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Mapping and Visualization with SuperCollider
Mapping and Visualization with SuperCollider

Mapping and Visualization with SuperCollider: Create interactive and responsive audio-visual applications with SuperCollider

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Profile Icon Marinos Koutsomichalis
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$43.99
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.3 (3 Ratings)
Paperback Nov 2013 222 pages 1st Edition
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Marinos Koutsomichalis
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Paperback Nov 2013 222 pages 1st Edition
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Mapping and Visualization with SuperCollider

Chapter 2. Waveform Synthesis

As far as scoping in the time-domain is concerned, we need to be able to optimize our waveforms so that they both look and sound interesting. Subsequently, we will elaborate on a series of techniques to synthesize and manipulate waveforms from a purely visual-oriented perspective. Even if these techniques originate from the realms of traditional audio synthesis or Digital Signal Processing (DSP), we will use the rather uncanny term waveform synthesis herein to emphasize that our focus is on the visual aspects of audio signals. It has to be noted that in defiance of the abundance of technical handbooks relevant to audio synthesis, waveform synthesis has been largely overlooked hitherto.

The topics that will be covered in this chapter are as follows:

  • Waveform synthesis fundamentals

  • Custom periodic and aperiodic waveform generators

  • Wavetable lookup and wave shaping synthesis

  • Unary, binary, and bitwise waveform transformations

Waveform synthesis fundamentals


At this point, it is important to highlight the subtle but fundamental differences between the concepts of signal, waveform, sound, and audio. A signal is just a function in the mathematical sense—a stream of information in response to some mutating variable. Sound can be defined as a mechanical pressure wave transmitted through some medium within a certain range of frequencies; technically speaking, sound is not necessarily audible. A wave would be a series of continuous fluctuations of energy through some kind of medium and over the course of time. Audio refers to some sort of electrical or digital representation of sound. Although sound can be represented as audio and audio can be translated into physical sound, these two notions are fundamentally distinct from each other. As the name implies, a waveform is defined as the particular shape and a form of a wave, and by definition it is specific to the time domain.

Time domain representation


Audio is a signal, any kind of sonic representation being a function of some sort. Signals in the time domain are conceptualized as streams of information against the constant flow of time. However, audio signals are not necessarily time-domain specific. In the time domain, digital signals are functions of discrete (that is, not continuous) amplitude values per unit time (measured in samples). A constantly updated graph of these values (typically in the vertical axis) against time is just a visualization of this signal's waveform, which is therefore a time-domain specific representation.

To understand what exactly a waveform represents, consider how audio signals are translated to physical sound and vice versa. To represent physical sonic waves in the digital domain, we first need to convert them into fluctuations of electrical potential (that is, voltage) using some kind of a transducer (for instance, a microphone) and then convert this alternating voltage into...

Custom waveform generators


SuperCollider already provides us a plethora of both basic and more sophisticated waveform generators, and more are available through extension libraries and Quarks. Yet, it also provides us the means to generate our own custom-looking ones, as we will see in this section.

Wavetable lookup synthesis

The famous wavetable lookup synthesis technique can be summarized as a repeated reading of a custom wavetable (that is, the desired waveform's cycle) according to a given frequency. Apparently we are talking about periodic waveforms, and actually this is the standard methodology in the underlying implementation of most standard oscillators. To perform custom wavetable lookup synthesis, we need to populate an instance of Buffer with the desired wave-cycle and then use Osc (or one of its other flavors: OscN, VOsc, VOSC3, and COsc), as shown in the following code:

( // Simple Wavetable Lookup
var buffer = Buffer.alloc(Server.default, 256, 1);  
// allocate a Buffer
buffer...

Waveform transformations


Synthesizing custom-looking waveforms from scratch is an invaluable tool. Still, there are certain kinds of waveforms that are easier to generate by means of manipulating other ones, and there are cases wherein we are merely interested in optimizing or appropriating some existent audio signals. The last part of this chapter is dedicated to all sorts of waveform transformation techniques, again with an explicit emphasis on how they will affect the shape, rather than the sound of a signal.

Waveshaping


Waveshaping stands for transforming a waveform with respect to some transfer function. Basic waveshaping can be performed using Clip, Fold, Wrap UGens, or their equivalent convenient methods (clip, fold and wrap, respectively):

// convenient waveshaping
{SinOsc.ar(300).clip(-0.5,0.5)}.scope;  // clipping output to +-0.5
{SinOsc.ar(300).fold(-0.5,0.5)}.scope;  // folding output to +-0.5
{SinOsc.ar(300).wrap(-0.5,0.5)}.scope;  // wrapping output to +-0.5

In the following figure, we can see how the original waveform is transformed in each case:

Only the part of the input waveform that lies outside the given bounds (± 0.5 herein) will be affected. Values within this range will remain unchanged, while values outside it will be either truncated (clip), folded back (fold), or wrapped (wrap) onto the valid range by means of a simple mathematical formulae. Waveshaping epitomizes how subtle variations in the amplitude or DC offset or the original signal may result in dramatically different...

Summary


In this chapter, we discussed time domain audio representation and we elaborated on various ways to synthesize and manipulate signals to achieve imaginative waveforms. These included standard waveshaping and wavetable lookup techniques, as well as less the common ones such as bitwise transformations, demand rate based stochastic generators or envelope-based oscillators.

In the next chapter, we will pinpoint the frequency domain and examine techniques to synthesize and process spectra—the equivalent of waveforms in the frequency-domain.

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Key benefits

  • Master 2D computer-generated graphics and animation
  • Perform complex encodings and audio/data analysis
  • Implement intelligent generative audio-visual systems

Description

SuperCollider is an environment and programming language used by musicians, scientists, and artists who work with audio-files SuperCollider has built-in graphical features which are used in conjunction with the sound synthesis server to create audio-visual mapping and sound visualization. If you wish to create data visualizations by acquiring data from audio and visual sources, then this book is for you.Digital sound artists need to analyze, manipulate, map, and visualize data when working on a scientific or an artistic project. As an artist, this book, by means of its numerous code examples will provide you with the necessary knowledge of SuperCollider's practical applications, so that you can extract meaningful information from audio-files and master its visualization techniques. This book will help you to prototype and implement sophisticated visualizers, sonifiers, and complex mappings of your data.This book takes a closer look at SuperCollider features such as plotting and metering functionality to dispel the mysterious aura surrounding the more advanced mappings and animation strategies. This book also takes you through a number of examples that help you to create intelligent mapping and visualization systems. Throughout the course of the book, you will synthesize and optimize waveforms and spectra for scoping as well as extract information from an audio signal. The later sections of the book focus on advanced topics such as emulating physical forces, designing kinematic structures, and using neural networks to enable you to develop a visualization that has a natural motion with structures that respect anatomy and which come with an intelligent encoding mechanism. This book will teach you everything you need to work with intelligent audio-visual systems to extract and visualize audio-visual data.

Who is this book for?

This book is ideal for digital artists and sound artists who are familiar with SuperCollider and who wish to expand their technical and practical knowledge of mapping and visualization. It is assumed that you already have some experience with the SuperCollider programming language and are familiar with the fundamental audio synthesis techniques.

What you will learn

  • Use the built-in plotting, scoping, and metering functionality
  • Synthesize efficient waveforms and spectra
  • Extract information from audio signals
  • Implement sophisticated encodings using interpolation, logic, and neural networks
  • Execute imaginative visualizers
  • Instrument sophisticated audio-visual generative systems
  • Finalize and organize complicated projects
  • Acquire data from local or remote sources including third party software and hardware
  • Design and animate complex visual structures such as fractals, particle systems, and kinematic creatures
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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Nov 25, 2013
Length: 222 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783289677
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783289677
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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
Scoping, Plotting, and Metering Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Waveform Synthesis Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Synthesizing Spectra Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Vector Graphics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Animation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Data Acquisition and Mapping Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Advanced Visualizers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Intelligent Encodings and Automata Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Design Patterns and Methodologies Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.3
(3 Ratings)
5 star 66.7%
4 star 0%
3 star 33.3%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
Rael Toffolo Mar 03, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I really recommend! It's is a great book that complements the SuperCollider Book.. It's a important text to explore graphic funcionalities in SC. Thanks to author and to the editors that make the effort to publishing!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
BrianJ Jan 30, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
There are tons and tons of tutorials about sound signal processing, but not much about the graphics capabilities in SuperCollider. I thought this book was really helpful introducing the basics, and had some good code examples. My only criticism might be that sometimes the code examples contained lines with advanced syntax that were not easy for beginners like me to understand, and were not well explained. Overall, I am very satisfied with the book.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Claudius F. Sep 25, 2020
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
lacking basic information like how do you save the images you have coded.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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