Ari Russo: July 2011

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Live coding with Diamond

I've created a screencast video to show some basic live coding functionality with Diamond. In it, I use Diamond to send MIDI to a 2-voice modular synth and kick drum module.

(sound starts around 55 seconds in)

Here is a quick explanation of what was happening in the video.

Some people prefer to do live coding with a text editor, which is great because you can work a lot faster. However, for the sake of keeping this tutorial to the point, I'll assume you're working in IRB.

First, I'll start up IRB and set up an arpeggiator using the similar options as in the last post. That should look something like this:

require "diamond"

@output = UniMIDI::Output.use(:first)

arp = Diamond::Arpeggiator.new(175, :interval => 7, :midi => @output, :range => 4, :rate => 8)

chord = ["C3", "G3", "Bb3", "A4"]

arp << chord

arp.start

At that point we start hearing arpeggios. Since the arpeggiator is started in a background thread by default, and I can make changes to it while it plays.

arp.rate = 16
arp.gate = 20
arp.range = 3

# etc

In the video, I use the Arpeggiator#rest_every method to insert musical rests in to the arpeggio sequence. If I do

arp.rest_every(5)

notes become muted on every fifth beat.

Syncing multiple Arpeggiators

Another thing I do in the video is sync multiple arpeggiators to each other.

Assuming I still have that setup running, I'm going to add another arpeggiator.

arp2 = Diamond::Arpeggiator.new(138, :rate => 2, :output_channel => 1)

arp2 << ["C3", "G4", "A4"]

Because I used the :output_channel => 1 option, any notes coming from arp2 will be outputted on MIDI channel 1. Now I can sync this new arpeggiator to the old one -- the clock of the first arpeggiator, arp will drive arp2.

arp.sync(arp2)

By default, the sync will wait for the next time the arpeggiator pattern repeats to take hold. You can override this by passing in :now => true which will activate the sync on the next downbeat.

arp.sync(arp2, :now => true)

You can sync as many arpeggiators as you like.

Trouble getting this working in OSX? One solution here.

Thanks for reading

http://github.com/arirusso/diamond

Diamond, MIDI Arpeggiator in Ruby

Diamond is a MIDI arpeggiator in Ruby.

It features all of the classic functions of a MIDI arpeggiator plus the ability to live code, algorithmically generate and modify patterns, chain and sync instances and more

This is a quick screencast video I did while live coding Diamond. (read more about this here...)
(Sounds starts around 55 seconds in)

Getting started

Ruby 1.9.2 or JRuby in 1.9 mode are required.

It installs with a typical gem installation...

gem install diamond

Here is a very basic example to get started:

require "diamond"

First, select a MIDI output using unimidi. (more...)

@output = UniMIDI::Output.gets

The Arpeggiator has a number of optional parameters (more...). For the sake of keeping this demo simple, here is a straightforward setup:

opts = { 
  :gate => 90, 
  :range => 4, 
  :interval => 7,
  :midi => @output,
  :pattern => Diamond::Pattern["UpDown"],    
  :rate => 8
}

(read more about what these options mean)

Now create an Arpeggiator object, passing in a tempo value and the options chosen before. In this case the tempo will be 138 BPM

arp = Diamond::Arpeggiator.new(138, opts)

Of course, an Arpeggiator needs notes to work with. As you might expect, it's easy to use a MIDI input for that (see example). However, again for the sake of simplicity here's a chord in Ruby

chord = ["C3", "G3", "Bb3", "A4"]

Use Arpeggiator#add and Arpeggiator#remove to change the notes that the arpeggiator sees. (Arpeggiator#<< is the same as add)

arp.add(chord)
arp.add("C5")
arp << "A4"

By default, the arpeggiator will run in a background thread so if you are working in IRB this will allow you to live code, sync it other arpeggiators, or just run another foreground process. (To start in the foreground, just pass :focus => true to Arpeggiator#start)

arp.start

At that point, the arpeggiator starts playing. All of its options can be controlled on the on the fly.

arp.rate = 16
arp.gate = 20
arp.remove("C5", "A4")

Here are examples showing how to use some of Diamond's other features

Thanks for reading

http://github.com/arirusso/diamond