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Recent and CDP Development Focus
Since moving the CDP HQ to the South West, our initial graphic development phase of 1996 through 2002 saw the launch of GrainMill with Brkedit and the two graphic user interfaces for the CDP command-line program set, Soundshaper and Sound Loom).
The years 2002 through April 2005 have been spent developing Release 5.0 for PC and MAC OSX, with many new programs, major revisions to both GUIs and extensive alterations and additions to the CDP Documentation.
Richard and Trevor also completed the long and tedious job of altering the buffering system of all the software from the 'SF' system to the 'SND' system. The former was established by Martin Atkins specifically to meet the requirements of creating a complete new (Unix-like) sound operating system for the Atari ST. With the newer and much faster computers, we are able to use native sector-based functions, making the earlier system obsolete. The new SND structuring makes the code faster and will facilitate writing CDP-type customised applications.
At the same time, support for 24-bit soundfiles was implemented, as well as the new Microsoft WAVEFORMATEXTENSIBLE for multi-channel soundfiles. Sample rates of 96K are now supported.
Interactive Tutorials
Archer has written a new 12-Step Tutorial that will be distributed with Release 5.0, to provide another introduction to various aspects of working with the CDP software.
During the past year, his attention has been focused on developing a set of 9 Study Worksheets. Developed for his students at Wiltshire College Chippenham, these provide precise instructions on realising over 160 sound transformation examples in 9 areas of the CDP software. These are being released as an optional purchase with the Release 5.0 System.
Post Release 5.0 Development
Post Release 5.0 work will continue to include file format issues, with support for the PVOC-EX format at the top of the agenda.
We are continuing to explore new tools and facilities for multi-channel audio, building on the popularity of the CDP Multi-channel Toolkit. This extends to the Phase Vocoder, where we hope to extend support to multi-channel analysis files, where appropriate.
The main thrust of CDP development after Release 5.0 is likely to focus on creating real-time plugins with various CDP sets of processes, especially those in the Spectral Domain. Richard Dobson has already created 3 prototype VST plugins. They are freely available from his Website. it can be run with Audio Mulch as the plug-in host.
Richard also created the Spectral Transformer plugin for Cakewalk's Project 5, using several CDP spectral transformation routines. Reviewers were amazed by the original and strange effects that it could produce. So the stage is set for some very interesting CDP developments in the next couple of years.
Richard wrote the op-codes for streaming PVOC, which John Fitch incorporated into Csound. This was off-shoot of the plugin work.
Archer's documentation work post Release 5.0 will continue the Worksheets idea, but will probably increasingly flow from planned work with Richard Orton's Tabula Vigilans. As Research Fellow at the University of Bath, he is working on documenting an approach to generative musical understanding based on 'micro-forms'. Another work-in-progress is a book on 'music as pattern', emphasising the creative, generative aspect of formal ideas.
Csound
We are continuing to participate in the immense developments taking place in the Csound world. Richard Dobson is working with John Fitch in a supportive role, and a number of Richard's suggestions and additions have now been incorporated into Csound, particularly his code for streaming PVOC.
Last updated: 9 April 2005