rate for the inverse of warp-fn. Use the lowest number you can. (See below for details.) Note that high-quality resampling is much slower than linear interpolation. To perform high-quality resampling by a fixed ratio, as opposed to a variable ratio allowed in sound-warp, use scale-srate to stretch or shrink the sound, and then resample to restore the original sample rate. Sound-warp and control-warp both take the inverse of warp-fn to get a function from real time to score time. Each sample of this inverse is thus a score time; signal is evaluated at each of these score times to yield a value, which is the desired result. The sample rate of the inverse warp function is somewhat arbitrary. With linear interpolation, the inverse warp function sample rate is taken to be the output sample rate. Note, however, that the samples of the inverse warp function are stored as 32-bit floats, so they have limited precision. Since these floats represent sample times, rounding can be a problem. Rounding in this case is equivalent to adding jitter to the sample times. Nyquist ignores this problem for ordinary warping, but for high-quality warping, the jitter cannot be ignored. The solution is to use a rather low sample rate for the inverse warp function. Sound-warp can then linearly interpolate this signal using double-precision floats to minimize jitter between samples. The sample rate is a compromise: a low sample rate minimizes jitter, while a high sample rate does a better job of capturing detail (e.g. rapid fluctuations) in the warp function. A good rule of thumb is to use at most 1,000 to 10,000 samples for the inverse warp function. For example, if the result will be 1 minute of sound, use a sample rate of 3000 samples / 60 seconds = 50 samples/second. Because Nyquist has no advance information about the warp function, the inverse warp function sample rate must be provided as a parameter. When in doubt, just try something and let your ears be the judge. integrate(signal) [SAL] (integrate signal) [LISP] Computes the integral of signal. The start time, sample rate, etc. are taken from signal. slope(signal) [SAL] (slope signal) [LISP] Computes the first derivative (slope) of signal. The start time, sample rate, etc. are taken from signal. 7.2.2.1. Oscillators osc(pitch [, duration, table, phase]) [SAL] (osc pitch [duration table phase]) [LISP] Returns a sound which is the table oscillated at pitch for the given duration, starting with the phase (in degrees). Defaults are: duration 1.0 (second), table *table*, phase 0.0. The default value of *table* is a sinusoid. Duration is stretched by *warp* and *sustain*, amplitude is nominally 1, but scaled by *loudness*, the start time is logical time 0, transformed by *warp*, and the sample rate is *sound-srate*. The effect of time-warping is to warp the starting and ending times only; the signal has a constant unwarped frequency. Note 1: table is a list of the form (sound pitch-number periodic) where the first element is a sound, the second is the pitch of the sound (this is not redundant, because the sound may represent any number of periods), and the third element is T if the sound is one period of a periodic signal, or nil if the sound is a sample that should not be looped. The maximum table size is set by max_table_len in sound.h, and is currently set to 1,000,000. Note 2: in the current implementation, it is assumed that the output should be periodic. See snd-down and snd-up for resampling one-shot sounds to a desired sample rate. A future version of osc will handle both cases. Note 3: When osc is called, memory is allocated for the table, and samples are copied from the sound (the first element of the list which is the table parameter) to the memory. Every instance of osc has a private copy of the table, so the total storage can become large in some cases, for example in granular synthesis with many instances of osc. In some cases, it may make sense to use snd-flatten (see Section 7.1.3) to cause the sound to be fully realized, after which the osc and its table memory can be reclaimed by garbage collection. The partial function (see below) does not need a private table and does not use much space. partial(pitch, env) [SAL] (partial pitch env) [LISP] Returns a sinusoid at the indicated pitch; the sound is multiplied by env. The start time and duration are taken from env, which is of course subject to transformations. The sample rate is *sound-srate*. The partial function is faster than osc. sine(pitch [, duration]) [SAL] (sine pitch [duration]) [LISP] Returns a sinusoid at the indicated pitch. The sample rate is *sound-srate*. This function is like osc with respect to transformations. The sine function is faster than osc. hzosc(hz [, table, phase]) [SAL] (hzosc hz [table phase]) [LISP] Returns a sound which is the table oscillated at hz starting at phase degrees. The default table is *table* and the default phase is 0.0. The default duration is 1.0, but this is stretched as in osc (see above). The hz parameter may be a SOUND, in which case the duration of the result is the duration of hz. The sample rate is *sound-srate*. osc-saw(hz) [SAL] (osc-saw hz) [LISP] Returns a sawtooth waveshape at the indicated frequency (in Hertz). The sample rate is *sound-srate*. The hz parameter may be a sound as in hzosc (see above). osc-tri(hz) [SAL] (osc-tri hz) [LISP] Returns a triangle waveshape at the indicated frequency (in Hertz). The sample rate is *sound-srate*. The hz parameter may be a sound as in hzosc (see above). osc-pulse(hz, bias [, compare-shape]) [SAL] (osc-pulse hz bias [compare-shape]) [LISP] Returns a square pulse with variable width at the indicated frequency (in Hertz). The bias parameter controls the pulse width and should be between -1 and +1, giving a pulse width from 0% (always at -1) to 100% (always at +1). When bias is zero, a square wave is generated. Bias may be a SOUND to create varying pulse width. If bias changes rapidly, strange effects may occur. The optional compare-shape defaults to a hard step at zero, but other shapes may be used to achieve non-square pulses. The osc-pulse behavior is written in terms of other behaviors and defined in the file nyquist.lsp using just a few lines of code. Read the code for the complete story. amosc(pitch, modulation [, table, phase]) [SAL] (amosc pitch modulation [table phase]) [LISP] Returns a sound which is table oscillated at pitch. The output is multiplied by modulation for the duration of the sound modulation. osc-table defaults to *table*, and phase is the starting phase (default 0.0 degrees) within osc-table. The sample rate is *sound-srate*. fmosc(pitch, modulation [, table, phase]) [SAL] (fmosc pitch modulation [table phase]) [LISP] Returns a sound which is table oscillated at pitch plus modulation for the duration of the sound modulation. osc-table defaults to *table*, and phase is the starting phase (default 0.0 degrees) within osc-table. The modulation is expressed in hz, e.g. a sinusoid modulation signal with an amplitude of 1.0 (2.0 peak to peak), will cause a +/N 1.0 hz frequency deviation in sound. Negative frequencies are correctly handled. The sample rate is *sound-srate*. fmfb(pitch, index [, dur]) [SAL] (fmfb pitch index [dur]) [LISP] Returns a sound generated by feedback FM synthesis. The pitch parameter (given in the usual half-step units) controls the fundamental frequency. The index is the amount of feedback, which may be a SOUND or a FLONUM. If index is a FLONUM, dur must be provided (a FLONUM) to specify the duration. Otherwise, dur is ignored if present and the duration is determined by that of index. The sample rate is *sound-srate*. A sinusoid table is used. If index is below 1.1, this generates a sawtooth-like waveform. buzz(n, pitch, modulation) [SAL] (buzz n pitch modulation) [LISP] Returns a sound with n harmonics of equal amplitude and a total amplitude of 1.0, using a well-known function of two cosines. If n (an integer) is less than 1, it is set to 1. Aliasing will occur if n is too large. The duration is determined by the duration of the sound modulation, which is a frequency modulation term expressed in Hz (see Section 7.2.2.1). Negative frequencies are correctly handled. The sample rate is *sound-srate*. pluck(pitch [, duration, final-amplitude]) [SAL] (pluck pitch [duration final-amplitude]) [LISP] Returns a sound at the given pitch created using a modified Karplus-Strong plucked string algorithm. The tone decays from an amplitude of about 1.0 to about final-amplitude in duration seconds. The default values are to decay to 0.001 (-60dB) in 1 second. The sample rate is *sound-srate*. siosc(pitch, modulation, tables) [SAL] (siosc pitch modulation tables) [LISP] Returns a sound constructed by interpolating through a succession of periodic waveforms. The frequency is given (in half steps) by pitch to which a modulation signal (in hz) is added, exactly as in fmosc. The tables specify a list of waveforms as follows: (table0 time1 table2 ... timeN tableN), where each table is a sound representing one period. Each time is a time interval measured from the starting time. The time is scaled by the nominal duration (computed using (local-to-global (get-sustain))) to get the actual time. Note that this implies linear stretching rather than continuous timewarping of the interpolation or the breakpoints. The waveform is table0 at the starting time, table1 after time1 (scaled as described), and so on. The duration and logical stop time is given by modulation. If modulation is shorter than timeN, then the full sequence of waveforms is not used. If modulation is longer than timeN, tableN is used after timeN without further interpolation. sampler(pitch, modulation [, sample, npoints]) [SAL] (sampler pitch modulation [sample npoints]) [LISP] Returns a sound constructed by reading a sample from beginning to end and then splicing on copies of the same sound from a loop point to the end. The pitch and modulation parameters are used as in fmosc described above. The optional sample (which defaults to the global variable *table* is a list of the form (sound pitch-number loop-start) where the first element is a sound containing the sample, the second is the pitch of the sample, and the third element is the time of the loop point. If the loop point is not in the bounds of the sound, it is set to zero. The optional npoints specifies how many points should be used for sample interpolation. Currently this parameter defaults to 2 and only 2-point (linear) interpolation is implemented. It is an error to modulate such that the frequency is negative. Note also that the loop point may be fractional. The sample rate is *sound-srate*. 7.2.2.2. Piece-wise Approximations There are a number of related behaviors for piece-wise approximations to functions. The simplest of these, pwl was mentioned earlier in the manual. It takes a list of breakpoints, assuming an initial point at (0, 0), and a final value of 0. An analogous piece-wise exponential function, pwe, is provided. Its implicit starting and stopping values are 1 rather than 0. Each of these has variants. You can specify the initial and final values (instead of taking the default). You can specify time in intervals rather than cummulative time. Finally, you can pass a list rather than an argument list. This leads to 16 versions: Piece-wise Linear Functions: Cummulative Time: Default initial point at (0, 0), final value at 0: pwl pwl-list Explicit initial value: pwlv pwlv-list Relative Time: Default initial point at (0, 0), final value at 0: pwlr pwlr-list Explicit initial value: pwlvr pwlvr-list Piece-wise Exponential Functions: Cummulative Time: Default initial point at (0, 1), final value at 1: pwe pwe-list Explicit initial value: pwev pwev-list Relative Time: Default initial point at (0, 1), final value at 1: pwer pwer-list Explicit initial value: pwevr pwevr-list All of these functions are implemented in terms of pwl (see nyquist.lsp for the implementations. There are infinite opportunities for errors in these functions: if you leave off a data point, try to specify points in reverse order, try to create an exponential that goes to zero or negative values, or many other bad things, the behavior is not well-defined. Nyquist should not crash, but Nyquist does not necessarily attempt to report errors at this time. pwl(t , l , t , l , ... t ) [SAL] 1 1 2 2 n (pwl t l t l ... t ) [LISP] 1 1 2 2 n Creates a piece-wise linear envelope with breakpoints at (0, 0), (t , l ), 1 1 (t , l ), ... (t , 0). The breakpoint times are scaled linearly by the 2 2 n value of *sustain* (if *sustain* is a SOUND, it is evaluated once at the starting time of the envelope). Each breakpoint time is then mapped according to *warp*. The result is a linear interpolation (unwarped) between the breakpoints. The sample rate is *control-srate*. Breakpoint times are quantized to the nearest sample time. If you specify one or more breakpoints withing one sample period, pwl attempts to give a good approximation to the specified function. In particular, if two breakpoints are simultaneous, pwl will move one of them to an adjacent sample, producing a steepest possible step in the signal. The exact details of this ``breakpoint munging'' is subject to change in future versions. Please report any cases where breakpoint lists give unexpected behaviors. The author will try to apply the ``principle of least surprise'' to the design. Note that the times are relative to 0; they are not durations of each envelope segment. pwl-list(breakpoints) [SAL] (pwl-list breakpoints) [LISP] If you have a list of breakpoints, you can use apply to apply the pwl function to the breakpoints, but if the list is very long (hundreds or thousands of points), you might get a stack overflow because XLISP has a fixed-size argument stack. Instead, call pwl-list, passing one argument, the list of breakpoints. pwlv(l , t , l , t , t , ... t , l ) [SAL] 1 2 2 3 3 n n (pwlv l t l t t ... t l ) [LISP] 1 2 2 3 3 n n Creates a piece-wise linear envelope with breakpoints at (0, l ), (t , 1 2 l ), etc., ending with (t , l . Otherwise, the behavior is like that of 2 n n pwl. pwlv-list(breakpoints) [SAL] (pwlv-list breakpoints) [LISP] A version of pwlv that takes a single list of breakpoints as its argument. See pwl-list above for the rationale. pwlr(i , l , i , l , ... i ) [SAL] 1 1 2 2 n (pwlr i l i l ... i ) [LISP] 1 1 2 2 n Creates a piece-wise linear envelope with breakpoints at (0, 0), (t , l ), 1 1 (t , l ), ... (t , 0), where t is the sum of i through i . In other 2 2 n j 1 j words, the breakpoint times are specified in terms of intervals rather than cummulative time. Otherwise, the behavior is like that of pwl. pwlr-list(breakpoints) [SAL] (pwlr-list breakpoints) [LISP] A version of pwlr that takes a single list of breakpoints as its argument. See pwl-list above for the rationale. pwlvr(l , i , l , i , i , ... i , l ) [SAL] 1 2 2 3 3 n n (pwlvr l i l i i ... i l ) [LISP] 1 2 2 3 3 n n Creates a piece-wise linear envelope with breakpoints at (0, l ), (t , 1 2 l ), etc., ending with (t , l , where t is the sum of i through i . In 2 n n j 2 j other words, the breakpoint times are specified in terms of intervals rather than cummulative time. Otherwise, the behavior is like that of pwlv. pwlvr-list(breakpoints) [SAL] (pwlvr-list breakpoints) [LISP] A version of pwlvr that takes a single list of breakpoints as its argument. See pwl-list above for the rationale. pwe(t , l , t , l , ... t ) [SAL] 1 1 2 2 n (pwe t l t l ... t ) [LISP] 1 1 2 2 n Creates a piece-wise exponential envelope with breakpoints at (0, 1), (t , 1 l ), (t , l ), ... (t , 1). Exponential segments means that the ratio of 1 2 2 n values from sample to sample is constant within the segment. (The current implementation actually takes the log of each value, computes a piece-wise exponential from the points using pwl, then exponentiates each resulting sample. A faster implementation is certainly possible!) Breakpoint values (l ) must be greater than zero. Otherwise, this function is j similar to pwl, including stretch by *sustain*, mapping according to *warp*, sample rate based on *control-srate*, and "breakpoint munging" (see pwl described above). Default initial and final values are of dubious value with exponentials. See pwev below for the function you are probably looking for. pwe-list(breakpoints) [SAL] (pwe-list breakpoints) [LISP] A version of pwe that takes a single list of breakpoints as its argument. See pwl-list above for the rationale. pwev(l , t , l , t , t , ... t , l ) [SAL] 1 2 2 3 3 n n (pwev l t l t t ... t l ) [LISP] 1 2 2 3 3 n n Creates a piece-wise exponential envelope with breakpoints at (0, l ), 1 (t , l ), etc., ending with (t , l ). Otherwise, the behavior is like 2 2 n n that of pwe. pwev-list(breakpoints) [SAL] (pwev-list breakpoints) [LISP] A version of pwev that takes a single list of breakpoints as its argument. See pwl-list above for the rationale. pwer(i , l , i , l , ... i ) [SAL] 1 1 2 2 n (pwer i l i l ... i ) [LISP] 1 1 2 2 n Creates a piece-wise exponential envelope with breakpoints at (0, 1), (t , 1 l ), (t , l ), ... (t , 1), where t is the sum of i through i . In 1 2 2 n j 1 j other words, the breakpoint times are specified in terms of intervals rather than cummulative time. Otherwise, the behavior is like that of pwe. Consider using pwerv instead of this one. pwer-list(breakpoints) [SAL] (pwer-list breakpoints) [LISP] A version of pwer that takes a single list of breakpoints as its argument. See pwl-list above for the rationale. pwevr(l , i , l , i , i , ... i , l ) [SAL] 1 2 2 3 3 n n (pwevr l i l i i ... i l ) [LISP] 1 2 2 3 3 n n Creates a piece-wise exponential envelope with breakpoints at (0, l ), 1 (t , l ), etc., ending with (t , l , where t is the sum of i through i . 2 2 n n j 2 j In other words, the breakpoint times are specified in terms of intervals rather than cummulative time. Otherwise, the behavior is like that of pwev. Note that this is similar to the csound GEN05 generator. Which is uglier, GEN05 or pwevr? pwevr-list(breakpoints) [SAL] (pwevr-list breakpoints) [LISP] A version of pwevr that takes a single list of breakpoints as its argument. See pwl-list above for the rationale. 7.2.2.3. Filter Behaviors alpass(sound, decay, hz [, minhz]) [SAL] (alpass sound decay hz [minhz]) [LISP] Applies an all-pass filter to sound. This all-pass filter creates a delay effect without the resonances of a comb filter. The decay time of the filter is given by decay. The hz parameter must be a number or sound greater than zero. It is used to compute delay, which is then rounded to the nearest integer number of samples (so the frequency is not always exact. Higher sampling rates yield better delay resolution.) The decay may be a sound or a number. In either case, it must also be positive. (Implementation note: an exponentiation is needed to convert decay into the feedback parameter, and exponentiation is typically more time-consuming than the filter operation itself. To get high performance, provide decay at a low sample rate.) The resulting sound will have the start time, sample rate, etc. of sound. If hz is of type SOUND, the delay may be time-varying. Linear interpolation is then used for fractional sample delay, but it should be noted that linear interpolation implies a low-pass transfer function. Thus, this filter may behave differently with a constant SOUND than it does with a FLONUM value for hz. In addition, if hz is of type SOUND, then minhz is required. The hz parameter will be clipped to be greater than minhz, placing an upper bound on the delay buffer length. comb(sound, decay, hz) [SAL] (comb sound decay hz) [LISP] Applies a comb filter to sound. A comb filter emphasizes (resonates at) frequencies that are multiples of a hz. The decay time of the resonance is given by decay. This is a variation on feedback-delay (see below). The hz parameter must be a number greater than zero. It is used to compute delay, which is then rounded to the nearest integer number of samples (so the frequency is not always exact. Higher sampling rates yield better delay resolution.) The decay may be a sound or a number. In either case, it must also be positive. (Implementation note: an exponentiation is needed to convert decay into the feedback parameter for feedback-delay, and exponentiation is typically more time-consuming than the filter operation itself. To get high performance, provide decay at a low sample rate.) The resulting sound will have the start time, sample rate, etc. of sound. congen(gate, risetime, falltime) [SAL] (congen gate risetime falltime) [LISP] Implements an analog synthesizer-style contour generator. The input gate normally goes from 0.0 to 1.0 to create an attack and from 1.0 to 0.0 to start a release. During the attack (output is increasing), the output converges half-way to gate in risetime (a FLONUM) seconds. During the decay, the half-time is falltime seconds. The sample rate, start time, logical stop, and terminate time all come from gate. If you want a nice decay, be sure that the gate goes to zero and stays there for awhile before gate terminates, because congen (and all Nyquist sounds) go immediately to zero at termination time. For example, you can use pwl to build a pulse followed by some zero time: (pwl 0 1 duty 1 duty 0 1) Assuming duty is less than 1.0, this will be a pulse of duration duty followed by zero for a total duration of 1.0. (congen (pwl 0 1 duty 1 duty 0 1) 0.01 0.05) will have a duration of 1.0 because that is the termination time of the pwl input. The decaying release of the resulting envelope will be truncated to zero at time 1.0. (Since the decay is theoretically infinite, there is no way to avoid truncation, although you could multiply by another envelope that smoothly truncates to zero in the last millisecond or two to get both an exponential decay and a smooth final transition to zero.) convolve(sound, response) [SAL] (convolve sound response) [LISP] Convolves two signals. The first can be any length, but the computation time per sample and the total space required are proportional to the length of response. The start time, logical stop time, and sample rate of the output match those of the input sound. The physical stop time of the result is the physical stop time of sound plus the duration of the response so that the result sound includes the ``tail'' of the filter response. The response is assumed to have the same sample rate as sound. The samples are used as is without resampling. feedback-delay(sound, delay, feedback) [SAL] (feedback-delay sound delay feedback) [LISP] Applies feedback delay to sound. The delay must be a number (in seconds). It is rounded to the nearest sample to determine the length of the delay. The sample rate is the maximum from sound and feedback (if feedback is also a sound). The amound of feedback should be less than one to avoid an exponential increase in amplitude. The start time and stop time, and logical stop time are taken from sound. Since output is truncated at the stop time of sound, you may want to append some silence to sound to give the filter time to decay. lp(sound, cutoff) [SAL] (lp sound cutoff) [LISP] Filters sound using a first-order Butterworth low-pass filter. Cutoff may be a float or a signal (for time-varying filtering) and expresses hertz. Filter coefficients (requiring trig functions) are recomputed at the sample rate of cutoff. The resulting sample rate, start time, etc. are taken from sound. tone(sound, cutoff) [SAL] (tone sound cutoff) [LISP] No longer defined; use lp instead, or define it by adding (setfn tone lp) to your program. hp(sound, cutoff) [SAL] (hp sound cutoff) [LISP] Filters sound using a first-order Butterworth high-pass filter. Cutoff may be a float or a signal (for time-varying filtering) and expresses hertz. Filter coefficients (requiring trig functions) are recomputed at the sample rate of cutoff. This filter is an exact complement of lp. atone(sound, cutoff) [SAL] (atone sound cutoff) [LISP] No longer defined; use hp instead, or define it by adding (setfn atone hp) to your program. reson(sound, center, bandwidth, n) [SAL] (reson sound center bandwidth n) [LISP] Apply a resonating filter to sound with center frequency center (in hertz), which may be a float or a signal. Bandwidth is the filter bandwidth (in hertz), which may also be a signal. Filter coefficients (requiring trig functions) are recomputed at each new sample of either center or bandwidth, and coefficients are not interpolated. The last parameter n specifies the type of normalization as in Csound: A value of 1 specifies a peak amplitude response of 1.0; all frequencies other than hz are attenuated. A value of 2 specifies the overall RMS value of the amplitude response is 1.0; thus filtered white noise would retain the same power. A value of zero specifies no scaling. The resulting sample rate, start time, etc. are taken from sound. One application of reson is to simulate resonances in the human vocal tract. See demos/voice_synthesis.htmfor sample code and documentation. areson(sound, center, bandwidth, n) [SAL] (areson sound center bandwidth n) [LISP] The areson filter is an exact complement of reson such that if both are applied to the same signal with the same parameters, the sum of the results yeilds the original signal. shape(signal, table, origin) [SAL] (shape signal table origin) [LISP] A waveshaping function. Use table as a function; apply the function to each sample of signal to yield a new sound. Signal should range from -1 to +1. Anything beyond these bounds is clipped. Table is also a sound, but it is converted into a lookup table (similar to table-lookup oscillators). The origin is a FLONUM and gives the time which should be considered the origin of table. (This is important because table cannot have values at negative times, but signal will often have negative values. The origin gives an offset so that you can produce suitable tables.) The output at time t is: table(origin + clip(signal(t)) where clip(x) = max(1, min(-1, x)). (E.g. if table is a signal defined over the interval [0, 2], then origin should be 1.0. The value of table at time 1.0 will be output when the input signal is zero.) The output has the same start time, sample rate, etc. as signal. The shape function will also accept multichannel signals and tables. Further discussion and examples can be found in demos/distortion.htm. The shape function is also used to map frequency to amplitude to achieve a spectral envelope for Shepard tones in demos/shepard.lsp. biquad(signal, b0, b1, b2, a0, a1, a2) [SAL] (biquad signal b0 b1 b2 a0 a1 a2) [LISP] A fixed-parameter biquad filter. All filter coefficients are FLONUMs. See also lowpass2, highpass2, bandpass2, notch2, allpass2, eq-lowshelf, eq-highshelf, eq-band, lowpass4, lowpass6, highpass4, and highpass8 in this section for convenient variations based on the same filter. The equations for the filter are: z = s + a1 * z + a2 * z , and y = z n n n-1 n-2 n n * b0 + z * b1 + z * b2. n-1 n-2 biquad-m(signal, b0, b1, b2, a0, a1, a2) [SAL] (biquad-m signal b0 b1 b2 a0 a1 a2) [LISP] A fixed-parameter biquad filter with Matlab sign conventions for a0, a1, and a2. All filter coefficients are FLONUMs. lowpass2(signal, hz [, q]) [SAL] (lowpass2 signal hz [q]) [LISP] A fixed-parameter, second-order lowpass filter based on snd-biquad. The cutoff frequency is given by hz (a FLONUM) and an optional Q factor is given by q (a FLONUM). highpass2(signal, hz [, q]) [SAL] (highpass2 signal hz [q]) [LISP] A fixed-parameter, second-order highpass filter based on snd-biquad. The cutoff frequency is given by hz (a FLONUM) and an optional Q factor is given by q (a FLONUM). bandpass2(signal, hz [, q]) [SAL] (bandpass2 signal hz [q]) [LISP] A fixed-parameter, second-order bandpass filter based on snd-biquad. The center frequency is given by hz (a FLONUM) and an optional Q factor is given by q (a FLONUM). notch2(signal, hz [, q]) [SAL] (notch2 signal hz [q]) [LISP] A fixed-parameter, second-order notch filter based on snd-biquad. The center frequency is given by hz (a FLONUM) and an optional Q factor is given by q (a FLONUM). allpass2(signal, hz [, q]) [SAL] (allpass2 signal hz [q]) [LISP] A fixed-parameter, second-order allpass filter based on snd-biquad. The frequency is given by hz (a FLONUM) and an optional Q factor is given by q (a FLONUM). eq-lowshelf(signal, hz, gain [, slope]) [SAL] (eq-lowshelf signal hz gain [slope]) [LISP] A fixed-parameter, second-order bass shelving equalization (EQ) filter based on snd-biquad. The hz parameter (a FLONUM)is the halfway point in the transition, and gain (a FLONUM) is the bass boost (or cut) in dB. The optional slope (a FLONUM) is 1.0 by default, and response becomes peaky at values greater than 1.0. eq-highshelf(signal, hz, gain [, slope]) [SAL] (eq-highshelf signal hz gain [slope]) [LISP] A fixed-parameter, second-order treble shelving equalization (EQ) filter based on snd-biquad. The hz parameter (a FLONUM)is the halfway point in the transition, and gain (a FLONUM) is the treble boost (or cut) in dB. The optional slope (a FLONUM) is 1.0 by default, and response becomes peaky at values greater than 1.0. eq-band(signal, hz, gain, width) [SAL] (eq-band signal hz gain width) [LISP] A fixed- or variable-parameter, second-order midrange equalization (EQ) filter based on snd-biquad, snd-eqbandcv and snd-eqbandvvv. The hz parameter (a FLONUM) is the center frequency, gain (a FLONUM) is the boost (or cut) in dB, and width (a FLONUM) is the half-gain width in octaves. Alternatively, hz, gain, and width may be SOUNDs, but they must all have the same sample rate, e.g. they should all run at the control rate or at the sample rate. lowpass4(signal, hz) [SAL] (lowpass4 signal hz) [LISP] A four-pole Butterworth lowpass filter. The cutoff frequency is hz (a FLONUM). lowpass6(signal, hz) [SAL] (lowpass6 signal hz) [LISP] A six-pole Butterworth lowpass filter. The cutoff frequency is hz (a FLONUM). lowpass8(signal, hz) [SAL] (lowpass8 signal hz) [LISP] An eight-pole Butterworth lowpass filter. The cutoff frequency is hz (a FLONUM). highpass4(signal, hz) [SAL] (highpass4 signal hz) [LISP] A four-pole Butterworth highpass filter. The cutoff frequency is hz (a FLONUM). highpass6(signal, hz) [SAL] (highpass6 signal hz) [LISP] A six-pole Butterworth highpass filter. The cutoff frequency is hz (a FLONUM). highpass8(signal, hz) [SAL] (highpass8 signal hz) [LISP] An eight-pole Butterworth highpass filter. The cutoff frequency is hz (a FLONUM). tapv(sound, offset, vardelay, maxdelay) [SAL] (tapv sound offset vardelay maxdelay) [LISP] A delay line with a variable position tap. Identical to snd-tapv. See it for details (7.6.2). 7.2.2.4. Effects nrev(sound, decay, mix) [SAL] (nrev sound decay mix) [LISP] jcrev(sound, decay, mix) [SAL] (jcrev sound decay mix) [LISP] prcrev(sound, decay, mix) [SAL] (prcrev sound decay mix) [LISP] These reverbs (nrev, jcrev, and prcrev) are implemented in STK (running within Nyquist). nrev derives from Common Music's NRev, which consists of 6 comb filters followed by 3 allpass filters, a lowpass filter, and another allpass in series followed by two allpass filters in parallel. jcrev is the John Chowning reverberator which is based on the use of networks of simple allpass and comb delay filters. This reverb implements three series allpass units, followed by four parallel comb filters, and two decorrelation delay lines in parallel at the output. prcrev is a Perry Cook's reverberator which is based on the Chowning/Moorer/Schroeder reverberators using networks of simple allpass and comb delay filters. This one implements two series allpass units and two parallel comb filters. The sound input may be single or multi-channel. The decay time is in seconds, and mix sets the mixture of input sound reverb sound, where 0.0 means input only (dry) and 1.0 means reverb only (wet). stkchorus(sound, depth, freq, mix [, delay]) [SAL] (stkchorus sound depth freq mix [delay]) [LISP] Chorus implemented in STK. The input sound can be single or multi-channel. The FLONUM parameters depth and freq set the modulation depth from 0 to 1 and modulation frequency (in Hz), and mix sets the mixture of input sound and chorused sound, where 0.0 means input sound only (dry) and 1.0 means chorused sound only (wet). The parameter delay is a FIXNUM representing the median desired delay length in samples. pitshift(sound, shift, mix) [SAL] (pitshift sound shift mix) [LISP] A pitch shifter implemented in STK. The input sound, a single-channel or multi-channel SOUND is pitch-shifted by shift, a FLONUM ratio. A value of 1.0 means no shift. The parameter mix sets the mixture of input and shifted sounds. A value of 0.0 means input only (dry) and a value of 1.0 means shifted sound only (wet). 7.2.2.5. Physical Models clarinet(step, breath-env) [SAL] (clarinet step breath-env) [LISP] A physical model of a clarinet from STK. The step parameter is a FLONUM that controls the tube length, and the breath-env (a SOUND) controls the air pressure and also determines the length of the resulting sound. The breath-env signal should range from zero to one. clarinet-freq(step, breath-env, freq-env) [SAL] (clarinet-freq step breath-env freq-env) [LISP] A variation of clarinet that includes a variable frequency control, freq-env, which specifies frequency deviation in Hz. The duration of the resulting sound is the minimum duration of breath-env and freq-env. These parameters may be of type FLONUM or SOUND. FLONUMs are coerced into SOUNDs with a nominal duration arbitrarily set to 30. clarinet-all(step, breath-env, freq-env, vibrato-freq, vibrato-gain, reed-stiffness, noise) [SAL] (clarinet-all step breath-env freq-env vibrato-freq vibrato-gain reed-stiffness noise) [LISP] A variation of clarinet-freq that includes controls vibrato-freq (a FLONUM for vibrato frequency in Hertz), vibrato-gain (a FLONUM for the amount of amplitude vibrato), reed-stiffness (a FLONUM or SOUND controlling reed stiffness in the clarinet model), and noise (a FLONUM or SOUND controlling noise amplitude in the input air pressure). The vibrato-gain is a number from zero to one, where zero indicates no vibrato, and one indicates a plus/minus 50% change in breath envelope values. Similarly, the noise parameter ranges from zero to one where zero means no noise and one means white noise with a peak amplitude of plus/minus 40% of the breath-env. The reed-stiffness parameter varies from zero to one. The duration of the resulting sound is the minimum duration of breath-env, freq-env, reed-stiffness, and noise. As with clarinet-freq, these parameters may be either FLONUMs or SOUNDs, and FLONUMs are coerced to sounds with a nominal duration of 30. sax(step, breath-env) [SAL] (sax step breath-env) [LISP] A physical model of a sax from STK. The step parameter is a FLONUM that controls the tube length, and the breath-env controls the air pressure and also determines the length of the resulting sound. The breath-env signal should range from zero to one. sax-freq(step, breath-env, freq-env) [SAL] (sax-freq step breath-env freq-env) [LISP] A variation of sax that includes a variable frequency control, freq-env, which specifies frequency deviation in Hz. The duration of the resulting sound is the minimum duration of breath-env and freq-env. These parameters may be of type FLONUM or SOUND. FLONUMs are coerced into SOUNDs with a nominal duration arbitrarily set to 30. sax-all(step, breath-env, freq-env, vibrato-freq, vibrato-gain, reed-stiffness, noise, blow-pos, reed-table-offset) [SAL] (sax-all step breath-env freq-env vibrato-freq vibrato-gain reed-stiffness noise blow-pos reed-table-offset) [LISP] A variation of sax-freq that includes controls vibrato-freq (a FLONUM for vibrato frequency in Hertz), vibrato-gain (a FLONUM for the amount of amplitude vibrato), reed-stiffness (a SOUND controlling reed stiffness in the sax model), noise (a SOUND controlling noise amplitude in the input air pressure), blow-pos (a SOUND controlling the point of excitation of the air column), and reed-table-offset (a SOUND controlling a parameter of the reed model). The vibrato-gain is a number from zero to one, where zero indicates no vibrato, and one indicates a plus/minus 50% change in breath envelope values. Similarly, the noise parameter ranges from zero to one where zero means no noise and one means white noise with a peak amplitude of plus/minus 40% of the breath-env. The reed-stiffness, blow-pos, and reed-table-offset parameters all vary from zero to one. The duration of the resulting sound is the minimum duration of breath-env, freq-env, reed-stiffness, noise, breath-env, blow-pos, and reed-table-offset. As with sax-freq, these parameters may be either FLONUMs or SOUNDs, and FLONUMs are coerced to sounds with a nominal duration of 30. flute(step, breath-env) [SAL] (flute step breath-env) [LISP] A physical model of a flute from STK. The step parameter is a FLONUM that controls the tube length, and the breath-env controls the air pressure and also determines the starting time and length of the resulting sound. The breath-env signal should range from zero to one. flute-freq(step, breath-env, freq-env) [SAL] (flute-freq step breath-env freq-env) [LISP] A variation of flute that includes a variable frequency control, freq-env, which specifies frequency deviation in Hz. The duration of the resulting sound is the minimum duration of breath-env and freq-env. These parameters may be of type FLONUM or SOUND. FLONUMs are coerced into SOUNDs with a nominal duration arbitrary set to 30. flute-all(step, breath-env, freq-env, vibrato-freq, vibrato-gain, jet-delay, noise) [SAL] (flute-all step breath-env freq-env vibrato-freq vibrato-gain jet-delay noise) [LISP] A variation of clarinet-freq that includes controls vibrato-freq (a FLONUM for vibrato frequency in Hz), vibrato-gain (a FLONUM for the amount of amplitude vibrato), jet-delay (a FLONUM or SOUND controlling jet delay in the flute model), and noise (a FLONUM or SOUND controlling noise amplitude in the input air pressure). The vibrato-gain is a number from zero to one where zero means no vibrato, and one indicates a plus/minus 50% change in breath envelope values. Similarly, the noise parameter ranges from zero to one, where zero means no noise and one means white noise with a peak amplitude of plus/minus 40% of the breath-env. The jet-delay is a ratio that controls a delay length from the flute model, and therefore it changes the pitch of the resulting sound. A value of 0.5 will maintain the pitch indicated by the step parameter. The duration of the resulting sound is the minimum duration of breath-env, freq-env, jet-delay, and noise. These parameters may be either FLONUMs or SOUNDs, and FLONUMs are coerced to sounds with a nominal duration of 30. bowed(step, bowpress-env) [SAL] (bowed step bowpress-env) [LISP] A physical model of a bowed string instrument from STK. The step parameter is a FLONUM that controls the string length, and the bowpress-env controls the bow pressure and also determines the duration of the resulting sound. The bowpress-env signal should range from zero to one. bowed-freq(step, bowpress-env, freq-env) [SAL] (bowed-freq step bowpress-env freq-env) [LISP] A variation of bowed that includes a variable frequency control, freq-env, which specifies frequency deviation in Hz. The duration of the resulting sound is the minimum duration of bowpress-env and freq-env. These parameters may be of type FLONUM or SOUND. FLONUMs are coerced into SOUNDs with a nominal duration arbitrarily set to 30s. mandolin(step, dur, &optional detune) [SAL] (mandolin step dur detune) [LISP] A physical model of a plucked double-string instrument from STK. The step parameter is a FLONUM wich specifies the desired pitch, dur means the duration of the resulting sound and detune is a FLONUM that controls the relative detune of the two strings. A value of 1.0 means unison. The default value is 4.0. Note: body-size (see snd-mandolin does not seem to work correctly, so a default value is always used by mandolin. wg-uniform-bar(step, bowpress-env) [SAL] (wg-uniform-bar step bowpress-env) [LISP] wg-tuned-bar(step, bowpress-env) [SAL] (wg-tuned-bar step bowpress-env) [LISP] wg-glass-harm(step, bowpress-env) [SAL] (wg-glass-harm step bowpress-env) [LISP] wg-tibetan-bowl(step, bowpress-env) [SAL] (wg-tibetan-bowl step bowpress-env) [LISP] These sounds are presets for a Banded Wave Guide Percussion instrument implemented in STK. The parameter step is a FLONUM that controls the resultant pitch, and bowpress-env is a SOUND ranging from zero to one that controls a parameter of the model. In addition, bowpress-env determines the duration of the resulting sound. (Note: The bowpress-env does not seems influence the timbral quality of the resulting sound). modalbar(preset, step, dur) [SAL] (modalbar preset step dur) [LISP] A physical model of a struck bar instrument implemented in STK. The parameter preset is one of the symbols MARIMBA, VIBRAPHONE, AGOGO, WOOD1, RESO, WOOD2, BEATS, TWO-FIXED, or CLUMP. The symbol must be quoted, e.g. for SAL syntax use quote(marimba), and for Lisp syntax use 'marimba. The parameter step is a FLONUM that sets the pitch (in steps), and dur is the duration in seconds. sitar(step, dur) [SAL] (sitar step dur) [LISP] A sitar physical model implemented in STK. The parameter step is a FLONUM that sets the pitch, and dur is the duration. 7.2.2.6. More Behaviors clip(sound, peak) [SAL] (clip sound peak) [LISP] Hard limit sound to the given peak, a positive number. The samples of sound are constrained between an upper value of peak and a lower value of N()peak. If sound is a number, clip will return sound limited by peak. If sound is a multichannel sound, clip returns a multichannel sound where each channel is clipped. The result has the type, sample rate, starting time, etc. of sound. s-abs(sound) [SAL] (s-abs sound) [LISP] A generalized absolute value function. If sound is a SOUND, compute the absolute value of each sample. If sound is a number, just compute the absolute value. If sound is a multichannel sound, return a multichannel sound with s-abs applied to each element. The result has the type, sample rate, starting time, etc. of sound. s-sqrt(sound) [SAL] (s-sqrt sound) [LISP] A generalized square root function. If sound is a SOUND, compute the square root of each sample. If sound is a number, just compute the square root. If sound is a multichannel sound, return a multichannel sound with s-sqrt applied to each element. The result has the type, sample rate, starting time, etc. of sound. In taking square roots, if an input sample is less than zero, the corresponding output sample is zero. This is done because the square root of a negative number is undefined. s-exp(sound) [SAL] (s-exp sound) [LISP] x A generalized exponential function. If sound is a SOUND, compute e for x each sample x. If sound is a number x, just compute e . If sound is a multichannel sound, return a multichannel sound with s-exp applied to each element. The result has the type, sample rate, starting time, etc. of sound. s-log(sound) [SAL] (s-log sound) [LISP] A generalized natural log function. If sound is a SOUND, compute ln(x) for each sample x. If sound is a number x, just compute ln(x). If sound is a multichannel sound, return a multichannel sound with s-log applied to each element. The result has the type, sample rate, starting time, etc. of sound. Note that the ln of 0 is undefined (some implementations return negative infinity), so use this function with care. s-max(sound1, sound2) [SAL] (s-max sound1 sound2) [LISP] Compute the maximum of two functions, sound1 and sound2. This function also accepts numbers and multichannel sounds and returns the corresponding data type. The start time of the result is the maximum of the start times of sound1 and sound2. The logical stop time and physical stop time of the result is the minimum of the logical stop and physical stop times respectively of sound1 and sound2. Note, therefore, that the result value is zero except within the bounds of both input sounds. s-min(sound1, sound2) [SAL] (s-min sound1 sound2) [LISP] Compute the minimum of two functions, sound1 and sound2. This function also accepts numbers and multichannel sounds and returns the corresponding data type. The start time of the result is the maximum of the start times of sound1 and sound2. The logical stop time and physical stop time of the result is the minimum of the logical stop and physical stop times respectively of sound1 and sound2. Note, therefore, that the result value is zero except within the bounds of both input sounds. osc-note(pitch [, duration, env, loud, table]) [SAL] (osc-note pitch [duration env loud table]) [LISP] Same as osc, but osc-note multiplies the result by env. The env may be a sound, or a list supplying (t t t l l l ). The result has a sample 1 2 4 1 2 3 rate of *sound-srate*. quantize(sound, steps) [SAL] (quantize sound steps) [LISP] Quantizes sound as follows: sound is multiplied by steps and rounded to the nearest integer. The result is then divided by steps. For example, if steps is 127, then a signal that ranges from -1 to +1 will be quantized to 255 levels (127 less than zero, 127 greater than zero, and zero itself). This would match the quantization Nyquist performs when writing a signal to an 8-bit audio file. The sound may be multi-channel. ramp([duration]) [SAL] (ramp [duration]) [LISP] Returns a linear ramp from 0 to 1 over duration (default is 1). The function actually reaches 1 at duration, and therefore has one extra sample, making the total duration be duration + 1/*Control-srate*. See Figure 6 for more detail. Ramp is unaffected by the sustain transformation. The effect of time warping is to warp the starting and ending times only. The ramp itself is unwarped (linear). The sample rate is *control-srate*. rms(sound [, rate, window-size]) [SAL] (rms sound [rate window-size]) [LISP] Computes the RMS of sound using a square window of size window-size. The result has a sample rate of rate. The default value of rate is 100 Hz, and the default window size is 1/rate seconds (converted to samples). The rate is a FLONUM and window-size is a FIXNUM. Figure 6: Ramps generated by pwl and ramp functions. The pwl version ramps toward the breakpoint (1, 1), but in order to ramp back to zero at breakpoint (1, 0), the function never reaches an amplitude of 1. If used at the beginning of a seq construct, the next sound will begin at time 1. The ramp version actually reaches breakpoint (1, 1); notice that it is one sample longer than the pwl version. If used in a sequence, the next sound after ramp would start at time 1 + P, where P is the sample period. recip(sound) [SAL] (recip sound) [LISP] A generalized reciprocal function. If sound is a SOUND, compute 1/x for each sample x. If sound is a number x, just compute 1/x. If sound is a multichannel sound, return a multichannel sound with recip applied to each element. The result has the type, sample rate, starting time, etc. of sound. Note that the reciprocal of 0 is undefined (some implementations return infinity), so use this function with care on sounds. Division of sounds is accomplished by multiplying by the reciprocal. Again, be careful not to divide by zero. s-rest([duration]) [SAL] (s-rest [duration]) [LISP] Create silence (zero samples) for the given duration at the sample rate *sound-srate*. Default duration is 1.0 sec, and the sound is transformed in time according to *warp*. Note: rest is a Lisp function that is equivalent to cdr. Be careful to use s-rest when you need a sound! noise([duration]) [SAL] (noise duration) [LISP] Generate noise with the given duration. Duration (default is 1.0) is transformed according to *warp*. The sample rate is *sound-srate* and the amplitude is +/- *loud*. yin(sound, minstep, maxstep, stepsize) [SAL] (yin sound minstep maxstep stepsize) [LISP] Fundamental frequency estimation (pitch detection. Use the YIN algorithm to estimate the fundamental frequency of sound, which must be a SOUND. The minstep, a FLONUM, is the minimum frequency considered (in steps), maxstep, a FLONUM, is the maximum frequency considered (in steps), and stepsize, a FIXNUM, is the desired hop size. The result is a ``stereo'' signal, i.e. an array of two SOUNDs, both at the same sample rate, which is approximately the sample rate of sound divided by stepsize. The first SOUND consists of frequency estimates (in units of steps, i.e. middle C = 60). The second sound consists of values that measure the confidence or reliability of the frequency estimate. A small value (less than 0.1) indicates fairly high confidence. A larger value indicates lower confidence. This number can also be thought of as a ratio of non-periodic power to periodic power. When the number is low, it means the signal is highly periodic at that point in time, so the period estimate will be reliable. Hint #1: See Alain de Cheveigne and Hideki Kawahara's article "YIN, a Fundamental Frequency Estimator for Speech and Music" in the Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, April 2002 for details on the yin algorithm. Hint #2: Typically, the stepsize should be at least the expected number of samples in one period so that the fundamental frequency estimates are calculated at a rate far below the sample rate of the signal. Frequency does not change rapidly and the yin algorithm is fairly slow. To optimize speed, you may want to use less than 44.1 kHz sample rates for input sounds. Yin uses interpolation to achieve potentially fractional-sample-accurate estimates, so higher sample rates do not necessarily help the algorithm and definitely slow it down. The 2 computation time is O(n ) per estimate, where n is the number of samples in the longest period considered. Therefore, each increase of minstep by 12 (an octave) gives you a factor of 4 speedup, and each decrease of the sample rate of sound by a factor of two gives you another factor of 4 speedup. Finally, the number of estimates is inversely proportional to stepsize. Hint #3: Use snd-srate (see Section 7.1.3) to get the exact sample rate of the result, which will be the sample rate of sound divided by stepsize. E.g. (snd-srate (aref yin-output 0)), where yin-output is a result returned by yin, will be the sample rate of the estimates. 7.3. Transformations These functions change the environment that is seen by other high-level functions. Note that these changes are usually relative to the current environment. There are also ``absolute'' versions of each transformation function, with the exception of seq, seqrep, sim, and simrep. The ``absolute'' versions (starting or ending with ``abs'') do not look at the current environment, but rather set an environment variable to a specific value. In this way, sections of code can be insulated from external transformations. abs-env(beh) [SAL] (abs-env beh) [LISP] Compute beh in the default environment. This is useful for computing waveform tables and signals that are ``outside'' of time. For example, (at 10.0 (abs-env (my-beh))) is equivalent to (abs-env (my-beh)) because abs-env forces the default environment. Or in SAL, we would say abs-env(my-beh()) @ 10 is equivalent to abs-env(my-beh()). at(time, beh) [SAL] (at time beh) [LISP] Evaluate beh with *warp* shifted by time. In SAL, you can use the infix operator @ as in beh @ time. To discover how the environment is shifting time, use local-to-global(time). Most commonly, you call local-to- global(0) to find when a sound created in the current environment will start, expressed in absolute (global) terms. This can be regarded as the ``current time.'' at-abs(time, beh) [SAL] (at-abs time beh) [LISP] Evaluate beh with *warp* shifted so that local time 0 maps to time. In SAL, you can use the infix operator @@ as in beh @@ time. continuous-control-warp(beh) [SAL] (continuous-control-warp beh) [LISP] Applies the current warp environment to the signal returned by beh. The result has the default control sample rate *control-srate*. Linear interpolation is currently used. Implementation: beh is first evaluated without any shifting, stretching, or warping. The result is functionally composed with the inverse of the environment's warp function. continuous-sound-warp(beh) [SAL] (continuous-sound-warp beh) [LISP] Applies the current warp environment to the signal returned by beh. The result has the default sound sample rate *sound-srate*. Linear interpolation is currently used. See continuous-control-warp for implementation notes. control-srate-abs(srate, beh) [SAL] (control-srate-abs srate beh) [LISP] Evaluate beh with *control-srate*set to sample rate srate. Note: there is no ``relative'' version of this function. extract(start, stop, beh) [SAL] (extract start stop beh) [LISP] Returns a sound which is the portion of beh between start and stop. Note that this is done relative to the current *warp*. The result is shifted to start according to *warp*, so normally the result will start without a delay of start. extract-abs(start, stop, beh) [SAL] (extract-abs start stop beh) [LISP] Returns a sound which is the portion of beh between start and stop, independent of the current *warp*. The result is shifted to start according to *warp*. loud(volume, beh) [SAL] (loud volume beh) [LISP] Evaluates beh with *loud* incremented by volume. (Recall that *loud* is in decibels, so increment is the proper operation.) loud-abs(volume, beh) [SAL] (loud-abs volume beh) [LISP] Evaluates beh with *loud* set to volume. sound-srate-abs(srate, beh) [SAL] (sound-srate-abs srate beh) [LISP] Evaluate beh with *sound-srate* set to sample rate srate. Note: there is no ``relative'' version of this function. stretch(factor, beh) [SAL] (stretch factor beh) [LISP] Evaluates beh with *warp* scaled by factor. The effect is to ``stretch'' the result of beh (under the current environment) by factor. See Chapter 4 for more information. Use get-duration(dur) to get the nominal actual duration of a behavior that locally has a duration of dur. Here, ``nominal'' means what would be expected if the behavior obeys the shift, stretch, and warp components of the environment. (Any behavior is free to deviate from the nominal timing. For example, a percussion sound might have a fixed duration independent of the stretch factor.) Also, ``actual'' means global or absolute time, and ``locally'' means within the environment where get-duration is called. get-duration works by mapping the current time (local time 0) using local-to-global to obtain an actual start time, and mapping dur to obtain an actual end time. The difference is returned. stretch-abs(factor, beh) [SAL] (stretch-abs factor beh) [LISP] Evaluates beh with *warp* set to a linear time transformation where each unit of logical time maps to factor units of real time. The effect is to stretch the nominal behavior of beh (under the default global environment) by factor. See Chapter 4 for more information. sustain(factor, beh) [SAL] (sustain factor beh) [LISP] Evaluates beh with *sustain* scaled by factor. The effect is to ``stretch'' the result of beh (under the current environment) by factor; however, the logical stop times are not stretched. Therefore, the overall duration of a sequence is not changed, and sounds will tend to overlap if *sustain* is greater than one (legato) and be separated by silence if *sustain* is less than one. sustain-abs(factor, beh) [SAL] (sustain-abs factor beh) [LISP] Evaluates beh with *sustain* set to factor. (See sustain, above.) transpose(amount, beh) [SAL] (transpose amount beh) [LISP] Evaluates beh with *transpose* shifted by amount. The effect is relative transposition by amount semitones. transpose-abs(amount, beh) [SAL] (transpose-abs amount beh) [LISP] Evaluates beh with *transpose* set to amount. The effect is the transposition of the nominal pitches in beh (under the default global environment) by amount. warp(fn, beh) [SAL] (warp fn beh) [LISP] Evaluates beh with *warp* modified by fn. The idea is that beh and fn are written in the same time system, and fn warps that time system to local time. The current environment already contains a mapping from local time to global (real) time. The value of *warp* in effect when beh is evaluated is the functional composition of the initial *warp* with fn. warp-abs(fn, beh) [SAL] (warp-abs fn beh) [LISP] Evaluates beh with *warp* set to fn. In other words, the current *warp* is ignored and not composed with fn to form the new *warp*. 7.4. Combination and Time Structure These behaviors combine component behaviors into structures, including sequences (melodies), simultaneous sounds (chords), and structures based on iteration. seq(beh [, beh , ...]) [SAL] 1 2 (seq beh [beh ...]) [LISP] 1 2 Evaluates the first behavior beh according to *time* and each successive 1 behavior at the logical-stop time of the previous one. The results are summed to form a sound whose logical-stop is the logical-stop of the last behavior in the sequence. Each behavior can result in a multichannel sound, in which case, the logical stop time is considered to be the maximum logical stop time of any channel. The number of channels in the result is the number of channels of the first behavior. If other behaviors return fewer channels, new channels are created containing constant zero signals until the required number of channels is obtained. If other behaviors return a simple sound rather than multichannel sounds, the sound is automatically assigned to the first channel of a multichannel sound that is then filled out with zero signals. If another behavior returns more channels than the first behavior, the error is reported and the computation is stopped. Sample rates are converted up or down to match the sample rate of the first sound in a sequence. seqrep(var, limit, beh) [SAL] (seqrep var limit beh) [LISP] Iteratively evaluates beh with the atom var set with values from 0 to limit-1, inclusive. These sounds are placed sequentially in time as if by seq. The symbol var is a read-only local variable to beh. Assignments are not restricted or detected, but may cause a run-time error or crash. In LISP, the syntax is (seqrep (var limit) beh). sim([beh , beh , ...]) [SAL] 1 2 (sim [beh beh ...]) [LISP] 1 2 Returns a sound which is the sum of the given behaviors evaluated with current value of *warp*. If behaviors return multiple channel sounds, the corresponding channels are added. If the number of channels does not match, the result has the maximum. For example, if a two-channel sound [L, R] is added to a four-channel sound [C1, C2, C3, C4], the result is [L + C1, R + C2, C3, C4]. Arguments to sim may also be numbers. If all arguments are numbers, sim is equivalent (although slower than) the + function. If a number is added to a sound, snd-offset is used to add the number to each sample of the sound. The result of adding a number to two or more sounds with different durations is not defined. Use const to coerce a number to a sound of a specified duration. An important limitation of sim is that it cannot handle hundreds of behaviors due to a stack size limitation in XLISP. To compute hundreds of sounds (e.g. notes) at specified times, see timed-seq, below. See also sum below. simrep(var, limit, beh) [SAL] (simrep var limit beh) [LISP] Iteratively evaluates beh with the atom var set with values from 0 to limit-1, inclusive. These sounds are then placed simultaneously in time as if by sim. In LISP, the syntax is (seqrep (var limit) beh). trigger(s, beh) [SAL] (trigger s beh) [LISP] Returns a sound which is the sum of instances of the behavior beh. One instance is created each time SOUND s makes a transition from less than or equal to zero to greater than zero. (If the first sample of s is greater than zero, an instance is created immediately.) The sample rate of s and all behaviors must be the same, and the behaviors must be (monophonic) SOUNDs. This function is particularly designed to allow behaviors to be invoked in real time by making s a function of a Nyquist slider, which can be controlled by a graphical interface or by OSC messages. See snd-slider in Section 7.6.1. set-logical-stop(beh, time) [SAL] (set-logical-stop beh time) [LISP] Returns a sound with time as the logical stop time. sum(a [, b, ...]) [SAL] (sum a [b ...]) [LISP] Returns the sum of a, b, ..., allowing mixed addition of sounds, multichannel sounds and numbers. Identical to sim. In SAL, use the infix ``+'' operator. mult(a [, b, ...]) [SAL] (mult a [b ...]) [LISP] Returns the product of a, b, ..., allowing mixed multiplication of sounds, multichannel sounds and numbers. diff(a, b) [SAL] (diff a b) [LISP] Returns the difference between a and b. This function is defined as (sum a (prod -1 b)). timed-seq(score) [SAL] (timed-seq score) [LISP] Computes sounds from a note list or ``score.'' The score is of the form: `((time1 stretch1 beh1) (time2 stretch2 beh2) ...), where timeN is the starting time, stretchN is the stretch factor, and behN is the behavior. Note that score is normally a quoted list! The times must be in increasing order, and each behN is evaluated using lisp's eval, so the behN behaviors cannot refer to local parameters or local variables. The advantage of this form over seq is that the behaviors are evaluated one-at-a-time which can take much less stack space and overall memory. One special ``behavior'' expression is interpreted directly by timed-seq: (SCORE-BEGIN-END) is ignored, not evaluated as a function. Normally, this special behavior is placed at time 0 and has two parameters: the score start time and the score end time. These are used in Xmusic functions. If the behavior has a :pitch keyword parameter which is a list, the list represents a chord, and the expression is replaced by a set of behaviors, one for each note in the chord. It follows that if :pitch is nil, the behavior represents a rest and is ignored. 7.5. Sound File Input and Output play sound [SAL] (play sound) [LISP] Play the sound through the DAC. Note that play is a command in SAL. In XLISP, it is a function, so the syntax is (play sound), and in SAL, you can call the XLISP function as #play(sound). The play command or function writes a file and plays it. The details of this are system-dependent, but play is defined in the file system.lsp. The variable *default-sf-dir* names a directory into which to save a sound file. Be careful not to call play or sound-play within a function and then invoke that function from another play command. By default, Nyquist will try to normalize sounds using the method named by *autonorm-type*, which is 'lookahead by default. The lookahead method precomputes and buffers *autonorm-max-samples* samples, finds the peak value, and normalizes accordingly. The 'previous method bases the normalization of the current sound on the peak value of the (entire) previous sound. This might be good if you are working with long sounds that start rather softly. See Section 5.3 for more details. If you want precise control over output levels, you should turn this feature off by typing (using SAL syntax): autonorm-off() Reenable the automatic normalization feature by typing: autonorm-on() Play normally produces real-time output. The default is to send audio data to the DAC as it is computed in addition to saving samples in a file. If computation is slower than real-time, output will be choppy, but since the samples end up in a file, you can type (r) to replay the stored sound. Real-time playback can be disabled by (using SAL syntax): sound-off() and reenabled by: sound-on() Disabling real-time playback has no effect on (play-file) or (r). While sounds are playing, typing control-A to Nyquist will push the estimated elapsed audio time onto the head of the list stored in *audio-markers*. Because samples are computed in blocks and because there is latency between sample computation and sample playback, the elapsed time may not be too accurate, and the computed elapsed time may not advance after all samples have been computed but the sound is still playing. play-file(filename) [SAL] (play-file filename) [LISP] Play the contents of a sound file named by filename. The s-read function is used to read the file, and unless filename specifies an absolute path or starts with ``.'', it will be read from *default-sf-dir*. autonorm-on() [SAL] (autonorm-on) [LISP] Enable automatic adjustment of a scale factor applied to sounds computed using the play command. autonorm-off() [SAL] (autonorm-off) [LISP] Disable automatic adjustment of a scale factor applied to sounds computed using the play command. sound-on() [SAL] (sound-on) [LISP] Enable real-time audio output when sound is computed by the the play command. sound-off() [SAL] (sound-off) [LISP] Disable real-time audio output when sound is computed by the the play command. s-save(expression, maxlen, filename, format: format, mode: mode, bits: bits, swap: flag, play: play) [SAL] (s-save expression maxlen filename :format format :mode mode :bits bits :swap flag :play play) [LISP] Evaluates the expression, which should result in a sound or an array of sounds, and writes the result to the given filename. A FLONUM is returned giving the maximum absolute value of all samples written. (This is useful for normalizing sounds and detecting sample overflow.) If play is not NIL, the sound will be output through the computer's audio output system. (play: [SAL] or :play [LISP] is not implemented on all systems; if it is implemented, and filename is NIL, then this will play the file without also writing a file.) The latency (length of audio buffering) used to play the sound is 0.3s by default, but see snd-set-latency. If a multichannel sound (array) is written, the channels are up-sampled to the highest rate in any channel so that all channels have the same sample rate. The maximum number of samples written per channel is given by maxlen, which allows writing the initial part of a very long or infinite sound. A header is written according to format, samples are encoded according to mode, using bits bits/sample, and bytes are swapped if flag is not NIL. Defaults for these are *default-sf-format*, *default-sf- mode*, and *default-sf-bits*. The default for flag is NIL. The bits parameter may be 8, 16, or 32. The values for the format and mode options are described below: Format snd-head-none The format is unknown and should be determined by reading the file. snd-head-raw A raw format file has no header. snd-head-AIFF AIFF format header. snd-head-IRCAM IRCAM format header. snd-head-NeXT 1024-byte NeXT/SUN format header followed by IRCAM header ala CMIX. Note that the NeXT/SUN format has a header-length field, so it really is legal to have a large header, even though the normal minimal header is only 24 bytes. The additional space leaves room for maximum amplitudes, which can be used for normalizing floating- point soundfiles, and for other data. Nyquist follows the CMIX convention of placing an IRCAM format header immediately after the NeXT-style header. snd-head-Wave Microsoft Wave format header. snd-head-flac FLAC lossless compressed audio. snd-head-ogg OGG-VORBIS compressed audio. snd-head-* See sndfnint.lsp in the nyquist/runtime directory for more formats. The current list includes paf, svx, nist, voc, w64, mat4, mat5, pvf, xi, htk, sds, avr, sd2, and caf. Mode snd-mode-adpcm ADPCM mode (not supported). snd-mode-pcm signed binary PCM mode. snd-mode-ulaw 8-bit U-Law mode. snd-mode-alaw 8-bit A-Law mode (not supported). snd-mode-float 32-bit floating point mode. snd-mode-upcm unsigned binary PCM mode. snd-mode-* See sndfnint.lsp in the nyquist/runtime for more modes. The current list includes double, gsm610, dwvw, dpcm, and msadpcm. The defaults for format, mode, and bits are as follows: NeXT and Sun machines: snd-head-NeXT, snd-mode-pcm, 16 SGI and Macintosh machines: snd-head-AIFF, snd-mode-pcm, 16 s-read(filename, time-offset: offset, srate: sr, dur: dur, nchans: chans, format: format, mode: mode, bits: n, swap: flag) [SAL] (s-read filename :time-offset offset :srate sr :dur dur :nchans chans :format format :mode mode :bits n :swap flag) [LISP] Reads a sound from filename. The global *default-sf-dir* applies. If a header is detected, the header is used to determine the format of the file, and header information overrides format information provided by keywords (except for time-offset: and dur:). s-read("mysound.snd", srate: 44100) specifies a sample rate of 44100 hz, but if the file has a header specifying 22050 hz, the resulting sample rate will be 22050. The parameters are: - offset M the amount of time (in seconds) to skip from the beginning of the file. The default is 0.0. - sr M the sample rate of the samples in the file. Default is *default-sf-srate* , which is normally 44100. - dur M the maximum duration in seconds to read. Default is 10000. - chans M the number of channels to read. It is assumed that samples from each channel are interleaved. Default is 1. - format M the header format. See s-save for details. Default is *default-sf-format*, although this parameter is currently ignored. - mode M the sample representation, e.g. PCM or float. See s-save for details. Default is *default-sf-format*. - n M the number of bits per sample. See s-save for details. Default is *default-sf-bits*. - flag M (T or NIL) swap byte order of each sample. Default is NIL. If there is an error, for example if offset is greater than the length of the file, then NIL is returned rather than a sound. Information about the sound is also returned by s-read through *rslt*[Since XLISP does not support multiple value returns, multiple value returns are simulated by having the function assign additional return values in a list to the global variable *rslt*. Since this is a global, it should be inspected or copied immediately after the function return to insure that return values are not overwritten by another function.]. The list assigned to *rslt* is of the form: (format channels mode bits samplerate duration flags byte-offset), which are defined as follows: - format M the header format. See s-save for details. - channels M the number of channels. - mode M the sample representation, e.g. PCM or float. See s-save for details. - bits M the number of bits per sample. - samplerate M the sample rate, expressed as a FLONUM. - duration M the duration of the sound, in seconds. - flags M The values for format, channels, mode, bits, samplerate, and duration are initially just the values passed in as parameters or default values to s-read. If a value is actually read from the sound file header, a flag is set. The flags are: snd-head-format, snd-head-channels, snd-head-mode, snd-head- bits, snd-head-srate, and snd-head-dur. For example, (let ((flags (caddr (cddddr *rslt*)))) (not (zerop (logand flags snd-head-srate)))) tells whether the sample rate was specified in the file. See also sf-info below. - byte-offset M the byte offset into the file of the first sample to be read (this is used by the s-overwrite and s-add-to functions). s-add-to(expression, maxlen, filename [, offset]) [SAL] (s-add-to expression maxlen filename [offset]) [LISP] Evaluates the expression, which should result in a sound or an array of sounds, and adds the result to the given filename. The global *default-sf-dir* applies. A FLONUM is returned, giving the maximum absolute value of all samples written. The sample rate(s) of expression must match those of the file. The maximum number of samples written per channel is given by maxlen, which allows writing the initial part of a very long or infinite sound. If offset is specified, the new sound is added to the file beginning at an offset from the beginning (in seconds). The file is extended if necessary to accommodate the new addition, but if offset falls outside of the original file, the file is not modified. (If necessary, use s-add-to to extend the file with zeros.) The file must be a recognized sound file with a header (not a raw sound file). s-overwrite(expression, maxlen, filename [, offset]) [SAL] (s-overwrite expression maxlen filename [offset]) [LISP] Evaluates the expression, which should result in a sound or an array of sounds, and replaces samples in the given filename. The global *default-sf-dir* applies. A FLONUM is returned, giving the maximum absolute value of all samples written. The sample rate(s) of expression must match those of the file. The maximum number of samples written per channel is given by maxlen, which allows writing the initial part of a very long or infinite sound. If offset is specified, the new sound is written to the file beginning at an offset from the beginning (in seconds). The file is extended if necessary to accommodate the new insert, but if offset falls outside of the original file, the file is not modified. (If necessary, use s-add-to to extend the file with zeros.) The file must be a recognized sound file with a header (not a raw sound file). sf-info(filename) [SAL] (sf-info filename) [LISP] Prints information about a sound file. The parameter filename is a string. The file is assumed to be in *default-sf-dir* (see soundfilename below) unless the filename begins with ``.'' or ``/''. The source for this function is in the runtime and provides an example of how to determine sound file parameters. soundfilename(name) [SAL] (soundfilename name) [LISP] Converts a string name to a soundfile name. If name begins with ``.'' or ``/'', the name is returned without alteration. Otherwise, a path taken from *default-sf-dir* is prepended to name. The s-plot, s-read, and s-save functions all use soundfilename translate filenames. s-plot(sound [, dur, n]) [SAL] (s-plot sound [dur n]) [LISP] Plots sound in a window. This function was designed to run a plot program on a Unix workstation, but now is primarily used with NyquistIDE, which has self-contained plotting. Normally, time/value pairs in ascii are written to points.dat and system-dependent code (or the NyquistIDE program) takes it from there. If the sound is longer than the optional dur (default is 2 seconds), only the first dur seconds are plotted. If there are more than n samples to be plotted, the signal is interpolated to have n samples before plotting. The data file used is *default-plot-file*: *default-plot-file* The file containing the data points, defaults to "points.dat". s-print-tree(sound) [SAL] (s-print-tree sound) [LISP] Prints an ascii representation of the internal data structures representing a sound. This is useful for debugging Nyquist. Identical to snd-print-tree. 7.6. Low-level Functions Nyquist includes many low-level functions that are used to implement the functions and behaviors described in previous sections. For completeness, these functions are described here. Remember that these are low-level functions that are not intended for normal use. Unless you are trying to understand the inner workings of Nyquist, you can skip this section. 7.6.1. Creating Sounds The basic operations that create sounds are described here. snd-const(value, t0, srate, duration) [SAL] (snd-const value t0 srate duration) [LISP] Returns a sound with constant value, starting at t0 with the given duration, at the sample rate srate. You might want to use pwl (see Section 7.2.2.2) instead. snd-read(filename, offset, t0, format, channels, mode, bits, swap, sr, dur) [SAL] (snd-read filename offset t0 format channels mode bits swap sr dur) [LISP] Loads a sound from a file with name filename. Files are assumed to consist of a header followed by frames consisting of one sample from each channel. The format specifies the type of header, but this information is currently ignored. Nyquist looks for a number of header formats and automatically figures out which format to read. If a header can be identified, the header is first read from the file. Then, the file pointer is advanced by the indicated offset (in seconds). If there is an unrecognized header, Nyquist will assume the file has no header. If the header size is a multiple of the frame size (bytes/sample * number-of-channels), you can use offset to skip over the header. To skip N bytes, use an offset of: (/ (float N) sr (/ bits 8) channels) If the header is not a multiple of the frame size, either write a header or contact the author (dannenberg@cs.cmu.edu) for assistance. Nyquist will round offset to the nearest sample. The resulting sound will start at time t0. If a header is found, the file will be interpreted according to the header information. If no header was found, channels tells how many channels there are, the samples are encoded according to mode, the sample length is bits, and sr is the sample rate. The swap flag is 0 or 1, where 1 means to swap sample bytes. The duration to be read (in seconds) is given by dur. If dur is longer than the data in the file, then a shorter duration will be returned. If the file contains one channel, a sound is returned. If the file contains 2 or more channels, an array of sounds is returned. Note: you probably want to call s-read (see Section 7.5) instead of snd-read. Also, see Section 7.5 for information on the mode and format parameters. snd-save(expression, maxlen, filename, format, mode, bits, swap, play) [SAL] (snd-save expression maxlen filename format mode bits swap play) [LISP] Evaluates the expression, which should result in a sound or an array of sounds, and writes the result to the given filename. If a multichannel sound (array) is written, the channels are up-sampled to the highest rate in any channel so that all channels have the same sample rate. The maximum number of samples written per channel is given by maxlen, which allows writing the initial part of a very long or infinite sound. A header is written according to format, samples are encoded according to mode, using bits bits/sample, and swapping bytes if swap is 1 (otherwise it should be 0). If play is not null, the audio is played in real time (to the extent possible) as it is computed. The peak value of the sound is returned. In addition, the symbol *RSLT* is bound to a list containing the sample rate, number of channels, and duration (in that order) of the saved sound. Note: you probably want to call s-save (see Section 7.5) instead. The format and mode parameters are described in Section 7.5. snd-overwrite(expression, maxlen, filename, offset, format, mode, bits, swap) [SAL] (snd-overwrite expression maxlen filename offset format mode bits swap) [LISP] Evaluates the expression, which should result in a sound or an array of sounds, and replaces samples in the given filename, writing the first frame at a time of offset seconds. The offset must be less than or equal to the duration of the existing file. The duration of the written samples may be greater than that of the file, in which case the file is extended as necessary. The sample rate(s) of expression and the number of channels must match those of the file. If format is SND-HEAD-RAW, then the file format is given by mode (see snd-save, bits (per channel), swap (1 means to swap bytes and 0 means write them in the native byte order), and the number of channels and sample rate of the sound returned by evaluating expression. If the file is a known audio file format, format should be SND-HEAD-NONE, and the other parameters are ignored. Up to a maximum of maxlen samples will be written per channel. The peak value of the sound is returned. In addition, the symbol *RSLT* is bound to a list containing the duration of the written sound (which may not be the duration of the sound file). Use s-add-to (in Section 7.5 or s-overwrite (in Section 7.5 instead of this function. snd-coterm(s1, s2) [SAL] (snd-coterm s1 s2) [LISP] Returns a copy of s1, except the start time is the maximum of the start times of s1 and s2, and the termination time is the minimum of s1 and s2. (After the termination time, the sound is zero as if s1 is gated by s2.) Some rationale follows: In order to implement s-add-to, we need to read from the target sound file, add the sounds to a new sound, and overwrite the result back into the file. We only want to write as many samples into the file as there are samples in the new sound. However, if we are adding in samples read from the file, the result of a snd-add in Nyquist will have the maximum duration of either sound. Therefore, we may read to the end of the file. What we need is a way to truncate the read, but we cannot easily do that, because we do not know in advance how long the new sound will be. The solution is to use snd-coterm, which will allow us to truncate the sound that is read from the file (s1) according to the duration of the new sound (s2). When this truncated sound is added to the new sound, the result will have only the duration of the new sound, and this can be used to overwrite the file. This function is used in the implementation of s-add-to, which is defined in runtime/fileio.lsp. (snd-from-array ...) [SAL] (snd-from-array ...) [LISP] See page 17. snd-white(t0, sr, d) [SAL] (snd-white t0 sr d) [LISP] Generate white noise, starting at t0, with sample rate sr, and duration d. You probably want to use noise (see Section 7.2.2.6). snd-zero(t0, srate) [SAL] (snd-zero t0 srate) [LISP] Creates a sound that is zero everywhere, starts at t0, and has sample rate srate. The logical stop time is immediate, i.e. also at t0. You probably want to use pwl (see Section 7.2.2.2) instead. get-slider-value(index) [SAL] (get-slider-value index) [LISP] Return the current value of the slider named by index (an integer index into the array of sliders). Note that this ``slider'' is just a floating point value in an array. Sliders can be changed by OSC messages (see osc-enable) and by sending character sequences to Nyquist's standard input. (Normally, these character sequences would not be typed but generated by the NyquistIDE interactive development environment, which runs Nyquist as a sub-process, and which present the user with graphical sliders.) snd-slider(index, t0, srate, duration) [SAL] (snd-slider index t0 srate duration) [LISP] Create a sound controlled by the slider named by index (an integer index into the array of sliders; see get-slider-value for more information). The function returns a sound. Since Nyquist sounds are computed in blocks of samples, and each block is computed at once, each block will contain copies of the current slider value. To obtain reasonable responsiveness, slider sounds should have high (audio) sample rates so that the block rate will be reasonably high. Also, consider lowering the audio latency using snd-set-latency. To ``trigger'' a Nyquist behavior using slider input, see the trigger function in Section 7.4. 7.6.2. Signal Operations This next set of functions take sounds as arguments, operate on them, and return a sound. snd-abs(sound) [SAL] (snd-abs sound) [LISP] Computes a new sound where each sample is the absolute value of the corresponding sample in sound. You should probably use s-abs instead. (See Section 7.2.2.6.) snd-sqrt(sound) [SAL] (snd-sqrt sound) [LISP] Computes a new sound where each sample is the square root of the corresponding sample in sound. If a sample is negative, it is taken to be zero to avoid raising a floating point error. You should probably use s-sqrt instead. (See Section 7.2.2.6.) snd-add(sound1, sound) [SAL] (snd-add sound1 sound) [LISP] Adds two sounds. The resulting start time is the minimum of the two parameter start times, the logical stop time is the maximum of the two parameter stop times, and the sample rate is the maximum of the two parameter sample rates. Use sim or sum instead of snd-add (see Section 7.4). snd-offset(sound, offset) [SAL] (snd-offset sound offset) [LISP] Add an offset to a sound. The resulting start time, logical stop time, stop time, and sample rate are those of sound. Use sum instead (see Section 7.4). snd-avg(sound, blocksize, stepsize, operation) [SAL] (snd-avg sound blocksize stepsize operation) [LISP] Computes the averages or peak values of blocks of samples. Each output sample is an average or peak of blocksize (a fixnum) adjacent samples from the input sound. After each average or peak is taken, the input is advanced by stepsize, a fixnum which may be greater or less than blocksize. The output sample rate is the sound (input) sample rate divided by stepsize. The duration of the output is the same (approximately, due to rounding) as that of sound. Notice however, that the features of the input will appear earlier in the output by half the window size. For example, a sharp peak in the input will result in a smoothed peak (using OP-AVERAGE) one half blocksize earlier. You can correct for this shift by inserting one half blocksize of silence before sound, e.g. if s has a sample rate of 44100 Hz, then snd-avg(seq(s-rest(0.01), cue(s)), 882, 441, OP-AVERAGE) will shift s by 0.01 s to compensate for the shift introduced by a smoothing window of size 0.02 s (882/44100). This function is useful for computing low-sample-rate rms or peak amplitude signals for input to snd-gate or snd-follow. To select the operation, operation should be one of OP-AVERAGE or OP-PEAK. (These are global lisp variables; the actual operation parameter is an integer.) For RMS computation, see rms in Section 7.2.2.6. snd-clip(sound, peak) [SAL] (snd-clip sound peak) [LISP] Hard limit sound to the given peak, a positive number. The samples of sound are constrained between an upper value of peak and a lower value of N()peak. Use clip instead (see Section 7.2.2.6). snd-compose(f, g) [SAL] (snd-compose f g) [LISP] Compose two signals, i.e. compute f(g(t)), where f and g are sounds. This function is used primarily to implement time warping, but it can be used in other applications such as frequency modulation. For each sample x in g, snd-compose looks up the value of f(x) using linear interpolation. The resulting sample rate, start time, etc. are taken from g. The sound f is used in effect as a lookup table, but it is assumed that g is non-decreasing, so that f is accessed in time order. This allows samples of f to be computed and discarded incrementally. If in fact g decreases, the current sample of g is replaced by the previous one, forcing g into compliance with the non-decreasing restriction. See also sref, shape, and snd-resample. For an extended example that uses snd-compose for variable pitch shifting, see demos/pitch_change.htm. snd-tapv(sound, offset, vardelay, maxdelay) [SAL] (snd-tapv sound offset vardelay maxdelay) [LISP] A variable delay: sound is delayed by the sum of offset (a FIXNUM or FLONUM) and vardelay (a SOUND). The specified delay is adjusted to lie in the range of zero to maxdelay seconds to yield the actual delay, and the delay is implemented using linear interpolation. This function was designed specifically for use in a chorus effect: the offset is set to half of maxdelay, and the vardelay input is a slow sinusoid. The maximum delay is limited to maxdelay, which determines the length of a fixed-sized buffer. The function tapv is equivalent and preferred (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-tapf(sound, offset, vardelay, maxdelay) [SAL] (snd-tapf sound offset vardelay maxdelay) [LISP] A variable delay like snd-tapv except there is no linear interpolation. By eliminating interpolation, the output is an exact copy of the input with no filtering or distortion. On the other hand, delays jump by samples causing samples to double or skip even when the delay is changed smoothly. snd-copy(sound) [SAL] (snd-copy sound) [LISP] Makes a copy of sound. Since operators always make (logical) copies of their sound parameters, this function should never be needed. This function is here for debugging. snd-down(srate, sound) [SAL] (snd-down srate sound) [LISP] Linear interpolation of samples down to the given sample rate srate, which must be lower than the sample rate of sound. Do not call this function. Nyquist performs sample-rate conversion automatically as needed. If you want to force a conversion, call force-srate (see Section 7.2.2). snd-exp(sound) [SAL] (snd-exp sound) [LISP] Compute the exponential of each sample of sound. Use s-exp instead (see Section 7.2.2.6). snd-follow(sound, floor, risetime, falltime, lookahead) [SAL] (snd-follow sound floor risetime falltime lookahead) [LISP] An envelope follower. The basic goal of this function is to generate a smooth signal that rides on the peaks of the input signal. The usual objective is to produce an amplitude envelope given a low-sample rate (control rate) signal representing local RMS measurements. The first argument is the input signal. The floor is the minimum output value. The risetime is the time (in seconds) it takes for the output to rise (exponentially) from floor to unity (1.0) and the falltime is the time it takes for the output to fall (exponentially) from unity to floor. The algorithm looks ahead for peaks and will begin to increase the output signal according to risetime in anticipation of a peak. The amount of anticipation (in sampless) is given by lookahead. The algorithm is as follows: the output value is allowed to increase according to risetime or decrease according to falltime. If the next input sample is in this range, that sample is simply output as the next output sample. If the next input sample is too large, the algorithm goes back in time as far as necessary to compute an envelope that rises according to risetime to meet the new value. The algorithm will only work backward as far as lookahead. If that is not far enough, then there is a final forward pass computing a rising signal from the earliest output sample. In this case, the output signal will be at least momentarily less than the input signal and will continue to rise exponentially until it intersects the input signal. If the input signal falls faster than indicated by falltime, the output fall rate will be limited by falltime, and the fall in output will stop when the output reaches floor. This algorithm can make two passes througth the buffer on sharply rising inputs, so it is not particularly fast. With short buffers and low sample rates this should not matter. See snd-avg above for a function that can help to generate a low-sample-rate input for snd-follow. See snd-chase in Section 7.6.3 for a related filter. snd-gate(sound, lookahead, risetime, falltime, floor, threshold) [SAL] (snd-gate sound lookahead risetime falltime floor threshold) [LISP] This function generates an exponential rise and decay intended for noise gate implementation. The decay starts when the signal drops below threshold and stays there for longer than lookahead. Decay continues until the value reaches floor, at which point the decay stops and the output value is held constant. Either during the decay or after the floor is reached, if the signal goes above threshold, then the output value will rise to unity (1.0) at the point the signal crosses the threshold. Again, look-ahead is used, so the rise actually starts before the signal crosses the threshold. The rise is a constant-rate exponential and set so that a rise from floor to unity occurs in risetime. Similarly, the fall is a constant-rate exponential such that a fall from unity to floor takes falltime. The result is delayed by lookahead, so the output is not actually synchronized with the input. To compensate, you should drop the initial lookahead of samples. Thus, snd-gate is not recommended for direct use. Use gate instead (see Section 7.1.4). snd-inverse(signal, start, srate) [SAL] (snd-inverse signal start srate) [LISP] Compute the function inverse of signal, that is, compute g(t) such that signal(g(t)) = t. This function assumes that signal is non-decreasing, it uses linear interpolation, the resulting sample rate is srate, and the result is shifted to have a starting time of start. If signal decreases, the true inverse may be undefined, so we define snd-inverse operationally as follows: for each output time point t, scan ahead in signal until the value of signal exceeds t. Interpolate to find an exact time point x from signal and output x at time t. This function is intended for internal system use in implementing time warps. snd-log(sound) [SAL] (snd-log sound) [LISP] Compute the natural logorithm of each sample of sound. Use s-log instead (see Section 7.2.2.6). peak(expression, maxlen) [SAL] (peak expression maxlen) [LISP] Compute the maximum absolute value of the amplitude of a sound. The sound is created by evaluating expression (as in s-save). Only the first maxlen samples are evaluated. The expression is automatically quoted (peak is a macro), so do not quote this parameter. If expression is a variable, then the global binding of that variable will be used. Also, since the variable retains a reference to the sound, the sound will be evaluated and left in memory. See Section 5.3 on page 10 for examples. snd-max(expression, maxlen) [SAL] (snd-max expression maxlen) [LISP] Compute the maximum absolute value of the amplitude of a sound. The sound is created by evaluating expression (as in snd-save), which is therefore normally quoted by the caller. At most maxlen samples are computed. The result is the maximum of the absolute values of the samples. Notes: It is recommended to use peak (see above) instead. If you want to find the maximum of a sound bound to a local variable and it is acceptable to save the samples in memory, then this is probably the function to call. Otherwise, use peak. snd-maxv(sound1, sound2) [SAL] (snd-maxv sound1 sound2) [LISP] Compute the maximum of sound1 and sound2 on a sample-by-sample basis. The resulting sound has its start time at the maximum of the input start times and a logical stop at the minimum logical stop of the inputs. The physical stop time is the minimum of the physical stop times of the two sounds. Note that this violates the ``normal'' interpretation that sounds are zero outside their start and stop times. For example, even if sound1 extends beyond sound2 and is greater than zero, the result value in this extension will be zero because it will be after the physical stop time, whereas if we simply treated sound2 as zero in this region and took the maximum, we would get a non-zero result. Use s-max instead (see Section 7.2.2.6). snd-normalize(sound) [SAL] (snd-normalize sound) [LISP] Internally, sounds are stored with a scale factor that applies to all samples of the sound. All operators that take sound arguments take this scale factor into account (although it is not always necessary to perform an actual multiply per sample), so you should never need to call this function. This function multiplies each sample of a sound by its scale factor, returning a sound that represents the same signal, but whose scale factor is 1.0. snd-oneshot(sound, threshold, ontime) [SAL] (snd-oneshot sound threshold ontime) [LISP] Computes a new sound that is zero except where sound exceeds threshold. From these points, the result is 1.0 until sound remains below threshold for ontime (in seconds). The result has the same sample rate, start time, logical stop time, and duration as sound. snd-prod(sound1, sound2) [SAL] (snd-prod sound1 sound2) [LISP] Computes the product of sound1 and sound2. The resulting sound has its start time at the maximum of the input start times and a logical stop at the minimum logical stop of the inputs. Do not use this function. Use mult or prod instead (see Section 7.2.2). Sample rate, start time, etc. are taken from sound. snd-pwl(t0, sr, lis) [SAL] (snd-pwl t0 sr lis) [LISP] Computes a piece-wise linear function according to the breakpoints in lis. The starting time is t0, and the sample rate is sr. The breakpoints are passed in an XLISP list (of type LVAL) where the list alternates sample numbers (FIXNUMs, computed in samples from the beginning of the pwl function) and values (the value of the pwl function, given as a FLONUM). There is an implicit starting point of (0, 0). The list must contain an odd number of points, the omitted last value being implicitly zero (0). The list is assumed to be well-formed. Do not call this function. Use pwl instead (see Section 7.2.2.2). snd-quantize(sound, steps) [SAL] (snd-quantize sound steps) [LISP] Quantizes a sound. See Section 7.2.2.6 for details. snd-recip(sound) [SAL] (snd-recip sound) [LISP] Compute the reciprocal of each sample of sound. Use recip instead (see Section 7.2.2.6). snd-resample(f, rate) [SAL] (snd-resample f rate) [LISP] Resample sound f using high-quality interpolation, yielding a new sound with the specified rate. The result is scaled by 0.95 because often, in resampling, interpolated values exceed the original sample values, and this could lead to clipping. The resulting start time, etc. are taken from f. Use resample instead. snd-resamplev(f, rate, g) [SAL] (snd-resamplev f rate g) [LISP] Compose two signals, i.e. compute f(g(t)), where f and g are sounds. The result has sample rate given by rate. At each time t (according to the rate), g is linearly interpolated to yield an increasing sequence of high-precision score-time values. f is then interpolated at each value to yield a result sample. If in fact g decreases, the current sample of g is replaced by the previous one, forcing g into compliance with the non-decreasing restriction. The result is scaled by 0.95 because often, in resampling, interpolated values exceed the original sample values, and this could lead to clipping. Note that if g has a high sample rate, this may introduce unwanted jitter into sample times. See sound-warp for a detailed discussion. See snd-compose for a fast, low-quality alternative to this function. Normally, you should use sound-warp instead of this function. snd-scale(scale, sound) [SAL] (snd-scale scale sound) [LISP] Scales the amplitude of sound by the factor scale. Use scale instead (see Section 7.2.2). snd-shape(signal, table, origin) [SAL] (snd-shape signal table origin) [LISP] A waveshaping function. This is the primitive upon which shape is based. The snd-shape function is like shape except that signal and table must be (single-channel) sounds. Use shape instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-up(srate, sound) [SAL] (snd-up srate sound) [LISP] Increases sample rate by linear interpolation. The sound is the signal to be up-sampled, and srate is the output sample rate. Do not call this function. Nyquist performs sample-rate conversion automatically as needed. If you want to force a conversion, call force-srate (see Section 7.2.2). snd-xform(sound, sr, time, start, stop, scale) [SAL] (snd-xform sound sr time start stop scale) [LISP] Makes a copy of sound and then alters it in the following order: (1) the start time (snd-t0) of the sound is shifted to time, (1) the sound is stretched as a result of setting the sample rate to sr (the start time is unchanged by this), (3) the sound is clipped from start to stop, (4) if start is greater than time, the sound is shifted shifted by time - start, so that the start time is time, (5) the sound is scaled by scale. An empty (zero) sound at time will be returned if all samples are clipped. Normally, you should accomplish all this using transformations. A transformation applied to a sound has no effect, so use cue to create a transformable sound (see Section 7.2.1). snd-yin(sound, minstep, maxstep, rate) [SAL] (snd-yin sound minstep maxstep rate) [LISP] Identical to yin. See Section 7.2.2.6. 7.6.3. Filters These are also ``Signal Operators,'' the subject of the previous section, but there are so many filter functions, they are documented in this special section. Some filters allow time-varying filter parameters. In these functions, filter coefficients are calculated at the sample rate of the filter parameter, and coefficients are not interpolated. snd-alpass(sound, delay, feedback) [SAL] (snd-alpass sound delay feedback) [LISP] An all-pass filter. This produces a repeating echo effect without the resonances of snd-delay. The feedback should be less than one to avoid exponential amplitude blowup. Delay is rounded to the nearest sample. You should use alpass instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-alpasscv(sound, delay, feedback) [SAL] (snd-alpasscv sound delay feedback) [LISP] An all-pass filter with variable feedback. This is just like snd-alpass except feedback is a sound. You should use alpass instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-alpassvv(sound, delay, feedback, maxdelay) [SAL] (snd-alpassvv sound delay feedback maxdelay) [LISP] An all-pass filter with variable feedback and delay. This is just like snd-alpass except feedback and delay are sounds, and there is an additional FLONUM parameter, maxdelay, that gives an upper bound on the value of delay. Note: delay must remain between zero and maxdelay. If not, results are undefined, and Nyquist may crash. You should use alpass instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-areson(sound, hz, bw, normalization) [SAL] (snd-areson sound hz bw normalization) [LISP] A notch filter modeled after the areson unit generator in Csound. The snd-areson filter is an exact complement of snd-reson such that if both are applied to the same signal with the same parameters, the sum of the results yeilds the original signal. Note that because of this complementary design, the power is not normalized as in snd-reson. See snd-reson for details on normalization. You should use areson instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-aresoncv(sound, hz, bw, normalization) [SAL] (snd-aresoncv sound hz bw normalization) [LISP] This function is identical to snd-areson except the bw (bandwidth) parameter is a sound. Filter coefficients are updated at the sample rate of bw. The ``cv'' suffix stands for Constant, Variable, indicating that hz and bw are constant (a number) and variable (a sound), respectively. This naming convention is used throughout. You should use areson instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-aresonvc(sound, hz, bw, normalization) [SAL] (snd-aresonvc sound hz bw normalization) [LISP] This function is identical to snd-areson except the hz (center frequency) parameter is a sound. Filter coefficients are updated at the sample rate of hz. You should use areson instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-aresonvv(sound, hz, bw, normalization) [SAL] (snd-aresonvv sound hz bw normalization) [LISP] This function is identical to snd-areson except both hz (center frequency) and bw (bandwidth) are sounds. Filter coefficients are updated at the next sample of either hz or bw. You should use areson instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-atone(sound, hz) [SAL] (snd-atone sound hz) [LISP] A high-pass filter modeled after the atone unit generator in Csound. The snd-atone filter is an exact complement of snd-tone such that if both are applied to the same signal with the same parameters, the sum of the results yeilds the original signal. You should use hp instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-atonev(sound, hz) [SAL] (snd-atonev sound hz) [LISP] This is just like snd-atone except that the hz cutoff frequency is a sound. Filter coefficients are updated at the sample rate of hz. You should use hp instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-biquad(sound, b0, b1, b2, a1, a2, z1init, z2init) [SAL] (snd-biquad sound b0 b1 b2 a1 a2 z1init z2init) [LISP] A general second order IIR filter, where a0 is assumed to be unity. For a1 and a2, the sign convention is opposite to that of Matlab. All parameters except the input sound are of type FLONUM. You should probably use one of lowpass2, highpass2, bandpass2, notch2, allpass2, eq-lowshelf, eq- highshelf, eq-band, lowpass4, lowpass6, lowpass8, highpass4, highpass6, or highpass8, which are all based on snd-biquad and described in Section 7.2.2.3. For completeness, you will also find biquad and biquad-m described in that section. snd-chase(sound, risetime, falltime) [SAL] (snd-chase sound risetime falltime) [LISP] A slew rate limiter. The output ``chases'' the input at rates determined by risetime and falltime. If the input changes too fast, the output will lag behind the input. This is a form of lowpass filter, but it was created to turn hard-switching square waves into smoother control signals that could be used for linear crossfades. If the input switches from 0 to 1, the output will linearly rise to 1 in risetime seconds. If the input switches from 1 to 0, the output will linearly fall to 0 in falltime seconds. The generated slope is constant; the transition is linear; this is not an exponential rise or fall. The risetime and falltime must be scalar constants; complain to the author if this is not adequate. The snd-chase function is safe for ordinary use. See snd-follow in Section 7.6.2 for a related function. snd-congen(gate, risetime, falltime) [SAL] (snd-congen gate risetime falltime) [LISP] A simple ``contour generator'' based on analog synthesizers. The gate is a sound that normally steps from 0.0 to 1.0 at the start of an envelop and goes from 1.0 back to 0.0 at the beginning of the release. At each sample, the output converges to the input exponentially. If gate is greater than the output, e.g. the attack, then the output converges half-way to the output in risetime. If the gate is less than the output, the half-time is falltime. The sample rate, starting time, logical-stop-time, and terminate time are taken from gate. You should use congen instead (see Section 7.2.2.3. snd-convolve(sound, response) [SAL] (snd-convolve sound response) [LISP] Convolves sound by response using a simple O(N x M) algorithm. The sound can be any length, but the response is computed and stored in a table. The required compuation time per sample and total space are proportional to the length of response. Use convolve instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-delay(sound, delay, feedback) [SAL] (snd-delay sound delay feedback) [LISP] Feedback delay. The output, initially sound, is recursively delayed by delay, scaled by feedback, and added to itself, producing an repeating echo effect. The feedback should be less than one to avoid exponential amplitude blowup. Delay is rounded to the nearest sample. You should use feedback-delay instead (see Section 7.2.2.3) snd-delaycv(sound, delay, feedback) [SAL] (snd-delaycv sound delay feedback) [LISP] Feedback delay with variable feedback. This is just like snd-delay except feedback is a sound. You should use feedback-delay instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-reson(sound, hz, bw, normalization) [SAL] (snd-reson sound hz bw normalization) [LISP] A second-order resonating (bandpass) filter with center frequency hz and bandwidth bw, modeled after the reson unit generator in Csound. The normalization parameter must be an integer and (like in Csound) specifies a scaling factor. A value of 1 specifies a peak amplitude response of 1.0; all frequencies other than hz are attenuated. A value of 2 specifies the overall RMS value of the amplitude response is 1.0; thus filtered white noise would retain the same power. A value of zero specifies no scaling. The result sample rate, start time, etc. are takend from sound. You should use reson instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-resoncv(sound, hz, bw, normalization) [SAL] (snd-resoncv sound hz bw normalization) [LISP] This function is identical to snd-reson except bw (bandwidth) is a sound. Filter coefficients are updated at the sample rate of bw. You should use reson instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-resonvc(sound, hz, bw, normalization) [SAL] (snd-resonvc sound hz bw normalization) [LISP] This function is identical to snd-reson except hz (center frequency) is a sound. Filter coefficients are updated at the sample rate of hz. You should use reson instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-resonvv(sound, hz, bw, normalization) [SAL] (snd-resonvv sound hz bw normalization) [LISP] This function is identical to snd-reson except botth hz (center frequency) and bw (bandwidth) are sounds. Filter coefficients are updated at the next sample from either hz or bw. You should use reson instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-stkchorus(sound, delay, depth, freq, mix) [SAL] (snd-stkchorus sound delay depth freq mix) [LISP] A chorus implemented in STK. The parameter delay is a FIXNUM representing the median desired delay length in samples. A typical value is 6000. The FLONUM parameters depth and freq set the modulation depth (from 0 to 1) and modulation frequency (in Hz), mix sets the mixture of input sound and chorused sound, where a value of 0.0 means input sound only (dry) and a value of 1.0 means chorused sound only (wet). You should use pitshift instead (see Section 7.2.2.4). snd-stkpitshift(sound, shift, mix) [SAL] (snd-stkpitshift sound shift mix) [LISP] A pitch shifter implemented in STK. The sound is shifted in pitch by shift, a FLONUM representing the shift factor. A value of 1.0 means no shift. The parameter mix sets the mixture of input and shifted sounds. A value of 0.0 means input only (dry) and a value of 1.0 means shifted sound only (wet). You should use pitshift instead (see Section 7.2.2.4). snd-stkrev(rev-type, sound, decay, mix) [SAL] (snd-stkrev rev-type sound decay mix) [LISP] A reverb implemented in STK. The parameter rev-type is a FIXNUM ranging from zero to two and selects the type of reverb. Zero selects NRev type, one selects JCRev, and two selects PRCRev. The input sound is processed by the reverb with a decay time in seconds (a FLONUM). The mix, a FLONUM, sets the mixture of dry input and reverb output. A value of 0.0 means input only (dry) and a value of 1.0 means reverb only (wet). The sample rate is that of sound. You should use nrev, jcrev or prcrev instead (see Section 7.2.2.4). snd-tone(sound, hz) [SAL] (snd-tone sound hz) [LISP] A first-order recursive low-pass filter, based on the tone unit generator of Csound. The hz parameter is the cutoff frequency, the response curve's half-power point. The result sample rate, start time, etc. are takend from sound. You should use lp instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). snd-tonev(sound, hz) [SAL] (snd-tonev sound hz) [LISP] This function is identical to snd-tone except hz (cutoff frequency) is a sound. The filter coefficients are updated at the sample rate of hz. You should use lp instead (see Section 7.2.2.3). 7.6.4. Table-Lookup Oscillator Functions These functions all use a sound to describe one period of a periodic waveform. In the current implementation, the sound samples are copied to an array (the waveform table) when the function is called. To make a table-lookup oscillator generate a specific pitch, we need to have several pieces of information: - A waveform to put into the table. This comes from the sound parameter. - The length (in samples) of the waveform. This is obtained by reading samples (starting at the sound's start time, not necessarily at time zero) until the physical stop time of the sound. (If you read the waveform from a file or generate it with functions like sim and sine, then the physical and logical stop times will be the same and will correspond to the duration you specified, rounded to the nearest sample.) - The intrinsic sample rate of the waveform. This sample rate is simply the sample rate property of sound. - The pitch of the waveform. This is supplied by the step parameter and indicates the pitch (in steps) of sound. You might expect that the pitch would be related to the period (length) of sound, but there is the interesting case that synthesis based on sampling often loops over multiple periods. This means that the fundamental frequency of a generated tone may be some multiple of the looping rate. In Nyquist, you always specify the perceived pitch of the looped sound if the sound is played at the sound's own sample rate. - The desired pitch. This is specified by the hz parameter in Hertz (cycles per second) in these low-level functions. Note that this is not necessarily the ``loop'' rate at which the table is scanned. Instead, Nyquist figures what sample rate conversion would be necessary to ``transpose'' from the step which specifies the original pitch of sound to hz, which gives the desired pitch. The mixed use of steps and Hertz came about because it seemed that sample tables would be tagged with steps (``I sampled a middle-C''), whereas frequency deviation in the fmosc function is linear, thus calling for a specification in Hertz. - The desired sample rate. This is given by the sr parameter in Hertz. Other parameters common to all of these oscillator functions are: - t0, the starting time, and - phase, the starting phase in degrees. Note that if the step parameter indicates that the table holds more than one fundamental period, then a starting phase of 360 will be different than a starting phase of 0. snd-amosc(sound, step, sr, hz, t0, am, phase) [SAL] (snd-amosc sound step sr hz t0 am phase) [LISP] An oscillator with amplitude modulation. The sound am specifies the amplitude and the logical stop time. The physical stop time is also that of am. You should use amosc instead (see Section 7.2.2.1). snd-fmosc(s, step, sr, hz, t0, fm, phase) [SAL] (snd-fmosc s step sr hz t0 fm phase) [LISP] A Frequency Modulation oscillator. The sound fm specifies frequency deviation (in Hertz) from hz. You should use fmosc instead (see Section 7.2.2.1). snd-fmfb(t0, hz, sr, index, dur) [SAL] (snd-fmfb t0 hz sr index dur) [LISP] A Feedback FM oscillator. The resulting sound starts at t0, has a fundamental frequency of hz, a sample rate of sr, and a duration of dur seconds. The index is a FLONUM that specifies the amount of feedback. You should use fmfb instead (see Section 7.2.2.1). snd-fmfbv(t0, hz, sr, index) (snd-fmfv t0 hz sr index) [LISP] A Feedback FM oscillator. The resulting sound starts at t0, has a fundamental frequency of hz, and a sample rate of sr. The index is a SOUND that specifies the amount of feedback and determines the duration. You should use fmfb instead (see Section 7.2.2.1). snd-buzz(n, sr, hz, t0, fm) [SAL] (snd-buzz n sr hz t0 fm) [LISP] A buzz oscillator, which generates n harmonics of equal amplitude. The fm specifies frequency deviation (in Hertz) from hz. You should use buzz instead (see Section 7.2.2.1). snd-pluck(sr, hz, t0, d, final-amp) [SAL] (snd-pluck sr hz t0 d final-amp) [LISP] A Karplus-Strong plucked string oscillator with sample rate sr, fundamental frequency hz, starting time t0, duration d, initial amplitude approximately 1.0 (not exact because the string is initialized with random values) and final amplitude approximately final-amp. You should use pluck instead (see Section 7.2.2.1). snd-osc(s, step, sr, hz, t0, d, phase) [SAL] (snd-osc s step sr hz t0 d phase) [LISP] A simple table lookup oscillator with fixed frequency. The duration is d seconds. You should use osc instead (see Section 7.2.2.1). snd-partial(sr, hz, t0, env) [SAL] (snd-partial sr hz t0 env) [LISP] This is a special case of snd-amosc that generates a sinusoid starting at phase 0 degrees. The env parameter gives the envelope or any other amplitude modulation. You should use partial instead (see Section 7.2.2.1). snd-sine(t0, hz, sr, d) [SAL] (snd-sine t0 hz sr d) [LISP] This is a special case of snd-osc that always generates a sinusoid with initial phase of 0 degrees. You should use sine instead (see Section 7.2.2.1). snd-sampler(s, step, start, sr, hz, t0, fm, npoints) [SAL] (snd-sampler s step start sr hz t0 fm npoints) [LISP] Returns a sound constructed by reading a sample from beginning to end and then splicing on copies of the same sound from a loop point to the end. The sound s is the source sound to be looped, and step (a FLONUM) is the nominal fundamental frequency (in steps, not Hz) of s. The start (a FLONUM) is the time in seconds at which to start the loop, sr (a FLONUM) is the desired sample rate of the output, hz is the nominal fundamental frequency of the output, t0 (a FLONUM) is the starting time of the output, and fm (a SOUND) is frequency modulation that is added to hz to determine the output fundamental frequency. The parameter npoints (a FIXNUM) specifies how many points should be used for sample interpolation. Currently this parameter defaults to 2 and only 2-point (linear) interpolation is implemented. It is an error to modulate such that the frequency is negative. Note also that the loop point may be fractional. This function implements a typical sampling synthesis algorithm, looping and resampling the input according to the ratio between the desired fundamental frequency (which is the sum of hz and fm) and the nominal fundamental of the looped sound (which is assumed to be given by step). You should use sampler instead (see Section 7.2.2.1). snd-siosc(tables, sr, hz, t0, fm) [SAL] (snd-siosc tables sr hz t0 fm) [LISP] A Spectral Interpolation Oscillator with frequency modulation. The tables is a list of sounds and sample counts as follows: (table0 count1 table1 ... countN tableN). The initial waveform is given by table0, which is interpolated linearly to table1 over the first count1 samples. From count1 to count2 samples, the waveform is interpolated from table1 to table2, and so on. If more than countN samples are generated, tableN is used for the remainder of the sound. The duration and logical stop time of the sound is taken from fm, which specified frequency modulation (deviation) in Hertz. You should use siosc instead (see Section 7.2.2.1). 7.6.5. Physical Model Functions These functions perform some sort of physically-based modeling synthesis. (snd-bandedwg freq bowpress-env preset sr) (snd-bandedwg freq bowpress-env preset sr) [LISP] A Banded Wave Guide Percussion instrument implemented in STK. The parameter freq is a FLONUM in Hz, bowpress-env is a SOUND that ranges from zero to one, preset is a FIXNUM, and sr is the desired sample rate in Hz. Currently, there are four presets: uniform-bar (0), tuned-bar (1), glass-harmonica (2), and tibetan-bowl (3). You should use wg-uniform-bar, wg-tuned-bar, wg-glass-harm, or wg-tibetan-bowl instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-bowed(freq, bowpress-env, sr) [SAL] (snd-bowed freq bowpress-env sr) [LISP] A bowed string instrument implemented in STK. The freq is a FLONUM in Hertz, bowpress-env is a SOUND that ranges from z ero to one, and sr is the desired sample rate (a FLONUM). You should use bowed instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-bowed-freq(freq, bowpress-env, freq-env, sr) [SAL] (snd-bowed-freq freq bowpress-env freq-env sr) [LISP] A bowed model just like snd-bowed but with an additional parameter for continuous frequency control. You should use bowed-freq instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-clarinet(freq, breath-env, sr) [SAL] (snd-clarinet freq breath-env sr) [LISP] A clarinet model implemented in STK. The freq is a FLONUM in Hertz, breath-env is a SOUND that ranges from zero to one, and sr is the desired sample rate (a FLONUM). You should use clarinet instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-clarinet-freq(freq, breath-env, freq-env, sr) [SAL] (snd-clarinet-freq freq breath-env freq-env sr) [LISP] A clarinet model just like snd-clarinet but with an additional parameter for continuous frequency control. You should use clarinet-freq instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-clarinet-all(freq, vibrato-freq, vibrato-gain, freq-env, breath-env, reed-stiffness, noise, sr) [SAL] (snd-clarinet-all freq vibrato-freq vibrato-gain freq-env breath-env reed-stiffness noise sr) [LISP] A clarinet model just like snd-clarinet-freq but with additional parameters for vibrato generation and continuous control of reed stiffness and breath noise. You should use clarinet-all instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-flute(freq, breath-env, sr) [SAL] (snd-flute freq breath-env sr) [LISP] A flute implemented in STK. The freq is a FLONUM in Hertz, breath-env is a SOUND that ranges from zero to one, and sr is the desired sample rate (a FLONUM). You should use flute instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-flute-freq(freq, breath-env, freq-env, sr) [SAL] (snd-flute-freq freq breath-env freq-env sr) [LISP] A flute model just like snd-flute but with an additional parameter for continuous frequency control. You should use flute-freq instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-flute-all(freq, vibrato-freq, vibrato-gain, freq-env, breath-env, jet-delay, noise, sr) [SAL] (snd-flute-all freq vibrato-freq vibrato-gain freq-env breath-env jet-delay noise sr) [LISP] A flute model just like snd-flute-freq but with additional parameters for vibrato generation and continuous control of breath noise. You should use flute-all instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-mandolin(t0, freq, dur, body-size, detune, sr) [SAL] (snd-mandolin t0 freq dur body-size detune sr) [LISP] A plucked double-string instrument model implemented in STK. The t0 parameter is the starting time (in seconds), freq is a FLONUM in Hz, body-size and detune are FLONUMs, and sr is the desired sample rate. You should use mandolin instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-modalbar(t0, freq, preset, dur, sr) [SAL] (snd-modalbar t0 freq preset dur sr) [LISP] Struck bar instrument model implemented in STK. The parameter t0 is the starting time (in seconds), freq is a FLONUM in Hz, preset is a FIXNUM ranging from 0 to 8, dur is a FLONUM that sets the duration (in seconds) and sr is the desired sample rate. You should use modalbar instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-sax(freq, breath-env, sr) [SAL] (snd-sax freq breath-env sr) [LISP] A sax model implemented in STK. The freq is a FLONUM in Hertz, breath-env is a SOUND that ranges from zero to one, and sr is the desired sample rate (a FLONUM). You should use sax instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-sax-freq(freq, freq-env, breath-env, sr) [SAL] (snd-sax-freq freq freq-env breath-env sr) [LISP] A sax model just like snd-sax but with an additional parameter for continuous frequency control. You should use sax-freq instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-sax-all(freq, vibrato-freq, vibrato-gain, freq-env, breath-env, reed-stiffness, noise, blow-pos, reed-table-offset, sr) [SAL] (snd-sax-all freq vibrato-freq vibrato-gain freq-env breath-env reed-stiffness noise blow-pos reed-table-offset sr) [LISP] A sax model just like snd-sax-freq but with additional parameters for vibrato generation and continuous control of reed stiffness, breath noise, excitation position, and reed table offset. You should use sax-all instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). snd-sitar(t0, freq, dur, sr) [SAL] (snd-sitar t0 freq dur sr) [LISP] A sitar model implemented in STK. The parameter t0 is the starting time, freq is a FLONUM (in Hz), E dur sets the duration and sr is the sample rate (in Hz) of the resulting sound. You should use sitar instead (see Section 7.2.2.5). 7.6.6. Sequence Support Functions The next two functions are used to implement Nyquist's seq construct. snd-seq(sound, closure) [SAL] (snd-seq sound closure) [LISP] This function returns sound until the logical stop time of sound. Then, the XLISP closure is evaluated, passing it the logical stop time of sound as a parameter. The closure must return a sound, which is then added to sound. (An add is used so that sound can continue past its logical stop if desired.) Do not call this function. See seq in Section 7.4. snd-multiseq(array, closure) [SAL] (snd-multiseq array closure) [LISP] This function is similar to snd-seq except the first parameter is a multichannel sound rather than a single sound. A multichannel sound is simply an XLISP array of sounds. An array of sounds is returned which is the sum of array and another array of sounds returned by closure. The closure is passed the logical stop time of the multichannel sound, which is the maximum logical stop time of any element of array. Do not call this function. See seq in Section 7.4. snd-trigger(s, closure) [SAL] (snd-trigger s closure) [LISP] This is one of the only ways in which a behavior instance can be created by changes in a signal. When s (a SOUND) makes a transition from less than or equal to zero to greater than zero, the closure, which takes a starting time parameter, is evaluated. The closure must return a SOUND. The sum of all these sounds is returned. If there are no sounds, the result will be zero. The stop time of the result is the maximum stop time of s and all sounds returned by the closure. The sample rate of the return value is the sample rate of s, and the sounds returned by the closure must all have that same sample rate. Do not call this function. See trigger in Section 7.4. An implementation note: There is no way to have snd-trigger return a multichannel sound. An alternative implementation would be a built-in function to scan ahead in a sound to find the time of the next zero crossing. This could be combined with some LISP code similar to seq to sum up instances of the closure. However, this would force arbitrary look-ahead and therefore would not work with real-time inputs, which was the motivation for snd-trigger in the first place. 8. Nyquist Globals There are many global variables in Nyquist. A convention in Lisp is to place asterisks (*) around global variables, e.g. *table*. This is only a convention, and the asterisks are just like any other letter as far as variable names are concerned. Here are some globals users should know about: *table* Default table used by osc and other oscillators. *A4-Hertz* Frequency of A4 in Hertz.. Note: you must call (set-pitch-names) to recompute pitches after changing *A4-Hertz*. *autonorm* The normalization factor to be applied to the next sound when *autonorm-type* is 'previous. See Sections 5.3 and 7.5. *autonormflag* Enables the automatic normalization feature of the play command. You should use (autonorm-on) and (autonorm-off) rather than setting *autonormflag* directly. See Sections 5.3 and 7.5. *autonorm-max-samples* Specifies how many samples will be computed searching for a peak value when *autonorm-type* is 'lookahead. See Sections 5.3 and 7.5. *autonorm-previous-peak* The peak of the previous sound generated by play. This is used to compute the scale factor for the next sound when *autonorm-type* is 'previous. See Sections 5.3 and 7.5. *autonorm-target* The target peak amplitude for the autonorm feature. The default value is 0.9. See Sections 5.3 and 7.5. *autonorm-type* Determines how the autonorm feature is implemented. Valid values are 'lookahead (the default) and 'previous. See Sections 5.3 and 7.5. *breakenable* Controls whether XLISP enters a break loop when an error is encountered. See Section IV.14. *clipping-error* If the peak absolute amplitude value of a sound saved or played exceeds *clipping-threshold*, an XLISP error is raised. See *clipping-threshold* for more detail. *clipping-threshold* See *clipping-error* for a description of this variable. *clipping-threshold* is initialized to 127/128. This number is conservative, and it is possible to slightly exceed this value, even with 8-bit files without actual clipping (consider rounding. Also, floating point format files will not clip even when the amplitude exceeds 1.0. Note that a ``clipping'' threshold of 1.0 is optimistic: 1.0 corresponds to a 16-bit integer value of 32,768 (2^15), but the maximum positive 16-bit integer is 32,767. Thus, a positive sample of 1.0 will clip when written or played as 16-bit audio. *control-srate* Part of the environment, establishes the control sample rate. See Section 3.1 for details. *default-sf-bits* The default bits-per-sample for sound files. Typically 16. *default-sf-dir* The default sound file directory. Unless you give a full path for a file, audio files are assumed to be in this directory. (Applies to many functions that deal with sound files. Check the function description to see if *default-sf-dir* applies.) *default-sf-format* The default sound file format. When you write a file, this will be the default format: AIFF for Mac and most Unix systems, NeXT for NeXT systems, and WAV for Win32. *default-sf-srate* The default sample rate for sound files. Typically 44100.0, but often set to 22050.0 for speed in non-critical tasks. *default-control-srate* Default value for *control-srate*. This value is restored when you execute (top) to pop out of a debugging session. Change it by calling (set-control-srate value). *default-sound-srate* Default value for *sound-srate*. This value is restored when you execute (top) to pop out of a debugging session. Change it by calling (set-sound-srate value). *file-separator* The character that separates directories in a path, e.g. ``/'' for Unix, ``:'' for Mac, and ``\'' for Win32. This is normally set in system.lsp. *rslt* When a function returns more than one value, *rslt* is set to a list of the ``extra'' values. This provides a make-shift version of the multiple-value-return facility in Common Lisp. *sound-srate* Part of the environment, establishes the audio sample rate. See Section 3.1 for details. *soundenable* Controls whether writes to a sound file will also be played as audio. Set this variable by calling (sound-on) or (sound-off). *tracenable* Controls whether XLISP prints a backtrace when an error is encountered. XLISP variables See Section IV.14 for a list of global variables defined by XLISP. Environment variables See Section 3.1 for definitions of variables used in the environment for behaviors. In general, you should never set or access these variables directly. Various constants See Section 1.8 for definitions of predefined constants for loudness, duration, and pitch. 9. Time/Frequency Transformation Nyquist provides functions for FFT and inverse FFT operations on streams of audio data. Because sounds can be of any length, but an FFT operates on a fixed amount of data, FFT processing is typically done in short blocks or windows that move through the audio. Thus, a stream of samples is converted in to a sequence of FFT frames representing short-term spectra. Nyquist does not have a special data type corresponding to a sequence of FFT frames. This would be nice, but it would require creating a large set of operations suitable for processing frame sequences. Another approach, and perhaps the most ``pure'' would be to convert a single sound into a multichannel sound, with one channel per bin of the FFT. Instead, Nyquist violates its ``pure'' functional model and resorts to objects for FFT processing. A sequence of frames is represented by an XLISP object. Whenever you send the selector :next to the object, you get back either NIL, indicating the end of the sequence, or you get an array of FFT coefficients. The Nyquist function snd-fft (mnemonic, isn't it?) returns one of the frame sequence generating objects. You can pass any frame sequence generating object to another function, snd-ifft, and turn the sequence back into audio. With snd-fft and snd-ifft, you can create all sorts of interesting processes. The main idea is to create intermediate objects that both accept and generate sequences of frames. These objects can operate on the frames to implement the desired spectral-domain processes. Examples of this can be found in the file fft_tutorial.htm, which is part of the standard Nyquist release. The documentation for snd-fft and snd-ifft follows. snd-fft(sound, length, skip, window) [SAL] (snd-fft sound length skip window) [LISP] This function performs an FFT on the first samples in sound and returns a Lisp array of FLONUMs. The function modifies the sound, violating the normal rule that sounds are immutable in Nyquist, so it is advised that you copy the sound using snd-copy if there are any other references to sound. The length of the FFT is specified by length, a FIXNUM (integer) which must be a power of 2. After each FFT, the sound is advanced by skip samples, also of type FIXNUM. Overlapping FFTs, where skip is less than length, are allowed. If window is not NIL, it must be a sound. The first length samples of window are multiplied by length samples of sound before performing the FFT. When there are no more samples in sound to transform, this function returns NIL. The coefficients in the returned array, in order, are the DC coefficient, the first real, the first imaginary, the second real, the second imaginary, etc. The last array element corresponds to the real coefficient at the Nyquist frequency. snd-ifft(time, srate, iterator, skip, window) [SAL] (snd-ifft time srate iterator skip window) [LISP] This function performs an IFFT on a sequence of spectral frames obtained from iterator and returns a sound. The start time of the sound is given by time. Typically, this would be computed by calling (local-to-global 0). The sample rate is given by srate. Typically, this would be *sound-srate*, but it might also depend upon the sample rate of the sound from which the spectral frames were derived. To obtain each frame, the function sends the message :next to the iterator object, using XLISP's primitives for objects and message passing. The object should return an array in the same format as obtained from snd-fft, and the object should return NIL when the end of the sound is reached. After each frame is inverse transformed into the time domain, it is added to the resulting sound. Each successive frame is added with a sample offset specified by skip relative to the previous frame. This must be an integer greater than zero. If window is not NIL, it must be a sound. This window signal is multiplied by the inverse transformed frame before the frame is added to the output sound. The length of each frame should be the same power of 2. The length is implied by the array returned by iterator, so it does not appear as a parameter. This length is also the number of samples used from window. Extra samples are ignored, and window is padded with zeros if necessary, so be sure window is the right length. The resulting sound is computed on demand as with other Nyquist sounds, so :next messages are sent to iterator only when new frames are needed. One should be careful not to reuse or modify iterator once it is passed to snd-ifft. 10. MIDI, Adagio, and Sequences Nyquist includes facilities to read and write MIDI files as well as an ASCII text-based score representation language, Adagio. XLISP and Nyquist can be used to generate MIDI files using compositional algorithms. (See also Section 13.) A tutorial on using the Adadio representation and MIDI can be found in demos/midi_tutorial.htm. The Adagio language is described below. Adagio was originally developed as part of the CMU MIDI Toolkit, which included a program to record and play MIDI using the Adagio representation. Some of the MIDI features of Adagio may not be useful within Nyquist. Nyquist offers a number of different score representations, and you may find this confusing. In general, MIDI files are a common way to exchange music performance data, especially with sequencers and score notation systems. The demos/midi_tutorial.htm examples show how to get the most precise control when generating MIDI data. Adagio is most useful as a text-based score entry language, and it is certainly more compact than Lisp expressions for MIDI-like data. The Xmusic library (Chapter 13) is best for algorithmic generation of music and score manipulation. There are functions to convert between the Adagio, MIDI sequence data, and Xmusic score representations. Adagio is an easy-to-use, non-procedural notation for scores. In Adagio, text commands are used to specify each note. If you are new to Adagio, you may want to glance at the examples in Section 10.3 starting on page 37 before reading any further. A note is described in Adagio by a set of attributes, and any attribute not specified is ``inherited'' from the previous line. Attributes may appear in any order and must be separated by one or more blanks. An attribute may not contain any blanks. The attributes are: time, pitch, loudness, voice number, duration, and articulation. Adagio has been used to program a variety of hardware and software synthesizers, and the Adagio compiler can be easily adapted to new environments. Although not originally intended for MIDI, Adagio works quite well as a representation for MIDI scores. Adagio has been extended to allow MIDI controller data such as modulation wheels, pitch bend, and volume, MIDI program commands to change timbre, and System Exclusive messages. A note command in Adagio must be separated from other notes. Usually, notes are distinguished by writing each one on a separate line. Notes can also be separated by using a comma or semicolon as will be described below. Besides notes, there are several other types of commands: 1. An asterisk (*) in column one (or immediately after a comma, semicolon, or space) indicates that the rest of the line is a comment. The line is ignored by Adagio, and is therefore a good way to insert text to be read by people. Here are some examples: * This is a comment. T150 G4 * This is a comment too! T150 G4 ;* So is this. 2. An empty command (a blank line, for example) is ignored as if it were a comment(To be consistent, a blank line ought to specify zero attributes and generate a note that inherits all of its attributes from the previous one. Adagio is intentionally inconsistent in this respect.). 3. An exclamation point (!) in column one (or immediately after a comma or semicolon) indicates a special command. A special command does not generate a note. Special commands follow the ``!'' with no intervening spaces and extend to the end of the line, for example: !TEMPO 100 4. Control change commands are used to control parameters like pitch bend, modulation, and program (timbre). Control change commands can be specified along with notes or by themselves. A command that specifies control changes without specifying a pitch will not produce a note. Adagio is insensitive to case, thus ``A'' is equivalent to ``a'', and you can mix upper and lower case letters freely. 10.1. Specifying Attributes A note is indicated by a set of attributes. Attributes are indicated by a string of characters with no intervening spaces because spaces separate attributes. The attributes are described below. th The default unit of time is a centisecond (100 's), but this can be changed th to a millisecond (1000 's) using the !MSEC command and reset to centiseconds with !CSEC (see Section 10.4.1). In the descriptions below, the term ``time unit'' will be used to mean whichever convention is currently in effect. 10.1.1. Time The time attribute specifies when to start the note. A time is specified by a ``T'' followed by a number representing time units or by a duration (durations are described below). Examples: T150 ** 1.5 sec (or .15 sec) TQ3 ** 3 quarter note's duration If no time is specified, the default time is the sum of the time and duration attributes of the previous note. (But see Section 10.1.4.) Time is measured relative to the time of the most recent Tempo or Rate command. (See the examples in Section 10.3 for some clarification of this point.) 10.1.2. Pitch The pitch attribute specifies what frequency to produce. Standard scale pitches are named by name, using S for sharp, F for flat, and (optionally) N for natural. For example, C and CN represent the same pitch, as do FS and GF (F sharp and G flat). Note that there are no bar lines, and accidentals to not carry forward to any other notes as in common practice notation. Octaves are specified by number. C4 is middle C, and B3 is a half step lower. F5 is the top line of the treble clef, etc. (Adagio octave numbering follows the ISO standard, but note that this is not universal. In particular, Yamaha refers to middle C as C3.) Accidentals can go before or after the octave number, so FS3 and F3S have the same meaning. An alternate notation for pitch is Pn, where n is an integer representing the pitch.Middle C (C4) is equivalent to P60, CS4 is P61, etc. If you do not specify an octave, Adagio will choose one for you. This is done by picking the octave that will make the current pitch as close to the previous pitch as possible. In the case of augmented fourths or diminished fifths, there are two equally good choices. Adagio chooses the lower octave. 10.1.3. Duration Duration is specified by a letter indicating a number of beats, followed by one or several modifiers. The basic duration codes are: W (whole, 4 beats), H (half, 2 beats), Q (quarter, 1 beat), I (eighth, 1/2 beat), S (sixteenth, 1/4 beat), % (thirtysecond, 1/8 beat), and ^ (sixtyfourth, 1/16 beat). Note that E is a pitch, so eighth-notes use the duration code I. The default tempo is 100 beats per minute (see Section 10.1.10). These codes may be followed by a T (triplet), indicating a duration of 2/3 the normal. A dot (.) after a duration code extends it by half to 3/2 the normal. An integer after a note multiplies its duration by the indicated value (the result is still just one note). Finally, a slash followed by an integer divides the duration by the integer. Like all attributes, duration attributes may not have embedded spaces. Examples: Q 1 beat (quarter note) QT 2/3 beat (quarter triplet) W. 6 beats(dotted whole note) ST6 1 beat (6 sixteenth triplets) H5 10 beats(5 half notes) Q3/7 3/7 beats th A duration may be noted by Un, where n is an integer indicating 100 's of a th second (or 1000 's), see Section 10.4.1. For example, U25 is twenty-five time units. Durations may be combined using a plus sign: Q+IT ** a quarter tied to an eighth triplet Q/7+W+Q2/7 ** a 7th beat tied to a whole tied to 2/7th beat Q+U10 ** a quarter plus 10 time units 10.1.4. Next Time The time of the next command (the next command in the Adagio program text) is normally the time of the current note command plus the duration of the current note. This can be overridden by a field consisting of the letter N followed by a number indicating time units, or followed by a duration as described above. The next note will then start at the time of the current note plus the duration specified after N. If the next note has an explicit time attribute (T), then the specified time will override the one based on the previous note. Examples: N0 ** start the next note at the same time as this one N50 ** start the next note 0.5 seconds after this one NQT ** start the next note 2/3 beat after the current one NU10+Q ** start after 0.1 seconds plus a quarter A comma has an effect similar to N0 and is explained in Section 10.4.2. Articulation effects such as staccato can be produced using N, but it is more convenient to use the articulation attribute described in Section 10.1.6. 10.1.5. Rest Rests are obtained by including the field R in a note command. The effect of an R field is to omit the note that would otherwise occur as the result of the current note command. In all other respects, the command is processed just like any other line. This means that attributes such as duration, loudness, and pitch can be specified, and anything specified will be inherited by the note in the next command. Normally, a rest will include just R and a duration. The fact that a note command specifies a rest is not inherited. For example: R H ** a half (two beat) rest RH ** illegal, R must be separated from H by space(s) Because some synthesizers (e.g. a DX7) cannot change programs (presets) rapidly, it may be desirable to change programs in a rest so that the synthesizer will be ready to play by the end of the rest. See Section 10.1.9 for an example. 10.1.6. Articulation Articulation in Adagio refers to the percentage of time a note is on relative to the indicated duration. For example, to play a note staccato, you would normally play the note about half of its indicated duration. In Adagio, articulation is indicated by # followed by an integer number indicating a percentage. The articulation attribute does not affect the time of the next command. This example plays two staccato quarter notes: C Q #50 D To produce overlapping notes, the articulation may be greater than 100. Be aware that overlapping notes on the same pitch can be a problem for some synthesizers. The following example illustrates this potential problem: !TEMPO 60 C Q #160 * starts at time 0, ends at 1.6 sec D I * starts at time 1, ends at 1.8 sec C Q * starts at time 1.5, ends at 3.1 sec? At one beat per second (tempo 60), these three notes will start at times 0, 1, and 1.5 seconds, respectively. Since these notes have an articulation of 160, each will be on 160% of its nominal duration, so the first note (C) will remain on until 1.6 seconds. But the third note (another C) will start at time 1.5 seconds. Thus, the second C will be started before the first one ends. Depending on the synthesizer, this may cancel the first C or play a second C in unison. In either case, a note-off message will be sent at time 1.6 seconds. If this cancels the second C, its actual duration will be 0.1 rather than 1.6 seconds as intended. A final note-off will be sent at time 3.1 seconds. 10.1.7. Loudness Loudness is indicated by an L followed by a dynamic marking from the following: PPP, PP, P, MP, MF, F, FF, FFF. Alternatively, a number from 1 to 127 may be used. The loudness attribute is the MIDI note velocity. (Note that a MIDI velocity of 0 means ``note-off,'' so the minimum loudness is 1.) The dynamicmarkings are translated into numbers as follows: Lppp 20 Lmf 58 Lpp 26 Lf 75 Lp 34 Lff 98 Lmp 44 Lfff 127 10.1.8. Voice The voice attribute tells which of the 16 MIDI channels to use for the note. The voice attribute consists of a V followed by an integer from 1 (the default) to 16. There is a limit to how many notes can be played at the same time on a given voice (MIDI channel). Since the limit depends upon the synthesizer, Adagio cannot tell you when you exceed the limit. Similarly, Adagio cannot tell whether your synthesizer is set up to respond to a given channel, so there is no guarantee that what you write will actually be heard. 10.1.9. Timbre (MIDI Program) A MIDI program (synthesizer preset) can be selected using the attribute Zn, where n is the program number (from 1 to 128). Notice that in MIDI, changing the program on a given channel will affect all notes on that channel and possibly others. Adagio treats MIDI program changes as a form of control change. For many synthesizers, you will not be able to change programs at the start of a note or during a note. Change the program during a rest instead. For example: R I Z23 V4 ** change MIDI channel 4 to program 23 during rest A4 ** play a note on channel 4 Check how your synthesizer interprets program numbers. For example, the cartridge programs on a DX7 can be accessed by adding 32 to the cartridge program number. Cartridge program number 10 is specified by Z42. As in MIDI, the Adagio timbre is a property of the voice (MIDI channel), so the timbre will not be inherited by notes on a different channel; to change the timbre on multiple voices (channels), you must explicitly notate each change. 10.1.10. Tempo The length of a beat may be changed using a Tempo command: !TEMPO n where n indicates beats per minute. The exclamation mark tells Adagio that this is a special command line rather than a note definition. A special command takes the place of a note specification. No other attributes should be written on a line with a special command. The !TEMPO command is associated with a time, computed as if the !TEMPO command were a note. The time attribute (T) of all succeeding notes is now measured relative to the time of the !TEMPO command. The new tempo starts at the !TEMPO command time and affects all succeeding notes. Durations specified in time units (for example U58, N15) are not affected by the !TEMPO command, and numerical times (for example T851) are computed relative to the time of the last !TEMPO command. The !TEMPO command is fairly clever about default durations. If the last duration specified before the !TEMPO command is symbolic (using one of ^,%, S, I, Q, H, or W ), then the default duration for the node after the !TEMPO command will be modified according to the tempo change. Consider the following tempo change: !TEMPO 60 A4 H !TEMPO 120 G In this example, the first note will last 2 seconds (2 beats at 60 beats per minute). The second note inherits the duration (H) from the first note, but at 120 beats per minute, the second note will last only 1 second. If the duration had been specified U200 (also a duration of 2 seconds), the second note would also last 2 seconds because the !TEMPO command does not affect times or durations specified numerically in time units. If the duration is the sum of a symbolic and a numeric specification, the inherited duration after a !TEMPO command is undefined. 10.1.11. Rate The !RATE command scales all times including those specified in hundredths of seconds. A rate of 100 means no change, 200 means twice as fast, and 50 means half as fast. For example, to make a piece play 10% faster, you can add the following command at the beginning of the score: !RATE 110 !RATE and !TEMPO commands combine, so !RATE 200 !TEMPO 70 will play 70 beats per minute at double the normal speed, or 140 beats per minute. Like !TEMPO, the time of the !RATE command is added to the time attribute of all following notes up to the next !TEMPO or !RATE command. Two !RATE commands do not combine, so a !RATE command only affects the rate until the next !RATE command. Although !TEMPO and !RATE can occur in the middle of a note (using N, T, etc.) they do not affect a note already specified. This property allows multiple tempi to exist simultaneously (see Section 10.4.4). 10.2. Default Attributes If an attribute is omitted, the previous one is used by default (with the exception of the time attribute). The default values for the first note, which are inherited by succeeding notes until something else is specified, are given below in Adagio notation: Time T0 Pitch C4 Duration Q Articulation #100 Loudness LFFF Voice V1 Tempo !TEMPO 100 Rate !RATE 100 Control changes (including timbre or MIDI program, specified by Z) have no default value and are only sent as specified in the score. Important: the rules for determining when a command will play a note are as follows (and this has changed slightly from previous versions): 1. If a special (!) command or nothing is specified, e.g. a blank line, do not play a note. 2. If R (for ``rest'') is specified, do not play a note. 3. Otherwise, if a pitch is specified, do play a note. 4. Otherwise, if no control changes (or program changes) are specified (so this is a command with non-pitch attributes and no control changes), do play a note. Another way to say this is ``Special commands and commands with rests (R) do not play notes. Otherwise, play a note if a pitch is specified or if no control is specified.'' 10.3. Examples The following plays the first two bars of ``Happy Birthday''. Note that Adagio knows nothing of bar lines, so the fact that the first note occurs on beat 3 or that the meter is three-four is of no consequence: *Example 1 ** Happy Birthday tune (C major) !TEMPO 120 G4 I. LF G4 S A4 Q G4 C5 B4 H The time attribute for the first note is zero (0). The second note will occur a dotted eighth later, etc. Notice that no timbre or rate was specified. Adagio will provide reasonable default values of 1 and 100, respectively. The following example plays the first four bars of an exercise from Bartok's Mikrokosmos (Vol. 1, No. 12). An extra quarter note is inserted at the beginning of each voice in order to allow time to change MIDI programs. The right hand part is played on voice (MIDI channel) 1 and the left hand part on voice 2. Notice the specification of the time attribute to indicate that voice 2 starts at time 0. Also, default octaves are used to reduce typing. *Example 2 ** Bartok *voice 1, right hand R Q Z10 V1 ** extra rest for program change A4 H B Q C D H C D Q C B A B C D R *voice 2, left hand T0 R Q Z15 V2 ** extra rest for program change G3 H F Q E D H E D Q E F G F E D R The next example is the same piece expressed in a different manner, illustrating the interaction between the !TEMPO command and the time attribute. Recall that the time attribute is measured relative to the time of the last !TEMPO command: *Example 3 ** 4 measures in 2 sections !Tempo 100 *Voice 1, Measures 1 & 2 R Q Z10 V1 A4 H B Q C D H C *Voice 2, Measures 1 & 2 T0 R Q Z15 V2 G3 H F Q E D H E H !TEMPO 100 *Voice 1, Measures 3 & 4 * note that Z10 is still in effect for V1 V1 D4 Q C B A B C D R *Voice 2, Measures 3 & 4 T0 V2 D3 Q E F G F E D R The piece is written in 4 sections. The first plays a rest followed by two measures, starting at time 0. The next section changes the time back to zero and plays two measures of the left hand part (voice 2). The next command (!TEMPO 100) sets the tempo to 100 (it already is) and sets the reference time to be two measures into the piece. Therefore, the next note (D4) will begin measure 3. The D3 that begins the last group of notes has a T0 attribute, so it will also start at measure 3. Notice how the !TEMPO command can serve to divide a piece into sections. The last example will show yet another way to express the same piece of music using the ``Next'' attribute. Only the first bar of music is given. *Example 4 ** use of the Next attribute !Tempo 100 R Q Z10 V1 N0 R Q Z15 V2 A4 H V1 N0 G3 V2 B4 Q V1 N0 F3 V2 C4 Q V1 N0 E3 V2 Here, each pair of lines represents two simultaneous notes. The N0 attribute forces the second line to start at the same time as the first line of each pair. Because of the large intervals, octave numbers (3 and 4) are necessary to override the default octave for these pitches. 10.4. Advanced Features Beyond the simple notation described above, Adagio supports a number of features. (See also the next chapter.) 10.4.1. Time Units and Resolution th The default time unit is 10ms (ten milliseconds or one centisecond or 100 th of a second), but it is possible to change the basic unit to 1ms, or 1000 of a second. The time unit can be specified by: th !CSEC centisecond time units = 100 th !MSEC millisecond time units = 1000 The time unit remains in effect until the next !CSEC or !MSEC command. 10.4.2. Multiple Notes Per Line Notes can be separated by commas or semicolons as well as by starting a new line. A comma is equivalent to typing N0 and starting a new line. In other words, the next note after a comma will start at the same time as the note before the comma. In general, use commas to separate the notes of a chord. A semicolon is equivalent to starting a new line. In general, use semicolons to group notes in a melody. Here is yet another rendition of the Bartok: *Example 5 ** use of semicolons !Tempo 100 R Q Z10 V1 A4 H; B Q; C; D H; C; D Q; C; B; A; B; C; D; R T0 R Q Z15 V2 G3 H; F Q; E; D H; E; D Q; E; F; G; F; E; D; R This example is similar to Example 2, except semicolons are used. Note how semicolons make the two lines of music stand out. The next example is similar to Example 4, except commas are used and four bars are notated. The music below is treated as a sequence of 2-note chords, with each chord on a separate line: *Example 6 ** use of commas !Tempo 100 R Q Z10 V1, R Q Z15 V2 A4 H V1, G3 V2 B4 Q V1, F3 V2 C4 V1, E3 V2 D4 H V1, D3 V2 C4 V1, E3 V2 D4 Q V1, D3 V2 C4 V1, E3 V2 B4 V1, F3 V2 A4 V1, G3 V2 B4 V1, F3 V2 C4 V1, E3 V2 D4 V1, D3 V2 R 10.4.3. Control Change Commands Any control change can be specified using the syntax ``~n(v)'', where n is the controller number (0 - 127), and v is the value. In addition, Adagio has some special syntax for some of the commonly used control changes (note that Pitch bend, Aftertouch, and MIDI Program Change are technically not MIDI control changes but have their own special message format and status bytes): K Portamento switch M Modulation wheel O Aftertouch X Volume Y Pitch bend Z Program Change The letter listed beside each control function is the Adagio command letter. For example, M23 is the command for setting the modulation wheel to 23. Except for pitch bend, the portamento switch, and MIDI Program Change, all values range from 0 to 127. Pitch bend is ``off'' or centered at 128, and has a range from 0 to 255 (MIDI allows for more precision, but Adagio does not). Turn on portamento with K127 and off with K0. Programs are numbered 1 to 128 to correspond to synthesizer displays. About volume: Midi volume is just a control, and the Midi standard does not say what it means. Typically it does what the volume pedal does; that is, it scales the amplitude in a continuously changeable fashion. In contrast, Midi velocity, which is controlled by the L (loudness) attribute, is part of a Midi note-on command and is fixed for the duration of the note. Typically, these two ways of controlling loudness and amplitude operate independently. In some low-cost synthesizers the numbers seem to be added together internally and volume changes are ignored after the note starts. About pitch bend: Midi pitch bend is a number from 0 to 16383, where 8192 is the center position. To convert to Midi, Adagio simply multiplies your number by 64, giving values from 0 to 16320. Note that Y128 translates exactly to 8192. The meaning of pitch bend depends upon your synthesizer and its setting. Most synthesizers let you specify a ``pitch bend range.'' A range of one semitone means that Y255 will produce a bend of approximately one semitone up, and Y0 will bend one semitone down. If the range is 12 semitones, then the same Y255 will bend an octave. Typically, pitch bend is exponential, so each increment in the pitch bend value will bend an equal number of cents in pitch. Control changes can be part of a note specification or independent. In the following example, a middle C is played with a modulation wheel setting of 50 and a pitch bend of 120. Then, at 10 unit intervals, the pitch bend is decreased by 10. The last line sets the portamento time (controller 5) to 80: *Example 7 C4 LMF M50 Y120 U100 N10 Y110 N10; Y100 N10; Y90 N10; Y80 N10 Y70 N10; Y60 N10; Y50 N10 ~5(80) See Section 10.2 on page 37 for rules on whether or not a command will play a note. 10.4.4. Multiple Tempi Writing a piece with multiple tempi requires no new commands; you just have to be clever in the use of Tempo and Time. The following plays a 7 note diatonic scale on voice 1, and a 12 note chromatic scale on voice 2: *Example 8 ** multiple tempi !TEMPO 70 V1 C4; D; E; F; G; A; B T0 R N0 !TEMPO 120 V2 C4; CS; D; DS; E; F; FS; G; GS; A; AS; B !TEMPO 100 V1 C5, V2 C5 The third line plays the 7-note diatonic scale on voice 1. The next line contains the tricky part: notice that the time is set back to zero, there is a rest, and a next (N) attribute is used to specify that the next default time will be at the same time as the current one. This is tricky because a !TEMPO command cannot have a time (T0) attribute, and a T0 by itself would create a note with a duration. T0 R N0 says: ``go to time 0, do not play a note, and do not advance the time before the next command''. Thus, the time of the !TEMPO 120 command is zero. After the 12 note scale, the tempo is changed to 100 and a final note is played on each voice. A little arithmetic will show that 7 notes at tempo 70 and 12 notes at tempo 120 each take 6 seconds, so the final notes (C5) of each scale will happen at the same time. 10.4.5. MIDI Synchronization The Adagio program (but not Nyquist) can synchronize with external devices using MIDI real time messages. Thus, Adagio has a !CLOCK command. This command is currently of no use to Nyquist users but is documented here for completeness (it's part of the language syntax even if it does not do anything). Since Adagio supports multiple tempi, and Midi clock is based on beats, it is necessary to be explicit in the score about where the clock should start and what is the duration of a quarter note. The !CLOCK command in Adagio turns on a 24 pulse-per-quarter (PPQ) clock at the current tempo and time: !TEMPO 100 !CLOCK A !CLOCK command must also be inserted for each tempo change that is to be reflected in the Midi clock. Typically, each !TEMPO command will be followed by a !CLOCK command. Clock commands and thus tempo changes can take place at arbitrary times. It is th assumed that tempo changes on an exact 24 of a beat subdivision (for example, exactly on a beat). If not, the tempo change will take place on the nearest th exact 24 of a beat subdivision. This may be earlier or later than the requested time. 10.4.6. System Exclusive Messages Adagio has a definition facility that makes it possible to send system exclusive parameters. Often, there are parameters on Midi synthesizers that can only be controlled by system exclusive messages. Examples include the FM ratio and LFO rate on a DX7 synthesizer. The following example defines a macro for the DX7 LFO rate and then shows how the macro is used to set the LFO rate for a B-flat whole note in the score. The macro definition is given in hexadecimal, except v is replaced by the channel (voice) and %1 is replaced by the first parameter. A macro is invoked by writing ``~'' followed by the macro name and a list of parameters: !DEF LFO F0 43 0v 01 09 %1 F7 Bf5 W ~LFO(25) In general, the !DEF command can define any single MIDI message including a system exclusive message. The message must be complete (including the status byte), and each !DEF must correspond to just one message. The symbol following !DEF can be any name consisting of alphanumeric characters. Following the name is a hexadecimal string (with optional spaces), all on one line. Embedded in the string may be the following special characters: v Insert the 4-bit voice (MIDI channel) number. If v occurs in the place of a high-order hexadecimal digit, replace v with 0v so that the channel number is always placed in the low-order 4 bits of a data byte. In other words, v is padded if necessary to fall into the low-order bits. %n Insert a data byte with the low-order 7 bits of parameter number n. Parameters are numbered 1 through 9. If the parameter value is greater than 127, the high-order bits are discarded. ^n Insert a data byte with bits 7 through 13 of parameter number n. In other words, shift the value right 7 places then clear all but the first 7 bits. Note that 14-bit numbers can be encoded by referencing the same parameter twice; for example, %4^4 will insert the low-order followed by the high-order parts of parameter 4 into two successive data bytes. Parameters are separated by commas, but there may be no spaces. The maximum number of parameters allowed is 9. Here is an example of definitions to send a full-resolution pitch bend command and to send a system exclusive command to change a DX7 parameter[My TX816 Owner's Manual gives an incorrect format for the change parameter sysex command (according to the manual, there is no data in the message!) I am assuming that the data should be the last byte before the EOX and that there is no byte count. If you are reading this, assume that I have not tested this guess, nor have I tested this example.]. * Define macro for pitch bend commands: !DEF bend Ev %1 ^1 A ~bend(8192) ** 8192 is "pitch bend off" * Change the LFO SPEED: * SYSEX = F0, Yamaha = 43, Substatus/Channel = 1v, * Group# = 01, Parameter# = 9, Data = 0-99, EOX = F7 !DEF lfospeed F0 43 1v 01 09 %1 F7 * now use the definitions: G4 ~bend(7567) N40 ~lfospeed(30) N35 10.4.7. Control Ramps The !RAMP command can specify a smooth control change from one value to another. It consists of a specification of the starting and ending values of some control change, a duration specifying how often to send a new value, and a duration specifying the total length of the ramp. !RAMP X10 X100 Q W2 !RAMP ~23(10) ~23(50) U20 W !RAMP ~lfo(15) ~lfo(35) U10 The first line says to ramp the volume control (controller number 7) from 10 to 100, changing at each quarter note for the duration of two whole notes. The second line says to ramp controller number 23 from value 10 to value 50, sending a new control change message every 20 time units. The overall duration of the ramp should be equivalent to a whole note (W). As shown in the third line, even system exclusive messages controlled by parameters can be specified. If the system exclusive message has more than one parameter, only one parameter may be ``ramped''; the others must remain the same. For example, the following would ramp the second parameter: !RAMP ~mysysex(4,23,75) ~mysysex(4,100,75) U10 W A rather curious and extreme use of macros and ramps is illustrated in the following example. The noteon macro starts a note, and noteoff ends it. Ramps can now be used to emit a series of notes with changing pitches or velocities. Since Adagio has no idea that these macros are turning on notes, it is up to the programmer to turn them off! !DEF noteon 9v %1 %2 !DEF noteoff 8v %1 %2 ~noteon(48,125) ~noteoff(48,126) * turn on some notes !RAMP ~noteon(36,125) ~noteon(60,125) Q W NW * turn them off !RAMP ~noteoff(60,50) ~noteoff(36,50) Q W NW 10.4.8. The !End Command The special command !END marks the end of a score. Everything beyond that is ignored, for example: * this is a score C; D; E; F; G W !END since the score has ended, this text will be ignored 10.4.9. Calling C Routines It is possible to call C routines from within Adagio scores when using specially linked versions, but this feature is disabled in Nyquist. The syntax is described here for completeness. The !CALL command calls a C routine that can in turn invoke a complex sequence of operations. Below is a call to a trill routine, which is a standard routine in Adagio. The parameters are the base pitch of the trill, the total duration of the trill, the interval in semitones, the duration of each note of the trill, and the loudness. Notice that both numbers and Adagio notation can be used as parameters: !CALL trill(A5,W,2,S,Lmf) T278 V1 The parameter list should have no spaces, and parameters are separated by commas. Following the close parenthesis, you may specify other attributes such as the starting time and voice as shown in the example above. A parameter may be an Adagio pitch specification, an Adagio duration, an Adagio loudness, a number, or an ASCII character within single quotes, e.g. 'a' is equivalent to 97 because 97 is the decimal encoding of ``a'' in ASCII. The !CALL may be followed by a limited set of attributes. These are time (T), voice (V), and next time (N). The !CALL is made at the current time if no time is specified, and the time of the next adagio command is the time of the !CALL unless a next time is specified. In other words, the default is N0. 10.4.10. Setting C Variables In addition to calling C routines, there is another way in which scores can communicate with C. As with !CALL, specific C code must be linked before these commands can be used, and this is not supported in Nyquist. The !SETI command sets an integer variable to a value, and the !SETV command sets an element of an integer array. For example, the next line sets the variable delay to 200 and sets transposition[5] to -4 at time 200: !SETI delay 200 !SETV transposition 5 -4 T200 As with the !CALL command, these commands perform their operations at particular times according to their place in the Adagio score. This makes it very easy to implement time-varying parameters that control various aspects of an interactive music system. 11. Linear Prediction Analysis and Synthesis Nyquist provides functions to perform Linear Prediction Coding (LPC) analysis and synthesis. In simple terms, LPC analysis assumes that a sound is the result of an all-pole filter applied to a source with a flat spectrum. LPC is good for characterizing the general spectral shape of a signal, which may be time-varying as in speech sounds. For synthesis, any source can be filtered, allowing the general spectral shape of one signal (used in analysis) to be applied to any source (used in synthesis). A popular effect is to give vowel-like spectra to musical tones, creating an artificial (or sometimes natural) singing voice. Examples of LPC analysis and synthesis can be found in the file lpc_tutorial.htm, which is part of the standard Nyquist release. As with FFT processing, LPC analysis takes a sound as input and returns a stream of frames. Frames are returned from an object using the :next selector just as with FFT frames. An LPC frame is a list consisting of: RMS1, the energy of the input signal, RMS2, the energy of the residual signal, ERR, the square root of RMS1/RMS2, and FILTER-COEFS, an array of filter coefficients. To make code more readable and to avoid code dependence on the exact format of a frame, the functions lpc-frame-rms1, lpc-frame-rms2, lpc-frame-err, and lpc-frame-filter-coefs can be applied to a frame to obtain the respective fields. The z transform of the filter is H(z) = 1/A(z), where A(z) is a polynomial of the form A(z) = 1 + a z + a z + ... + a z. The FILTER-COEFS array has the form 1 2 p #(a a ... a a a ). p p-1 3 2 1 The file lpc.lsp defines some useful classes and functions. The file is not automatically loaded with Nyquist, so you must execute (load "lpc") before using them. 11.1. LPC Classes and Functions make-lpanal-iterator(sound, framedur, skiptime, npoles) [SAL] (make-lpanal-iterator sound framedur skiptime npoles) [LISP] Makes an iterator object, an instance of lpanal-class, that returns LPC frames from successive frames of samples in sound. The duration (in seconds) of each frame is given by framedur, a FLONUM. The skip size (in seconds) between successive frames is given by skiptime, a FLONUM. Typical values for framedur and skiptime are 0.08 and 0.04, giving 25 frames per second and a 50% frame overlap. The number of poles is given by npoles, a FIXNUM. The result is an object that responds to the :next selector by returning a frame as described above. NIL is returned when sound terminates. (Note that one or more of the last analysis windows may be padded with zeros. NIL is only returned when the corresponding window would begin after the termination time of the sound.) make-lpc-file-iterator(filename) [SAL] (make-lpc-file-iterator filename) [LISP] Another way to get LPC frames is to read them from a file. This function opens an ASCII file containing LPC frames and creates an iterator object, an instance of class lpc-file-class to access them. Create a file using save-lpc-file (see below). save-lpc-file(lpc-iterator, filename) [SAL] (save-lpc-file lpc-iterator filename) [LISP] Create a file containing LPC frames. This file can be read by make-lpc-file-iterator (see above). show-lpc-data(lpc-iterator, iniframe, endframe [, poles?]) [SAL] (show-lpc-data lpc-iterator iniframe endframe [poles?]) [LISP] Print values of LPC frames from an LPC iterator object. The object is lpc-iterator, which is typically an instance of lpanal-class or lpc-file-class. Frames are numbered from zero, and only files starting at iniframe (a FIXNUM) and ending before endframe (also a FIXNUM) are printed. By default, only the values for RMS1, RMS2, and ERR are printed, but if optional parameter poles? is non-NIL, then the LPC coefficients are also printed. allpoles-from-lpc(snd, lpc-frame) [SAL] (allpoles-from-lpc snd lpc-frame) [LISP] A single LPC frame defines a filter. Use allpoles-from-lpc to apply this filter to snd, a SOUND. To obtain lpc-frame, a LIST containing an LPC frame, either send :next to an LPC iterator, or use nth-frame (see below). The result is a SOUND whose duration is the same as that of snd. lpreson(snd, lpc-iterator, skiptime) [SAL] (lpreson snd lpc-iterator skiptime) [LISP] Implements a time-varying all-pole filter controlled by a sequence of LPC frames from an iterator. The SOUND to be filtered is snd, and the source of LPC frames is lpc-iterator, typically an instance of lpanal-class or lpc-file-class. The frame period (in seconds) is given by skiptime (a FLONUM). This number does not have to agree with the skiptime used to analyze the frames. (Greater values will cause the filter evolution slow down, and smaller values will cause it to speed up.) The result is a SOUND. The duration of the result is the minimum of the duration of snd and that of the sequence of frames. lpc-frame-rms1(frame) [SAL] (lpc-frame-rms1 frame) [LISP] Get the energy of the input signal from a frame. lpc-frame-rms2(frame) [SAL] (lpc-frame-rms2 frame) [LISP] Get the energy of the residual from a frame. lpc-frame-err(frame) [SAL] (lpc-frame-err frame) [LISP] Get the square root of RMS1/RMS2 from a frame. lpc-frame-filter-coefs(frame) [SAL] (lpc-frame-filter-coefs frame) [LISP] Get the filter coefficients from a frame. 11.2. Low-level LPC Functions The lowest-level Nyquist functions for LPC are - snd-lpanal for analysis, - snd-allpoles, an all-pole filter with fixed coefficients, and - snd-lpreson, an all-pole filter that takes frames from an LPC iterator. snd-lpanal(samps, npoles) [SAL] (snd-lpanal samps npoles) [LISP] Compute an LPC frame with npoles (a FIXNUM) poles from an ARRAY of samples (FLONUMS). Note that snd-fetch-array can be used to fetch a sequence of frames from a sound. Ordinarily, you should not use this function. Use make-lpanal-iterator instead. snd-allpoles(snd, lpc-coefs, gain) [SAL] (snd-allpoles snd lpc-coefs gain) [LISP] A fixed all-pole filter. The input is snd, a SOUND. The filter coefficients are given by lpc-coefs (an ARRAY), and the filter gain is given by gain, a FLONUM. The result is a SOUND whose duration matches that of snd. Ordinarily, you should use allpoles-from-lpc instead (see above). snd-lpreson(snd, lpc-iterator, skiptime) [SAL] (snd-lpreson snd lpc-iterator skiptime) [LISP] This function is identical to lpreson (see above). 12. Developing and Debugging in Nyquist There are a number of tools, functions, and techniques that can help to debug Nyquist programs. Since these are described in many places throughout this manual, this chapter brings together many suggestions and techniques for developing code and debugging. You really should read this chapter before you spend too much time with Nyquist. Many problems that you will certainly run into are addressed here. 12.1. Debugging Probably the most important debugging tool is the backtrace. There are two kinds of backtrace: one for SAL, and one for Lisp. SAL mode is actually just an XLISP function (sal) that reads input and evaluates it. When SAL encounters an error, it normally prints a trace of the SAL stack (all the active functions written in SAL), exists the current command, and reads the next command. If you call XLISP functions from SAL, including most Nyquist sound processing functions, and an error occurs within these XLISP functions, you will only see the SAL function that called the XLISP functions listed in the stack trace. Sometimes you need more details. When Nyquist encounters an error when it is not running SAL, it normally suspends execution and prints an error message. To find out where in the program the error occurred and how you got there, start by typing (bt). This will print out the last several function calls and their arguments, which is usually sufficient to see what is going on. In order for (bt) to work, you must have a couple of global variables set: *tracenable* is ordinarily set to NIL. If it is true, then a backtrace is automatically printed when an error occurs; *breakenable* must be set to T, as it enables the execution to be suspended when an error is encountered. If *breakenable* is NIL (false), then execution stops when an error occurs but the stack is not saved and you cannot get a backtrace. Finally, bt is just a macro to save typing. The actual backtrace function is baktrace, which takes an integer argument telling how many levels to print. All of these things are set up by default when you start Nyquist. To get this XLISP backtrace behavior when SAL encounters an error, you need to have *breakenable* set while SAL is running. The best way to do this is to run within the NyquistIDE program, open the Preferences dialog, and choose the desired settings, e.g. ``Enable XLISP break on SAL error.'' Since Nyquist sounds are executed with a lazy evaluation scheme, some errors are encountered when samples are being generated. In this case, it may not be clear which expression is in error. Sometimes, it is best to explore a function or set of functions by examining intermediate results. Any expression that yields a sound can be assigned to a variable and examined using one or more of: s-plot, snd-print-tree, and of course play. The snd-print-tree function prints a lot of detail about the inner representaion of the sound. Keep in mind that if you assign a sound to a global variable and then look at the samples (e.g. with play or s-plot), the samples will be retained in memory. At 4 bytes per sample, a big sound may use all of your memory and cause a crash. Another technique is to use low sample rates so that it is easier to plot results or look at samples directly. The calls: set-sound-srate(100) set-control-srate(100) set the default sample rates to 100, which is too slow for audio, but useful for examining programs and results. The function snd-samples(sound, limit) will convert up to limit samples from sound into a Lisp array. This is another way to look at results in detail. The trace function is sometimes useful. It prints the name of a function and its arguments everytimg the function is called, and the result is printed when the function exits. To trace the osc function, type: trace(osc) and to stop tracing, type untrace(osc). If a variable needs a value or a function is undefined, and if *breakenable* was set, you will get a prompt where you can fix the error (by setting the variable or loading the function definition) and keep going. At the debug (or break) prompt, your input must be in XLISP, not SAL syntax. Use (co), short for (continue) to reevaluate the variable or function and continue execution. When you finish debugging a particular call, you can ``pop'' up to the top level by typing (top), a short name for (top-level). There is a button named "Top" in the NyquistIDE that takes you back to the top level (ready to accept XLISP expressions), and another button named "SAL" that puts you back in SAL mode. 12.2. Useful Functions grindef(name) [SAL] (grindef name) [LISP] Prints a formatted listing of a lisp function. This is often useful to quickly inspect a function without searching for it in source files. Do not forget to quote the name, e.g. (grindef 'prod). args(name) [SAL] (args name) [LISP] Similar to grindef, this function prints the arguments to a function. This may be faster than looking up a function in the documentation if you just need a reminder. For example, (args 'lp) prints ``(LP S C),'' which may help you to remember that the arguments are a sound (S) followed by the cutoff (C) frequency. The following functions are useful short-cuts that might have been included in XLISP. They are so useful that they are defined as part of Nyquist. incf(symbol) [SAL] (incf symbol) [LISP] Increment symbol by one. This is a macro, and symbol can be anything that can be set by setf. Typically, symbol is a variable: ``(incf i),'' but symbol can also be an array element: ``(incf (aref myarray i)).'' decf(symbol) [SAL] (decf symbol) [LISP] Decrement symbol by one. (See incf, above.) push(val, lis) [SAL] (push val lis) [LISP] Push val onto lis (a Lisp list). This is a macro that is equivalent to writing (in Lisp) (setf lis (cons val lis)). pop(lis) [SAL] (pop lis) [LISP] Remove (pop) the first item from lis (a Lisp list). This is a macro that is equivalent to writing (in Lisp) (setf lis (cdr lis)). Note that the remaining list is returned, not the head of the list that has been popped. Retrieve the head of the list (i.e. the top of the stack) using first or, equivalently, car. The following macros are useful control constructs. while(test, expr1, expr2, ...) [SAL] (while test expr1 expr2 ...) [LISP] A conventional ``while'' loop. If test is true, evaluate expressions (expr1, expr2, etc.) and repeat. If test is false, return. This expression evaluates to NIL unless the expression (return expr) is evaluated, in which case the value of expr is returned. In SAL, the loop statement is preferred. when(test, action) [SAL] (when test action) [LISP] A conventional ``if-then'' statement. If test is true, action is evaluated and returned. Otherwise, NIL is returned. (Use if or cond to implement ``if-then-else'' and more complex conditional forms. It is often necessary to load a file only if it has not already been loaded. For example, the pianosyn library loads very slowly, so if some other file already loaded it, it would be good to avoid loading it again. How can you load a file once? Nyquist does not keep track of files that are loaded, but you must be loading a file to define some function, so the idea is to tell Nyquist "I require function from file"; if the function does not yet exist, Nyquist satisfies the requirement by loading the file. require-from(fnsymbol, filename [, path]) [SAL] (require-from fnsymbol filename [path]) [LISP] Tests whether fnsymbol, an unquoted function name, is defined. If not, filename, a STRING, is loaded. Normally fnsymbol is a function that will be called from within the current file, and filename is the file that defines fnsymbol. The path, if a STRING, is prepended to filename. If path is t (true), then the directory of the current file is used as the path. Sometimes it is important to load files relative to the current file. For example, the lib/piano.lsp library loads data files from the lib/piano directory, but how can we find out the full path of lib? The solution is: current-path() [SAL] (current-path) [LISP] Returns the full path name of the file that is currently being loaded (see load). Returns NIL if no file is being loaded. Finally, there are some helpful math functions: real-random(from, to) [SAL] (real-random from to) [LISP] Returns a random FLONUM between from and to. (See also rrandom, which is equivalent to (real-random 0 1)). power(x, y) [SAL] (power x y) [LISP] Returns x raised to the y power. 13. Xmusic and Algorithmic Composition Several Nyquist libraries offer support for algorithmic composition. Xmusic is a library for generating sequences and patterns of data. Included in Xmusic is the score-gen macro which helps to generate scores from patterns. Another important facility is the distributions.lsp library, containing many different random number generators. 13.1. Xmusic Basics Xmusic is inspired by and based on Common Music by Rick Taube. Currently, Xmusic only implements patterns and some simple support for scores to be realized as sound by Nyquist. In contrast, Common Music supports MIDI and various other synthesis languages and includes a graphical interface, some visualization tools, and many other features. Common Music runs in Common Lisp and Scheme, but not XLISP, which is the base language for Nyquist. Xmusic patterns are objects that generate data streams. For example, the cycle-class of objects generate cyclical patterns such as "1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 ...", or "1 2 3 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 ...". Patterns can be used to specify pitch sequences, rhythm, loudness, and other parameters. Xmusic functions are automatically loaded when you start Nyquist. To use a pattern object, you first create the pattern, e.g. set pitch-source = make-cycle(list(c4, d4, e4, f4)) After creating the pattern, you can access it repeatedly with next to generate data, e.g. play seqrep(i, 13, pluck(next(pitch-source), 0.2)) This will create a sequence of notes with the following pitches: c, d, e, f, c, d, e, f, c, d, e, f, c. If you evaluate this again, the pitch sequence will continue, starting on "d". It is very important not to confuse the creation of a sequence with its access. Consider this example: play seqrep(i, 13, pluck(next(make-cycle(list(c4, d4, e4, f4))), 0.2)) This looks very much like the previous example, but it only repeats notes on middle-C. The reason is that every time pluck is evaluated, make-cycle is called and creates a new pattern object. After the first item of the pattern is extracted with next, the cycle is not used again, and no other items are generated. To summarize this important point, there are two steps to using a pattern. First, the pattern is created and stored in a variable using setf. Second, the pattern is accessed (multiple times) using next. Patterns can be nested, that is, you can write patterns of patterns. In general, the next function does not return patterns. Instead, if the next item in a pattern is a (nested) pattern, next recursively gets the next item of the nested pattern. While you might expect that each call to next would advance the top-level pattern to the next item, and descend recursively if necessary to the inner-most nesting level, this is not how next works. Instead, next remembers the last top-level item, and if it was a pattern, next continues to generate items from that same inner pattern until the end of the inner pattern's period is reached. The next paragraph explains the concept of the period. The data returned by a pattern object is structured into logical groups called periods. You can get an entire period (as a list) by calling next(pattern, t). For example: set pitch-source = make-cycle(list(c4, d4, e4, f4)) print next(pitch-source, t) This prints the list (60 62 64 65), which is one period of the cycle. You can also get explicit markers that delineate periods by calling send(pattern, :next). In this case, the value returned is either the next item of the pattern, or the symbol +eop+ if the end of a period has been reached. What determines a period? This is up to the specific pattern class, so see the documentation for specifics. You can override the ``natural'' period using the keyword for:, e.g. set pitch-source = make-cycle(list(c4, d4, e4, f4), for: 3) print next(pitch-source, t) print next(pitch-source, t) This prints the lists (60 62 64) (65 60 62). Notice that these periods just restructure the stream of items into groups of 3. Nested patterns are probably easier to understand by example than by specification. Here is a simple nested pattern of cycles: set cycle-1 = make-cycle({a b c}) set cycle-2 = make-cycle({x y z}) set cycle-3 = make-cycle(list(cycle-1, cycle-2)) exec dotimes(i, 9, format(t, "~A ", next(cycle-3))) This will print "A B C X Y Z A B C". Notice that the inner-most cycles cycle-1 and cycle-2 generate a period of items before the top-level cycle-3 advances to the next pattern. Before describing specific pattern classes, there are several optional parameters that apply in the creating of any pattern object. These are: for: The length of a period. This overrides the default by providing a numerical length. The value of this optional parameter may be a pattern that generates a sequence of integers that determine the length of each successive period. A period length may not be negative, but it may be zero. name: A pattern object may be given a name. This is useful if the trace: option is used. trace: If non-null, this optional parameter causes information about the pattern to be printed each time an item is generated from the pattern. The built-in pattern classes are described in the following section. 13.2. Pattern Classes 13.2.1. cycle The cycle-class iterates repeatedly through a list of items. For example, two periods of make-cycle({a b c}) would be (A B C) (A B C). make-cycle(items, for: for, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-cycle items :for for :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Make a cycle pattern that iterates over items. The default period length is the length of items. (See above for a description of the optional parameters.) If items is a pattern, a period of the pattern becomes the list from which items are generated. The list is replaced every period of the cycle. 13.2.2. line The line-class is similar to the cycle class, but when it reaches the end of the list of items, it simply repeats the last item in the list. For example, two periods of make-line({a b c}) would be (A B C) (C C C). make-line(items, for: for, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-line items :for for :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Make a line pattern that iterates over items. The default period length is the length of items. As with make-cycle, items may be a pattern. (See above for a description of the optional parameters.) 13.2.3. random The random-class generates items at random from a list. The default selection is uniform random with replacement, but items may be further specified with a weight, a minimum repetition count, and a maximum repetition count. Weights give the relative probability of the selection of the item (with a default weight of one). The minimum count specifies how many times an item, once selected at random, will be repeated. The maximum count specifies the maximum number of times an item can be selected in a row. If an item has been generated n times in succession, and the maximum is equal to n, then the item is disqualified in the next random selection. Weights (but not currently minima and maxima) can be patterns. The patterns (thus the weights) are recomputed every period. make-random(items, for: for, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-random items :for for :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Make a random pattern that selects from items. Any (or all) element(s) of items may be lists of the following form: (value :weight weight :min mincount :max maxcount), where value is the item (or pattern) to be generated, weight is the (optional) relative probability of selecting this item, mincount is the (optional) minimum number of repetitions when this item is selected, and maxcount is the (optional) maximum number of repetitions allowed before selecting some other item. The default period length is the length of items. If items is a pattern, a period from that pattern becomes the list from which random selections are made, and a new list is generated every period. 13.2.4. palindrome The palindrome-class repeatedly traverses a list forwards and then backwards. For example, two periods of make-palindrome({a b c}) would be (A B C C B A) (A B C C B A). The elide: keyword parameter controls whether the first and/or last elements are repeated: make-palindrome({a b c}, elide: nil) ;; generates A B C C B A A B C C B A ... make-palindrome({a b c}, elide: t) ;; generates A B C B A B C B ... make-palindrome({a b c}, elide: :first) ;; generates A B C C B A B C C B ... make-palindrome({a b c}, elide: :last) ;; generates A B C B A A B C B A ... make-palindrome(items, elide: elide, for: for, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-palindrome items :elide elide :for for :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Generate items from list alternating in-order and reverse-order sequencing. The keyword parameter elide can have the values :first, :last, t, or nil to control repetition of the first and last elements. The elide parameter can also be a pattern, in which case it is evaluated every period. One period is one complete forward and backward traversal of the list. If items is a pattern, a period from that pattern becomes the list from which random selections are made, and a new list is generated every period. 13.2.5. heap The heap-class selects items in random order from a list without replacement, which means that all items are generated once before any item is repeated. For example, two periods of make-heap({a b c}) might be (C A B) (B A C). Normally, repetitions can occur even if all list elements are distinct. This happens when the last element of a period is chosen first in the next period. To avoid repetitions, the max: keyword argument can be set to 1. The max: keyword only controls repetitions from the end of one period to the beginning of the next. If the list contains more than one copy of the same value, it may be repeated within a period regardless of the value of max:. make-heap(items, for: for, max: max, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-heap items :for for :max max :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Generate items randomly from list without replacement. If max is 1, the first element of a new period will not be the same as the last element of the previous period, avoiding repetition. The default value of max is 2, meaning repetition is allowed. The period length is the length of items. If items is a pattern, a period from that pattern becomes the list from which random selections are made, and a new list is generated every period. 13.2.6. accumulation The accumulation-class takes a list of values and returns the first, followed by the first two, followed by the first three, etc. In other words, for each list item, return all items from the first through the item. For example, if the list is (A B C), each generated period is (A A B A B C). make-accumulation(items, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-accumulation items :name name :trace trace) [LISP] For each item, generate items from the first to the item including the 2 item. The period length is (n + n) / 2 where n is the length of items. If items is a pattern, a period from that pattern becomes the list from which items are generated, and a new list is generated every period. Note that this is similar in name but different from make-accumulate. 13.2.7. copier The copier-class makes copies of periods from a sub-pattern. For example, three periods of make-copier(make-cycle({a b c}, for: 1), repeat: 2, merge: t) would be (A A) (B B) (C C). Note that entire periods (not individual items) are repeated, so in this example the for: keyword was used to force periods to be of length one so that each item is repeated by the repeat: count. make-copier(sub-pattern, repeat: repeat, merge: merge, for: for, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-copier sub-pattern :repeat repeat :merge merge :for for :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Generate a period from sub-pattern and repeat it repeat times. If merge is false (the default), each repetition of a period from sub-pattern results in a period by default. If merge is true (non-null), then all repeat repetitions of the period are merged into one result period by default. If the for: keyword is used, the same items are generated, but the items are grouped into periods determined by the for: parameter. If the for: parameter is a pattern, it is evaluated every result period. The repeat and merge values may be patterns that return a repeat count and a boolean value, respectively. If so, these patterns are evaluated initially and after each repeat copies are made (independent of the for: keyword parameter, if any). The repeat value returned by a pattern can also be negative. A negative number indicates how many periods of sub-pattern to skip. After skipping these patterns, new repeat and merge values are generated. 13.2.8. accumulate The accumulate-class forms the sum of numbers returned by another pattern. For example, each period of make-accumulate(make-cycle({1 2 -3})) is (1 3 0). The default output period length is the length of the input period. make-accumulate(sub-pattern, for: for, max: maximum, min: minimum, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-accumulate sub-pattern :for for :max maximum :min minimum :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Keep a running sum of numbers generated by sub-pattern. The default period lengths match the period lengths from sub-pattern. If maximum (a pattern or a number) is specified, and the running sum exceeds maximum, the running sum is reset to maximum. If minimum (a pattern or a number) is specified, and the running sum falls below minimum, the running sum is reset to minimum. If minimum is greater than maximum, the running sum will be set to one of the two values. Note that this is similar in name but not in function to make-accumulation. 13.2.9. sum The sum-class forms the sum of numbers, one from each of two other patterns. For example, each period of make-sum(make-cycle({1 2 3}), make-cycle({4 5 6})) is (5 7 9). The default output period length is the length of the input period of the first argument. Therefore, the first argument must be a pattern, but the second argument can be a pattern or a number. make-sum(x, y, for: for, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-sum x y :for for :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Form sums of items (which must be numbers) from pattern x and pattern or number y. The default period lengths match the period lengths from x. 13.2.10. product The product-class forms the product of numbers, one from each of two other patterns. For example, each period of make-product(make-cycle({1 2 3}), make-cycle({4 5 6})) is (4 10 18). The default output period length is the length of the input period of the first argument. Therefore, the first argument must be a pattern, but the second argument can be a pattern or a number. make-product(x, y, for: for, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-product x y :for for :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Form products of items (which must be numbers) from pattern x and pattern or number y. The default period lengths match the period lengths from x. 13.2.11. eval The eval-class evaluates an expression to produce each output item. The default output period length is 1. make-eval(expr, for: for, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-eval expr :for for :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Evaluate expr to generate each item. If expr is a pattern, each item is generated by getting the next item from expr and evaluating it. 13.2.12. length The length-class generates periods of a specified length from another pattern. This is similar to using the for: keyword, but for many patterns, the for: parameter alters the points at which other patterns are generated. For example, if the palindrome pattern has an elide: pattern parameter, the value will be computed every period. If there is also a for: parameter with a value of 2, then elide: will be recomputed every 2 items. In contrast, if the palindrome (without a for: parameter) is embedded in a length pattern with a lenght of 2, then the periods will all be of length 2, but the items will come from default periods of the palindrome, and therefore the elide: values will be recomputed at the beginnings of default palindrome periods. make-length(pattern, length-pattern, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-length pattern length-pattern :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Make a pattern of class length-class that regroups items generated by a pattern according to pattern lengths given by length-pattern. Note that length-pattern is not optional: There is no default pattern length and no for: keyword. 13.2.13. window The window-class groups items from another pattern by using a sliding window. If the skip value is 1, each output period is formed by dropping the first item of the previous perioda and appending the next item from the pattern. The skip value and the output period length can change every period. For a simple example, if the period length is 3 and the skip value is 1, and the input pattern generates the sequence A, B, C, ..., then the output periods will be (A B C), (B C D), (C D E), (D E F), .... make-window(pattern, length-pattern, skip-pattern, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-window pattern length-pattern skip-pattern :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Make a pattern of class window-class that regroups items generated by a pattern according to pattern lengths given by length-pattern and where the period advances by the number of items given by skip-pattern. Note that length-pattern is not optional: There is no default pattern length and no for: keyword. 13.2.14. markov The markov-class generates items from a Markov model. A Markov model generates a sequence of states according to rules which specify possible future states given the most recent states in the past. For example, states might be pitches, and each pitch might lead to a choice of pitches for the next state. In the markov-class, states can be either symbols or numbers, but not arbitrary values or patterns. This makes it easier to specify rules. However, symbols can be mapped to arbitrary values including pattern objects, and these become the actual generated items. By default, all future states are weighted equally, but weights may be associated with future states. A Markov model must be initialized with a sequence of past states using the past: keyword. The most common form of Markov model is a "first order Markov model" in which the future item depends only upon one past item. However, higher order models where the future items depend on two or more past items are possible. A "zero-order" Markov model, which depends on no past states, is essentially equivalent to the random pattern. As an example of a first-order Markov pattern, two periods of make-markov({{a -> b c} {b -> c} {c -> a}}, past: {a}) might be (C A C) (A B C). make-markov(rules, past: past, produces: produces, for: for, name: name, trace: trace) [SAL] (make-markov rules past :produces produces :for for :name name :trace trace) [LISP] Generate a sequence of items from a Markov process. The rules parameter has the form: (prev1 prev2 ... prevn -> next1 next2 ... nextn) where prev1 through prevn represent a sequence of most recent (past) states. The symbol * is treated specially: it matches any previous state. If prev1 through prevn (which may be just one state as in the example above) match the previously generated states, this rule applies. Note that every rule must specify the same number of previous states; this number is known as the order of the Markov model. The first rule in rules that applies is used to select the next state. If no rule applies, the next state is NIL (which is a valid state that can be used in rules). Assuming a rule applies, the list of possible next states is specified by next1 through nextn. Notice that these are alternative choices for the next state, not a sequence of future states, and each rule can have any number of choices. Each choice may be the state itself (a symbol or a number), or the choice may be a list consisting of the state and a weight. The weight may be given by a pattern, in which case the next item of the pattern is obtained every time the rule is applied. For example, this rules says that if the previous states were A and B, the next state can be A with a weight of 0.5 or C with an implied weight of 1: (A B -> (A 0.5) C). The default length of the period is the length of rules. The past parameter must be provided. It is a list of states whose length matches the order of the Markov model. The keyword parameter produces may be used to map from state symbols or numbers to other values or patterns. The parameter is a list of alternating symbols and values. For example, to map A to 69 and B to 71, use list(quote(a), 69, quote(b), 71). You can also map symbols to patterns, for example list(quote(a), make-cycle({57 69}), quote(b), make-random({59 71})). The next item of the pattern is is generated each time the Markov model generates the corresponding state. Finally, the produces keyword can be eval:, which means to evaluate the Markov model state. This could be useful if states are Nyquist global variables such as C4, CS4, D4, ]..., which evaluate to numerical values (60, 61, 62, .... markov-create-rules(sequence, order [, generalize]) [SAL] (markov-create-rules sequence order [generalize]) [LISP] Generate a set of rules suitable for the make-markov function. The sequence is a ``typical'' sequence of states, and order is the order of the Markov model. It is often the case that a sample sequence will not have a transition from the last state to any other state, so the generated Markov model can reach a ``dead end'' where no rule applies. This might lead to an infinite stream of NIL's. To avoid this, the optional parameter generalize can be set to t (true), indicating that there should be a fallback rule that matches any previous states and whose future states are weighted according to their frequency in sequence. For example, if sequence contains 5 A's, 5 B's and 10 G's, the default rule will be (* -> (A 5) (B 5) (G 10)). This rule will be appended to the end so it will only apply if no other rule does. 13.3. Random Number Generators The distributions.lsp library implements random number generators that return random values with various probability distributions. Without this library, you can generate random numbers with uniform distributions. In a uniform distribution, all values are equally likely. To generate a random integer in some range, use random. To generate a real number (FLONUM) in some range, use real-random (or rrandom if the range is 0-1). But there are other interesting distributions. For example, the Gaussian distribution is often used to model real-world errors and fluctuations where values are clustered around some central value and large deviations are more unlikely than small ones. See Dennis Lorrain, "A Panoply of Stochastic 'Canons'," Computer Music Journal vol. 4, no. 1, 1980, pp. 53-81. In most of the random number generators described below, there are optional parameters to indicate a maximum and/or minimum value. These can be used to truncate the distribution. For example, if you basically want a Gaussian distribution, but you never want a value greater than 5, you can specify 5 as the maximum value. The upper and lower bounds are implemented simply by drawing a random number from the full distribution repeatedly until a number falling into the desired range is obtained. Therefore, if you select an acceptable range that is unlikely, it may take Nyquist a long time to find each acceptable random number. The intended use of the upper and lower bounds is to weed out values that are already fairly unlikely. linear-dist(g) [SAL] (linear-dist g) [LISP] Return a FLONUM value from a linear distribution, where the probability of a value decreases linearly from zero to g which must be greater than zero. (See Figure 7.) The linear distribution is useful for generating for generating time and pitch intervals. Figure 7: The Linear Distribution, g = 1. exponential-dist(delta [, high]) [SAL] (exponential-dist delta [high]) [LISP] Return a FLONUM value from an exponential distribution. The initial downward slope is steeper with larger values of delta, which must be greater than zero. (See Figure 8. The optional high parameter puts an artificial upper bound on the return value. The exponential distribution generates values greater than 0, and can be used to generate time intervals. Natural random intervals such as the time intervals between the release of atomic particles or the passing of yellow volkswagons in traffic have exponential distributions. The exponential distribution is memory-less: knowing that a random number from this distribution is greater than some value (e.g. a note duration is at least 1 second) tells you nothing new about how soon the note will end. This is a continuous distribution, but geometric-dist (described below) implements the discrete form. Figure 8: The Exponential Distribution, delta = 1. gamma-dist(nu [, high]) [SAL] (gamma-dist nu [high]) [LISP] Return a FLONUM value from a Gamma distribution. The value is greater than zero, has a mean of nu (a FIXNUM greater than zero), and a mode (peak) of around nu - 1. The optional high parameter puts an artificial upper bound on the return value. Figure 9: The Gamma Distribution, nu = 4. bilateral-exponential-dist(xmu, tau [, low, high]) [SAL] (bilateral-exponential-dist xmu tau [low high]) [LISP] Returns a FLONUM value from a bilateral exponential distribution, where xmu is the center of the double exponential and tau controls the spread of the distribution. A larger tau gives a wider distribution (greater variance), and tau must be greater than zero. The low and high parameters give optional artificial bounds on the minimum and maximum output values, respectively. This distribution is similar to the exponential, except it is centered at 0 and can output negative values as well. Like the exponential, it can be used to generate time intervals; however, it might be necessary to add a lower bound so as not to compute a negative time interval. Figure 10: The Bilateral Exponential Distribution. cauchy-dist(tau [, low, high]) [SAL] (cauchy-dist tau [low high]) [LISP] Returns a FLONUM from the Cauchy distribution, a symetric distribution with a high peak at zero and a width (variance) that increases with parameter tau, which must be greater than zero. The low and high parameters give optional artificial bounds on the minimum and maximum output values, respectively. Figure 11: The Cauchy Distribution, tau = 1. hyperbolic-cosine-dist([low, high]) [SAL] (hyperbolic-cosine-dist [low high)] [LISP] Returns a FLONUM value from the hyperbolic cosine distribution, a symetric distribution with its peak at zero. The low and high parameters give optional artificial bounds on the minimum and maximum output values, respectively. Figure 12: The Hyperbolic Cosine Distribution. logistic-dist(alpha, beta [, low, high]) [SAL] (logistic-dist alpha beta [low high]) [LISP] Returns a FLONUM value from the logistic distribution, which is symetric about the mean. The alpha parameter primarily affects dispersion (variance), with larger values resulting in values closer to the mean (less variance), and the beta parameter primarily influences the mean. The low and high parameters give optional artificial bounds on the minimum and maximum output values, respectively. Figure 13: The Logistic Distribution, alpha = 1, beta = 2. arc-sine-dist() [SAL] (arc-sine-dist) [LISP] Returns a FLONUM value from the arc sine distribution, which outputs values between 0 and 1. It is symetric about the mean of 1/2, but is more likely to generate values closer to 0 and 1. Figure 14: The Arc Sine Distribution. gaussian-dist(xmu, sigma [, low, high]) [SAL] (gaussian-dist xmu sigma [low high]) [LISP] Returns a FLONUM value from the Gaussian or Gauss-Laplace distribution, a linear function of the normal distribution. It is symetric about the mean of xmu, with a standard deviation of sigma, which must be greater than zero. The low and high parameters give optional artificial bounds on the minimum and maximum output values, respectively. Figure 15: The Gauss-Laplace (Gaussian) Distribution, xmu = 0, sigma = 1. beta-dist(a, b) [SAL] (beta-dist a b) [LISP] Returns a FLONUM value from the Beta distribution. This distribution outputs values between 0 and 1, with outputs more likely to be close to 0 or 1. The parameter a controls the height (probability) of the right side of the distribution (at 1) and b controls the height of the left side (at 0). The distribution is symetric about 1/2 when a = b. Figure 16: The Beta Distribution, alpha = .5, beta = .25. bernoulli-dist(px1 [, x1, x2]) [SAL] (bernoulli-dist px1 [x1 x2]) [LISP] Returns either x1 (default value is 1) with probability px1 or x2 (default value is 0) with probability 1 - px1. The value of px1 should be between 0 and 1. By convention, a result of x1 is viewed as a success while x2 is viewed as a failure. Figure 17: The Bernoulli Distribution, px1 = .75. binomial-dist(n, p) [SAL] (binomial-dist n p) [LISP] Returns a FIXNUM value from the binomial distribution, where n is the number of Bernoulli trials run (a FIXNUM) and p is the probability of success in the Bernoulli trial (a FLONUM from 0 to 1). The mean is the product of n and p. Figure 18: The Binomial Distribution, n = 5, p = .5. geometric-dist(p) [SAL] (geometric-dist p) [LISP] Returns a FIXNUM value from the geometric distribution, which is defined as the number of failures before a success is achieved in a Bernoulli trial with probability of success p (a FLONUM from 0 to 1). Figure 19: The Geometric Distribution, p = .4. poisson-dist(delta) [SAL] (poisson-dist delta) [LISP] Returns a FIXNUM value from the Poisson distribution with a mean of delta (a FIXNUM). The Poisson distribution is often used to generate a sequence of time intervals, resulting in random but often pleasing rhythms. Figure 20: The Poisson Distribution, delta = 3. 13.4. Score Generation and Manipulation A common application of pattern generators is to specify parameters for notes. (It should be understood that ``notes'' in this context means any Nyquist behavior, whether it represents a conventional note, an abstract sound object, or even some micro-sound event that is just a low-level component of a hierarchical sound organization. Similarly, ``score'' should be taken to mean a specification for a sequence of these ``notes.'') The score-gen macro (defined by loading xm.lsp) establishes a convention for representing scores and for generating them using patterns. The timed-seq macro, described in Section 7.4, already provides a way to represent a ``score'' as a list of expressions. The Xmusic representation goes a bit further by specifying that all notes are specified by an alternation of keywords and values, where some keywords have specific meanings and interpretations. The basic idea of score-gen is you provide a template for notes in a score as a set of keywords and values. For example, set pitch-pattern = make-cycle(list(c4, d4, e4, f4)) score-gen(dur: 0.4, name: quote(my-sound), pitch: next(pitch-pattern), score-len: 9) generates a score of 9 notes as follows: ((0 0 (SCORE-BEGIN-END 0 3.6)) (0 0.4 (MY-SOUND :PITCH 60)) (0.4 0.4 (MY-SOUND :PITCH 62)) (0.8 0.4 (MY-SOUND :PITCH 64)) (1.2 0.4 (MY-SOUND :PITCH 65)) (1.6 0.4 (MY-SOUND :PITCH 60)) (2 0.4 (MY-SOUND :PITCH 62)) (2.4 0.4 (MY-SOUND :PITCH 64)) (2.8 0.4 (MY-SOUND :PITCH 65)) (3.2 0.4 (MY-SOUND :PITCH 60))) The use of keywords like :PITCH helps to make scores readable and easy to process without specific knowledge of about the functions called in the score. For example, one could write a transpose operation to transform all the :pitch parameters in a score without having to know that pitch is the first parameter of pluck and the second parameter of piano-note. Keyword parameters are also used to give flexibility to note specification with score-gen. Since this approach requires the use of keywords, the next section is a brief explanation of how to define functions that use keyword parameters. 13.4.1. Keyword Parameters Keyword parameters are parameters whose presence is indicated by a special symbol, called a keyword, followed by the actual parameter. Keyword parameters in SAL have default values that are used if no actual parameter is provided by the caller of the function. (See Appendix IV to learn about keywords in XLISP.) To specify that a parameter is a keyword parameter, use a keyword symbol (one that ends in a colon) followed by a default value. For example, here is a function that accepts keyword parameters and invokes the pluck function: define function k-pluck(pitch: 60, dur: 1) return pluck(pitch, dur) Now, we can call k-pluck with keyword parameters. The keywords are simply the formal parameter names with a prepended colon character (:pitch and :dur in this example), so a function call would look like: k-pluck(pitch: c3, dur: 3) Usually, it is best to give keyword parameters useful default values. That way, if a parameter such as dur: is missing, a reasonable default value (1) can be used automatically. It is never an error to omit a keyword parameter, but the called function can check to see if a keyword parameter was supplied or not. Because of default values, we can call k-pluck(pitch: c3) with no duration, k-pluck(dur: 3) with only a duration, or even k-pluck() with no parameters. In XLISP, there is additional syntax to specify an alternate symbol to be used as the keyword and to allow the called function to determine whether or not a keyword parameter was supplied, but these features are little-used. See the XLISP manual for details. 13.4.2. Using score-gen The score-gen macro computes a score based on keyword parameters. Some keywords have a special meaning, while others are not interpreted but merely placed in the score. The resulting score can be synthesized using timed-seq (see Section 7.4). The form of a call to score-gen is simply: score-gen(k1: e1, k2: e2, ...) [SAL] (score-gen :k1 e1 :k2 e2 ...) [LISP] where the k's are keywords and the e's are expressions. A score is generated by evaluating the expressions once for each note and constructing a list of keyword-value pairs. A number of keywords have special interpretations. The rules for interpreting these parameters will be explained through a set of "How do I ..." questions below. How many notes will be generated? The keyword parameter score-len: specifies an upper bound on the number of notes. (Note: in LISP syntax, keywords are always preceded by colons, so you would write :score-len instead.) The keyword score-dur: specifies an upper bound on the starting time of the last note in the score. (To be more precise, the score-dur: bound is reached when the default starting time of the next note is greater than or equal to the score-dur: value. This definition is necessary because note times are not strictly increasing.) When either bound is reached, score generation ends. At least one of these two parameters must be specified or an error is raised. These keyword parameters are evaluated just once and are not copied into the parameter lists of generated notes. What is the duration of generated notes? The keyword dur: defaults to 1 and specifies the nominal duration in seconds. Since the generated note list is compatible with timed-seq, the starting time and duration (to be precise, the stretch factor) are not passed as parameters to the notes. Instead, they control the Nyquist environment in which the note will be evaluated. What is the start time of a note? The default start time of the first note is zero. Given a note, the default start time of the next note is the start time plus the inter-onset time, which is given by the ioi: parameter. If no ioi: parameter is specified, the inter-onset time defaults to the duration, given by dur:. In all cases, the default start time of a note can be overridden by the keyword parameter time:. When does the score begin and end? The behavior SCORE-BEGIN-END contains the beginning and ending of the score (these are used for score manipulations, e.g. when scores are merged, their begin times can be aligned.) When timed-seq is used to synthesize a score, the SCORE-BEGIN-END marker is not evaluated. The score-gen macro inserts a ``note'' of the form (0 0 (SCORE-BEGIN-END begin-time end-time)) at the time given by the begin: keyword, with begin-time and end-time determined by the begin: and end: keyword parameters, respectively. If the begin: keyword is not provided, the score begins at zero. If the end: keyword is not provided, the score ends at the default start time of what would be the next note after the last note in the score (as described in the previous paragraph). Note: if time: is used to compute note starting times, and these times are not increasing, it is strongly advised to use end: to specify an end time for the score, because the default end time may be anywhere in the middle of the generated sequence. What function is called to synthesize the note? The name: parameter names the function. Like other parameters, the value can be any expression, including something like next(fn-name-pattern), allowing function names to be recomputed for each note. The default value is note. Can I make parameters depend upon the starting time or the duration of the note? Parameter expressions can use the variable sg:start to access the start time of the note, sg:ioi to access the inter-onset time, and sg:dur to access the duration (stretch factor) of the note. Also, sg:count counts how many notes have been computed so far, starting at 0. The order of computation is: sg:start first, then sg:ioi and sg:dur, so for example, an expression to compute sg:dur can depend on sg:ioi. Can parameters depend on each other? The keyword pre: introduces an expression that is evaluated before each note, and post: provides an expression to be evaluated after each note. The pre: expression can assign one or more global variables which are then used in one or more expressions for parameters. How do I debug score-gen expressions? You can set the trace: parameter to true (t) to enable a print statement for each generated note. How can I save scores generated by score-gen that I like? If the keyword parameter save: is set to a symbol, the global variable named by the symbol is set to the value of the generated sequence. Of course, the value returned by score-gen is just an ordinary list that can be saved like any other value. In summary, the following keywords have special interpretations in score-gen: begin:, end:, time:, dur:, name:, ioi:, trace:, save:, score-len:, score-dur:, pre:, post:. All other keyword parameters are expressions that are evaluated once for each note and become the parameters of the notes. 13.4.3. Score Manipulation Nyquist encourages the representation of music as executable programs, or behaviors, and there are various ways to modify behaviors, including time stretching, transposition, etc. An alternative to composing executable programs is to manipulate scores as editable data. Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses. This section describes functions intended to manipulate Xmusic scores as generated by, or at least in the form generated by, score-gen. Recall that this means scores are lists of events (e.g. notes), where events are three-element lists of the form (time duration expression, and where expression is a standard lisp function call where all parameters are keyword parameters. In addition, the first ``note'' may be the special SCORE-BEGIN-END expression. If this is missing, the score begins at zero and ends at the end of the last note. For convenience, a set of functions is offered to access properties of events (or notes) in scores. Although lisp functions such as car, cadr, and caddr can be used, code is more readable when more mnemonic functions are used to access events. event-time(event) [SAL] (event-time event) [LISP] Retrieve the time field from an event. event-set-time(event, time) [SAL] (event-set-time event time) [LISP] Construct a new event where the time of event is replaced by time. event-dur(event) [SAL] (event-dur event) [LISP] Retrieve the duration (i.e. the stretch factor) field from an event. event-set-dur(event, dur) [SAL] (event-set-dur event dur) [LISP] Construct a new event where the duration (or stretch factor) of event is replaced by dur. event-expression(event) [SAL] (event-expression event) [LISP] Retrieve the expression field from an event. event-set-expression(event, dur) [SAL] (event-set-expression event dur) [LISP] Construct a new event where the expression of event is replaced by expression. event-end(event) [SAL] (event-end event) [LISP] Retrieve the end time of event, its time plus its duration. expr-has-attr(expression, attribute) [SAL] (expr-has-attr expression attribute) [LISP] Test whether a score event expression has the given attribute. expr-get-attr(expression, attribute [, default]) [SAL] (expr-get-attr expression attribute [default]) [LISP] Get the value of the given attribute from a score event expression. If attribute is not present, return default if specified, and otherwise nil. expr-set-attr(expr, attribute, value) [SAL] (expr-set-attr expr attribute value) [LISP] Construct a new expression identical to expr except that the attribute has value. event-has-attr(event, attribute) [SAL] (event-has-attr event attribute) [LISP] Test whether a given score event's expression has the given attribute. event-get-attr(event, attribute, [default]) [SAL] (event-get-attr event attribute [default]) [LISP] Get the value of the given attribute from a score event's expression. If attribute is not present, return default if specified, and otherwise nil. event-set-attr(event, attribute, value) [SAL] (event-set-attr event attribute value) [LISP] Construct a new event identical to event except that the attribute has value. Functions are provided to shift the starting times of notes, stretch times and durations, stretch only durations, add an offset to a keyword parameter, scale a keyword parameter, and other manipulations. Functions are also provided to extract ranges of notes, notes that match criteria, and to combine scores. Most of these functions (listed below in detail) share a set of keyword parameters that optionally limit the range over which the transformation operates. The from-index: and to-index: parameters specify the index of the first note and the index of the last note to be changed. If these numbers are negative, they are offsets from the end of the score, e.g. -1 denotes the last note of the score. The from-time: and to-time: indicate a range of starting times of notes that will be affected by the manipulation. Only notes whose time is greater than or equal to the from-time and strictly less than the to-time are modified. If both index and time ranges are specified, only notes that satisfy both constraints are selected. (Note: in LISP syntax, colons precede the keyword, so use :from-index, :to-index, :from-time, and :to-time.) score-sorted(score) [SAL] (score-sorted score) [LISP] Test if score is sorted. score-sort(score [, copy-flag]) [SAL] (score-sort score [copy-flag]) [LISP] Sort the notes in a score into start-time order. If copy-flag is nil, this is a destructive operation which should only be performed if the top-level score list is a fresh copy that is not shared by any other variables. (The copy-flag is intended for internal system use only.) For the following operations, it is assumed that scores are sorted, and all operations return a sorted score. score-shift(score, offset, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y) [SAL] (score-shift score offset :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y) [LISP] Add a constant offset to the starting time of a set of notes in score. By default, all notes are modified, but the range of notes can be limited with the keyword parameters. The begin time of the score is not changed, but the end time is increased by offset. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-stretch(score, factor, dur: dur-flag, time: time-flag, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y) [SAL] (score-stretch score factor :dur dur-flag :time time-flag :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y) [LISP] Stretch note times and durations by factor. The default dur-flag is non-null, but if dur-flag is null, the original durations are retained and only times are stretched. Similarly, the default time-flag is non-null, but if time-flag is null, the original times are retained and only durations are stretched. If both dur-flag and time-flag are null, the score is not changed. If a range of notes is specified, times are scaled within that range, and notes after the range are shifted so that the stretched region does not create a "hole" or overlap with notes that follow. If the range begins or ends with a time (via from-time: and to-time:), time stretching takes place over the indicated time interval independent of whether any notes are present or where they start. In other words, the ``rests'' are stretched along with the notes. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-transpose(score, keyword, amount, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y) [SAL] (score-transpose score keyword amount :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y) [LISP] For each note in the score and in any indicated range, if there is a keyword parameter matching keyword and the parameter value is a number, increment the parameter value by amount. For example, to tranpose up by a whole step, write (score-transpose 2 :pitch score). The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-scale(score, keyword, amount, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y) [SAL] (score-scale score keyword amount :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y) [LISP] For each note in the score and in any indicated range, if there is a keyword parameter matching keyword and the parameter value is a number, multiply the parameter value by amount. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-sustain(score, factor, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y) [SAL] (score-sustain score factor :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y) [LISP] For each note in the score and in any indicated range, multiply the duration (stretch factor) by amount. This can be used to make notes sound more legato or staccato, and does not change their starting times. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-voice(score, replacement-list, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y) [SAL] (score-voice score replacement-list :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y) [LISP] For each note in the score and in any indicated range, replace the behavior (function) name using replacement-list, which has the format: ((old1 new1) (old2 new2) ...), where oldi indicates a current behavior name and newi is the replacement. If oldi is *, it matches anything. For example, to replace my-note-1 by trombone and my-note-2 by horn, use score-voice(score, {{my-note-1 trombone} {my-note-2 horn}}). To replace all instruments with piano, use score-voice(score, {{* piano}}). The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-merge(score1, score2, ...) [SAL] (score-merge score1 score2 ...) [LISP] Create a new score containing all the notes of the parameters, which are all scores. The resulting notes retain their original times and durations. The merged score begin time is the minimum of the begin times of the parameters and the merged score end time is the maximum of the end times of the parameters. The original scores are not modified, and a new score is returned. score-append(score1, score2, ...) [SAL] (score-append score1 score2 ...) [LISP] Create a new score containing all the notes of the parameters, which are all scores. The begin time of the first score is unaltered. The begin time of each other score is aligned to the end time of the previous score; thus, scores are ``spliced'' in sequence. The original scores are not modified, and a new score is returned. score-select(score, predicate, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y, reject: flag) [SAL] (score-select score predicate :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y :reject flag) [LISP] Select (or reject) notes to form a new score. Notes are selected if they fall into the given ranges of index and time and they satisfy predicate, a function of three parameters that is applied to the start time, duration, and the expression of the note. Alternatively, predicate may be t, indicating that all notes in range are to be selected. The selected notes along with the existing score begin and end markers, are combined to form a new score. Alternatively, if the reject: parameter is non-null, the notes not selected form the new score (in other words the selected notes are rejected or removed to form the new score). The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-set-begin(score, time) [SAL] (score-set-begin score time) [LISP] The begin time from the score's SCORE-BEGIN-END marker is set to time. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-get-begin(score) [SAL] (score-get-begin score) [LISP] Return the begin time of the score. score-set-end(score, time) [SAL] (score-set-end score time) [LISP] The end time from the score's SCORE-BEGIN-END marker is set to time. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-get-end(score) [SAL] (score-get-end score) [LISP] Return the end time of the score. score-must-have-begin-end(score) [SAL] (score-must-have-begin-end score) [LISP] If score does not have a begin and end time, construct a score with a SCORE-BEGIN-END expression and return it. If score already has a begin and end time, just return the score. The orignal score is not modified. score-filter-length(score, cutoff) [SAL] (score-filter-length score cutoff) [LISP] Remove notes that extend beyond the cutoff time. This is similar to score-select, but the here, events are removed when their nominal ending time (start time plus duration) exceeds the cutoff, whereas the to-time: parameter is compared to the note's start time. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-repeat(score, n) [SAL] (score-repeat score n) [LISP] Make a sequence of n copies of score. Each copy is shifted to that it's begin time aligns with the end time of the previous copy, as in score-append. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-stretch-to-length(score, length) [SAL] (score-stretch-to-length score length) [LISP] Stretch the score so that the end time of the score is the score's begin time plus length. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-filter-overlap(score) [SAL] (score-filter-overlap score) [LISP] Remove overlapping notes (based on the note start time and duration), giving priority to the positional order within the note list (which is also time order). The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-print(score) [SAL] (score-print score) [LISP] Print a score with one note per line. Returns nil. score-play(score) [SAL] (score-play score) [LISP] Play score using timed-seq to convert the score to a sound, and play to play the sound. score-adjacent-events(score, function, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y) [SAL] (score-adjacent-events score function :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y) [LISP] Call (function A B C), where A, B, and C are consecutive notes in the score. The result replaces B. If the result is nil, B is deleted, and the next call will be (function A C D), etc. The first call is to (function nil A B) and the last is to (function Y Z nil). If there is just one note in the score, (function nil A nil) is called. Function calls are not made if the note is outside of the indicated range. This function allows notes and their parameters to be adjusted according to their immediate context. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-apply(score, function, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y) [SAL] (score-apply score function :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y) [LISP] Replace each note in the score with the result of (function time dur expression) (in Lisp) or function(time, dur, expression) (in SAL), where time, dur, and expression are the time, duration, and expression of the note. If a range is indicated, only notes in the range are replaced. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. score-indexof(score, function, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y) [SAL] (score-indexof score function :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y) [LISP] Return the index (position) of the first score event (in range) for which applying function using (function time dur expression) returns true. score-last-indexof(score, function, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y) [SAL] (score-last-indexof score function :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y) [LISP] Return the index (position) of the last score event (in range) for which applying function using (function time dur expression) returns true. score-randomize-start(score, amt, from-index: i, to-index: j, from-time: x, to-time: y) [SAL] (score-randomize-start score amt :from-index i :to-index j :from-time x :to-time y) [LISP] Alter the start times of notes by a random amount up to plus or minus amt. The original score is not modified, and a new score is returned. 13.4.4. Xmusic and Standard MIDI Files Nyquist has a general facility to read and write MIDI files. You can even translate to and from a text representation, as described in Chapter 10. It is also useful sometimes to read notes from Standard MIDI Files into Xmusic scores and vice versa. At present, Xmusic only translates notes, ignoring the various controls, program changes, pitch bends, and other messages. MIDI notes are translated to Xmusic score events as follows: (time dur (NOTE :chan channel :pitch keynum :vel velocity)), where channel, keynum, and velocity come directly from the MIDI message (channels are numbered starting from zero). Note also that note-off messages are implied by the stretch factor dur which is duration in seconds. score-read-smf(filename) [SAL] (score-read-smf filename) [LISP] Read a standard MIDI file from filename. Return an Xmusic score, or nil if the file could not be opened. The start time is zero, and the end time is the maximum end time of all notes. A very limited interface is offered to extract MIDI program numbers from the file: The global variable *rslt* is set to a list of MIDI program numbers for each channel. E.g. if *rslt* is (0 20 77), then program for channel 0 is 0, for channel 1 is 20, and for channel 2 is 77. Program changes were not found on other channels. The default program number is 0, so in this example, it is not known whether the program 0 on channel 0 is the result of a real MIDI program change command or just a default value. If more than one program change exists on a channel, the last program number is recorded and returned, so this information will only be completely correct when the MIDI file sends single program change per channel before any notes are played. This, however, is a fairly common practice. Note that the list returned as *rslt* can be passed to score-write-smf, described below. score-read(filename) [SAL] (score-read filename) [LISP] Read an Adagio file from filename. Return an Xmusic score, or nil if the file could not be opened. See Chapter 10 for details on Adagio, a text-based score language. See score-read-smf for details on handling program changes. score-write-smf(score, filename, [programs as-adagio]) [SAL] (score-write-smf score filename [programs) as-adagio] [LISP] Write a standard MIDI file to filename with notes in score. In this function, every event in the score with a pitch: attribute, regardless of the ``instrument'' (or function name), generates a MIDI note, using the chan: attribute for the channel (default 0) and the vel: attribute for velocity (default 100). There is no facility (in the current implementation) to issue control changes, but to allow different instruments, MIDI programs may be set in two ways. The simplest is to associate programs with channels using the optional programs parameter, which is simply a list of up to 16 MIDI program numbers. Corresponding program change commands are added to the beginning of the MIDI file. If programs has less than 16 elements, program change commands are only sent on the first n channels. The second way to issue MIDI program changes is to add a program: keyword parameter to a note in the score. Typically, the note will have a pitch: of nil so that no actual MIDI note-on message is generated. If program changes and notes have the same starting times, their relative playback order is undefined, and the note may be cut off by an immediately following program change. Therefore, program changes should occur slightly, e.g. 1 ms, before any notes. Program numbers and channels are numbered starting at zero, matching the internal MIDI representation. This may be one less than displayed on MIDI hardware, sequencers, etc. The as-adagio optional parameter should normally be omitted. If non-nil, the file is written in Adagio format, but if you want to do that, call score-write instead. score-write(score, filename, [programs]) [SAL] (score-write score filename [programs] [LISP] Write an Adagioformat file to filename with notes in score. See Chapter 10 for details on Adagio, a text-based score language. See score-write-smf for details on MIDI program changes. 13.4.5. Workspaces When working with scores, you may find it necessary to save them in files between work sessions. This is not an issue with functions because they are normally edited in files and loaded from them. In contrast, scores are created as Lisp data, and unless you take care to save them, they will be destroyed when you exit the Nyquist program. A simple mechanism called a workspace has been created to manage scores (and any other Lisp data, for that matter). A workspace is just a set of lisp global variables. These variables are stored in the file workspace.lsp. For simplicity, there is only one workspace, and no backups or versions are maintained, but the user is free to make backups and copies of workspace.lsp. To help remember what each variable is for, you can also associate and retrieve a text string with each variable. The following functions manage workspaces. In addition, when a workspace is loaded, you can request that functions be called. For example, the workspace might store descriptions of a graphical interface. When the workspace is loaded, a function might run to convert saved data into a graphical interface. (This is how sliders are saved by the IDE.) add-to-workspace(symbol) [SAL] (add-to-workspace symbol) [LISP] Adds a global variable to the workspace. The symbol should be a (quoted) symbol. save-workspace() [SAL] (save-workspace) [LISP] All global variables in the workspace are saved to workspace.lsp (in the current directory), overwriting the previous file. describe(symbol [, description]) [SAL] (describe symbol [description)] [LISP] If description, a text string, is present, associate description with the variable named by the symbol. If symbol is not already in the workspace, it is added. If description is omitted, the function returns the current description (from a previous call) for symbol. add-action-to-workspace(symbol) [SAL] (add-action-to-workspace symbol) [LISP] Requests that the function named by symbol be called when the workspace is loaded (if the function is defined). To restore a workspace, use the command load "workspace". This restores the values of the workspace variables to the values they had when save-workspace was last called. It also restores the documentation strings, if set, by describe. If you load two or more workspace.lsp files, the variables will be merged into a single workspace. The current set of workspace variables are saved in the list *workspace*. To clear the workspace, set *workspace* to nil. This does not delete any variables, but means that no variables will be saved by save-workspace until variables are added again. Functions to be called are saved in the list *workspace-actions*. to clear the functions, set *workspace-actions* to nil. Restore functions to the list with add-action-to-workspace. 13.4.6. Utility Functions This chapter concludes with details of various utility functions for score manipulation. patternp(expression) [SAL] (patternp expression) [LISP] Test if expression is an Xmusic pattern. params-transpose(params, keyword, amount) [SAL] (params-transpose params keyword amount) [LISP] Add a transposition amount to a score event parameter. The params parameter is a list of keyword/value pairs (not preceded by a function name). The keyword is the keyword of the value to be altered, and amount is a number to be added to the value. If no matching keyword is present in params, then params is returned. Otherwise, a new parameter list is constructed and returned. The original params is not changed. params-scale(params, keyword, amount) [SAL] (params-scale params keyword amount) [LISP] Scale a score event parameter by some factor. This is like params-transpose, only using multiplication. The params list is a list of keyword/value pairs, keyword is the parameter keyword, and amount is the scale factor. interpolate(x, x1, y1, x2, y2) [SAL] (interpolate x x1 y1 x2 y2) [LISP] Linearly interpolate (or extrapolate) between points (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) to compute the y value corresponding to x. intersection(a, b) [SAL] (intersection a b) [LISP] Compute the set intersection of lists a and b. union(a, b) [SAL] (union a b) [LISP] Compute the set union of lists a and b. set-difference(a, b) [SAL] (set-difference a b) [LISP] Compute the set of all elements that are in a but not in b. subsetp(a, b) [SAL] (subsetp a b) [LISP] Returns true iff a is a subset of b, that is, each element of a is a member of b. 14. Nyquist Libraries Nyquist is always growing with new functions. Functions that are most fundamental are added to the core language. These functions are automatically loaded when you start Nyquist, and they are documented in the preceding chapters. Other functions seem less central and are implemented as lisp files that you can load. These are called library functions, and they are described here. To use a library function, you must first load the library, e.g. (load "pianosyn") loads the piano synthesis library. The libraries are all located in the lib directory, and you should therefore include this directory on your XLISPPATH variable. (See Section 1.) Each library is documented in one of the following sections. When you load the library described by the section, all functions documented in that section become available. 14.1. Statistics The file statistics.lsp defines a class and functions to compute simple statistics, histograms, correlation, and some other tests. See the source code for complete details. 14.2. Plots The Nyquist IDE has a simple facility to plot signals. For more advanced plotting, you can use gnuplot.sal to generate plots for gnuplot, a separate, but free program. See the source for details. 14.3. Labeling Audio Events, Marking Audio Times, Displaying Marked Audio Times The labels.sal program can convert lists to label files and label files to lists. Label files can be loaded along with audio in Audacity to show metadata. See the source for details. 14.4. Linear Regression See regression.sal for simple linear regression functions. 14.5. Vector Math, Linear Algebra See vectors.lsp for a simple implementation of vector arithmetic and other vector functions. 14.6. Piano Synthesizer The piano synthesizer (library name is pianosyn.lsp) generates realistic piano tones using a multiple wavetable implementation by Zheng (Geoffrey) Hua and Jim Beauchamp, University of Illinois. Please see the notice about acknowledgements that prints when you load the file. Further informations and example code can be found in demos/piano.htm. There are several useful functions in this library: piano-note(duration, step, dynamic) [SAL] (piano-note duration step dynamic) [LISP] Synthesizes a piano tone. Duration is the duration to the point of key release, after which there is a rapid decay. Step is the pitch in half steps, and dynamic is approximately equivalent to a MIDI key velocity parameter. Use a value near 100 for a loud sound and near 10 for a soft sound. piano-note-2(step, dynamic) [SAL] (piano-note-2 step dynamic) [LISP] Similar to piano-note except the duration is nominally 1.0. piano-midi(midi-file-name) [SAL] (piano-midi midi-file-name) [LISP] Use the piano synthesizer to play a MIDI file. The file name (a string) is given by midi-file-name. piano-midi2file(midi-file-name, sound-file-name) [SAL] (piano-midi2file midi-file-name sound-file-name) [LISP] Use the piano synthesizer to play a MIDI file. The MIDI file is given by midi-file-name and the (monophonic) result is written to the file named sound-file-name. 14.7. Dymanics Compression To use these functions, load the file compress.lsp. This library implements a compressor originally intended for noisy speech audio, but usable in a variety of situations. There are actually two compressors that can be used in series. The first, compress, is a fairly standard one: it detects signal level with an RMS detector and uses table-lookup to determine how much gain to place on the original signal at that point. One bit of cleverness here is that the RMS envelope is ``followed'' or enveloped using snd-follow, which does look-ahead to anticipate peaks before they happen. The other interesting feature is compress-map, which builds a map in terms of compression and expansion. For speech, the recommended procedure is to figure out the noise floor on the signal you are compressing (for example, look at the signal where the speaker is not talking). Use a compression map that leaves the noise alone and boosts signals that are well above the noise floor. Alas, the compress-map function is not written in these terms, so some head-scratching is involved, but the results are quite good. The second compressor is called agc, and it implements automatic gain control that keeps peaks at or below 1.0. By combining compress and agc, you can process poorly recorded speech for playback on low-quality speakers in noisy environments. The compress function modulates the short-term gain to to minimize the total dynamic range, keeping the speech at a generally loud level, and the agc function rides the long-term gain to set the overall level without clipping. compress-map(compress-ratio, compress-threshold, expand-ratio, expand-threshold, limit: limit, transition: transition) [SAL] (compress-map compress-ratio compress-threshold expand-ratio expand-threshold [:limit limit :transition transition :verbose verbose]) [LISP] Construct a map for the compress function. The map consists of two parts: a compression part and an expansion part. The intended use is to compress everything above compress-threshold by compress-ratio, and to downward expand everything below expand-ratio by expand-ratio. Thresholds are in dB and ratios are dB-per-dB. 0dB corresponds to a peak amplitude of 1.0 or rms amplitude of 0.7 If the input goes above 0dB, the output can optionally be limited by setting limit: (a keyword parameter) to T. This effectively changes the compression ratio to infinity at 0dB. If limit: is nil (the default), then the compression-ratio continues to apply above 0dB. Another keyword parameter, transition:, sets the amount below the thresholds (in dB) that a smooth transition starts. The default is 0, meaning that there is no smooth transition. The smooth transition is a 2nd-order polynomial that matches the slopes of the straight-line compression curve and interpolates between them. If verbose is true (this is the default), the map is printed, showing, for each dB value below zero of this input, what is the gain (in dB) indicated by the output. Only regions where the map is changing are printed because at lower values, the dB gain is constant. It is assumed that expand-threshold <= compress-threshold <= 0 The gain is unity at 0dB so if compression-ratio > 1, then gain will be greater than unity below 0dB. The result returned by this function is a sound for use in the shape function. The sound maps input dB to gain. Time 1.0 corresponds to 0dB, time 0.0 corresponds to -100 dB, and time 2.0 corresponds to +100dB, so this is a 100hz ``sample rate'' sound. The sound gives gain in dB. db-average(input) [SAL] (db-average input) [LISP] Compute the average amplitude of input in dB. compress(input, map, rise-time, fall-time [, lookahead]) [SAL] (compress input map rise-time fall-time [lookahead)] [LISP] Compress input using map, a compression curve probably generated by compress-map (see above). Adjustments in gain have the given rise-time and fall-time. Lookahead tells how far ahead to look at the signal, and is rise-time by default. agc(input, range, rise-time, fall-time [, lookahead]) [SAL] (agc input range rise-time fall-time [lookahead]) [LISP] An automatic gain control applied to input. The maximum gain in dB is range. Peaks are attenuated to 1.0, and gain is controlled with the given rise-time and fall-time. The look-ahead time default is rise-time. 14.8. Clipping Softener This library, in soften.lsp, was written to improve the quality of poorly recorded speech. In recordings of speech, extreme clipping generates harsh high frequency noise. This can sound particulary bad on small speakers that will emphasize high frequencies. This problem can be ameliorated by low-pass filtering regions where clipping occurs. The effect is to dull the harsh clipping. Intelligibility is not affected by much, and the result can be much more pleasant on the ears. Clipping is detected simply by looking for large signal values. Assuming 8-bit recording, this level is set to 126/127. The function works by cross-fading between the normal signal and a filtered signal as opposed to changing filter coefficients. soften-clipping(snd, cutoff) [SAL] (soften-clipping snd cutoff) [LISP] Filter the loud regions of a signal where clipping is likely to have generated additional high frequencies. The input signal is snd and cutoff is the filter cutoff frequency (4 kHz is recommended for speech). 14.9. Graphical Equalizer There's nothing really ``graphical'' about this library (grapheq.lsp), but this is a common term for multi-band equalizers. This implementation uses Nyquist's eq-band function to split the incoming signal into different frequency bands. Bands are spaced geometrically, e.g. each band could be one octave, meaning that each successive band has twice the bandwidth. An interesting possibility is using computed control functions to make the equalization change over time. nband-range(input, gains, lowf, highf) [SAL] (nband-range input gains lowf highf) [LISP] A graphical equalizer applied to input (a SOUND). The gain controls and number of bands is given by gains, an ARRAY of SOUNDs (in other words, a Nyquist multichannel SOUND). Any sound in the array may be replaced by a FLONUM. The bands are geometrically equally spaced from the lowest frequency lowf to the highest frequency highf (both are FLONUMs). nband(input, gains) [SAL] (nband input gains) [LISP] A graphical equalizer, identical to nband-range with a range of 20 to 20,000 Hz. 14.10. Sound Reversal The reverse.lsp library implements functions to play sounds in reverse. s-reverse(snd) [SAL] (s-reverse snd) [LISP] Reverses snd (a SOUND). Sound must be shorter than *max-reverse-samples*, which is currently initialized to 25 million samples. Reversal allocates about 4 bytes per sample. This function uses XLISP in the inner sample loop, so do not be surprised if it calls the garbage collector a lot and runs slowly. The result starts at the starting time given by the current environment (not necessarily the starting time of snd). If snd has multiple channels, a multiple channel, reversed sound is returned. s-read-reverse(filename, time-offset: offset, srate: sr, dur: dur, nchans: chans, format: format, mode: mode, bits: n, swap: flag) [SAL] (s-read-reverse filename :time-offset offset :srate sr :dur dur :nchans chans :format format :mode mode :bits n :swap flag) [LISP] This function is identical to s-read (see 7.5), except it reads the indicated samples in reverse. Like s-reverse (see above), it uses XLISP in the inner loop, so it is slow. Unlike s-reverse, s-read-reverse uses a fixed amount of memory that is independent of how many samples are computed. Multiple channels are handled. 14.11. Time Delay Functions The time-delay-fns.lsp library implements chorus, phaser, and flange effects. phaser(snd) [SAL] (phaser snd) [LISP] A phaser effect applied to snd (a SOUND). There are no parameters, but feel free to modify the source code of this one-liner. flange(snd) [SAL] (flange snd) [LISP] A flange effect applied to snd. To vary the rate and other parameters, see the source code. stereo-chorus(snd) [SAL] (stereo-chorus snd) [LISP] A chorus effect applied to snd, a SOUND (monophonic). The output is a stereo sound. All parameters are built-in, but see the simple source code to make modifications. chorus(snd, maxdepth, depth, rate, saturation) [SAL] (chorus snd maxdepth depth rate saturation) [LISP] A chorus effect applied to snd. All parameters may be arrays as usual. The maxdepth is a FLONUM giving twice the maximum value of depth, which may be a FLONUM or a SOUND. The chorus is implemented as a variable delay modulated by a sinusoid running at rate Hz (a FLONUM). The sinusoid is scaled by depth and offset by maxdepth/2. The delayed signal is mixed with the original, and saturation gives the fraction of the delayed signal (from 0 to 1) in the mix. A reasonable choice of parameter values is maxdepth = 0.05, depth = 0.025, rate = 0.5, and saturation = 0.5. 14.12. Multiple Band Effects The bandfx.lsp library implements several effects based on multiple frequency bands. The idea is to separate a signal into different frequency bands, apply a slightly different effect to each band, and sum the effected bands back together to form the result. This file includes its own set of examples. After loading the file, try f2(), f3(), f4(), and f5() to hear them. There is much room for expansion and experimentation with this library. Other effects might include distortion in certain bands (for example, there are commercial effects that add distortion to low frequencies to enhance the sound of the bass), separating bands into different channels for stereo or multi-channel effects, adding frequency-dependent reverb, and performing dynamic compression, limiting, or noise gate functions on each band. There are also opportunities for cross-synthesis: using the content of bands extracted from one signal to modify the bands of another. The simplest of these would be to apply amplitude envelopes of one sound to another. Please contact us (dannenberg@cs.cmu.edu) if you are interested in working on this library. apply-banded-delay(s, lowp, highp, num-bands, lowd, highd, fb, wet) [SAL] (apply-banded-delay s lowp highp num-bands lowd highd fb wet) [LISP] Separates input SOUND s into FIXNUM num-bands bands from a low frequency of lowp to a high frequency of highp (these are FLONUMS that specify steps, not Hz), and applies a delay to each band. The delay for the lowest band is given by the FLONUM lowd (in seconds) and the delay for the highest band is given by the FLONUM highd. The delays for other bands are linearly interpolated between these values. Each delay has feedback gain controlled by FLONUM fb. The delayed bands are scaled by FLONUM wet, and the original sound is scaled by 1 - wet. All are summed to form the result, a SOUND. apply-banded-bass-boost(s, lowp, highp, num-bands, num-boost, gain) [SAL] (apply-banded-bass-boost s lowp highp num-bands num-boost gain) [LISP] Applies a boost to low frequencies. Separates input SOUND s into FIXNUM num-bands bands from a low frequency of lowp to a high frequency of highp (these are FLONUMS that specify steps, not Hz), and scales the lowest num-boost (a FIXNUM) bands by gain, a FLONUM. The bands are summed to form the result, a SOUND. apply-banded-treble-boost(s, lowp, highp, num-bands, num-boost, gain) [SAL] (apply-banded-treble-boost s lowp highp num-bands num-boost gain) [LISP] Applies a boost to high frequencies. Separates input SOUND s into FIXNUM num-bands bands from a low frequency of lowp to a high frequency of highp (these are FLONUMS that specify steps, not Hz), and scales the highest num-boost (a FIXNUM) bands by gain, a FLONUM. The bands are summed to form the result, a SOUND. 14.13. Granular Synthesis Some granular synthesis functions are implemented in the gran.lsp library file. There are many variations and control schemes one could adopt for granular synthesis, so it is impossible to create a single universal granular synthesis function. One of the advantages of Nyquist is the integration of control and synthesis functions, and users are encouraged to build their own granular synthesis functions incorporating their own control schemes. The gran.lsp file includes many comments and is intended to be a useful starting point. Another possibility is to construct a score with an event for each grain. Estimate a few hundred bytes per score event (obviously, size depends on the number of parameters) and avoid using all of your computer's memory. sf-granulate(filename, grain-dur, grain-dev, ioi, ioi-dev, pitch-dev, [file-start, file-end]) [SAL] (sf-granulate filename grain-dur grain-dev ioi ioi-dev pitch-dev [file-start file-end]) [LISP] Granular synthesis using a sound file named filename as the source for grains. Grains are extracted from a sound file named by filename by stepping through the file in equal increments. Each grain duration is the sum of grain-dur and a random number from 0 to grain-dev. Grains are then multiplied by a raised cosine smoothing window and resampled at a ratio between 1.0 and pitch-dev. If pitch-dev is greater than one, grains are stretched and the pitch (if any) goes down. If pitch-dev is less than one, grains are shortened and the pitch goes up. Grains are then output with an inter-onset interval between successive grains (which may overlap) determined by the sum of ioi and a random number from 0 to ioi-dev. The duration of the resulting sound is determined by the stretch factor (not by the sound file). The number of grains is the total sound duration (determined by the stretch factor) divided by the mean inter-onset interval, which is ioi + ioi-dev * 0.5. The grains are taken from equally-spaced starting points in filename, and depending on grain size and number, the grains may or may not overlap. The output duration will simply be the sum of the inter-onset intervals and the duration of the last grain. If ioi-dev is non-zero, the output duration will vary, but the expected value of the duration is the stretch factor. To achieve a rich granular synthesis effect, it is often a good idea to sum four or more copies of sf-granulate together. (See the gran-test function in gran.lsp.) 14.14. MIDI Utilities The midishow.lsp library has functions that can print the contents fo MIDI files. This intended as a debugging aid. midi-show-file(file-name) [SAL] (midi-show-file file-name) [LISP] Print the contents of a MIDI file to the console. midi-show(the-seq [, out-file]) [SAL] (midi-show the-seq [out-file]) [LISP] Print the contents of the sequence the-seq to the file out-file (whose default value is the console.) 14.15. Reverberation The reverb.lsp library implements artificial reverberation. reverb(snd, time) [SAL] (reverb snd time) [LISP] Artificial reverberation applied to snd with a decay time of time. 14.16. DTMF Encoding The dtmf.lsp library implements DTMF encoding. DTMF is the ``touch tone'' code used by telephones. dtmf-tone(key, len, space) [SAL] (dtmf-tone key len space) [LISP] Generate a single DTMF tone. The key parameter is either a digit (a FIXNUM from 0 through 9) or the atom STAR or POUND. The duration of the done is given by len (a FLONUM) and the tone is followed by silence of duration space (a FLONUM). speed-dial(thelist) [SAL] (speed-dial thelist) [LISP] Generates a sequence of DTMF tones using the keys in thelist (a LIST of keys as described above under dtmf-tone). The duration of each tone is 0.2 seconds, and the space between tones is 0.1 second. Use stretch to change the ``dialing'' speed. 14.17. Dolby Surround(R), Stereo and Spatialization Effects The spatial.lsp library implements various functions for stereo manipulation and spatialization. It also includes some functions for Dolby Pro-Logic panning, which encodes left, right, center, and surround channels into stereo. The stereo signal can then be played through a Dolby decoder to drive a surround speaker array. This library has a somewhat simplified encoder, so you should certainly test the output. Consider using a high-end encoder for critical work. There are a number of functions in spatial.lsp for testing. See the source code for comments about these. stereoize(snd) [SAL] (stereoize snd) [LISP] Convert a mono sound, snd, to stereo. Four bands of equalization and some delay are used to create a stereo effect. widen(snd, amt) [SAL] (widen snd amt) [LISP] Artificially widen the stereo field in snd, a two-channel sound. The amount of widening is amt, which varies from 0 (snd is unchanged) to 1 (maximum widening). The amt can be a SOUND or a number. span(snd, amt) [SAL] (span snd amt) [LISP] Pan the virtual center channel of a stereo sound, snd, by amt, where 0 pans all the way to the left, while 1 pans all the way to the right. The amt can be a SOUND or a number. swapchannels(snd) [SAL] (swapchannels snd) [LISP] Swap left and right channels in snd, a stereo sound. prologic(l, c, r, s) [SAL] (prologic l c r s) [LISP] Encode four monaural SOUNDs representing the front-left, front-center, front-right, and rear channels, respectively. The return value is a stereo sound, which is a Dolby-encoded mix of the four input sounds. pl-left(snd) [SAL] (pl-left snd) [LISP] Produce a Dolby-encoded (stereo) signal with snd, a SOUND, encoded as the front left channel. pl-center(snd) [SAL] (pl-center snd) [LISP] Produce a Dolby-encoded (stereo) signal with snd, a SOUND, encoded as the front center channel. pl-right(snd) [SAL] (pl-right snd) [LISP] Produce a Dolby-encoded (stereo) signal with snd, a SOUND, encoded as the front right channel. pl-rear(snd) [SAL] (pl-rear snd) [LISP] Produce a Dolby-encoded (stereo) signal with snd, a SOUND, encoded as the rear, or surround, channel. pl-pan2d(snd, x, y) [SAL] (pl-pan2d snd x y) [LISP] Comparable to Nyquist's existing pan function, pl-pan2d provides not only left-to-right panning, but front-to-back panning as well. The function accepts three parameters: snd is the (monophonic) input SOUND, x is a left-to-right position, and y is a front-to-back position. Both position parameters may be numbers or SOUNDs. An x value of 0 means left, and 1 means right. Intermediate values map linearly between these extremes. Similarly, a y value of 0 causes the sound to play entirely through the front speakers(s), while 1 causes it to play entirely through the rear. Intermediate values map linearly. Note that, although there are usually two rear speakers in Pro-Logic systems, they are both driven by the same signal. Therefore any sound that is panned totally to the rear will be played over both rear speakers. For example, it is not possible to play a sound exclusively through the rear left speaker. pl-position(snd, x, y, config) [SAL] (pl-position snd x y config) [LISP] The position function builds upon speaker panning to allow more abstract placement of sounds. Like pl-pan2d, it accepts a (monaural) input sound as well as left-to-right (x) and front-to-back (y) coordinates, which may be FLONUMs or SOUNDs. A fourth parameter config specifies the distance from listeners to the speakers (in meters). Current settings assume this to be constant for all speakers, but this assumption can be changed easily (see comments in the code for more detail). There are several important differences between pl-position and pl-pan2d. First, pl-position uses a Cartesian coordinate system that allows x and y coordinates outside of the range (0, 1). This model assumes a listener position of (0,0). Each speaker has a predefined position as well. The input sound's position, relative to the listener, is given by the vector (x,y). pl-doppler(snd, r) [SAL] (pl-doppler snd r) [LISP] Pitch-shift moving sounds according to the equation: fr = f0((c+vr)/c), where fr is the output frequency, f0 is the emitted (source) frequency, c is the speed of sound (assumed to be 344.31 m/s), and vr is the speed at which the emitter approaches the receiver. (vr is the first derivative of parameter r, the distance from the listener in meters. 14.18. Drum Machine The drum machine software in demos/plight deserves further explanation. to use the software, load the code by evaluating: load "../demos/plight/drum.lsp" exec load-props-file(strcat(*plight-drum-path*, "beats.props")) exec create-drum-patches() exec create-patterns() Drum sounds and patterns are specified in the beats.props file (or whatever name you give to load-props-file). This file contains two types of specifications. First, there are sound file specifications. Sound files are located by a line of the form: set sound-directory = "kit/" This gives the name of the sound file directory, relative to the beats.props file. Then, for each sound file, there should be a line of the form: track.2.5 = big-tom-5.wav This says that on track 2, a velocity value of 5 means to play the sound file big-tom-5.wav. (Tracks and velocity values are described below.) The beats.props file contains specifications for all the sound files in demos/plight/kit using 8 tracks. If you make your own specifications file, tracks should be numbered consecutively from 1, and velocities should be in the range of 1 to 9. The second set of specifications is of beat patterns. A beat pattern is given by a line in the following form: beats.5 = 2--32--43-4-5--- The number after beats is just a pattern number. Each pattern is given a unique number. After the equal sign, the digits and dashes are velocity values where a dash means ``no sound.'' Beat patterns should be numbered consecutively from 1. Once data is loaded, there are several functions to access drum patterns and create drum sounds (described below). The demos/plight/drums.lsp file contains an example function plight-drum-example to play some drums. There is also the file demos/plight/beats.props to serve as an example of how to specify sound files and beat patterns. drum(tracknum, patternnum, bpm) [SAL] (drum tracknum patternnum bpm) [LISP] Create a sound by playing drums sounds associated with track tracknum (a FIXNUM) using pattern patternnum. The tempo is given by bpm in beats per minute. Normally patterns are a sequence of sixteenth notes, so the tempo is in sixteenth notes per minute. For example, if patternnum is 10, then use the pattern specified for beats.10. If the third character of this pattern is 3 and tracknum is 5, then on the third beat, play the soundfile assigned to track.5.3. This function returns a SOUND. drum-loop(snd, duration, numtimes) [SAL] (drum-loop snd duration numtimes) [LISP] Repeat the sound given by snd numtimes times. The repetitions occur at a time offset of duration, regardless of the actual duration of snd. A SOUND is returned. length-of-beat(bpm) [SAL] (length-of-beat bpm) [LISP] Given a tempo of bpm, return the duration of the beat in seconds. Note that this software has no real notion of beat. A ``beat'' is just the duration of each character in the beat pattern strings. This function returns a FLONUM. 14.19. Minimoog-inspired Synthesis The moog.lsp library gives the Nyquist user easy access to ``classic'' synthesizer sounds through an emulation of the Minimoog Synthesizer. Unlike modular Moogs that were very large, the Minimoog was the first successful and commonly used portable synthesizer. The trademark filter attack was unique and easily recognizable. The goal of this Nyquist instrument is not only to provide the user with default sounds, but also to give control over many of the ``knobs'' found on the Minimoog. In this implementation, these parameters are controlled using keywords. The input to the moog instrument is a user-defined sequence of notes, durations, and articulations that simulate notes played on a keyboard. These are translated into control voltages that drive multiple oscillators, similar to the Voltage Controlled Oscillator or VCO found in the original analog Moog. The basic functionality of the Minimoog has been implemented, including the often-used "glide". The glide feature essentially low-pass filters the control voltage sequence in order to create sweeps between notes. Figure 21 is a simplified schematic of the data flow in the Moog. The control lines have been omitted. Figure 21: System diagram for Minimoog emulator. The most recognizable feature of the Minimoog is its resonant filter, a Four-Pole Ladder Filter invented by Robert Moog. It is simply implemented in a circuit with four transistors and provides an outstanding 24 dB/octave rolloff. It is modeled here using the built-in Nyquist resonant filter. One of the Moog filter features is a constant Q, or center frequency to bandwidth ratio. This is implemented and the user can control the Q. The user can control many parameters using keywords. Their default values, acceptable ranges, and descriptions are shown below. The defaults were obtained by experimenting with the official Minimoog software synthesizer by Arturia. 14.19.1. Oscillator Parameters range-osc1 (2) range-osc2 (1) range-osc3 (3) These parameters control the octave of each oscillator. A value of 1 corresponds to the octave indicated by the input note. A value of 3 is two octaves above the fundamental. The allowable range is 1 to 7. detun2 (-.035861) detun3 (.0768) Detuning of two oscillators adds depth to the sound. A value of 1 corresponds to an increase of a single semitone and a -1 corresponds to a decrease in a semitone. The range is -1 to 1. shape-osc1 (*saw-table*) shape-osc2 (*saw-table*) shape-osc3 (*saw-table*) Oscilators can use any wave shape. The default sawtooth waveform is a built-in Nyquist variable. Other waveforms can be defined by the user. volume-osc1 (1) volume-osc2 (1) volume-osc3 (1) These parameters control the relative volume of each oscillator. The range is any FLONUM greater than or equal to zero. 14.19.2. Noise Parameters noiselevel (.05) This parameter controls the relative volume of the noise source. The range is any FLONUM greater than or equal to zero. 14.19.3. Filter Parameters filter-cutoff (768) The cutoff frequency of the filter in given in Hz. The range is zero to 20,000 Hz. Q (2) Q is the ratio of center frequency to bandwidth. It is held constant by making the bandwidth a function of frequency. The range is any FLONUM greater than zero. contour (.65) Contour controls the range of the transient frequency sweep from a high to low cutoff frequency when a note is played. The high frequency is proportional to contour. A contour of 0 removes this sweep. The range is 0 to 1. filter-attack (.0001) Filter attack controls the attack time of the filter, i.e. the time to reach the high cutoff frequency. The range is any FLONUM greater than zero (seconds). filter-decay (.5) Filter decay controls the decay time of the filter, i.e. the time of the sweep from the high to low cutoff frequency. The range is any FLONUM greater than zero (seconds). filter-sustain (.8) Filter sustain controls the percentage of the filter cutoff frequency that the filter settles on following the sweep. The range is 0 to 1. 14.19.4. Amplitude Parameters amp-attack (.01) This parameter controls the amplitude envelope attack time, i.e. the time to reach maximum amplitude. The range is any FLONUM greater than zero (seconds). amp-decay (1) This parameter controls the amplitude envelope decay time, i.e. the time between the maximum and sustain volumes. The range is any FLONUM greater than zero (seconds). amp-sustain (1) This parameter controls the amplitude envelope sustain volume, a fraction of the maximum. The range is 0 to 1. amp-release (0) This parameter controls the amplitude envelope release time, i.e. the time it takes between the sustain volume and 0 once the note ends. The duration controls the overall length of the sound. The range of amp-release is any FLONUM greater than zero (seconds). 14.19.5. Other Parameters glide (0) Glide controls the low-pass filter on the control voltages. This models the glide knob on a Minimoog. A higher value corresponds to a lower cutoff frequency and hence a longer "glide" between notes. A value of 0 corresponds to no glide. The range is zero to 10. 14.19.6. Input Format A single note or a series of notes can be input to the Moog instrument by defining a list with the following format: list(list(frequency, duration, articulation), ... ) where frequency is a FLONUM in steps, duration is the duration of each note in seconds (regardless of the release time of the amplifier), and articulation is a percentage of the duration that a sound will be played, representing the amount of time that a key is pressed. The filter and amplitude envelopes are only triggered if a note is played when the articulation of the previous note is less than 1, or a key is not down at the same time. This Moog instrument is a monophonic instrument, so only one note can sound at a time. The release section of the amplifier is triggered when the articulation is less than 1 at the time (duration * articulation). 14.19.7. Sample Code/Sounds Sound 1 (default parameters): set s = {{24 .5 .99} {26 .5 .99} {28 .5 .99} {29 .5 .99} {31 2 1}} play moog(s) Sound 2 (articulation, with amplitude release): set s = {{24 .5 .5} {26 .5 1} {28 .5 .25} {29 .5 1} {31 1 .8}} play moog(s, amp-release: .2) Sound 3 (glide): set s = {{24 .5 .5} {38 .5 1} {40 .5 .25} {53 .5 1} {55 2 1} {31 2 .8} {36 2 .8}} play moog(s, amp-release: .2, glide: .5) Sound 4 (keyword parameters): Filter attack and decay are purposely longer than notes being played with articulation equal to 1. set s = {{20 .5 1} {27 .5 1} {26 .5 1} {21 .5 1} {20 .5 1} {27 .5 1} {26 .5 1} {21 .5 1}} play moog(s, shape-osc1: *tri-table*, shape-osc2: *tri-table*, filter-attack: 2, filter-decay: 2, filter-cutoff: 300, contour: .8, glide: .2, Q: 8) Sound 5: This example illustrates the ability to completely define a new synthesizer with different parameters creating a drastically different sound. Sine waves are used for wavetables. There is a high value for glide. define function my-moog(freq) return moog(freq, range-osc1: 3, range-osc2: 2, range-osc3: 4, detun2: -.043155, detun3: .015016, noiselevel: 0, filter-cutoff: 400, Q: .1, contour: .0000001, filter-attack: 0, filter-decay: .01, filter-sustain: 1, shape-osc1: *sine-table*, shape-osc2: *sine-table*, shape-osc3: *sine-table*, volume-osc1: 1, volume-osc2: 1, volume-osc3: .1, amp-attack: .1, amp-decay: 0, amp-sustain: 1, amp-release: .3, glide: 2) set s = {{80 .4 .75} {28 .2 1} {70 .5 1} {38 1 .5}} play my-moog(s) Sound 6: This example has another variation on the default parameters. set s = {{24 .5 .99} {26 .5 .99} {28 .5 .99} {29 .5 .99} {31 2 1}} play moog(s, shape-osc1: *tri-table*, shape-osc2: *tri-table*, filter-attack: .5, contour: .5) I. Extending Nyquist WARNING: Nyquist sound functions look almost like a human wrote them; they even have a fair number of comments for human readers. Don't be fooled: virtually all Nyquist functions are written by a special translator. If you try to write a new function by hand, you will probably not succeed, and even if you do, you will waste a great deal of time. (End of Warning.) I.1. Translating Descriptions to C Code The translator code used to extend Nyquist resides in the trnsrc directory. This directory also contains a special init.lsp, so if you start XLisp or Nyquist in this directory, it will automatically read init.lsp, which in turn will load the translator code (which resides in several files). Also in the trnsrc directory are a number of .alg files, which contain the source code for the translator (more on these will follow), and a number of corresponding .h and .c files. To translate a .alg file to .c and .h files, you start XLisp or Nyquist in the trnsrc directory and type (translate "prod") where "prod" should really be replaced by the filename (without a suffix) you want to translate. Be sure you have a saved, working copy of Nyquist or Xlisp before you recompile! Note: On the Macintosh, just run Nyquist out of the runtime directory and then use the Load menu command to load init.lsp from the trnsrc directory. This will load the translation code and change Nyquist's current directory to trnsrc so that commands like (translate "prod") will work. I.2. Rebuilding Nyquist After generating prod.c and prod.h, you need to recompile Nyquist. For Unix systems, you will want to generate a new Makefile. Modify transfiles.lsp in your main Nyquist directory, run Xlisp or Nyquist and load makefile.lsp. Follow the instructions to set your machine type, etc., and execute (makesrc) and (makefile). I.3. Accessing the New Function The new Lisp function will generally be named with a snd- prefix, e.g. snd-prod. You can test this by running Nyquist. Debugging is usually a combination of calling the code from within the interpreter, reading the generated code when things go wrong, and using a C debugger to step through the inner loop of the generated code. An approach I like is to set the default sample rate to 10 hertz. Then, a one-second sound has only 10 samples, which are easy to print and study on a text console. For some functions, you must write some Lisp code to impose ordinary Nyquist behaviors such as stretching and time shifting. A good approach is to find some structurally similar functions and see how they are implemented. Most of the Lisp code for Nyquist is in nyquist.lsp. Finally, do not forget to write up some documentation. Also, contributions are welcome. Send your .alg file, documentation, Lisp support functions for nyquist.lsp, and examples or test programs to rbd@cs.cmu.edu. I will either put them in the next release or make them available at a public ftp site. I.4. Why Translation? Many of the Nyquist signal processing operations are similar in form, but they differ in details. This code is complicated by many factors: Nyquist uses lazy evaluation, so the operator must check to see that input samples are available before trying to access them. Nyquist signals can have different sample rates, different block sizes, different block boundaries, and different start times, all of which must be taken into account. The number of software tests is enormous. (This may sound like a lot of overhead, but the overhead is amortized over many iterations of the inner loop. Of course setting up the inner loop to run efficiently is one more programming task.) The main idea behind the translation is that all of the checks and setup code are similar and relatively easy to generate automatically. Programmers often use macros for this sort of task, but the C macro processor is too limited for the complex translation required here. To tell the translator how to generate code, you write .alg files, which provide many details about the operation in a declarative style. For example, the code generator can make some optimizations if you declare that two input signals are commutative (they can be exchanged with one another). The main part of the .alg file is the inner loop which is the heart of the signal processing code. I.5. Writing a .alg File WARNING: Translation relies heavily on string substitution, which is fragile. In particular, variables with names that are substrings of other variables will cause problems. For example if you declare STATE variables "phase" and "iphase", then the translator will globally substitute "phase_reg" for "phase", converting "phase" to "phase_reg" and iphase" to "iphase_reg". Then it will substitute "iphase_reg" for iphase" which will convert the existing "iphase_reg" to "iphase_reg_reg". This will be confusing and will not compile. (End of WARNING) To give you some idea how functions are specified, here is the specification for snd-prod, which generates over 250 lines of C code: (PROD-ALG (NAME "prod") (ARGUMENTS ("sound_type" "s1") ("sound_type" "s2")) (START (MAX s1 s2)) (COMMUTATIVE (s1 s2)) (INNER-LOOP "output = s1 * s2") (LINEAR s1 s2) (TERMINATE (MIN s1 s2)) (LOGICAL-STOP (MIN s1 s2)) ) A .alg file is always of the form: (name (attribute value) (attribute value) ... ) There should be just one of these algorithms descriptions per file. The name field is arbitrary: it is a Lisp symbol whose property list is used to save the following attribute/value pairs. There are many attributes described below. For more examples, see the .alg files in the trnsrc directory. Understanding what the attributes do is not easy, so here are three recommendations for implementors. First, if there is an existing Nyquist operator that is structurally similar to something you want to implement, make a copy of the corresponding .alg file and work from there. In some cases, you can merely rename the parameters and substitute a new inner loop. Second, read the generated code, especially the generated inner loop. It may not all make sense, but sometimes you can spot obvious errors and work your way back to the error in the .alg file. Third, if you know where something bad is generated, see if you can find where the code is generated. (The code generator files are listed in init.lsp.) This code is poorly written and poorly documented, but in some cases it is fairly straightforward to determine what attribute in the .alg file is responsible for the erroneous output. I.6. Attributes Here are the attributes used for code generation. Attributes and values may be specified in any order. (NAME "string") specifies a base name for many identifiers. In particular, the generated filenames will be string.c and string.h, and the XLisp function generated will be snd-string. (ARGUMENTS arglist) describes the arguments to be passed from XLisp. Arglist has the form: (type1 name1) (type2 name2) ..., where type and name are strings in double quotes, e.g. ("sound_type" "s") specifies a SOUND parameter named s. Note that arglist is not surrounded by parentheses. As seen in this example, the type names and parameter names are C identifiers. Since the parameters are passed in from XLisp, they must be chosen from a restricted set. Valid type names are: "sound_type", "rate_type", "double", "long", "string", and "LVAL". (STATE statelist) describes additional state (variables) needed to perform the computation. A statelist is similar to an arglist (see ARGUMENTS above), and has the form: (type1 name1 init1 [TEMP]) (type2 name2 init2 [TEMP]) .... The types and names are as in arglist, and the "inits" are double-quoted initial values. Initial values may be any C expression. State is initialized in the order implied by statelist when the operation is first called from XLisp. If TEMP is omitted the state is preserved in a structure until the sound computation completes. Otherwise, the state variable only exists at state initialization time. (INNER-LOOP innerloop-code) describes the inner loop, written as C code. The innerloop-code is in double quotes, and may extend over multiple lines. To make generated code extra-beautiful, prefix each line of innerloop-code with 12 spaces. Temporary variables should not be declared at the beginning of innerloop-code. Use the INNER-LOOP-LOCALS attribute instead. Within innerloop-code, each ARGUMENT of type sound_type must be referenced exactly one time. If you need to use a signal value twice, assign it once to a temporary and use the temporary twice. The inner loop must also assign one time to the psuedo-variable output. The model here is that the name of a sound argument denotes the value of the corresponding signal at the current output sample time. The inner loop code will be called once for each output sample. In practice, the code generator will substitute some expression for each signal name. For example, prod.alg specifies (INNER-LOOP "output = s1 * s2") (s1 and s2 are ARGUMENTS.) This expands to the following inner loop in prod.c: *out_ptr_reg++ = *s1_ptr_reg++ * *s2_ptr_reg++; In cases where arguments have different sample rates, sample interpolation is in-lined, and the expressions can get very complex. The translator is currently very simple-minded about substituting access code in the place of parameter names, and this is a frequent source of bugs. Simple string substitution is performed, so you must not use a parameter or state name that is a substring of another. For example, if two sound parameters were named s and s2, the translator might substitute for ``s'' in two places rather than one. If this problem occurs, you will almost certainly get a C compiler syntax error. The fix is to use ``more unique'' parameter and state variable names. (INNER-LOOP-LOCALS "innerloop-code") The innerloop-code contains C declarations of local variables set and referenced in the inner loop. (SAMPLE-RATE "expr") specifies the output sample rate; expr can be any C expression, including a parameter from the ARGUMENTS list. You can also write (SAMPLE-RATE (MAX name1 name2 ...)) where names are unquoted names of arguments. (SUPPORT-HEADER "c-code") specifies arbitrary C code to be inserted in the generated .h file. The code typically contains auxiliarly function declarations and definitions of constants. (SUPPORT-FUNCTIONS "c-code") specifies arbitrary C code to be inserted in the generated .c file. The code typically contains auxiliarly functions and definitions of constants. (FINALIZATION "c-code") specifies code to execute when the sound has been fully computed and the state variables are about to be decallocated. This is the place to deallocate buffer memory, etc. (CONSTANT "name1" "name2" ...) specifies state variables that do not change value in the inner loop. The values of state variables are loaded into registers before entering the inner loop so that access will be fast within the loop. On exiting the inner loop, the final register values are preserved in a ``suspension'' structure. If state values do not change in the inner loop, this CONSTANT declaration can eliminate the overhead of storing these registers. (START spec) specifies when the output sound should start (a sound is zero and no processing is done before the start time). The spec can take several forms: (MIN name1 name2 ...) means the start time is the minimum of the start times of input signals name1, name2, .... Note that these names are not quoted. (TERMINATE spec) specifies when the output sound terminates (a sound is zero after this termination time and no more samples are computed). The spec can take several forms: (MIN name1 name2 ...) means the terminate time is the minimum of the terminate times of input arguments name1, name2, .... Note that these names are not quoted. To terminate at the time of a single argument s1, specify (MIN s1). To terminate after a specific duration, use (AFTER "c-expr"), where c-expr is a C variable or expression. To terminate at a particular time, use (AT "c-expr"). spec may also be COMPUTED, which means to use the maximum sample rate of any input signal. (LOGICAL-STOP spec) specifies the logical stop time of the output sound. This spec is just like the one for TERMINATE. If no LOGICAL-STOP attribute is present, the logical stop will coincide with the terminate time. (ALWAYS-SCALE name1 name2 ...) says that the named sound arguments (not in quotes) should always be multiplied by a scale factor. This is a space-time tradeoff. When Nyquist sounds are scaled, the scale factor is merely stored in a structure. It is the responsibility of the user of the samples to actually scale them (unless the scale factor is exactly 1.0). The default is to generate code with and without scaling and to select the appropriate code at run N time. If there are N signal inputs, this will generate 2 versions of the code. To avoid this code explosion, use the ALWAYS-SCALE attribute. (INLINE-INTERPOLATION flag) controls when sample rate interpolation should be performed in-line in the inner loop. There are two forms of sample rate interpolation. One is intended for use when the rate change is large and many points will be interpolated. This form uses a divide instruction and some setup at the low sample rate, but the inner loop overhead is just an add. The other form, intended for less drastic sample rate changes, performs interpolation with 2 multiplies and several adds per sample at the high sample rate. If inline interpolation is enabled, Nyquist generates various inner loops and selects the appropriate one at run-time. (This can cause a combinatorial explosion if there are multiple sound arguments.) If inline interpolation is not enabled, much less code is generated and interpolation is performed as necessary by instantiating a separate signal processing operation. The value of flag is YES to generate inline interpolation, NO to disable inline interpolation, and NIL to take the default set by the global variable *INLINE-INTERPOLATION*. The default is also taken if no INLINE-INTERPOLATION attribute is specified. (STEP-FUNCTION name1 name2 ...) Normally all argument signals are linearly interpolated to the output sample rate. The linear interpolation can be turned off with this attribute. This is used, for example, in Nyquist variable filters so that filter coefficients are computed at low sample rates. In fact, this attribute was added for the special case of filters. (DEPENDS spec1 spec2 ...) Specifies dependencies. This attribute was also introduced to handle the case of filter coefficients (but may have other applications.) Use it when a state variable is a function of a potentially low-sample-rate input where the input is in the STEP-FUNCTION list. Consider a filter coefficient that depends upon an input signal such as bandwidth. In this case, you want to compute the filter coefficient only when the input signal changes rather than every output sample, since output may occur at a much higher sample rate. A spec is of the form ("name" "arg" "expr" [TEMP "type"]) which is interpreted as follows: name depends upon arg; when arg changes, recompute expr and assign it to name. The name must be declared as a STATE variable unless TEMP is present, in which case name is not preserved and is used only to compute other state. Variables are updated in the order of the DEPENDS list. (FORCE-INTO-REGISTER name1 name2 ...) causes name1, name2, ... to be loaded into registers before entering the inner loop. If the inner loop references a state variable or argument, this happens automatically. Use this attribute only if references are ``hidden'' in a #define'd macro or referenced in a DEPENDS specification. (NOT-REGISTER name1 name2 ...) specifies state and arguments that should not be loaded into registers before entering an inner loop. This is sometimes an optimization for infrequently accessed state. (NOT-IN-INNER-LOOP "name1" "name2" ...) says that certain arguments are not used in the inner loop. Nyquist assumes all arguments are used in the inner loop, so specify them here if not. For example, tables are passed into functions as sounds, but these sounds are not read sample-by-sample in the inner loop, so they should be listed here. (MAINTAIN ("name1" "expr1") ("name2" "expr2") ... ) Sometimes the IBM XLC compiler generates better loop code if a variable referenced in the loop is not referenced outside of the loop after the loop exit. Technically, optimization is better when variables are dead upon loop exit. Sometimes, there is an efficient way to compute the final value of a state variable without actually referencing it, in which case the variable and the computation method are given as a pair in the MAINTAIN attribute. This suppresses a store of the value of the named variable, making it a dead variable. Where the store would have been, the expression is computed and assigned to the named variable. See partial.alg for an example. This optimization is never necessary and is only for fine-tuning. (LINEAR name1 name2 ...) specifies that named arguments (without quotes) are linear with respect to the output. What this really means is that it is numerically OK to eliminate a scale factor from the named argument and store it in the output sound descriptor, avoiding a potential multiply in this inner loop. For example, both arguments to snd-prod (signal multiplication) are ``linear.'' The inner loop has a single multiplication operator to multiply samples vs. a potential 3 multiplies if each sample were also scaled. To handle scale factors on the input signals, the scale factors are automatically multiplied and the product becomes the scale factor of the resulting output. (This effectively ``passes the buck'' to some other, or perhaps more than one, signal processing function, which is not always optimal. On the other hand, it works great if you multiply a number of scaled signals together: all the scale factors are ultimately handled with a single multiply.) (INTERNAL-SCALING name1 name2 ...) indicates that scaling is handled in code that is hidden from the code generator for name1, name2, ..., which are sound arguments. Although it is the responsibility of the reader of samples to apply any given scale factor, sometimes scaling can be had for free. For example, the snd-recip operation computes the reciprocal of the input samples by peforming a division. The simple approach would be to specify an inner loop of output = 1.0/s1, where s1 is the input. With scaling, this would generate an inner loop something like this: *output++ = 1.0 / (s1_scale_factor * *s1++); but a much better approach would be the following: *output++ = my_scale_factor / *s1++ where my_scale_factor is initialized to 1.0 / s1->scale. Working backward from the desired inner loop to the .alg inner loop specification, a first attempt might be to specify: (INNER-LOOP "output = my_scale_factor / s1") but this will generate the following: *output++=my_scale_factor/(s1_scale_factor * *s1++); Since the code generator does not know that scaling is handled elsewhere, the scaling is done twice! The solution is to put s1 in the INTERNAL-SCALING list, which essentially means ``I've already incorporated scaling into the algorithm, so suppress the multiplication by a scale factor.'' (COMMUTATIVE (name1 name2 ...)) specifies that the results will not be affected by interchanging any of the listed arguments. When arguments are commutative, Nyquist rearranges them at run-time into decreasing order of sample rates. If interpolation is in-line, this can dramatically reduce the amount of code generated to handle all the different cases. The prime example is prod.alg. (TYPE-CHECK "code") specifies checking code to be inserted after argument type checking at initialization time. See downproto.alg for an example where a check is made to guarantee that the output sample rate is not greater than the input sample rate. Otherwise an error is raised. I.7. Generated Names The resulting .c file defines a number of procedures. The procedures that do actual sample computation are named something like name_interp-spec_FETCH, where name is the NAME attribute from the .alg file, and interp-spec is an interpolation specification composed of a string of the following letters: n, s, i, and r. One letter corresponds to each sound argument, indicating no interpolation (r), scaling only (s), ordinary linear interpolation with scaling (i), and ramp (incremental) interpolation with scaling (r). The code generator determines all the combinations of n, s, i, and r that are necessary and generates a separate fetch function for each. Another function is name_toss_fetch, which is called when sounds are not time-aligned and some initial samples must be discarded from one or more inputs. The function that creates a sound is snd_make_name. This is where state allocation and initialization takes place. The proper fetch function is selected based on the sample rates and scale factors of the sound arguments, and a sound_type is returned. Since Nyquist is a functional language, sound operations are not normally allowed to modify their arguments through side effects, but even reading samples from a sound_type causes side effects. To hide these from the Nyquist programmer, sound_type arguments are first copied (this only copies a small structure. The samples themselves are on a shared list). The function snd_name performs the necessary copies and calls snd_make_name. It is the snd_name function that is called by XLisp. The XLisp name for the function is SND-NAME. Notice that the underscore in C is converted to a dash in XLisp. Also, XLisp converts identifiers to upper case when they are read, so normally, you would type snd-name to call the function. I.8. Scalar Arguments If you want the option of passing either a number (scalar) or a signal as one of the arguments, you have two choices, neither of which is automated. Choice 1 is to coerce the constant into a signal from within XLisp. The naming convention would be to DEFUN a new function named NAME or S-NAME for ordinary use. The NAME function tests the arguments using XLisp functions such as TYPE-OF, NUMBERP, and SOUNDP. Any number is converted to a SOUND, e.g. using CONST. Then SND-NAME is called with all sound arguments. The disadvantage of this scheme is that scalars are expanded into a sample stream, which is slower than having a special inner loop where the scalar is simply kept in a register, avoiding loads, stores, and addressing overhead. Choice 2 is to generate a different sound operator for each case. The naming convention here is to append a string of c's and v's, indicating constant (scalar) or variable (signal) inputs. For example, the reson operator comes in four variations: reson, resoncv, resonvc, and resonvv. The resonvc version implements a resonating filter with a variable center frequency (a sound type) and a constant bandwidth (a FLONUM). The RESON function in Nyquist is an ordinary Lisp function that checks types and calls one of SND-RESON, SND-RESONCV, SND-RESONVC, or SND-RESONVV. Since each of these SND- functions performs further selection of implementation based on sample rates and the need for scaling, there are 25 different functions for computing RESON! So far, however, Nyquist is smaller than Common Lisp and it's about half the size of Microsoft Word. Hopefully, exponential growth in memory density will outpace linear (as a function of programming effort) growth of Nyquist. II. Open Sound Control and Nyquist Open Sound Control (OSC) is a simple protocol for communicating music control parameters between software applications and across networks. For more information, see http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/OpenSoundControl/. The Nyquist implementation of Open Sound Control is simple: an array of floats can be set by OSC messages and read by Nyquist functions. That is about all there is to it. Note: Open Sound Control must be enabled by calling osc-enable(t). If this fails under Windows, see the installation instructions in sys/win/README.txt regarding SystemRoot. To control something in (near) real-time, you need to access a slider value as if it a signal, or more properly, a Nyquist SOUND type. The function snd-slider, described in Section 7.6.1, takes a slider number and returns a SOUND type representing the current value of the slider. To fully understand this function, you need to know something about how Nyquist is actually computing sounds. Sounds are normally computed on demand. So the result returned by snd-slider does not immediately compute any samples. Samples are only computed when something tries to use this signal. At that time, the slider value is read. Normally, if the slider is used to control a sound, you will hear changes in the sound pretty soon after the slider value changes. However, one thing that can interfere with this is that SOUND samples are computed in blocks of about 1000 samples. When the slider value is read, the same value is used to fill a block of 1000 samples, so even if the sample rate is 44,100 Hz, the effective slider sample rate is 44,100/1000, or 44.1 Hz. If you give the slider a very low sample rate, say 1000, then slider value changes will only be noticed by Nyquist approximately once per second. For this reason, you should normally use the audio sample rate (typically 44,100 Hz) for the rate of the snd-slider output SOUND. (Yes, this is terribly wasteful to represent each slider value with 1000 samples, but Nyquist was not designed for low-latency computation, and this is an expedient work-around.) In addition to reading sliders as continually changing SOUNDs, you can get the slider value as a Lisp FLONUM (a floating point number) using get-slider-value, described in Section 7.6.1. This might be useful if you are computing a sequence of many notes (or other sound events) and want to apply the current slider value to the whole note or sound event. Note that if you store the value returned by snd-slider in a variable, you will capture the history of the slider changes. This will take a lot of memory, so be careful. Suppose you write a simple expression such as (hzosc (mult 1000 (snd-slider 0 ...))) (or in SAL, hzosc(1000 * snd-slider(0 ...))) to control an oscillator frequency with a slider. How long does this sound last? The duration of hzosc is the duration of the frequency control, so what is the duration of a slider? To avoid infinitely long signals, you must specify a duration as one of the parameters of snd-slider. You might be thinking, what if I just want to tell the slider when to stop? At present, you cannot do that, but in the future there should be a function that stops when its input goes to zero. Then, moving a slider to zero could end the signal (and if you multiplied a complex sound by one of these ending functions, everything in the sound would end and be garbage collected). Another thing you might want to do with interactive control is start some sound. The trigger function computes an instance of a behavior each time an input SOUND goes from zero to greater-than-zero. This could be used, for example, to create a sequence of notes. The snd-slider function has some parameters that may be unfamiliar. The second parameter, t0, is the starting time of the sound. This should normally be local-to-global(0), an expression that computes the instantiation time of the current expression. This will often be zero, but if you call snd-slider from inside a seq or seq-rep, the starting time may not be zero. The srate parameter is the sample rate to return. This should normally be the audio sample rate you are working with, which is typically *default-sound- srate*. II.1. Sending Open Sound Control Messages A variety of programs support OSC. The only OSC message interpreted by Nyquist has an address of /slider, and two parameters: an integer slider number and a float value, nominally from 0.0 to 1.0. Two small programs are included in the Nyquist distribution for sending OSC messages. (Both can be found in the same directory as the nyquist executable.) The first one, osc-test-client sends a sequence of messages that just cause slider 0 to ramp slowly up and down. If you run this on a command line, you can use "?" or "h" to get help information. There is an interactive mode that lets you send each OSC message by typing RETURN. II.2. The ser-to-osc Program The second program is ser-to-osc, a program that reads serial input (for example from a PIC-based microcontroller) and sends OSC messages. Run this command-line program from a shell (a terminal window under OS X or Linux; use the CMD program under Windows). You must name the serial input device on the command line, e.g. under OS X, you might run: ./ser-to-osc /dev/tty.usbserial-0000103D (Note that the program name is preceded by ``./". This tells the shell exactly where to find the executable program in case the current directory is not on the search path for executable programs.) Under Windows, you might run: ser-to-osc com4 (Note that you do not type ``./'' in front of a windows program.) To use ser-to-osc, you will have to find the serial device. On the Macintosh and Linux, try the following: ls /dev/*usb* This will list all serial devices with ``usb'' in their names. Probably, one will be a name similar to /dev/tty.usbserial-0000103D. The ser-to-osc program will echo data that it receives, so you should know if things are working correctly. Under Windows, open Control Panel from the Start menu, and open the System control panel. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button. Look in the device list under Ports (COM & LPT). When you plug in your serial or USB device, you should see a new entry appear, e.g. COM4. This is the device name you need. The format for the serial input is: any non-whitespace character(s), a slider number, a slider value, and a newline (control-j or ASCII 0x0A). These fields need to be separated by tabs or spaces. An optional carriage return (control-m or ASCII 0x0D) preceding the ASCII 0x0A is ignored. The slider number should be in decimal, and theh slider value is a decimal number from 0 to 255. This is scaled to the range 0.0 to 1.0 (so an input of 255 translates to 1.0). There is a simple test program in demos/osc-test.lsp you can run to try out control with Open Sound Control. There are two examples in that file. One uses snd-slider to control the frequency of an oscillator. The other uses get-slider-value to control the pitch of grains in a granular synthesis process. III. Intgen This documentation describes Intgen, a program for generating XLISP to C interfaces. Intgen works by scanning .h files with special comments in them. Intgen builds stubs that implement XLISP SUBR's. When the SUBR is called, arguments are type-checked and passed to the C routine declared in the .h file. Results are converted into the appropriate XLISP type and returned to the calling XLISP function. Intgen lets you add C functions into the XLISP environment with very little effort. The interface generator will take as command-line input: - the name of the .c file to generate (do not include the .c extension; e.g. write xlexten, not xlexten.c); - a list of .h files. Alternatively, the command line may specify a command file from which to read file names. The command file name should be preceded by "@", for example: intgen @sndfns.cl reads sndfns.cl to get the command-line input. Only one level of indirection is allowed. The output is: - a single .c file with one SUBR defined for each designated routine in a .h file. - a .h file that declares each new C routine. E.g. if the .c file is named xlexten.c, this file will be named xlextendefs.h; - a .h file that extends the SUBR table used by Xlisp. E.g. if the .c file is named xlexten.c, then this file is named xlextenptrs.h; - a .lsp file with lisp initialization expressions copied from the .h files. This file is only generated if at least one initialization expression is encountered. For example, the command line intgen seint ~setypes.h access.h generates the file seint.c, using declarations in setypes.h and access.h. Normally, the .h files are included by the generated file using #include commands. A ~ before a file means do not include the .h file. (This may be useful if you extend xlisp.h, which will be included anyway). Also generated will be setintdefs.h and seintptrs.h. III.0.1. Extending Xlisp Any number of .h files may be named on the command line to Intgen, and Intgen will make a single .c file with interface routines for all of the .h files. On the other hand, it is not necessary to put all of the extensions to Xlisp into a single interface file. For example, you can run Intgen once to build interfaces to window manager routines, and again to build interfaces to a new data type. Both interfaces can be linked into Xlisp. To use the generated files, you must compile the .c files and link them with all of the standard Xlisp object files. In addition, you must edit the file localdefs.h to contain an #include for each *defs.h file, and edit the file localptrs.h to include each *ptrs.h file. For example, suppose you run Intgen to build soundint.c, fugueint.c, and tableint.c. You would then edit localdefs.h to contain the following: #include "soundintdefs.h" #include "fugueintdefs.h" #include "tableintdefs.h" and edit localptrs.h to contain: #include "soundintptrs.h" #include "fugueintptrs.h" #include "tableintptrs.h" These localdefs.h and localptrs.h files are in turn included by xlftab.c which is where Xlisp builds a table of SUBRs. To summarize, building an interface requires just a few simple steps: - Write C code to be called by Xlisp interface routines. This C code does the real work, and in most cases is completely independent of Xlisp. - Add comments to .h files to tell Intgen which routines to build interfaces to, and to specify the types of the arguments. - Run Intgen to build interface routines. - Edit localptrs.h and localdefs.h to include generated .h files. - Compile and link Xlisp, including the new C code. III.1. Header file format Each routine to be interfaced with Xlisp must be declared as follows: type-name routine-name(); /* LISP: (func-name type type ...) */ 1 2 The comment may be on the line following the declaration, but the declaration and the comment must each be on no more than one line. The characters LISP: at the beginning of the comment mark routines to put in the interface. The comment also gives the type and number of arguments. The function, when accessed from lisp will be known as func-name, which need not bear any relationship to routine-name. By convention, underscores in the C routine-name should be converted to dashes in func-name, and func-name should be in all capitals. None of this is enforced or automated though. Legal type_names are: LVAL returns an Xlisp datum. atom_type equivalent to LVAL, but the result is expected to be an atom. value_type a value as used in Dannenberg's score editor. event_type an event as used in Dannenberg's score editor. int interface will convert int to Xlisp FIXNUM. boolean interface will convert int to T or nil. float or double interface converts to FLONUM. char * or string or string_type interface converts to STRING. The result string will be copied into the XLISP heap. void interface will return nil. It is easy to extend this list. Any unrecognized type will be coerced to an int and then returned as a FIXNUM, and a warning will be issued. The ``*'' after char must be followed by routine-name with no intervening space. Parameter types may be any of the following: FIXNUM C routine expects an int. FLONUM or FLOAT C routine expects a double. STRING C routine expects char *, the string is not copied. VALUE C routine expects a value_type. (Not applicable to Fugue.) EVENT C routine expects an event_type. (Not applicable to Fugue.) ANY C routine expects LVAL. ATOM C routine expects LVAL which is a lisp atom. FILE C routine expects FILE *. SOUND C routine expects a SoundPtr. Any of these may be followed by ``*'': FIXNUM*, FLONUM*, STRING*, ANY*, FILE*, indicating C routine expects int *, double *, char **, LVAL *, or FILE ** . This is basically a mechanism for returning more than one value, not a mechanism for clobbering XLisp values. In this spirit, the interface copies the value (an int, double, char *, LVAL, or FILE *) to a local variable and passes the address of that variable to the C routine. On return, a list of resulting ``*'' parameters is constructed and bound to the global XLisp symbol *RSLT*. (Strings are copied.) If the C routine is void, then the result list is also returned by the corresponding XLisp function. Note 1: this does not support C routines like strcpy that modify strings, because the C routine gets a pointer to the string in the XLisp heap. However, you can always add an intermediate routine that allocates space and then calls strcpy, or whatever. Note 2: it follows that a new XLisp STRING will be created for each STRING* parameter. Note 3: putting results on a (global!) symbol seems a bit unstructured, but note that one could write a multiple-value binding macro that hides this ugliness from the user if desired. In practice, I find that pulling the extra result values from *RSLT* when needed is perfectly acceptable. For parameters that are result values only, the character ``^'' may be substituted for ``*''. In this case, the parameter is not to be passed in the XLisp calling site. However, the address of an initialized local variable of the given type is passed to the corresponding C function, and the resulting value is passed back through *RSLT* as ordinary result parameter as described above. The local variables are initialized to zero or NULL. III.2. Using #define'd macros If a comment of the form: /* LISP: type-name (routine-name-2 type-1 type-2 ...) */ appears on a line by itself and there was a #define on the previous line, then the preceding #define is treated as a C routine, e.g. #define leftshift(val, count) ((val) << (count)) /* LISP: int (LOGSHIFT INT INT) */ will implement the LeLisp function LOGSHIFT. The type-name following ``LISP:'' should have no spaces, e.g. use ANY*, not ANY *. III.3. Lisp Include Files Include files often define constants that we would like to have around in the Lisp world, but which are easier to initialize just by loading a text file. Therefore, a comment of the form: /* LISP-SRC: (any lisp expression) */ will cause Intgen to open a file name.lsp and append (any lisp expression) to name.lsp, where name is the interface name passed on the command line. If none of the include files examined have comments of this form, then no name.lsp file is generated. Note: the LISP-SRC comment must be on a new line. III.4. Example This file was used for testing Intgen. It uses a trick (ok, it's a hack) to interface to a standard library macro (tolower). Since tolower is already defined, the macro ToLower is defined just to give Intgen a name to call. Two other routines, strlen and tough, are interfaced as well. /* igtest.h -- test interface for intgen */ #define ToLower(c) tolower(c) /* LISP: int (TOLOWER FIXNUM) */ int strlen(); /* LISP: (STRLEN STRING) */ void tough(); /* LISP: (TOUGH FIXNUM* FLONUM* STRING ANY FIXNUM) */ III.5. More Details Intgen has some compiler switches to enable/disable the use of certain types, including VALUE and EVENT types used by Dannenberg's score editing work, the SOUND type used by Fugue, and DEXT and SEXT types added for Dale Amon. Enabling all of these is not likely to cause problems, and the chances of an accidental use of these types getting through the compiler and linker seems very small. IV. XLISP: An Object-oriented Lisp Version 2.0 February 6, 1988 by David Michael Betz 127 Taylor Road Peterborough, NH 03458 Copyright (c) 1988, by David Michael Betz All Rights Reserved Permission is granted for unrestricted non-commercial use IV.1. Introduction XLISP is an experimental programming language combining some of the features of Common Lisp with an object-oriented extension capability. It was implemented to allow experimentation with object-oriented programming on small computers. Implementations of XLISP run on virtually every operating system. XLISP is completely written in the programming language C and is easily extended with user written built-in functions and classes. It is available in source form to non-commercial users. Many Common Lisp functions are built into XLISP. In addition, XLISP defines the objects Object and Class as primitives. Object is the only class that has no superclass and hence is the root of the class hierarchy tree. Class is the class of which all classes are instances (it is the only object that is an instance of itself). This document is a brief description of XLISP. It assumes some knowledge of LISP and some understanding of the concepts of object-oriented programming. I recommend the book Lisp by Winston and Horn and published by Addison Wesley for learning Lisp. The first edition of this book is based on MacLisp and the second edition is based on Common Lisp. You will probably also need a copy of Common Lisp: The Language by Guy L. Steele, Jr., published by Digital Press to use as a reference for some of the Common Lisp functions that are described only briefly in this document. IV.2. A Note From The Author If you have any problems with XLISP, feel free to contact me [me being David Betz - RBD] for help or advice. Please remember that since XLISP is available in source form in a high level language, many users [e.g. that Dannenberg fellow - RBD] have been making versions available on a variety of machines. If you call to report a problem with a specific version, I may not be able to help you if that version runs on a machine to which I don't have access. Please have the version number of the version that you are running readily accessible before calling me. If you find a bug in XLISP, first try to fix the bug yourself using the source code provided. If you are successful in fixing the bug, send the bug report along with the fix to me. If you don't have access to a C compiler or are unable to fix a bug, please send the bug report to me and I'll try to fix it. Any suggestions for improvements will be welcomed. Feel free to extend the language in whatever way suits your needs. However, PLEASE DO NOT RELEASE ENHANCED VERSIONS WITHOUT CHECKING WITH ME FIRST!! I would like to be the clearing house for new features added to XLISP. If you want to add features for your own personal use, go ahead. But, if you want to distribute your enhanced version, contact me first. Please remember that the goal of XLISP is to provide a language to learn and experiment with LISP and object-oriented programming on small computers. I don't want it to get so big that it requires megabytes of memory to run. IV.3. XLISP Command Loop When XLISP is started, it first tries to load the workspace xlisp.wks from the current directory. If that file doesn't exist, XLISP builds an initial workspace, empty except for the built-in functions and symbols. Then XLISP attempts to load init.lsp from the current directory. It then loads any files named as parameters on the command line (after appending .lsp to their names). XLISP then issues the following prompt: > This indicates that XLISP is waiting for an expression to be typed. When a complete expression has been entered, XLISP attempts to evaluate that expression. If the expression evaluates successfully, XLISP prints the result and then returns to the initial prompt waiting for another expression to be typed. IV.4. Special Characters When XLISP is running from a console, some control characters invoke operations: - Backspace and Delete characters erase the previous character on the input line (if any). - Control-U erases the entire input line. - Control-C executes the TOP-LEVEL function. - Control-G executes the CLEAN-UP function. - Control-P executes the CONTINUE function. - Control-B stops execution and enters the break command loop. Execution can be continued by typing Control-P or (CONTINUE). - Control-E turns on character echoing (Linux and Mac OS X only). - Control-F turns off character echoing (Linux and Mac OS X only). - Control-T evaluates the INFO function. IV.5. Break Command Loop When XLISP encounters an error while evaluating an expression, it attempts to handle the error in the following way: If the symbol *breakenable* is true, the message corresponding to the error is printed. If the error is correctable, the correction message is printed. If the symbol *tracenable* is true, a trace back is printed. The number of entries printed depends on the value of the symbol *tracelimit*. If this symbol is set to something other than a number, the entire trace back stack is printed. XLISP then enters a read/eval/print loop to allow the user to examine the state of the interpreter in the context of the error. This loop differs from the normal top-level read/eval/print loop in that if the user invokes the function continue, XLISP will continue from a correctable error. If the user invokes the function clean-up, XLISP will abort the break loop and return to the top level or the next lower numbered break loop. When in a break loop, XLISP prefixes the break level to the normal prompt. If the symbol *breakenable* is nil, XLISP looks for a surrounding errset function. If one is found, XLISP examines the value of the print flag. If this flag is true, the error message is printed. In any case, XLISP causes the errset function call to return nil. If there is no surrounding errset function, XLISP prints the error message and returns to the top level. IV.6. Data Types There are several different data types available to XLISP programmers. - lists - symbols - strings - integers - characters - floats - objects - arrays - streams - subrs (built-in functions) - fsubrs (special forms) - closures (user defined functions) IV.7. The Evaluator The process of evaluation in XLISP: - Strings, integers, characters, floats, objects, arrays, streams, subrs, fsubrs and closures evaluate to themselves. - Symbols act as variables and are evaluated by retrieving the value associated with their current binding. - Lists are evaluated by examining the first element of the list and then taking one of the following actions: * If it is a symbol, the functional binding of the symbol is retrieved. * If it is a lambda expression, a closure is constructed for the function described by the lambda expression. * If it is a subr, fsubr or closure, it stands for itself. * Any other value is an error. Then, the value produced by the previous step is examined: * If it is a subr or closure, the remaining list elements are evaluated and the subr or closure is called with these evaluated expressions as arguments. * If it is an fsubr, the fsubr is called using the remaining list elements as arguments (unevaluated). * If it is a macro, the macro is expanded using the remaining list elements as arguments (unevaluated). The macro expansion is then evaluated in place of the original macro call. IV.8. Lexical Conventions The following conventions must be followed when entering XLISP programs: Comments in XLISP code begin with a semi-colon character and continue to the end of the line. Symbol names in XLISP can consist of any sequence of non-blank printable characters except the following: ( ) ' ` , " ; Uppercase and lowercase characters are not distinguished within symbol names. All lowercase characters are mapped to uppercase on input. Integer literals consist of a sequence of digits optionally beginning with a + or -. The range of values an integer can represent is limited by the size of a C long on the machine on which XLISP is running. Floating point literals consist of a sequence of digits optionally beginning with a + or - and including an embedded decimal point. The range of values a floating point number can represent is limited by the size of a C float (double on machines with 32 bit addresses) on the machine on which XLISP is running. Literal strings are sequences of characters surrounded by double quotes. Within quoted strings the ``\'' character is used to allow non-printable characters to be included. The codes recognized are: - \\ means the character ``\'' - \n means newline - \t means tab - \r means return - \f means form feed - \nnn means the character whose octal code is nnn IV.9. Readtables The behavior of the reader is controlled by a data structure called a readtable. The reader uses the symbol *readtable* to locate the current readtable. This table controls the interpretation of input characters. It is an array with 128 entries, one for each of the ASCII character codes. Each entry contains one of the following things: - NIL M Indicating an invalid character - :CONSTITUENT M Indicating a symbol constituent - :WHITE-SPACE M Indicating a whitespace character - (:TMACRO . fun) M Terminating readmacro - (:NMACRO . fun) M Non-terminating readmacro - :SESCAPE M Single escape character ('\') - :MESCAPE M Multiple escape character ('|') In the case of :TMACRO and :NMACRO, the fun component is a function. This can either be a built-in readmacro function or a lambda expression. The function should take two parameters. The first is the input stream and the second is the character that caused the invocation of the readmacro. The readmacro function should return NIL to indicate that the character should be treated as white space or a value consed with NIL to indicate that the readmacro should be treated as an occurence of the specified value. Of course, the readmacro code is free to read additional characters from the input stream. XLISP defines several useful read macros: - ' == (quote ) - #' == (function ) - #(...) == an array of the specified expressions - #x == a hexadecimal number (0-9,A-F) - #o == an octal number (0-7) - #b == a binary number (0-1) - #\ == the ASCII code of the character - #| ... |# == a comment - #: == an uninterned symbol - ` == (backquote ) - , == (comma ) - ,@ == (comma-at ) IV.10. Lambda Lists There are several forms in XLISP that require that a ``lambda list'' be specified. A lambda list is a definition of the arguments accepted by a function. There are four different types of arguments. The lambda list starts with required arguments. Required arguments must be specified in every call to the function. The required arguments are followed by the &optional arguments. Optional arguments may be provided or omitted in a call. An initialization expression may be specified to provide a default value for an &optional argument if it is omitted from a call. If no initialization expression is specified, an omitted argument is initialized to NIL. It is also possible to provide the name of a supplied-p variable that can be used to determine if a call provided a value for the argument or if the initialization expression was used. If specified, the supplied- p variable will be bound to T if a value was specified in the call and NIL if the default value was used. The &optional arguments are followed by the &rest argument. The &rest argument gets bound to the remainder of the argument list after the required and &optional arguments have been removed. The &rest argument is followed by the &key arguments. When a keyword argument is passed to a function, a pair of values appears in the argument list. The first expression in the pair should evaluate to a keyword symbol (a symbol that begins with a ``:''). The value of the second expression is the value of the keyword argument. Like &optional arguments, &key arguments can have initialization expressions and supplied-p variables. In addition, it is possible to specify the keyword to be used in a function call. If no keyword is specified, the keyword obtained by adding a ``:'' to the beginning of the keyword argument symbol is used. In other words, if the keyword argument symbol is foo, the keyword will be :foo. The &key arguments are followed by the &aux variables. These are local variables that are bound during the evaluation of the function body. It is possible to have initialization expressions for the &aux variables. Here is the complete syntax for lambda lists: (rarg... [&optional [oarg | (oarg [init [svar]])]...] [&rest rarg] [&key [karg | ([karg | (key karg)] [init [svar]])]... &allow-other-keys] [&aux [aux | (aux [init])]...]) where: rarg is a required argument symbol oarg is an &optional argument symbol rarg is the &rest argument symbol karg is a &key argument symbol key is a keyword symbol aux is an auxiliary variable symbol init is an initialization expression svar is a supplied-p variable symbol IV.11. Objects Definitions: - selector M a symbol used to select an appropriate method - message M a selector and a list of actual arguments - method M the code that implements a message Since XLISP was created to provide a simple basis for experimenting with object-oriented programming, one of the primitive data types included is object. In XLISP, an object consists of a data structure containing a pointer to the object's class as well as an array containing the values of the object's instance variables. Officially, there is no way to see inside an object (look at the values of its instance variables). The only way to communicate with an object is by sending it a message. You can send a message to an object using the send function. This function takes the object as its first argument, the message selector as its second argument (which must be a symbol) and the message arguments as its remaining arguments. The send function determines the class of the receiving object and attempts to find a method corresponding to the message selector in the set of messages defined for that class. If the message is not found in the object's class and the class has a super-class, the search continues by looking at the messages defined for the super-class. This process continues from one super-class to the next until a method for the message is found. If no method is found, an error occurs. When a method is found, the evaluator binds the receiving object to the symbol self and evaluates the method using the remaining elements of the original list as arguments to the method. These arguments are always evaluated prior to being bound to their corresponding formal arguments. The result of evaluating the method becomes the result of the expression. Within the body of a method, a message can be sent to the current object by calling the (send self ...). The method lookup starts with the object's class regardless of the class containing the current method. Sometimes it is desirable to invoke a general method in a superclass even when it is overridden by a more specific method in a subclass. This can be accomplished by calling send-super, which begins the method lookup in the superclass of the class defining the current method rather than in the class of the current object. The send-super function takes a selector as its first argument (which must be a symbol) and the message arguments as its remaining arguments. Notice that send-super can only be sent from within a method, and the target of the message is always the current object (self). (send-super ...) is similar to (send self ...) except that method lookup begins in the superclass of the class containing the current method rather than the class of the current object. IV.12. The ``Object'' Class Object M the top of the class hierarchy. Messages: :show M show an object's instance variables. returns M the object :class M return the class of an object returns M the class of the object :isa class M test if object inherits from class returns M t if object is an instance of class or a subclass of class, otherwise nil :isnew M the default object initialization routine returns M the object IV.13. The ``Class'' Class Class M class of all object classes (including itself) Messages: :new M create a new instance of a class returns M the new class object :isnew ivars [cvars [super]] M initialize a new class ivars M the list of instance variable symbols cvars M the list of class variable symbols super M the superclass (default is object) returns M the new class object :answer msg fargs code M add a message to a class msg M the message symbol fargs M the formal argument list (lambda list) code M a list of executable expressions returns M the object When a new instance of a class is created by sending the message :new to an existing class, the message :isnew followed by whatever parameters were passed to the :new message is sent to the newly created object. When a new class is created by sending the :new message to the object Class, an optional parameter may be specified indicating the superclass of the new class. If this parameter is omitted, the new class will be a subclass of Object. A class inherits all instance variables, class variables, and methods from its super-class. IV.14. Profiling The Xlisp 2.0 release has been extended with a profiling facility, which counts how many times and where eval is executed. A separate count is maintained for each named function, closure, or macro, and a count indicates an eval in the immediately (lexically) enclosing named function, closure, or macro. Thus, the count gives an indication of the amount of time spent in a function, not counting nested function calls. The list of all functions executed is maintained on the global *profile* variable. These functions in turn have *profile* properties, which maintain the counts. The profile system merely increments counters and puts symbols on the *profile* list. It is up to the user to initialize data and gather results. Profiling is turned on or off with the profile function. Unfortunately, methods cannot be profiled with this facility. IV.15. Symbols - self M the current object (within a method context) - *obarray* M the object hash table - *standard-input* M the standard input stream - *standard-output* M the standard output stream - *error-output* M the error output stream - *trace-output* M the trace output stream - *debug-io* M the debug i/o stream - *breakenable* M flag controlling entering break loop on errors - *tracelist* M list of names of functions to trace - *tracenable* M enable trace back printout on errors - *tracelimit* M number of levels of trace back information - *evalhook* M user substitute for the evaluator function - *applyhook* M (not yet implemented) - *readtable* M the current readtable - *unbound* M indicator for unbound symbols - *gc-flag* M controls the printing of gc messages - *gc-hook* M function to call after garbage collection - *integer-format* M format for printing integers (``%d'' or ``%ld'') - *float-format* M format for printing floats (``%g'') - *print-case* M symbol output case (:upcase or :downcase) There are several symbols maintained by the read/eval/print loop. The symbols +, ++, and +++ are bound to the most recent three input expressions. The symbols *, ** and *** are bound to the most recent three results. The symbol - is bound to the expression currently being evaluated. It becomes the value of + at the end of the evaluation. IV.16. Evaluation Functions eval(expr) [SAL] (eval expr) [LISP] M evaluate an xlisp expression expr M the expression to be evaluated returns M the result of evaluating the expression apply(fun, args) [SAL] (apply fun args) [LISP] M apply a function to a list of arguments fun M the function to apply (or function symbol) args M the argument list returns M the result of applying the function to the arguments funcall(fun, arg...) [SAL] (funcall fun arg...) [LISP] M call a function with arguments fun M the function to call (or function symbol) arg M arguments to pass to the function returns M the result of calling the function with the arguments quote(expr) [SAL] (quote expr) [LISP] M return an expression unevaluated expr M the expression to be quoted (quoted) returns M expr unevaluated function(expr) [SAL] (function expr) [LISP] M get the functional interpretation expr M the symbol or lambda expression (quoted) returns M the functional interpretation backquote(expr) [SAL] (backquote expr) [LISP] M fill in a template expr M the template returns M a copy of the template with comma and comma-at expressions expanded lambda(args, expr...) [SAL] (lambda args expr...) [LISP] M make a function closure args M formal argument list (lambda list) (quoted) expr M expressions of the function body returns M the function closure get-lambda-expression(closure) [SAL] (get-lambda-expression closure) [LISP] M get the lambda expression closure M the closure returns M the original lambda expression macroexpand(form) [SAL] (macroexpand form) [LISP] M recursively expand macro calls form M the form to expand returns M the macro expansion macroexpand-1(form) [SAL] (macroexpand-1 form) [LISP] M expand a macro call form M the macro call form returns M the macro expansion IV.17. Symbol Functions set(sym, expr) [SAL] (set sym expr) [LISP] M set the value of a symbol sym M the symbol being set expr M the new value returns M the new value setq([sym, expr]...) [SAL] (setq [sym expr]...) [LISP] M set the value of a symbol sym M the symbol being set (quoted) expr M the new value returns M the new value psetq([sym, expr]...) [SAL] (psetq [sym expr]...) [LISP] M parallel version of setq sym M the symbol being set (quoted) expr M the new value returns M the new value setf([place, expr]...) [SAL] (setf [place expr]...) [LISP] M set the value of a field place M the field specifier (quoted): sym M set value of a symbol (car expr) M set car of a cons node (cdr expr) M set cdr of a cons node (nth n expr) M set nth car of a list (aref expr n) M set nth element of an array (get sym prop) M set value of a property (symbol-value sym) M set value of a symbol (symbol-function sym) M set functional value of a symbol (symbol-plist sym) M set property list of a symbol expr M the new value returns M the new value (defun sym fargs expr...) [LISP] M define a function (defmacro sym fargs expr...) [LISP] M define a macro sym M symbol being defined (quoted) fargs M formal argument list (lambda list) (quoted) expr M expressions constituting the body of the function (quoted) returns M the function symbol gensym([tag]) [SAL] (gensym [tag]) [LISP] M generate a symbol tag M string or number returns M the new symbol intern(pname) [SAL] (intern pname) [LISP] M make an interned symbol pname M the symbol's print name string returns M the new symbol make-symbol(pname) [SAL] (make-symbol pname) [LISP] M make an uninterned symbol pname M the symbol's print name string returns M the new symbol symbol-name(sym) [SAL] (symbol-name sym) [LISP] M get the print name of a symbol sym M the symbol returns M the symbol's print name symbol-value(sym) [SAL] (symbol-value sym) [LISP] M get the value of a symbol sym M the symbol returns M the symbol's value symbol-function(sym) [SAL] (symbol-function sym) [LISP] M get the functional value of a symbol sym M the symbol returns M the symbol's functional value symbol-plist(sym) [SAL] (symbol-plist sym) [LISP] M get the property list of a symbol sym M the symbol returns M the symbol's property list hash(sym, n) [SAL] (hash sym n) [LISP] M compute the hash index for a symbol sym M the symbol or string n M the table size (integer) returns M the hash index (integer) IV.18. Property List Functions get(sym, prop) [SAL] (get sym prop) [LISP] M get the value of a property sym M the symbol prop M the property symbol returns M the property value or nil putprop(sym, val, prop) [SAL] (putprop sym val prop) [LISP] M put a property onto a property list sym M the symbol val M the property value prop M the property symbol returns M the property value remprop(sym, prop) [SAL] (remprop sym prop) [LISP] M remove a property sym M the symbol prop M the property symbol returns M nil IV.19. Array Functions aref(array, n) [SAL] (aref array n) [LISP] M get the nth element of an array array M the array n M the array index (integer) returns M the value of the array element make-array(size) [SAL] (make-array size) [LISP] M make a new array size M the size of the new array (integer) returns M the new array vector(expr...) [SAL] (vector expr...) [LISP] M make an initialized vector expr M the vector elements returns M the new vector IV.20. List Functions car(expr) [SAL] (car expr) [LISP] M return the car of a list node expr M the list node returns M the car of the list node cdr(expr) [SAL] (cdr expr) [LISP] M return the cdr of a list node expr M the list node returns M the cdr of the list node cxxr(expr) [SAL] (cxxr expr) [LISP] M all cxxr combinations cxxxr(expr) [SAL] (cxxxr expr) [LISP] M all cxxxr combinations cxxxxr(expr) [SAL] (cxxxxr expr) [LISP] M all cxxxxr combinations first(expr) [SAL] (first expr) [LISP] M a synonym for car second(expr) [SAL] (second expr) [LISP] M a synonym for cadr third(expr) [SAL] (third expr) [LISP] M a synonym for caddr fourth(expr) [SAL] (fourth expr) [LISP] M a synonym for cadddr rest(expr) [SAL] (rest expr) [LISP] M a synonym for cdr cons(expr1, expr2) [SAL] (cons expr1 expr2) [LISP] M construct a new list node expr1 M the car of the new list node expr2 M the cdr of the new list node returns M the new list node list(expr...) [SAL] (list expr...) [LISP] M create a list of values expr M expressions to be combined into a list returns M the new list append(expr...) [SAL] (append expr...) [LISP] M append lists expr M lists whose elements are to be appended returns M the new list reverse(expr) [SAL] (reverse expr) [LISP] M reverse a list expr M the list to reverse returns M a new list in the reverse order last(list) [SAL] (last list) [LISP] M return the last list node of a list list M the list returns M the last list node in the list member(expr, list, test: test, test-not: test-not) [SAL] (member expr list &key :test :test-not) [LISP] M find an expression in a list expr M the expression to find list M the list to search :test M the test function (defaults to eql) :test-not M the test function (sense inverted) returns M the remainder of the list starting with the expression assoc(expr, alist, test: test, test-not: test-not) [SAL] (assoc expr alist &key :test :test-not) [LISP] M find an expression in an a-list expr M the expression to find alist M the association list :test M the test function (defaults to eql) :test-not M the test function (sense inverted) returns M the alist entry or nil remove(expr, list, test: test, test-not: test-not) [SAL] (remove expr list &key :test :test-not) [LISP] M remove elements from a list expr M the element to remove list M the list :test M the test function (defaults to eql) :test-not M the test function (sense inverted) returns M copy of list with matching expressions removed remove-if(test, list) [SAL] (remove-if test list) [LISP] M remove elements that pass test test M the test predicate list M the list returns M copy of list with matching elements removed remove-if-not(test, list) [SAL] (remove-if-not test list) [LISP] M remove elements that fail test test M the test predicate list M the list returns M copy of list with non-matching elements removed length(expr) [SAL] (length expr) [LISP] M find the length of a list, vector or string expr M the list, vector or string returns M the length of the list, vector or string nth(n, list) [SAL] (nth n list) [LISP] M return the nth element of a list n M the number of the element to return (zero origin) list M the list returns M the nth element or nil if the list isn't that long nthcdr(n, list) [SAL] (nthcdr n list) [LISP] M return the nth cdr of a list n M the number of the element to return (zero origin) list M the list returns M the nth cdr or nil if the list isn't that long mapc(fcn, list1, list...) [SAL] (mapc fcn list1 list...) [LISP] M apply function to successive cars fcn M the function or function name listn M a list for each argument of the function returns M the first list of arguments mapcar(fcn, list1, list...) [SAL] (mapcar fcn list1 list...) [LISP] M apply function to successive cars fcn M the function or function name listn M a list for each argument of the function returns M a list of the values returned mapl(fcn, list1, list...) [SAL] (mapl fcn list1 list...) [LISP] M apply function to successive cdrs fcn M the function or function name listn M a list for each argument of the function returns M the first list of arguments maplist(fcn, list1, list...) [SAL] (maplist fcn list1 list...) [LISP] M apply function to successive cdrs fcn M the function or function name listn M a list for each argument of the function returns M a list of the values returned subst(to, from, expr, test: test, test-not: test-not) [SAL] (subst to from expr &key :test :test-not) [LISP] M substitute expressions to M the new expression from M the old expression expr M the expression in which to do the substitutions :test M the test function (defaults to eql) :test-not M the test function (sense inverted) returns M the expression with substitutions sublis(alist, expr, test: test, test-not: test-not) [SAL] (sublis alist expr &key :test :test-not) [LISP] M substitute with an a-list alist M the association list expr M the expression in which to do the substitutions :test M the test function (defaults to eql) :test-not M the test function (sense inverted) returns M the expression with substitutions IV.21. Destructive List Functions rplaca(list, expr) [SAL] (rplaca list expr) [LISP] M replace the car of a list node list M the list node expr M the new value for the car of the list node returns M the list node after updating the car rplacd(list, expr) [SAL] (rplacd list expr) [LISP] M replace the cdr of a list node list M the list node expr M the new value for the cdr of the list node returns M the list node after updating the cdr nconc(list...) [SAL] (nconc list...) [LISP] M destructively concatenate lists list M lists to concatenate returns M the result of concatenating the lists delete(expr, test: test, test-not: test-not) [SAL] (delete expr &key :test :test-not) [LISP] M delete elements from a list expr M the element to delete list M the list :test M the test function (defaults to eql) :test-not M the test function (sense inverted) returns M the list with the matching expressions deleted delete-if(test, list) [SAL] (delete-if test list) [LISP] M delete elements that pass test test M the test predicate list M the list returns M the list with matching elements deleted delete-if-not(test, list) [SAL] (delete-if-not test list) [LISP] M delete elements that fail test test M the test predicate list M the list returns M the list with non-matching elements deleted sort(list, test) [SAL] (sort list test) [LISP] M sort a list list M the list to sort test M the comparison function returns M the sorted list IV.22. Predicate Functions atom(expr) [SAL] (atom expr) [LISP] M is this an atom? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the value is an atom, nil otherwise symbolp(expr) [SAL] (symbolp expr) [LISP] M is this a symbol? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the expression is a symbol, nil otherwise numberp(expr) [SAL] (numberp expr) [LISP] M is this a number? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the expression is a number, nil otherwise null(expr) [SAL] (null expr) [LISP] M is this an empty list? expr M the list to check returns M t if the list is empty, nil otherwise not(expr) [SAL] (not expr) [LISP] M is this false? expr M the expression to check return M t if the value is nil, nil otherwise listp(expr) [SAL] (listp expr) [LISP] M is this a list? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the value is a cons or nil, nil otherwise endp(list) [SAL] (endp list) [LISP] M is this the end of a list list M the list returns M t if the value is nil, nil otherwise consp(expr) [SAL] (consp expr) [LISP] M is this a non-empty list? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the value is a cons, nil otherwise integerp(expr) [SAL] (integerp expr) [LISP] M is this an integer? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the value is an integer, nil otherwise floatp(expr) [SAL] (floatp expr) [LISP] M is this a float? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the value is a float, nil otherwise stringp(expr) [SAL] (stringp expr) [LISP] M is this a string? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the value is a string, nil otherwise characterp(expr) [SAL] (characterp expr) [LISP] M is this a character? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the value is a character, nil otherwise arrayp(expr) [SAL] (arrayp expr) [LISP] M is this an array? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the value is an array, nil otherwise streamp(expr) [SAL] (streamp expr) [LISP] M is this a stream? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the value is a stream, nil otherwise objectp(expr) [SAL] (objectp expr) [LISP] M is this an object? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the value is an object, nil otherwise filep(expr) [SAL] (filep expr) [LISP](This is not part of standard XLISP nor is it built-in. Nyquist defines it though.) M is this a file? expr M the expression to check returns M t if the value is an object, nil otherwise boundp(sym) [SAL] (boundp sym) [LISP] M is a value bound to this symbol? sym M the symbol returns M t if a value is bound to the symbol, nil otherwise fboundp(sym) [SAL] (fboundp sym) [LISP] M is a functional value bound to this symbol? sym M the symbol returns M t if a functional value is bound to the symbol, nil otherwise minusp(expr) [SAL] (minusp expr) [LISP] M is this number negative? expr M the number to test returns M t if the number is negative, nil otherwise zerop(expr) [SAL] (zerop expr) [LISP] M is this number zero? expr M the number to test returns M t if the number is zero, nil otherwise plusp(expr) [SAL] (plusp expr) [LISP] M is this number positive? expr M the number to test returns M t if the number is positive, nil otherwise evenp(expr) [SAL] (evenp expr) [LISP] M is this integer even? expr M the integer to test returns M t if the integer is even, nil otherwise oddp(expr) [SAL] (oddp expr) [LISP] M is this integer odd? expr M the integer to test returns M t if the integer is odd, nil otherwise eq(expr1, expr2) [SAL] (eq expr1 expr2) [LISP] M are the expressions identical? expr1 M the first expression expr2 M the second expression returns M t if they are equal, nil otherwise eql(expr1, expr2) [SAL] (eql expr1 expr2) [LISP] M are the expressions identical? (works with all numbers) expr1 M the first expression expr2 M the second expression returns M t if they are equal, nil otherwise equal(expr1, expr2) [SAL] (equal expr1 expr2) [LISP] M are the expressions equal? expr1 M the first expression expr2 M the second expression returns M t if they are equal, nil otherwise IV.23. Control Constructs (cond pair...) [LISP] M evaluate conditionally pair M pair consisting of: (pred expr...) where: pred M is a predicate expression expr M evaluated if the predicate is not nil returns M the value of the first expression whose predicate is not nil and(expr...) [SAL] (and expr...) [LISP] M the logical and of a list of expressions expr M the expressions to be anded returns M nil if any expression evaluates to nil, otherwise the value of the last expression (evaluation of expressions stops after the first expression that evaluates to nil) or(expr...) [SAL] (or expr...) [LISP] M the logical or of a list of expressions expr M the expressions to be ored returns M nil if all expressions evaluate to nil, otherwise the value of the first non-nil expression (evaluation of expressions stops after the first expression that does not evaluate to nil) if(texpr, expr1 [, expr2]) [SAL] (if texpr expr1 [expr2]) [LISP] M evaluate expressions conditionally texpr M the test expression expr1 M the expression to be evaluated if texpr is non-nil expr2 M the expression to be evaluated if texpr is nil returns M the value of the selected expression when(texpr, expr...) [SAL] (when texpr expr...) [LISP] M evaluate only when a condition is true texpr M the test expression expr M the expression(s) to be evaluated if texpr is non-nil returns M the value of the last expression or nil unless(texpr, expr...) [SAL] (unless texpr expr...) [LISP] M evaluate only when a condition is false texpr M the test expression expr M the expression(s) to be evaluated if texpr is nil returns M the value of the last expression or nil (case expr case...) [LISP] M select by case expr M the selection expression case M pair consisting of: (value expr...) where: value M is a single expression or a list of expressions (unevaluated) expr M are expressions to execute if the case matches returns M the value of the last expression of the matching case (let (binding...) expr...) [LISP] M create local bindings (let* (binding...) expr...) [LISP] M let with sequential binding binding M the variable bindings each of which is either: 1) a symbol (which is initialized to nil) 2) a list whose car is a symbol and whose cadr is an initialization expression expr M the expressions to be evaluated returns M the value of the last expression (flet (binding...) expr...) [LISP] M create local functions (labels (binding...) expr...) [LISP] M flet with recursive functions (macrolet (binding...) expr...) [LISP] M create local macros binding M the function bindings each of which is: (sym fargs expr...) where: sym M the function/macro name fargs M formal argument list (lambda list) expr M expressions constituting the body of the function/macro expr M the expressions to be evaluated returns M the value of the last expression catch(sym, expr...) [SAL] (catch sym expr...) [LISP] M evaluate expressions and catch throws sym M the catch tag expr M expressions to evaluate returns M the value of the last expression the throw expression throw(sym [, expr]) [SAL] (throw sym [expr]) [LISP] M throw to a catch sym M the catch tag expr M the value for the catch to return (defaults to nil) returns M never returns unwind-protect(expr, cexpr...) [SAL] (unwind-protect expr cexpr...) [LISP] M protect evaluation of an expression expr M the expression to protect cexpr M the cleanup expressions returns M the value of the expression Note: unwind-protect guarantees to execute the cleanup expressions even if a non-local exit terminates the evaluation of the protected expression IV.24. Looping Constructs (loop expr...) [LISP] M basic looping form expr M the body of the loop returns M never returns (must use non-local exit) (do (binding...) (texpr rexpr...) expr...) [LISP] (do* (binding...) (texpr rexpr...) expr...) [LISP] binding M the variable bindings each of which is either: 1) a symbol (which is initialized to nil) 2) a list of the form: (sym init [step]) where: sym M is the symbol to bind init M is the initial value of the symbol step M is a step expression texpr M the termination test expression rexpr M result expressions (the default is nil) expr M the body of the loop (treated like an implicit prog) returns M the value of the last result expression (dolist (sym expr [rexpr]) expr...) [LISP] M loop through a list sym M the symbol to bind to each list element expr M the list expression rexpr M the result expression (the default is nil) expr M the body of the loop (treated like an implicit prog) (dotimes (sym expr [rexpr]) expr...) [LISP] M loop from zero to n-1 sym M the symbol to bind to each value from 0 to n-1 expr M the number of times to loop rexpr M the result expression (the default is nil) expr M the body of the loop (treated like an implicit prog) IV.25. The Program Feature (prog (binding...) expr...) [LISP] M the program feature (prog* (binding...) expr...) [LISP] M prog with sequential binding binding M the variable bindings each of which is either: 1) a symbol (which is initialized to nil) 2) a list whose car is a symbol and whose cadr is an initialization expression expr M expressions to evaluate or tags (symbols) returns M nil or the argument passed to the return function block(name, expr...) [SAL] (block name expr...) [LISP] M named block name M the block name (symbol) expr M the block body returns M the value of the last expression (return [expr]) [LISP] M cause a prog construct to return a value expr M the value (defaults to nil) returns M never returns return-from(name [, value]) [SAL] (return-from name [value]) [LISP] M return from a named block name M the block name (symbol) value M the value to return (defaults to nil) returns M never returns tagbody(expr...) [SAL] (tagbody expr...) [LISP] M block with labels expr M expression(s) to evaluate or tags (symbols) returns M nil go(sym) [SAL] (go sym) [LISP] M go to a tag within a tagbody or prog sym M the tag (quoted) returns M never returns (progv slist vlist expr...) [LISP] M dynamically bind symbols slist M list of symbols vlist M list of values to bind to the symbols expr M expression(s) to evaluate returns M the value of the last expression prog1(expr1, expr...) [SAL] (prog1 expr1 expr...) [LISP] M execute expressions sequentially expr1 M the first expression to evaluate expr M the remaining expressions to evaluate returns M the value of the first expression prog2(expr1, expr2, expr...) [SAL] (prog2 expr1 expr2 expr...) [LISP] M execute expressions sequentially expr1 M the first expression to evaluate expr2 M the second expression to evaluate expr M the remaining expressions to evaluate returns M the value of the second expression progn(expr...) [SAL] (progn expr...) [LISP] M execute expressions sequentially expr M the expressions to evaluate returns M the value of the last expression (or nil) IV.26. Debugging and Error Handling trace(sym) [SAL] (trace sym) [LISP] M add a function to the trace list sym M the function to add (quoted) returns M the trace list untrace(sym) [SAL] (untrace sym) [LISP] M remove a function from the trace list sym M the function to remove (quoted) returns M the trace list error(emsg [, arg]) [SAL] (error emsg [arg]) [LISP] M signal a non-correctable error emsg M the error message string arg M the argument expression (printed after the message) returns M never returns cerror(cmsg, emsg [, arg]) [SAL] (cerror cmsg emsg [arg]) [LISP] M signal a correctable error cmsg M the continue message string emsg M the error message string arg M the argument expression (printed after the message) returns M nil when continued from the break loop break([bmsg [, arg]]) [SAL] (break [bmsg [arg]]) [LISP] M enter a break loop bmsg M the break message string (defaults to **break**) arg M the argument expression (printed after the message) returns M nil when continued from the break loop (clean-up) [LISP] M clean-up after an error returns M never returns (top-level) [LISP] M clean-up after an error and return to the top level returns M never returns (continue) [LISP] M continue from a correctable error returns M never returns (errset expr [pflag]) [LISP] M trap errors expr M the expression to execute pflag M flag to control printing of the error message returns M the value of the last expression consed with nil or nil on error (baktrace [n]) [LISP] M print n levels of trace back information n M the number of levels (defaults to all levels) returns M nil (evalhook expr ehook ahook [env]) [LISP] M evaluate with hooks expr M the expression to evaluate ehook M the value for *evalhook* ahook M the value for *applyhook* env M the environment (default is nil) returns M the result of evaluating the expression profile(flag) [SAL] (profile flag) [LISP](This is not a standard XLISP 2.0 function.) M turn profiling on or off. flag M nil turns profiling off, otherwise on returns M the previous state of profiling. IV.27. Arithmetic Functions truncate(expr) [SAL] (truncate expr) [LISP] M truncates a floating point number to an integer expr M the number returns M the result of truncating the number float(expr) [SAL] (float expr) [LISP] M converts an integer to a floating point number expr M the number returns M the result of floating the integer (+ expr...) [LISP] M add a list of numbers expr M the numbers returns M the result of the addition (- expr...) [LISP] M subtract a list of numbers or negate a single number expr M the numbers returns M the result of the subtraction (* expr...) [LISP] M multiply a list of numbers expr M the numbers returns M the result of the multiplication (/ expr...) [LISP] M divide a list of numbers expr M the numbers returns M the result of the division (1+ expr) [LISP] M add one to a number expr M the number returns M the number plus one (1- expr) [LISP] M subtract one from a number expr M the number returns M the number minus one rem(expr...) [SAL] (rem function) expr...) [LISP] M remainder of a list of numbers expr M the numbers returns M the result of the remainder operation min(expr...) [SAL] (min expr...) [LISP] M the smallest of a list of numbers expr M the expressions to be checked returns M the smallest number in the list max(expr...) [SAL] (max expr...) [LISP] M the largest of a list of numbers expr M the expressions to be checked returns M the largest number in the list abs(expr) [SAL] (abs expr) [LISP] M the absolute value of a number expr M the number returns M the absolute value of the number gcd(n1, n2...) [SAL] (gcd n1 n2...) [LISP] M compute the greatest common divisor n1 M the first number (integer) n2 M the second number(s) (integer) returns M the greatest common divisor random(n) [SAL] (random n) [LISP] M compute a random number between 0 and |n|-1 inclusive. If n is 0, return 0. n M the upper bound (integer) returns M a random number rrandom() [SAL] (rrandom) [LISP] M compute a random real number between 0 and 1 inclusive returns M a random floating point number sin(expr) [SAL] (sin expr) [LISP] M compute the sine of a number expr M the floating point number returns M the sine of the number cos(expr) [SAL] (cos expr) [LISP] M compute the cosine of a number expr M the floating point number returns M the cosine of the number tan(expr) [SAL] (tan expr) [LISP] M compute the tangent of a number expr M the floating point number returns M the tangent of the number atan(expr [, expr2]) [SAL] (atan expr [expr2]) [LISP](This is not a standard XLISP 2.0 function.) M compute the arctangent expr M the value of x expr2 M the value of y (default value is 1.0) returns M the arctangent of x/y expt(x-expr, y-expr) [SAL] (expt x-expr y-expr) [LISP] M compute x to the y power x-expr M the floating point number y-expr M the floating point exponent returns M x to the y power exp(x-expr) [SAL] (exp x-expr) [LISP] M compute e to the x power x-expr M the floating point number returns M e to the x power sqrt(expr) [SAL] (sqrt expr) [LISP] M compute the square root of a number expr M the floating point number returns M the square root of the number (< n1 n2...) [LISP] M test for less than (<= n1 n2...) [LISP] M test for less than or equal to (= n1 n2...) [LISP] M test for equal to (/= n1 n2...) [LISP] M test for not equal to (>= n1 n2...) [LISP] M test for greater than or equal to (> n1 n2...) [LISP] M test for greater than n1 M the first number to compare n2 M the second number to compare returns M t if the results of comparing n1 with n2, n2 with n3, etc., are all true. IV.28. Bitwise Logical Functions logand(expr...) [SAL] (logand expr...) [LISP] M the bitwise and of a list of numbers expr M the numbers returns M the result of the and operation logior(expr...) [SAL] (logior expr...) [LISP] M the bitwise inclusive or of a list of numbers expr M the numbers returns M the result of the inclusive or operation logxor(expr...) [SAL] (logxor expr...) [LISP] M the bitwise exclusive or of a list of numbers expr M the numbers returns M the result of the exclusive or operation lognot(expr) [SAL] (lognot expr) [LISP] M the bitwise not of a number expr M the number returns M the bitwise inversion of number IV.29. String Functions string(expr) [SAL] (string expr) [LISP] M make a string from a value expr M an integer (which is first converted into its ASCII character value), string, character, or symbol returns M the string representation of the argument string-search(pat, str, start: start, end: end) [SAL] (string-search pat str &key :start :end) [LISP](This is not a standard XLISP 2.0 function.) M search for pattern in string pat M a string to search for str M the string to be searched :start M the starting offset in str :end M the ending offset + 1 returns M index of pat in str or NIL if not found string-trim(bag, str) [SAL] (string-trim bag str) [LISP] M trim both ends of a string bag M a string containing characters to trim str M the string to trim returns M a trimed copy of the string string-left-trim(bag, str) [SAL] (string-left-trim bag str) [LISP] M trim the left end of a string bag M a string containing characters to trim str M the string to trim returns M a trimed copy of the string string-right-trim(bag, str) [SAL] (string-right-trim bag str) [LISP] M trim the right end of a string bag M a string containing characters to trim str M the string to trim returns M a trimed copy of the string string-upcase(str, start: start, end: end) [SAL] (string-upcase str &key :start :end) [LISP] M convert to uppercase str M the string :start M the starting offset :end M the ending offset + 1 returns M a converted copy of the string string-downcase(str, start: start, end: end) [SAL] (string-downcase str &key :start :end) [LISP] M convert to lowercase str M the string :start M the starting offset :end M the ending offset + 1 returns M a converted copy of the string nstring-upcase(str, start: start, end: end) [SAL] (nstring-upcase str &key :start :end) [LISP] M convert to uppercase str M the string :start M the starting offset :end M the ending offset + 1 returns M the converted string (not a copy) nstring-downcase(str, start: start, end: end) [SAL] (nstring-downcase str &key :start :end) [LISP] M convert to lowercase str M the string :start M the starting offset :end M the ending offset + 1 returns M the converted string (not a copy) strcat(expr...) [SAL] (strcat expr...) [LISP] M concatenate strings expr M the strings to concatenate returns M the result of concatenating the strings subseq(string, start [, end]) [SAL] (subseq string start [end]) [LISP] M extract a substring string M the string start M the starting position (zero origin) end M the ending position + 1 (defaults to end) returns M substring between start and end string<(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string< str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] string<=(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string<= str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] string=(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string= str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] string/=(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string/= str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] string>=(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string>= str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] string>(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string> str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] str1 M the first string to compare str2 M the second string to compare :start1 M first substring starting offset :end1 M first substring ending offset + 1 :start2 M second substring starting offset :end2 M second substring ending offset + 1 returns M t if predicate is true, nil otherwise Note: case is significant with these comparison functions. string-lessp(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string-lessp str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] string-not-greaterp(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string-not-greaterp str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] string-equal(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string-equal str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] string-not-equal(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string-not-equal str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] string-not-lessp(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string-not-lessp str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] string-greaterp(str1, str2, start1: start1, end1: end1, start2: start2, end2: end2) [SAL] (string-greaterp str1 str2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2) [LISP] str1 M the first string to compare str2 M the second string to compare :start1 M first substring starting offset :end1 M first substring ending offset + 1 :start2 M second substring starting offset :end2 M second substring ending offset + 1 returns M t if predicate is true, nil otherwise Note: case is not significant with these comparison functions. IV.30. Character Functions char(string, index) [SAL] (char string index) [LISP] M extract a character from a string string M the string index M the string index (zero relative) returns M the ascii code of the character upper-case-p(chr) [SAL] (upper-case-p chr) [LISP] M is this an upper case character? chr M the character returns M t if the character is upper case, nil otherwise lower-case-p(chr) [SAL] (lower-case-p chr) [LISP] M is this a lower case character? chr M the character returns M t if the character is lower case, nil otherwise both-case-p(chr) [SAL] (both-case-p chr) [LISP] M is this an alphabetic (either case) character? chr M the character returns M t if the character is alphabetic, nil otherwise digit-char-p(chr) [SAL] (digit-char-p chr) [LISP] M is this a digit character? chr M the character returns M the digit weight if character is a digit, nil otherwise char-code(chr) [SAL] (char-code chr) [LISP] M get the ascii code of a character chr M the character returns M the ascii character code (integer) code-char(code) [SAL] (code-char code) [LISP] M get the character with a specified ascii code code M the ascii code (integer) returns M the character with that code or nil char-upcase(chr) [SAL] (char-upcase chr) [LISP] M convert a character to upper case chr M the character returns M the upper case character char-downcase(chr) [SAL] (char-downcase chr) [LISP] M convert a character to lower case chr M the character returns M the lower case character digit-char(n) [SAL] (digit-char n) [LISP] M convert a digit weight to a digit n M the digit weight (integer) returns M the digit character or nil char-int(chr) [SAL] (char-int chr) [LISP] M convert a character to an integer chr M the character returns M the ascii character code int-char(int) [SAL] (int-char int) [LISP] M convert an integer to a character int M the ascii character code returns M the character with that code char<(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char< chr1 chr2...) [LISP] char<=(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char<= chr1 chr2...) [LISP] char=(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char= chr1 chr2...) [LISP] char/=(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char/= chr1 chr2...) [LISP] char>=(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char>= chr1 chr2...) [LISP] char>(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char> chr1 chr2...) [LISP] chr1 M the first character to compare chr2 M the second character(s) to compare returns M t if predicate is true, nil otherwise Note: case is significant with these comparison functions. char-lessp(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char-lessp chr1 chr2...) [LISP] char-not-greaterp(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char-not-greaterp chr1 chr2...) [LISP] char-equal(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char-equal chr1 chr2...) [LISP] char-not-equal(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char-not-equal chr1 chr2...) [LISP] char-not-lessp(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char-not-lessp chr1 chr2...) [LISP] char-greaterp(chr1, chr2...) [SAL] (char-greaterp chr1 chr2...) [LISP] chr1 M the first string to compare chr2 M the second string(s) to compare returns M t if predicate is true, nil otherwise Note: case is not significant with these comparison functions. IV.31. Input/Output Functions read([stream [, eof [, rflag]]]) [SAL] (read [stream [eof [rflag]]]) [LISP] M read an expression stream M the input stream (default is standard input) eof M the value to return on end of file (default is nil) rflag M recursive read flag (default is nil) returns M the expression read (print expr [stream]) [LISP] M print an expression on a new line expr M the expression to be printed stream M the output stream (default is standard output) returns M the expression prin1(expr [, stream]) [SAL] (prin1 expr [stream]) [LISP] M print an expression expr M the expression to be printed stream M the output stream (default is standard output) returns M the expression princ(expr [, stream]) [SAL] (princ expr [stream]) [LISP] M print an expression without quoting expr M the expressions to be printed stream M the output stream (default is standard output) returns M the expression pprint(expr [, stream]) [SAL] (pprint expr [stream]) [LISP] M pretty print an expression expr M the expressions to be printed stream M the output stream (default is standard output) returns M the expression terpri([stream]) [SAL] (terpri [stream]) [LISP] M terminate the current print line stream M the output stream (default is standard output) returns M nil flatsize(expr) [SAL] (flatsize expr) [LISP] M length of printed representation using prin1 expr M the expression returns M the length flatc(expr) [SAL] (flatc expr) [LISP] M length of printed representation using princ expr M the expression returns M the length IV.32. The Format Function format(stream, fmt, arg...) [SAL] (format stream fmt arg...) [LISP] M do formated output stream M the output stream fmt M the format string arg M the format arguments returns M output string if stream is nil, nil otherwise The format string can contain characters that should be copied directly to the output and formatting directives. The formatting directives are: ~A M print next argument using princ ~S M print next argument using prin1 ~% M start a new line ~~ M print a tilde character ~ M ignore this one newline and white space on the next line up to the first non-white-space character or newline. This allows strings to continue across multiple lines IV.33. File I/O Functions Note that files are ordinarily opened as text. Binary files (such as standard midi files) must be opened with open-binary on non-unix systems. open(fname, direction: direction) [SAL] (open fname &key :direction) [LISP] M open a file stream fname M the file name string or symbol :direction M :input or :output (default is :input) returns M a stream open-binary(fname, direction: direction) [SAL] (open-binary fname &key :direction) [LISP] M open a binary file stream fname M the file name string or symbol :direction M :input or :output (default is :input) returns M a stream close(stream) [SAL] (close stream) [LISP] M close a file stream stream M the stream returns M nil setdir(path [, verbose]) [SAL] (setdir path [verbose]) [LISP](This is not a standard XLISP 2.0 function.) M set current directory path M the path of the new directory verbose M print error message if current directory cannot be changed to path returns M the resulting full path, e.g. (setdir ".") gets the current working directory, or nil if an error occurs listdir(path) [SAL] (listdir path) [LISP](This is not a standard XLISP 2.0 function.) M get a directory listing path M the path of the directory to be listed returns M list of filenames in the directory get-temp-path() [SAL] (get-temp-path) [LISP](This is not a standard XLISP 2.0 function.) M get a path where a temporary file can be created. Under Windows, this is based on environment variables. If XLISP is running as a sub-process to Java, the environment may not exist, in which case the default result is the unfortunate choice c:\windows\. returns M the resulting full path as a string get-user() [SAL] (get-user) [LISP](This is not a standard XLISP 2.0 function.) M get the user ID. In Unix systems (including OS X and Linux), this is the value of the USER environment variable. In Windows, this is currently just ``nyquist'', which is also returned if the environment variable cannot be accessed. This function is used to avoid the case of two users creating files of the same name in the same temp directory. returns M the string naming the user find-in-xlisp-path(filename) [SAL] (find-in-xlisp-path filename) [LISP](This is not a standard XLISP 2.0 function.) M search the XLISP search path (e.g. XLISPPATH from the environment) for filename. If filename is not found as is, and there is no file extension, append ".lsp" to filename and search again. The current directory is not searched. filename M the name of the file to search for returns M a full path name to the first occurrence found read-char([stream]) [SAL] (read-char [stream]) [LISP] M read a character from a stream stream M the input stream (default is standard input) returns M the character peek-char([flag [, stream]]) [SAL] (peek-char [flag [stream]]) [LISP] M peek at the next character flag M flag for skipping white space (default is nil) stream M the input stream (default is standard input) returns M the character (integer) write-char(ch [, stream]) [SAL] (write-char ch [stream]) [LISP] M write a character to a stream ch M the character to write stream M the output stream (default is standard output) returns M the character read-int([stream [, length]]) [SAL] (read-int [stream [length]]) [LISP] M read a binary integer from a stream stream M the input stream (default is standard input) length M the length of the integer in bytes (default is 4) returns M the integer Note: Integers are assumed to be big-endian (high-order byte first) and signed, regardless of the platform. To read little-endian format, use a negative number for the length, e.g. -4 indicates a 4-bytes, low-order byte first. The file should be opened in binary mode. write-int(ch [, stream [, length]]) [SAL] (write-int ch [stream [length]]) [LISP] M write a binary integer to a stream ch M the character to write stream M the output stream (default is standard output) length M the length of the integer in bytes (default is 4) returns M the integer Note: Integers are assumed to be big-endian (high-order byte first) and signed, regardless of the platform. To write in little-endian format, use a negative number for the length, e.g. -4 indicates a 4-bytes, low-order byte first. The file should be opened in binary mode. read-float([stream [, length]]) [SAL] (read-float [stream [length]]) [LISP] M read a binary floating-point number from a stream stream M the input stream (default is standard input) length M the length of the float in bytes (default is 4, legal values are -4, -8, 4, and 8) returns M the integer Note: Floats are assumed to be big-endian (high-order byte first) and signed, regardless of the platform. To read little-endian format, use a negative number for the length, e.g. -4 indicates a 4-bytes, low-order byte first. The file should be opened in binary mode. write-float(ch [, stream [, length]]) [SAL] (write-float ch [stream [length]]) [LISP] M write a binary floating-point number to a stream ch M the character to write stream M the output stream (default is standard output) length M the length of the float in bytes (default is 4, legal values are -4, -8, 4, and 8) returns M the integer Note: Floats are assumed to be big-endian (high-order byte first) and signed, regardless of the platform. To write in little-endian format, use a negative number for the length, e.g. -4 indicates a 4-bytes, low-order byte first. The file should be opened in binary mode. read-line([stream]) [SAL] (read-line [stream]) [LISP] M read a line from a stream stream M the input stream (default is standard input) returns M the string read-byte([stream]) [SAL] (read-byte [stream]) [LISP] M read a byte from a stream stream M the input stream (default is standard input) returns M the byte (integer) write-byte(byte [, stream]) [SAL] (write-byte byte [stream]) [LISP] M write a byte to a stream byte M the byte to write (integer) stream M the output stream (default is standard output) returns M the byte (integer) IV.34. String Stream Functions These functions operate on unnamed streams. An unnamed output stream collects characters sent to it when it is used as the destination of any output function. The functions get-output-stream-string and get-output-stream-list return a string or a list of characters. An unnamed input stream is setup with the make-string-input-stream function and returns each character of the string when it is used as the source of any input function. make-string-input-stream(str [, start [, end]]) [SAL] (make-string-input-stream str [start [end]]) [LISP] str M the string start M the starting offset end M the ending offset + 1 returns M an unnamed stream that reads from the string make-string-output-stream)() [SAL] (make-string-output-stream) [LISP] returns M an unnamed output stream get-output-stream-string(stream) [SAL] (get-output-stream-string stream) [LISP] stream M the output stream returns M the output so far as a string Note: the output stream is emptied by this function get-output-stream-list(stream) [SAL] (get-output-stream-list stream) [LISP] stream M the output stream returns M the output so far as a list Note: the output stream is emptied by this function IV.35. System Functions Note: the load function first tries to load a file from the current directory. A .lsp extension is added if there is not already an alphanumeric extension following a period. If that fails, XLISP searches the path, which is obtained from the XLISPPATH environment variable in Unix and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CMU\Nyquist\XLISPPATH under Win32. (The Macintosh version has no search path.) get-env(name) [SAL] (get-env name) [LISP] M get from an environment variable name M the name of the environment variable returns M string value of the environment variable, nil if variable does not exist (load fname &key :verbose :print) [LISP] M load a source file fname M the filename string or symbol :verbose M the verbose flag (default is t) :print M the print flag (default is nil) returns M the filename save(fname) [SAL] (save fname) [LISP] M save workspace to a file fname M the filename string or symbol returns M t if workspace was written, nil otherwise restore(fname) [SAL] (restore fname) [LISP] M restore workspace from a file fname M the filename string or symbol returns M nil on failure, otherwise never returns dribble([fname]) [SAL] (dribble [fname]) [LISP] M create a file with a transcript of a session fname M file name string or symbol (if missing, close current transcript) returns M t if the transcript is opened, nil if it is closed gc() [SAL] (gc) [LISP] M force garbage collection returns M nil expand(num) [SAL] (expand num) [LISP] M expand memory by adding segments num M the number of segments to add returns M the number of segments added alloc(num) [SAL] (alloc num) [LISP] M change number of nodes to allocate in each segment num M the number of nodes to allocate returns M the old number of nodes to allocate info() [SAL] (info) [LISP] M show information about memory usage. returns M nil room() [SAL] (room) [LISP] M show memory allocation statistics returns M nil type-of(expr) [SAL] (type-of expr) [LISP] M returns the type of the expression expr M the expression to return the type of returns M nil if the value is nil otherwise one of the symbols: SYMBOL M for symbols OBJECT M for objects CONS M for conses SUBR M for built-in functions FSUBR M for special forms CLOSURE M for defined functions STRING M for strings FIXNUM M for integers FLONUM M for floating point numbers CHARACTER M for characters FILE-STREAM M for file pointers UNNAMED-STREAM M for unnamed streams ARRAY M for arrays peek(addrs) [SAL] (peek addrs) [LISP] M peek at a location in memory addrs M the address to peek at (integer) returns M the value at the specified address (integer) poke(addrs, value) [SAL] (poke addrs value) [LISP] M poke a value into memory addrs M the address to poke (integer) value M the value to poke into the address (integer) returns M the value bigendianp() [SAL] (bigendianp) [LISP] M is this a big-endian machine? returns M T if this a big-endian architecture, storing the high-order byte of an integer at the lowest byte address of the integer; otherwise, NIL. (This is not a standard XLISP 2.0 function.) address-of(expr) [SAL] (address-of expr) [LISP] M get the address of an xlisp node expr M the node returns M the address of the node (integer) exit() [SAL] (exit) [LISP] M exit xlisp. (Note: in Audacity plug-ins, exit is undefined because exiting would terminate Audacity.) returns M never returns setup-console() [SAL] (setup-console) [LISP] M set default console attributes returns M NIL Note: Under Windows, Nyquist normally starts up in a medium-sized console window with black text and a white background, with a window title of ``Nyquist.'' This is normally accomplished by calling setup-console in system.lsp. In Nyquist, you can avoid this behavior by setting *setup-console* to NIL in your init.lsp file. If setup-console is not called, Nyquist uses standard input and output as is. This is what you want if you are running Nyquist inside of emacs, for example. echoenabled(flag) [SAL] (echoenabled flag) [LISP] M turn console input echoing on or off flag M T to enable echo, NIL to disable returns M NIL Note: This function is only implemented under Linux and Mac OS X. If Nyquist I/O is redirected through pipes, the Windows version does not echo the input, but the Linux and Mac versions do. You can turn off echoing with this function. Under windows it is defined to do nothing. IV.36. File I/O Functions IV.36.1. Input from a File To open a file for input, use the open function with the keyword argument :direction set to :input. To open a file for output, use the open function with the keyword argument :direction set to :output. The open function takes a single required argument which is the name of the file to be opened. This name can be in the form of a string or a symbol. The open function returns an object of type FILE-STREAM if it succeeds in opening the specified file. It returns the value nil if it fails. In order to manipulate the file, it is necessary to save the value returned by the open function. This is usually done by assigning it to a variable with the setq special form or by binding it using let or let*. Here is an example: (setq fp (open "init.lsp" :direction :input)) Evaluating this expression will result in the file init.lsp being opened. The file object that will be returned by the open function will be assigned to the variable fp. It is now possible to use the file for input. To read an expression from the file, just supply the value of the fp variable as the optional stream argument to read. (read fp) Evaluating this expression will result in reading the first expression from the file init.lsp. The expression will be returned as the result of the read function. More expressions can be read from the file using further calls to the read function. When there are no more expressions to read, the read function will return nil (or whatever value was supplied as the second argument to read). Once you are done reading from the file, you should close it. To close the file, use the following expression: (close fp) Evaluating this expression will cause the file to be closed. IV.36.2. Output to a File Writing to a file is pretty much the same as reading from one. You need to open the file first. This time you should use the open function to indicate that you will do output to the file. For example: (setq fp (open "test.dat" :direction :output)) Evaluating this expression will open the file test.dat for output. If the file already exists, its current contents will be discarded. If it doesn't already exist, it will be created. In any case, a FILE-STREAM object will be returned by the OPEN function. This file object will be assigned to the fp variable. It is now possible to write to this file by supplying the value of the fp variable as the optional stream parameter in the print function. (print "Hello there" fp) Evaluating this expression will result in the string ``Hello there'' being written to the file test.dat. More data can be written to the file using the same technique. Once you are done writing to the file, you should close it. Closing an output file is just like closing an input file. (close fp) Evaluating this expression will close the output file and make it permanent. IV.36.3. A Slightly More Complicated File Example This example shows how to open a file, read each Lisp expression from the file and print it. It demonstrates the use of files and the use of the optional stream argument to the read function. (do* ((fp (open "test.dat" :direction :input)) (ex (read fp) (read fp))) ((null ex) nil) (print ex)) REFERENCES [Dannenberg 89] Dannenberg, R. B. and C. L. Fraley. Fugue: Composition and Sound Synthesis With Lazy Evaluation and Behavioral Abstraction. In T. Wells and D. Butler (editor), Proceedings of the 1989 International Computer Music Conference, pages 76-79. International Computer Music Association, San Francisco, 1989. [Touretzky 84] Touretzky, David S. LISP: a gentle introduction to symbolic computation. Harper & Row, New York, 1984. ! 13, 36 != 13 !Call 40 !Clock 39 !csec 38 !Def 39 !End 40 !msec 38 !Ramp 39 !Rate 37 !Seti 40 !Setv 40 !Tempo 37 # (Adagio articulation) 37 #?, sal 13 #define'd macros 59 #f 13 #t 13 % (Adagio thirtysecond note) 36 % 13 & 13 &= 15 * 13, 68 *= 15 *A4-Hertz* 19, 34 *applyhook* 64 *audio-markers* 27 *autonorm* 34 *autonorm-max-samples* 34 *autonorm-previous-peak* 34 *autonorm-target* 34 *autonorm-type* 34 *autonormflag* 34 *breakenable* 34, 62, 64 *clipping-error* 34 *clipping-threshold* 34 *control-srate* 6, 26, 34 *debug-io* 64 *default-control-srate* 34 *default-plot-file* 28 *default-sf-bits* 34 *default-sf-dir* 27, 34 *default-sf-format* 34 *default-sf-srate* 28, 34 *default-sound-srate* 34 *error-output* 64 *evalhook* 64 *file-separator* 34 *float-format* 64 *gc-flag* 64 *gc-hook* 64 *integer-format* 64 *loud* 6 *obarray* 64 *print-case* 64 *readtable* 63, 64 *rslt* 34, 59 *sound-srate* 6, 26, 34 *soundenable* 34 *standard-input* 64 *standard-output* 64 *start* 6 *stop* 6 *sustain* 6 *table* 34 *trace-output* 64 *tracelimit* 62, 64 *tracelist* 64 *tracenable* 34, 62, 64 *transpose* 6 *unbound* 64 *warp* 6, 26 + 13, 68 += 15 , (Adagio) 38 - 13, 68 . (Adagio) 36 / 13, 68 /= 68 1+ 68 1- 68 :answer 64 :class 64 :isa 64 :isnew 64 :new 64 :show 64 ; (Adagio) 38 < 13, 68 <= 13, 15, 68 = 13, 68 > 13, 68 >= 13, 15, 68 @ 13 @= 15 @@ 13 A440 19 Abs 68 Abs-env 26 Absolute stretch, sal 13 Absolute time shift, sal 13 Absolute value 25, 29 Access samples 17 Accidentals 36 Accumulate pattern 44 Accumulation pattern 44 Adagio 36 Add offset to sound 29 Add to file samples 28 Add-action-to-workspace 50 Add-to-workspace 50 Additive synthesis, gongs 3 Address-of 71 Aftertouch 38 Agc 51 Algorithmic Composition 43 All pass filter 22 Alloc 71 Allpass2 23 Allpoles-from-lpc 41 Alpass 22 Alpass filter 22 Amosc 21 Analog synthesizer 53 And 67 Annotation, audio 51 Append 65 Apply 64 Apply-banded-bass-boost 52 Apply-banded-delay 52 Apply-banded-treble-boost 52 Approximation 21 Arc-sine-dist 46 Arcsine distribution 46 Aref 65 Areson 23 Args 42 Arguments to a lisp function 42 Arithmetic Functions 68 Arpeggiator 3 Array from sound 18 Array Functions 65 Array notation, sal 13 Arrayp 66 Articulation 36, 37 Assoc 65 Asterisk 36 At 26 At Transformation 7 At, sal 13 At-abs 26 At-abs, sal 13 Atan 68 Atom 66 Atone 23 Attributes 36 Audacity 51 Audio annotation 51 Audio markers 27 Autocorrelation of vector data 51 Automatic gain control 51 Autonorm-off 10, 27 Autonorm-on 10, 27 Average 29 Backquote 64 Backward 51 Baktrace 68 Banded bass boost 52 Banded delay 52 Banded treble boost 52 Bandfx.lsp 52 Bandpass filter 23 Bandpass2 23 Bartok 38 Begin 13 Behavioral abstraction 6 Behaviors 19 Bell sound 3 Bernoulli distribution 46 Bernoulli-dist 46 Beta distribution 46 Beta-dist 46 Big endian 71 Bigendianp 71 Bilateral exponential distribution 45 Bilateral-exponential- dist 45 Binary files 70 Binomial distribution 46 Binomial-dist 46 Biquad 23 Biquad-m 23 Bitwise Logical Functions 68 Blank 36 Block 67 Both-case-p 69 Boundp 66 Bowed 24 Bowed-freq 24 Brass sound 3 Break 62, 68 Break button 4 Browse button 4 Browser, jnyqide 4 Build-harmonic 2, 20 Button bar 4 Buzz 21 Call command 40 Car 65 Case 36, 67 Case-insensitive 13 Catch 67 Cauchy distribution 45 Cauchy-dist 45 Cdr 65 Cerror 68 Change directory 70 Char 69 Char-code 69 Char-downcase 69 Char-equal 70 Char-greaterp 70 Char-int 69 Char-lessp 70 Char-not-equal 70 Char-not-greaterp 70 Char-not-lessp 70 Char-upcase 69 Char/= 70 Char< 70 Char<= 70 Char= 70 Char> 70 Char>= 70 Character Functions 69 Characterp 66 Chdir, sal 14 Chorus 24, 29, 32, 52 Clarinet 24 Clarinet sound 3 Clarinet-all 24 Clarinet-freq 24 Class 64 Class class 64 Clean-up 68 Clip 10, 25, 29 Clipping 34 Clipping repair 51 Clock 39 Clock command 39 Close 70 Co-termination 29 Code-char 69 Comb 22 Comb filter 22 Combination 26 Command Line 1 Command Loop 62 Commas 38 Comment 36 Comments 13 Compose 29 Compress 51 Compress-map 51 Compressor 18 Concatenate strings 69 Cond 67 Conditional expression, sal 13 Configure nyquist 1 Congen 22 Cons 65 Console, XLISP 71 Consp 66 Const 19 Constant function 19 Continue 68 Continuous-control-warp 26 Continuous-sound-warp 26 Contour generator 22 Control 19 Control change 38 Control characters, XLISP 62 Control Constructs 67 Control-A 27 Control-srate-abs 26 Control-warp 20 Convert sound to array 18 Convolution 23 Convolve 23 Copier pattern 44 Correlation 51 Cos 68 Cosine, vector 51 Cue 19 Cue-file 19 Current-path 42 Curve fitting 51 Cxxr 65 Cxxxr 65 Cxxxxr 65 Cycle pattern 43 DarwiinRemoteOsc 19 Data Types 62 Db-average 51 Db-to-linear 18 Db-to-vel 18, 19 DB0 3 DB1 3 DB10 3 Debugging 18, 28, 42, 68 Decf 42 Decrement 42 Default durations 37 Default 37 Default sample rate 7 Default sound file directory 27 Default time 36 Define function 14 Define variable 14 Defining Behaviors 7 Defmacro 64 Defun 64 Delay 23 Delay, variable 29, 30 Delete 66 Delete-if 66 Delete-if-not 66 Demos, bell sound 3 Demos, distortion 23 Demos, drum machine 3 Demos, drum sound 3 Demos, fft 35 Demos, FM 11 Demos, FM synthesis 3 Demos, formants 3 Demos, gong sound 3 Demos, lpc 41 Demos, midi 36 Demos, piano 51 Demos, pitch change 29 Demos, rhythmic pattern 3 Demos, ring modulation 2 Demos, sample-by-sample 3 Demos, scratch tutorial 11 Demos, Shepard tones 23 Demos, spectral analysis of a chord 3 Demos, voice synthesis 23 Demos, wind sound 11 Derivative 20 Describe 50 Destructive List Functions 66 Developing code 42 Diff 27 Difference 50 Difference of sounds 27 Difference of vector data 51 Digit-char 69 Digit-char-p 69 Directory listing 70 Directory, default sound file 27 Display statement, sal 14 Distortion tutorial 23 Distributions, probability 45 Division 25 Do 67 Do* 67 Dolby Pro-Logic 52 Dolby Surround 52 Dolist 67 Doppler effect 53 Dot 36 Dotimes 67 Dotted durations 3 Dribble 71 Drum samples 3 Drum 53 Drum machine 3, 53 Drum sound 3 Drum-loop 53 DSP in Lisp 3, 11 Dtmf 52 Dtmf-tone 52 Dubugging 30 Duration 36 Duration notation 3 Duration of another sound 29 DX7 36 Dynamic markings 37 Echo 23 Echoenabled 71 Editor for envelopes 4 Effect, reverberation 24, 24 Effect, chorus 24, 32, 52 Effect, flange 52 Effect, pitch shift 24, 32 Effect, reverberation 32, 52 Effect, stereo 52 Effect, stereo pan 52 Effect, swap channels 52 Effect, widen 52 Effects, phaser 52 EIghth note 3, 36 Elapsed audio time 27 Emacs, using Nyquist with 71 Empty list 13 End 13 End command 40 Endian 71 Endless tones 3 Endp 66 Env 2, 19 Env-note 2 Envedit button 4 Envelope 2 Envelope editor 4 Envelope follower 18, 30 Envelope generator 22 Envelopes 2 Environment 6 Environment variables 71 Eq 67 Eq button 4 Eq-band 23 Eq-highshelf 23 Eq-lowshelf 23 Eql 67 Equal 67 Equalization 23, 51 Equalization editor 4 Error 68 Error Handling 68 Errors iii Errset 68 Estimate frequency 25 Eval 64 Eval pattern 44 Evalhook 68 Evaluation functions 64 Evaluator 62 Evenp 66 Event-dur 48 Event-end 48 Event-expression 48 Event-get-attr 48 Event-has-attr 48 Event-set-attr 48 Event-set-dur 48 Event-set-expression 48 Event-set-time 48 Event-time 48 Exclamation point 36 Exec statement, sal 14 Exit 71 Exit statement, sal 15 Exp 68 Exp-dec 19 Expand 71 Exponent 42 Exponential 25 Exponential distribution 45 Exponential envelope 19 Exponential-dist 45 Expr-get-attr 48 Expr-has-attr 48 Expr-set-attr 48 Expression pattern 44 Expressions, sal 13 Expt 68 Extending Xlisp 59 Extract 26 Extract-abs 26 F (Adagio dynamic) 37 F (Adagio Flat) 36 Fast fourier transform tutorial 35 Fboundp 66 Feedback FM Oscillator 21 Feedback-delay 23 Feel factor 49 FF (Adagio dynamic) 37 FFF (Adagio dynamic) 37 Fft 35 Fft tutorial 35 File I/O Functions 70, 72 Filep 66 Filter example 11 Finally clause, sal 15 Find string 69 Find-in-xlisp-path 70 FIR filter 23 First 65 First derivative 20 Flange 52 Flange effect 52 Flat 36 Flatc 70 Flatsize 70 Flet 67 Float 68 Floatp 66 Flute 24 Flute sound 3 Flute-all 24 Flute-freq 24 FM synthesis 11 Fmfb 21 Fmlfo 20 Fmosc 21 Fn button 4 Follow 18 Follower 30 Force-srate 20 Format 70 Fourth 65 Frequency analysis 25 Frequency Modulation 10 Full path name 42 Funcall 64 Function 64 Function calls, sal 13 Function, sal 14 Fundamenal frequency estimation 25 Gain 51 Gamma-dist 45 Gate 18, 30 Gaussian distribution 46 Gaussian-dist 46 Gc 71 Gcd 68 GEN05 22 Gensym 65 Geometric distribution 46 Geometric-dist 46 Get 65 Get char 70 Get-duration 19 Get-env 71 Get-lambda-expression 64 Get-loud 19 Get-output-stream-list 71 Get-output-stream-string 71 Get-slider-value 29 Get-sustain 19 Get-temp-path 70 Get-transpose 19 Get-user 70 Get-warp 19 Getenv 71 Global Variables 34 Global variables, sal 14 Gnuplot 51 Go 67 Gong sounds 3 Granular synthesis 52 Graphical envelope editor 4 Graphical equalization 4 Graphical equalizer 51 Grindef 42 H (Adagio Half note) 36 H 3 Half note 3, 36 Harmonic 20 Hash 65 Hd 3 Header file format 59 Heap pattern 44 High-pass filter 23 Highpass2 23 Highpass4 24 Highpass6 24 Highpass8 24 Histogram 51 Hp 23 Ht 3 Hyperbolic-cosine-dist 45 Hz-to-step 18 Hzosc 21 I (Adagio eIght note) 36 I 3 Iannis Xenakis 4 Id 3 IDE 1 If 67 If statement, sal 14 Ifft 35 Incf 42 Increment 42 Info 71 Info button 4 Input from a File 72 Input/Output Functions 70 Installation 1 Int-char 70 Integerp 66 Integrate 20 Integrated Development Environment 1 Intern 65 Interoperability, sal and lisp 15 Interpolate 50 Intersection 50 Intgen 59 Inverse 30 Inverse fft 35 It 3 Jcrev 24 Jitter 49 K (Adagio control) 38 Karplus-Strong 21 Karplus-Strong synthesis 3 Keyword parameters 47 Kurtosis, statistics 51 Label files 51 Labels 67 Lambda 64 Lambda Lists 63 Last 65 Latency 19 Legato 26, 37 Length 65 Length pattern 44 Length-of-beat 53 Let 67 Let* 67 Levene's test 51 Lexical conventions 62 LF (Adagio dynamic) 37 Lf 3 LFF (Adagio dynamic) 37 Lff 3 LFFF (Adagio dynamic) 37 Lfff 3 Lfo 20 Libraries 51 Limit 25 Limiter 18 Line pattern 43 Linear algegra 51 Linear distribution 45 Linear interpolation 50 Linear Prediction 41 Linear prediction tutorial 41 Linear regression 51 Linear-dist 45 Linear-to-db 18 Linear-to-vel 18, 19 Lisp button 4 Lisp DSP 3, 11 Lisp Include Files 60 List 65 List directory 70 List Functions 65 Listdir 70 Listing of lisp function 42 Listp 66 Little endian 71 LMF (Adagio dynamic) 37 Lmf 3 LMP (Adagio dynamic) 37 Lmp 3 Load 71 Load button 4 Load file conditionally 42 Load statement, sal 14 Local-to-global 19 Log 18 Log function 18 Logand 68 Logical-stop 17 Logior 69 Logistic distribution 46 Logistic-dist 46 Lognot 69 Logorithm 25 Logxor 69 Loop 67 Loop examples, sal 15 Loop statement, sal 14 Looping Constructs 67 Loud 26 Loud-abs 26 Loudness 36, 37 Low-frequency oscillator 20 Low-pass filter 23, 32 Lower-case-p 69 Lowpass2 23 Lowpass4 23 Lowpass6 23 Lowpass8 23 LP (Adagio dynamic) 37 Lp 3, 23 LPC 41 Lpc tutorial 41 Lpc-frame-err 41 Lpc-frame-filter-coefs 41 Lpc-frame-rms1 41 Lpc-frame-rms2 41 LPP (Adagio dynamic) 37 Lpp 3 LPPP (Adagio dynamic) 37 Lppp 3 Lpreson 41 M (Adagio control) 38 Macroexpand 64 Macroexpand-1 64 Macrolet 67 Make-accumulate 44 Make-accumulation 44 Make-array 65 Make-copier 44 Make-cycle 43 Make-eval 44 Make-heap 44 Make-length 44 Make-line 43 Make-lpanal-iterator 41 Make-lpc-file-iterator 41 Make-markov 44 Make-palindrome 43 Make-product 44 Make-random 43 Make-string-input-stream 71 Make-string-output-stream 71 Make-sum 44 Make-symbol 65 Make-window 44 Maketable 20 Mandolin 24 Manipulation of scores 48 Mapc 66 Mapcar 66 Mapl 66 Maplist 66 Mark button 4 Markers, audio 27 Markov analysis 45 Markov pattern 44 Markov-create-rules 45 Max 68 Max, statistics 51 Maximum 25, 68 Maximum amplitude 10, 30 Maximum of two sounds 30 Mean 51 Mean of vector 51 Median of vector data 51 Median, statistics 51 Member 65 Memory usage 18 MF (Adagio dynamic) 37 Middle C 36 MIDI 36 MIDI Clock 39 MIDI file 49, 50 MIDI program 37 Midi-show 52 Midi-show-file 52 Mikrokosmos 38 Min 68 Min, statistics 51 Minimoog 53 Minimum 25, 68 Minusp 66 Mix 27 Mix to file 28 Mkwave 2 Modalbar 25 Modulation wheel 38 Modulo (rem 68 Mono to stereo 52 Moog 53 Moving average 29 MP (Adagio dynamic) 37 Mult 2, 20, 27 Multichannel Sounds 17 Multiple band effects 52 Multiple commands 38 Multiple tempi 39 Multiplication 30 Multiply signals 27 My-note 2 N (Adagio Next) 36 Natural 36 Natural log 25 Nband 51 Nband-range 51 Nconc 66 Nested Transformations 7 Newfile button 4 Next Adagio command 36 Next in pattern 43 Next pattern 43 Nintendo WiiMote 19 Noise 25 Noise gate 30 Noise-gate 18 Norm of vector 51 Normalization 10 Not 66 Not enough memory for normalization 10 Notch filter 23 Notch2 23 Note list 27 Nrev 24 Nstring-downcase 69 Nstring-upcase 69 Nth 65 Nthcdr 65 Null 66 Numberp 66 Ny:all 3 NyquistIDE 1 O (Adagio control) 38 Object 64 Object Class 64 Objectp 66 Objects 63 Octave specification 36 Oddp 67 Offset 49 Offset to a sound 29 Omissions iii Oneshot 30 Open 70 Open sound control 19, 58 Open-binary 70 Openfile button 4 Or 67 Osc 2, 19, 20 Osc-enable 19 Osc-note 25 Osc-pulse 21 Osc-saw 21 Osc-tri 21 Output samples to file 27 Output to a File 72 Overlap 26 Overwrite samples 28 P (Adagio dynamic) 37 P (Adagio Pitch) 36 Palindrome pattern 43 Pan 20, 52 Pan, stereo 52 Parameters, keyword 47 Params-scale 50 Params-transpose 50 Partial 21 Path, current 42 Pattern, length 44 Pattern, window 44 Pattern, accumulate 44 Pattern, accumulation 44 Pattern, copier 44 Pattern, cycle 43 Pattern, eval 44 Pattern, expression 44 Pattern, heap 44 Pattern, line 43 Pattern, markov 44 Pattern, palindrome 43 Pattern, product 44 Pattern, random 43 Pattern, sum 44 Patternp 50 Peak 30 Peak amplitude 10 Peak, maximum amplitude 30 Pearson correlation 51 Peek 71 Peek-char 70 Period estimation 25 Phaser 52 Physical model 3 Physical Models 24 Piano synthesizer 51 Piano synthesizer tutorial 51 Piano-midi 51 Piano-midi2file 51 Piano-note 51 Piano-note-2 51 Piece-wise 21 Piece-wise linear 30 Pitch 36 Pitch bend 38 Pitch detection 25 Pitch notation 3 Pitch shift 24, 32 Pitch shifting 29 Pitshift 24 Pl-center 53 Pl-doppler 53 Pl-left 52 Pl-pan2d 53 Pl-position 53 Pl-rear 53 Pl-right 53 Play 2, 27 Play in reverse 51 Play-file 27 Plot 28 Plots 51 Pluck 21 Plucked string 21 Plusp 66 Poisson distribution 47 Poisson-dist 47 Poke 71 Polyrhythm 39 Pop 42 Portamento switch 38 Power 42 PP (Adagio dynamic) 37 PPP (Adagio dynamic) 37 Pprint 70 Prcrev 24 Predicate Functions 66 Preset 37 Prin1 70 Princ 70 Print 70 Print midi file 52 Print statement, sal 15 Probability distributions 45 Prod 20 Product 27 Product pattern 44 Profile 68 Profiling 64 Prog 67 Prog* 67 Prog1 67 Prog2 67 Progn 68 Program 38 Program change 36 Progv 67 Prologic 52 Property List Functions 65 Protected files 1 Psetq 64 Pulse oscillator 21 Pulse-width modulation 21 Push 42 Putprop 65 Pwe 22 Pwe-list 22 Pwer 22 Pwer-list 22 Pwev 22 Pwev-list 22 Pwevr 22 Pwevr-list 22 Pwl 22 Pwl-list 22 Pwlr 22 Pwlr-list 22 Pwlv 22 Pwlv-list 22 Pwlvr 22 Pwlvr-list 22 Q (Adagio Quarter note) 36 Q 3 Qd 3 Qt 3 Quantize 25 Quarter note 3, 36 Quote 64 R (Adagio Rest) 36 Ramp 25 Random 42, 45, 68 Random pattern 43 Rate 36, 37 Read 70 Read directory 70 Read macros 63 Read samples 17 Read samples from file 28 Read samples in reverse 51 Read-byte 71 Read-char 70 Read-float 71 Read-int 70 Read-line 71 Readtables 63 Real-random 42 Recip 25 Reciprocal 25 Regression 51 Rem 68 Remainder 68 Remove 65 Remove-if 65 Remove-if-not 65 Remprop 65 Replace file samples 28 Replay button 4 Require-from 42 Resample 20 Resampling 20, 29 Rescaling 10 Resolution 38 Reson 23 Rest 25, 65 Restore 71 Rests 36 Return 67 Return statement, sal 15 Return-from 67 Reverb 24, 32, 52 Reverse 65 Reverse, sound 51 Ring modulation 2 Risset 3 Rms 25, 29 Room 71 Rplaca 66 Rplacd 66 Rrandom 68 S (Adagio Sharp) 36 S (Adagio Sixteenth note) 36 S 3 S-abs 25 S-add-to 28 S-exp 25 S-log 25 S-max 10, 25 S-min 10, 25 S-overwrite 28 S-plot 28 S-print-tree 28 S-read 28 S-read-reverse 51 S-rest 25 S-reverse 51 S-save 27 S-sqrt 25 SAL 13 Sal and lisp 15 SAL button 4 Sal expressions 13 Sample interpolation 30 Sample rate, forcing 20 Sample rates 7 Sampler 21 Samples 17, 18 Samples, reading 17 Sampling rate 19 Save 71 Save samples to file 27 Save-lpc-file 41 Save-workspace 50 Savefile button 4 Saving Sound Files 10 Sawtooth oscillator 21 Sawtooth wave 2 Sax 24 Sax-all 24 Sax-freq 24 Scale 20 Scale-db 20 Scale-srate 20 Scan directory 70 Score 27 Score manipulation 48 Score, musical 2 Score-adjacent-events 49 Score-append 49 Score-apply 49 Score-filter 49 Score-filter-length 49 Score-filter-overlap 49 Score-gen 47 Score-get-begin 49 Score-get-end 49 Score-indexof 49 Score-last-indexof 49 Score-merge 49 Score-must-have-begin-end 49 Score-play 49 Score-print 49 Score-randomize-start 49 Score-read 50 Score-read-smf 49 Score-repeat 49 Score-scale 49 Score-select 49 Score-set-begin 49 Score-set-end 49 Score-shift 48 Score-sort 48 Score-sorted 48 Score-stretch 48 Score-stretch-to-length 49 Score-sustain 49 Score-transpose 48 Score-voice 49 Score-write 50 Score-write-smf 50 Scratch sound 11 Sd 3 Second 65 Sections, Adagio 38 Security 1 Self 64 Semicolon, Adagio 38 Seq 26 Seqrep 26 Sequences 2, 36 Sequence_example.htm 2 Sequential behavior 6 Set 64 Set intersection 50 Set statement, sal 15 Set union 50 Set-control-srate 7, 19 Set-difference 50 Set-logical-stop 27 Set-pitch-names 19 Set-sound-srate 7, 19 Setdir 70 Setf 64 Seti commnad 40 Setq 64 Setup nyquist 1 Setup-console 71 Setv command 40 Sf-granulate 52 Sf-info 28 Shape 23 Sharp 36 Shepard tones 3, 23 Shift-time 20 Show midi file 52 Show-lpc-data 41 Signal composition 29, 30 Signal multiplication 30 Signal-start 17 Signal-stop 17 Sim 2, 26 Simrep 27 Simultaneous Behavior 6 Sin 68 Sine 21 Siosc 21 Sitar 25 Sixteenth note 3, 36 Sixtyfourth note 36 Slope 20 Smooth 20 Snd-abs 29 Snd-add 29 Snd-allpoles 41 Snd-alpass 31 Snd-alpasscv 31 Snd-alpassvv 31 Snd-amosc 32 Snd-areson 31 Snd-aresoncv 31 Snd-aresonvc 31 Snd-aresonvv 31 Snd-atone 31 Snd-atonev 31 Snd-avg 29 Snd-bandedwg 33 Snd-biquad 31 Snd-bowed 33 Snd-bowed-freq 33 Snd-buzz 32 Snd-chase 31 Snd-clarinet 33 Snd-clarinet-all 33 Snd-clarinet-freq 33 Snd-clip 29 Snd-compose 29 Snd-congen 31 Snd-const 28 Snd-convolve 31 Snd-copy 30 Snd-coterm 29 Snd-delay 31 Snd-delaycv 31 Snd-down 30 Snd-exp 30 Snd-extent 17 Snd-fetch 17 Snd-fetch-array 17 Snd-fft 35 Snd-flatten 17 Snd-flute 33 Snd-flute-all 33 Snd-flute-freq 33 Snd-fmfb 32 Snd-fmfbv 32 Snd-fmosc 32 Snd-follow 30 Snd-from-array 17 Snd-fromarraystream 17 Snd-fromobject 17 Snd-gate 30 Snd-ifft 35 Snd-inverse 30 Snd-length 18 Snd-log 30 Snd-lpanal 41 Snd-lpreson 41 Snd-mandolin 33 Snd-max 30 Snd-maxsamp 18 Snd-maxv 30 Snd-modalbar 33 Snd-multiseq 33 Snd-normalize 30 Snd-offset 29 Snd-oneshot 30 Snd-osc 32 Snd-overwrite 29 Snd-partial 32 Snd-play 18 Snd-pluck 32 Snd-print 18 Snd-print-tree 18, 28 Snd-prod 30 Snd-pwl 30 Snd-quantize 30 Snd-read 28 Snd-recip 30 Snd-resample 30 Snd-resamplev 30 Snd-reson 31 Snd-resoncv 31 Snd-resonvc 31 Snd-resonvv 31 Snd-sampler 32 Snd-samples 18 Snd-save 29 Snd-sax 33 Snd-sax-all 33 Snd-sax-freq 33 Snd-scale 31 Snd-seq 33 Snd-set-latency 19 Snd-set-logical-stop 18 Snd-shape 31 Snd-sine 32 Snd-siosc 32 Snd-sitar 33 Snd-slider 29 Snd-sqrt 29 Snd-srate 18 Snd-sref 18 Snd-stkchorus 32 Snd-stkpitshift 32 Snd-stkrev 32 Snd-stop-time 18 Snd-t0 18 Snd-tapf 30 Snd-tapv 29 Snd-time 18 Snd-tone 32 Snd-tonev 32 Snd-trigger 33 Snd-up 31 Snd-white 29 Snd-xform 31 Snd-yin 31 Snd-zero 29 Soften-clipping 51 Sort 66 Sound 19 accessing point 17 creating from array 17 Sound browser, jnyqide 4 Sound file directory default 27 Sound file I/O 27 Sound file info 28 Sound from Lisp data 17 Sound-off 27 Sound-on 27 Sound-srate-abs 26 Sound-warp 20 Soundfilename 28 Soundp 18 Sounds 17 Sounds vs. Behaviors 6 Span 52 Spatialization 52 Special command 36 Spectral interpolation 21 Speed-dial 52 Splines 21 Sqrt 68 Square oscillator 21 Square root 25, 29 Srate 17 Sref 17 Sref-inverse 17 St 3 Stacatto 26 Staccato 37 Stack trace 68 Standard deviation 51 Standard deviation of vector 51 Standard MIDI File 49 Statements, sal 13 Statistics 51 Stats 18 Step-to-hz 19 Stereo 52 Stereo pan 52 Stereo panning 20 Stereo-chorus 52 Stereoize 52 STK banded waveguide 33 Stk bowed 33 STK bowed string 24 STK bowed-freq 24 STK chorus 24, 32 Stk clarinet 24, 33 STK flute 24, 33 STK glass harmonica 25 STK jcreverb 24 STK mandolin 33 STK mandolon 24 STK modal bar 25, 33 STK nreverb 24 STK pitch shift 24, 32 STK prcreverb 24 STK reverb 32 Stk sax 24, 33 STK sitar 25, 33 STK tibetan bowl 25 STK tuned bar 25 STK uniform bar 24 Stkchorus 24 Stochastic functions 45 Strcat 69 Streamp 66 Stretch 2, 26 Stretch Transformation 7 Stretch, sal 13 Stretch-abs 26 Stretching Sampled Sounds 10 String 69 String Functions 69 String Stream Functions 71 String synthesis 21 String-downcase 69 String-equal 69 String-greaterp 69 String-left-trim 69 String-lessp 69 String-not-equal 69 String-not-greaterp 69 String-not-lessp 69 String-right-trim 69 String-search 69 String-trim 69 String-upcase 69 String/= 69 String< 69 String<= 69 String= 69 String> 69 String>= 69 Stringp 66 Sublis 66 Subseq 69 Subset 50 Subsetp 50 Subst 66 Suggestions iii Sum pattern 44 Sum 27 Surround Sound 52 Sustain 26 Sustain-abs 26 Swap channels 52 Swapchannels 52 Symbol Functions 64 Symbol-function 65 Symbol-name 65 Symbol-plist 65 Symbol-value 65 Symbolp 66 Symbols 64 Synchronization 39 System Functions 71 T (Adagio Triplet) 36 T 36 T-test, statistics 51 Table 23 Table memory 18 Tagbody 67 Tan 68 Tap 29 Tapped delay 24 Tapv 24 Temp file 70 Tempo 36, 37 Temporary files 70 Temporary sound files directory 27 Terpri 70 The Format Function 70 The Program Feature 67 Third 65 Thirtysecond note 36 Threshold 30 Throw 67 Time 36, 37 Time shift, sal 13 Time Structure 26 Time units 38 Timed-seq 27 Tone 23 Top button 4 Top-level 68 Touch tone 52 Trace 68 Transformation environment 6 Transformations 6, 26 Transpose 26 Transpose-abs 26 Triangle oscillator 21 Triangle wave 2 Trigger 27 Trill 40 Triplet 36 Triplet durations 3 Truncate 68 Tuba 3 Tuning 19 Tutorial, FM 11 Type-of 71 U 36 Undo 4 Uniform random 42, 68 Union 50 Unless 67 Untrace 68 Unwind-protect 67 UPIC 4 Upper-case-p 69 User name 70 V (Adagio Voice) 37 Variable delay 24, 29, 30 Variable-resample function 29 Variance 51 Variance of vector data 51 Vector 65 Vector cosine 51 Vector difference 51 Vector median 51 Vector norm 51 Vectors 51 Vel-to-db 19 Vel-to-linear 19 Velocity 37 Vinal scratch 11 Vocal sound 3 Voice 36, 37 Voice synthesis 23 Volume 38 W (Adagio Whole note) 36 W 3 Warble 11 Warp 26 Warp-abs 26 Waveforms 2, 20 Waveshaping 23 Wavetables 2, 20 Wd 3 Welch's t-test 51 Wg-glass-harm 25 Wg-tibetan-bowl 25 Wg-tuned-bar 25 Wg-uniform-bar 24 When 42, 67 While 42 Whole note 3, 36 Widen 52 Wii Controller 19 Wind sound 11 Window initialization 71 Window pattern 44 Wind_tutorial.htm 11 With statement, sal 15 Wood drum sound 3 Workspace 4, 50 Write samples to file 27 Write-byte 71 Write-char 70 Write-float 71 Write-int 70 Wt 3 X (Adagio control) 38 Xenakis 4 XLISP Command Loop 62 XLISP Data Types 62 XLISP evaluator 62 XLISP Lexical Conventions 62 Xmusic 43 Y (Adagio control) 38 Yin 25 Z (Adagio program) 37, 38 Zerop 66 ^ (Adagio sixtyfourth note) 36 ^ 13 ^= 15 | 13 ~ (Adagio) 38 ~ 13 ~= 13 ~~ 13 Preface iii 1. Introduction and Overview 1 1.1. Installation 1 1.1.1. Troubleshooting 1 1.2. Using NyquistIDE 1 1.3. Using SAL 1 1.4. Command Line 1 1.5. Helpful Hints 1 1.6. Using Lisp 1 1.7. Examples 1 1.7.1. Waveforms 2 1.7.2. Wavetables 2 1.7.3. Sequences 2 1.7.4. Envelopes 2 1.7.5. Piece-wise Linear Functions 2 1.8. Predefined Constants 3 1.9. More Examples 3 2. The NyquistIDE Program 4 2.1. NyquistIDE Overview 4 2.2. The Button Bar 4 2.3. Command Completion 4 2.4. Browser 4 2.5. Envelope Editor 4 2.6. Equalizer Editor 4 2.7. UPIC Editor 4 3. Behavioral Abstraction 6 3.1. The Environment 6 3.2. Sequential Behavior 6 3.3. Simultaneous Behavior 6 3.4. Sounds vs. Behaviors 6 3.5. The At Transformation 7 3.6. The Stretch Transformation 7 3.7. Nested Transformations 7 3.8. Defining Behaviors 7 3.9. Overriding Default Transformations 7 3.10. Sample Rates 7 4. Continuous Transformations and Time Warps 8 4.1. Simple Transformations 8 4.2. Time Warps 8 4.3. Abstract Time Warps 8 4.4. Nested Transformations 9 5. More Examples 10 5.1. Stretching Sampled Sounds 10 5.2. Saving Sound Files 10 5.3. Memory Space and Normalization 10 5.4. Frequency Modulation 10 5.5. Building a Wavetable 11 5.6. Filter Examples 11 5.7. DSP in Lisp 11 6. SAL 13 6.1. SAL Syntax and Semantics 13 6.1.1. Expressions 13 6.1.1.1. Simple Expressions 13 6.1.1.2. Operators 13 6.1.1.3. Function Calls 13 6.1.1.4. Array Notation 13 6.1.1.5. Conditional Values 13 6.1.2. SAL Statements 13 6.1.2.1. begin and end 13 6.1.2.2. chdir 14 6.1.2.3. define variable 14 6.1.2.4. define function 14 6.1.2.5. display 14 6.1.2.6. exec 14 6.1.2.7. if 14 6.1.2.8. when 14 6.1.2.9. unless 14 6.1.2.10. load 14 6.1.2.11. loop 14 6.1.2.12. print 15 6.1.2.13. return 15 6.1.2.14. set 15 6.1.2.15. with 15 6.1.2.16. exit 15 6.2. Interoperability of SAL and XLISP 15 6.2.1. Function Calls 15 6.2.2. Symbols and Functions 15 6.2.3. Playing Tricks On the SAL Compiler 16 7. Nyquist Functions 17 7.1. Sounds 17 7.1.1. What is a Sound? 17 7.1.2. Multichannel Sounds 17 7.1.3. Accessing and Creating Sound 17 7.1.4. Miscellaneous Functions 18 7.2. Behaviors 19 7.2.1. Using Previously Created Sounds 19 7.2.2. Sound Synthesis 19 7.2.2.1. Oscillators 20 7.2.2.2. Piece-wise Approximations 21 7.2.2.3. Filter Behaviors 22 7.2.2.4. Effects 24 7.2.2.5. Physical Models 24 7.2.2.6. More Behaviors 25 7.3. Transformations 26 7.4. Combination and Time Structure 26 7.5. Sound File Input and Output 27 7.6. Low-level Functions 28 7.6.1. Creating Sounds 28 7.6.2. Signal Operations 29 7.6.3. Filters 31 7.6.4. Table-Lookup Oscillator Functions 32 7.6.5. Physical Model Functions 33 7.6.6. Sequence Support Functions 33 8. Nyquist Globals 34 9. Time/Frequency Transformation 35 10. MIDI, Adagio, and Sequences 36 10.1. Specifying Attributes 36 10.1.1. Time 36 10.1.2. Pitch 36 10.1.3. Duration 36 10.1.4. Next Time 36 10.1.5. Rest 36 10.1.6. Articulation 37 10.1.7. Loudness 37 10.1.8. Voice 37 10.1.9. Timbre (MIDI Program) 37 10.1.10. Tempo 37 10.1.11. Rate 37 10.2. Default Attributes 37 10.3. Examples 37 10.4. Advanced Features 38 10.4.1. Time Units and Resolution 38 10.4.2. Multiple Notes Per Line 38 10.4.3. Control Change Commands 38 10.4.4. Multiple Tempi 39 10.4.5. MIDI Synchronization 39 10.4.6. System Exclusive Messages 39 10.4.7. Control Ramps 39 10.4.8. The !End Command 40 10.4.9. Calling C Routines 40 10.4.10. Setting C Variables 40 11. Linear Prediction Analysis and Synthesis 41 11.1. LPC Classes and Functions 41 11.2. Low-level LPC Functions 41 12. Developing and Debugging in Nyquist 42 12.1. Debugging 42 12.2. Useful Functions 42 13. Xmusic and Algorithmic Composition 43 13.1. Xmusic Basics 43 13.2. Pattern Classes 43 13.2.1. cycle 43 13.2.2. line 43 13.2.3. random 43 13.2.4. palindrome 43 13.2.5. heap 44 13.2.6. accumulation 44 13.2.7. copier 44 13.2.8. accumulate 44 13.2.9. sum 44 13.2.10. product 44 13.2.11. eval 44 13.2.12. length 44 13.2.13. window 44 13.2.14. markov 44 13.3. Random Number Generators 45 13.4. Score Generation and Manipulation 47 13.4.1. Keyword Parameters 47 13.4.2. Using score-gen 47 13.4.3. Score Manipulation 48 13.4.4. Xmusic and Standard MIDI Files 49 13.4.5. Workspaces 50 13.4.6. Utility Functions 50 14. Nyquist Libraries 51 14.1. Statistics 51 14.2. Plots 51 14.3. Labeling Audio Events, Marking Audio Times, Displaying Marked 51 Audio Times 14.4. Linear Regression 51 14.5. Vector Math, Linear Algebra 51 14.6. Piano Synthesizer 51 14.7. Dymanics Compression 51 14.8. Clipping Softener 51 14.9. Graphical Equalizer 51 14.10. Sound Reversal 51 14.11. Time Delay Functions 52 14.12. Multiple Band Effects 52 14.13. Granular Synthesis 52 14.14. MIDI Utilities 52 14.15. Reverberation 52 14.16. DTMF Encoding 52 14.17. Dolby Surround(R), Stereo and Spatialization Effects 52 14.18. Drum Machine 53 14.19. Minimoog-inspired Synthesis 53 14.19.1. Oscillator Parameters 53 14.19.2. Noise Parameters 54 14.19.3. Filter Parameters 54 14.19.4. Amplitude Parameters 54 14.19.5. Other Parameters 54 14.19.6. Input Format 54 14.19.7. Sample Code/Sounds 54 I. Extending Nyquist 55 I.1. Translating Descriptions to C Code 55 I.2. Rebuilding Nyquist 55 I.3. Accessing the New Function 55 I.4. Why Translation? 55 I.5. Writing a .alg File 55 I.6. Attributes 55 I.7. Generated Names 57 I.8. Scalar Arguments 57 II. Open Sound Control and Nyquist 58 II.1. Sending Open Sound Control Messages 58 II.2. The ser-to-osc Program 58 III. Intgen 59 III.0.1. Extending Xlisp 59 III.1. Header file format 59 III.2. Using #define'd macros 59 III.3. Lisp Include Files 60 III.4. Example 60 III.5. More Details 60 IV. XLISP: An Object-oriented Lisp 61 IV.1. Introduction 62 IV.2. A Note From The Author 62 IV.3. XLISP Command Loop 62 IV.4. Special Characters 62 IV.5. Break Command Loop 62 IV.6. Data Types 62 IV.7. The Evaluator 62 IV.8. Lexical Conventions 62 IV.9. Readtables 63 IV.10. Lambda Lists 63 IV.11. Objects 63 IV.12. The ``Object'' Class 64 IV.13. The ``Class'' Class 64 IV.14. Profiling 64 IV.15. Symbols 64 IV.16. Evaluation Functions 64 IV.17. Symbol Functions 64 IV.18. Property List Functions 65 IV.19. Array Functions 65 IV.20. List Functions 65 IV.21. Destructive List Functions 66 IV.22. Predicate Functions 66 IV.23. Control Constructs 67 IV.24. Looping Constructs 67 IV.25. The Program Feature 67 IV.26. Debugging and Error Handling 68 IV.27. Arithmetic Functions 68 IV.28. Bitwise Logical Functions 68 IV.29. String Functions 69 IV.30. Character Functions 69 IV.31. Input/Output Functions 70 IV.32. The Format Function 70 IV.33. File I/O Functions 70 IV.34. String Stream Functions 71 IV.35. System Functions 71 IV.36. File I/O Functions 72 IV.36.1. Input from a File 72 IV.36.2. Output to a File 72 IV.36.3. A Slightly More Complicated File Example 72 Figure 1: An envelope generated by the env function. 2 Figure 2: The result of (warp4), intended to map 4 seconds of score 8 time into 4 seconds of real time. The function extends beyond 4 seconds (the dashed lines) to make sure the function is well-defined at location (4, 4). Nyquist sounds are ordinarily open on the right. Figure 3: When (warp4) is applied to (tone-seq-2), the note onsets 8 and durations are warped. Figure 4: When (warp4) is applied to (tone-seq-3), the note onsets 9 are warped, but not the duration, which remains a constant 0.25 seconds. In the fast middle section, this causes notes to overlap. Nyquist will sum (mix) them. Figure 5: The shift-time function shifts a sound in time according to 20 its shift argument. Figure 6: Ramps generated by pwl and ramp functions. The pwl version 25 ramps toward the breakpoint (1, 1), but in order to ramp back to zero at breakpoint (1, 0), the function never reaches an amplitude of 1. If used at the beginning of a seq construct, the next sound will begin at time 1. The ramp version actually reaches breakpoint (1, 1); notice that it is one sample longer than the pwl version. If used in a sequence, the next sound after ramp would start at time 1 + P, where P is the sample period. Figure 7: The Linear Distribution, g = 1. 45 Figure 8: The Exponential Distribution, delta = 1. 45 Figure 9: The Gamma Distribution, nu = 4. 45 Figure 10: The Bilateral Exponential Distribution. 45 Figure 11: The Cauchy Distribution, tau = 1. 46 Figure 12: The Hyperbolic Cosine Distribution. 46 Figure 13: The Logistic Distribution, alpha = 1, beta = 2. 46 Figure 14: The Arc Sine Distribution. 46 Figure 15: The Gauss-Laplace (Gaussian) Distribution, xmu = 0, sigma 46 = 1. Figure 16: The Beta Distribution, alpha = .5, beta = .25. 46 Figure 17: The Bernoulli Distribution, px1 = .75. 46 Figure 18: The Binomial Distribution, n = 5, p = .5. 47 Figure 19: The Geometric Distribution, p = .4. 47 Figure 20: The Poisson Distribution, delta = 3. 47 Figure 21: System diagram for Minimoog emulator. 53