Accurate timing in the browser I have been playing around with some simple audio stuff in the browser and Nodejs again lately. In the past I’ve done some experiments with generating audio and doing simple sequencer UIs, but I never tried to get something really useful happening. One thing that’s crucial for playing audio events is timing. When generating actual…

Subtleties of standard MIDI file delta time I have been playing around with generating MIDI files using Node.js recently. I’m using a minimal MIDI file writer called node-midimal. Everything was working fine until I tried to output a drum beat that had a hihat and a snare/kick playing on the same beat. I was writing out the notes both with…

Rapid prototyping PC boards Hey guys, some thoughts on doing quick-turn PCBs. I have access to a CNC mill at the moment, and I’ve been messing with PCB-GCODE to make PCB layouts in Eagle and then make them on the CNC mill. I have done some test runs on plywood with an end mill, but I’m working up to getting…

Guitar pedal resources I have a new guitar pedal project in the works right now, which will be unveiled soon. In the meantime there are a few resources for common parts that I keep coming back to for various things. These guys have kind of a crude name, but they are one of the only places that have the really…

Building PD iemmatrix under OSX Mountain Lion It’s often a trial by fire to build Pure Data externals despite cross-platform build systems like flext designed to make the job easier. I’ve blogged a little bit about getting some arcane externals to build before, so I’ll continue my quest to document my builds here. Iemmatrix is a matrix math external for…

Using the Kinect as a MIDI controller I just grabbed a Microsoft Kinect camera from eBay. I’m new to the 3d camera thing so I wanted to get something cheap and simple to start out with. There are some things to keep in mind when getting a Kinect to work with a PC or Mac. The particular version of Kinect…

Midi programming in Python I’ve been playing with different ways to script MIDI I/O over the last year or so. There are a ton of different ways to skin this cat including special-purpose languages like PD and KeyKit. However, it’s nice to be able to do some coding in a more general purpose language if for no other reason that…

String gauge experimentation I’ve been toying with different string gauges again recently. For the last 8 years or so I’ve been using GHS Boomers GBH heavy strings with a 0.012″ first string and plain third string. If you play guitar you probably get what I just said, but if not suffice it to say that string sets are typically sold…

Metaprogramming in PD Metaprogramming is essentially writing code with code. It is a powerful tool used mostly in languages that have macros. But any time we have the ability to alter code at runtime meaprogramming is possible. In PD we have ways of sending object creation messages to a subpatch. These messages are mostly undocumented features of PD, so we…

Using the Wii Remote with Pure Data After some experimentation with my Texas Instruments Chronos watch I’ve been thinking about picking up an accelerometer-based controller (SixAxis or Wiimote). I just picked up a Wii Remote at a local thrift shop, so now I’m looking at how to use it to control some audio hackery. I know using the Wii controllers…