The csound.ppc homepage

What is csound.ppc

What's new in 0.3.1

Csound.ppc is a version of Csound designed specifically for Power Macintoshes. It is presently being developed at Mills College by Matt Ingalls, Dave Madole, and Mike Berry. The lineage includes Dan Ellis, Bill Gardner, and Eric Dahl. For information on Csound in general, visit the Csound Homepage.
Csound.ppc is a collection of applications that run Csound. The primary application is called csound.ppc (known by us as "the front end"). The front end lets you choose your orchestra and score files, set all of the csound options, and start generating your sound. The actual generation occurs in perf.ppc ("the perfer"), which contains all of the canonical unix code.
We have several helper apps also included in the csound.ppc package. csRef is an online reference which gives the opcode definitions for all of the opcodes included in csound.ppc. The Csound Manual is included in an online format, created by DOCMaker, which can be indexed directly from csRef.
We are committed to continuing to support and upgrade the csound.ppc package. We are averaging a new release every three months.

How to report bugs or request features

We may be reached collectively at csound-dev@eartha.mills.edu.

How to download csound.ppc

These are the different packages that can be downloaded:

• csound.ppc complete This is the complete csound.ppc package, including csound, perf, csRef, the online Csound Manual, and some supporting documentation. It does not include a text version of the manual.
• MS Word manuals This package includes MS Word versions of the Csound manual, several opcode addendums, and the csound.ppc manual. All of the info in this package is included in the online manual.
• Mr. Tweaky This is an applet which allows you to edit in ascii form any of the analysis files generated by Csound, and then re-encode them for use in csound.

The csound.ppc specific manual

Csound for Power Macintosh consists of two separate applications:

csound and perf

csound is the "front end" application, in which you can choose files, settings, and options(flags) through a graphic interface. perf, which is launched from the front end, generates sound, lets you hear it, and displays graphical and text data. These two applications function as one program, sending messages to each other through apple events.

Memory Requirements:

csound usually requires less than 256k to function. perf.ppc can run with less than 1M allotted, but will probably require more, depending on the project you are running. If memory errors are being displayed in perf's output window, try increasing the amount of memory allocated for perf by clicking on the perf icon from the desktop then choosing Get Info from the File menu.

STARTING CSOUND

You can launch csound from the finder by double-clicking on the csound or perf icon, by double-clicking on a project file icon, or by dragging an orchestra (*.orc), score (*.sco) , MIDI (*.mf), batch (*.bat) and/or project file - "dropping" it into the csound icon. The drag&drop method will cause csound to open with the chosen file(s).

THE MAIN WINDOW

This is the primary window that is opened when csound is launched. It can also be opened by choosing New Project... from the File menu.
Orchestra, Score, MIDI, Listing, and Batch files are chosen by clicking on the corresponding Select... button. The MIDI file check box, when enabled, signifies that data is to be read from the selected MIDI file. The Listing file check box, when enabled, will redirect the text messages of generation to the specified text file. The Batch file check box and the Add Current Settings button deal with batch processing(see below). To view a file in your chosen text editor, double-click on the window displaying the file's name.
The Output file is the name of the sound file to be generated, and can be typed in the window. The Default Directories... button opens the Default Directories dialog box (see below).
The real-time Audio out check box sends the generated samples to the Sound Manager for playing rather than to a file. Performance of this option may be optimized for your particular system by tweaking the buffer sizes in the Preferences menu (see below). Real-time MIDI in is enabled with the appropriate check box (see the 'MIDI' section of this manual for details).
The Format and Header pop-up menus allow you to select the proper format of your sound file. The 32-bit float->16-bit int option in the Format menu will cause perf to automatically generate 32-bit sound file, rescaling to 16-bit shorts with a peak amplitude of 32767.
The Generate button forms a UNIX-style command line from the current settings and files, then launches the perf application.

DEFAULT DIRECTORIES

This dialog box is opened from the File menu or from corresponding buttons in other windows. Use it to set your Sound File Directory (SFDIR - the folder where the sound will be written), Sound Sample Directory (SSDIR - the folder where soundin samples will be contained), and Analysis Directory (SADIR - the folder where Utility analysis files will be contained). If a directory is not defined, perf will substitute SFDIR. If SFDIR is not defined, perf will look/write in the folder in which it is contained.

PERF

perf is the application that is launched by csound to do the actual generation of sound. It consists of a graphics window that displays function tables, an output window that displays UNIX-style text messages, and a transport to start/pause/kill the generation as well as to play/pause the generated sound. You can quit perf by clicking the transport's close button.

GRAPHICS

The graphics window displays a given number of tables (specified in the Set Buffers... dialog box opened in csound's Preferences menu) and scroll through them. These can be viewed either "solid"/"line" (-F) and with/without (-G) grid lines.
You can choose three different sizes for the graphics window: 128x64, 256x128, or 512x256 pixels. To switch among the sizes, drag the grow box corner of the window. When you let up the mouse button, the graphics window will snap to the closest available size. Minimal information about the table is printed across the bottom of the larger windows, whereas only the ftable name is displayed in the smallest window. Scrolling among the tables is circular. Holding the mouse button down on either the up or down arrow of the scroll bar will "wraparound page" through the tables. Hitting the Go Away box will make the window go away, but it will come back if perf generates another table.
The graphics window uses memory of about 600 bytes per table.

TRANSPORT

A transport mechanism is provided to pause perf's generation routine and allow you to hear what has been generated so far, for either floating point or 16 bit integer sound format. You also may at any time kill the generation.

Transport During Generation:

While perf is generating sound, the pause and kill buttons are available.
The pause button will pause the generation and allow you to play the generated file (so far) by presenting a play/stop button. If you choose play (the "arrow"), floating point files will be automatically rescaled to a maximum short value of 32767 for playing (note, however, that the file itself will not be changed). You may stop playing at any time by clicking on the stop button (the "square"). After playing, the transport will return to the pause state. The play button is disabled during real-time generation.
To resume generation and move from the pause state, click on the transport's cont button.
If you choose kill while either generating or in pause, the generation will be immediately terminated. Remember, however, if you kill a generation, information in the sound file header will not be correct unless the Continually Rewrite Header option in csound's Options menu had been selected.

Rescaling:

If you had chosen the 32-bit float->16-bit int format option in the front end before generation, perf will permanently rescale the generated 32-bit sound file to 16-bit shorts with a peak amplitude of 32767. It is possible to kill during rescaling, making the partially rescaled sound file unusable.

Transport After Generation:

When the generation has either completed or has been killed, perf is allowed to close the output file. It is then reopened for reading so that the user may play it and review it. Again, floats are automatically rescaled. Clicking on the close button will automatically terminate the perf application, leaving the file unmolested.

PROJECTS

Projects are small files that save all settings, options, directories, and file names. Saving and opening project files are done from the File menu. Presently, you can only have one project open at a time.
When the icon of a project file is double-clicked in the finder, csound will launch with the project's settings, options, directories, and files. If the Direct Generation option is enabled, then csound will attempt to launch perf with the project's files and options.
The current settings, options, and directories are automatically saved (without having to generate a project file) when quitting csound.
You can reset all settings, options, and directories to their defaults by selecting Reset All Options/Settings in the Preferences menu.

BATCH FILES

Batch Files contain lists of command lines to be generated in sequence. You can select a batch file by clicking on the appropriate Select... button in the Main Window. To run the batch file, first click on the Batch file check box in the Main Window. When this check box is enabled, the Generate button will change to "Batch". Then click on the "Batch" generate button. perf will then sequentially run every command line in your batch file.
To add command lines to your batch file, click on the Add Current Settings button in the Main Window or the Add Settings to Batch File button in the various Utility windows. This will open the currently select batch file, and add a command line to the end.

OPTIONS

This menu allows you to set options for before, during, and after generation. A check mark next to an item means that option is enabled.
These 17 options correspond directly to the UNIX csound flags. See the 1993 Csound Manual for more details. Some options, when selected, will display a dialog box requesting more information.

PREFERENCES

This menu allows you to set the "mac only" options.

Play Sound File When Done

This option will make perf automatically play the sound file after generation. It is disabled with real-time audio output.

Direct Generation

Direct Generation will cause csound to launch perf immediately upon startup. To use Direct Generation, enable the option in the Preferences menu, then quit csound. From the finder, either double-click a saved project file (with the Direct Generation option enabled) or drag an orchestra and score into the csound icon. csound will then be launched, which will in turn begin perf with the selected files.

Post Processor

You can select an application to be launched with your sound file after generation. Ideally, this would be a sound player, sound editor, or effects processor, but it can be any application. To enable the post processor option, choose the Output to Post Processor... dialog box in the Preferences menu. A dialog box will then appear allowing you to select an application. The OK - Open Now button will launch the specified application immediately.
If real time Audio out is selected, launching of the post processor will be disabled.

Text Editor

You can specify a text editor to view and edit your project's files. To choose a text editor, select Auto Open Files in Text Editor in the Preferences menu. A dialog box will then appear allowing you to select an application. The OK - Open Now button will launch the specified application immediately with the current orchestra and score.
If Auto Open Files in Text Editor is enabled (a check mark next to this item in the menu), any file you select will be opened automatically in the text editor. You can also open a file in the text editor by double-clicking on the file name in the Main Window.
If Auto Open Files in Text Editor was enabled the last time csound was quit, the text editor will be launched immediately upon startup. If Direct Generation is enabled, launching of the text editor at startup will be disabled.

Buffers

You can specify buffer sizes in the dialog box opened from Set Buffers in the Preferences menu. The Blocksize is the number of sample frames per software sound buffer, which is the number of samples that perf generates before dumping to the output location, either the Macintosh Sound Manager (for real-time generation) or a disk. The Audio Output Buffer is the maximum number of samples in the Sound Manager's real-time playback buffer. This is an upper limit. For efficiency, perf will automatically use smaller buffers if it can.
The following formula will tell you the maximum lag time in real-time playback:
maximum lag (milliseconds) = (Blocksize * nchnls + Audio Output Buffer) * 1000 / sr
For the shortest lag possible, you will have to experiment with your particular machine. To limit the possibility of dropouts, set Blocksize to 16384 in mono or 8192 in stereo. (Blocksize * nchnls) should never be more than half of Audio Output Buffer.
Since you most likely will want small buffers for real-time playback and large buffers when writing to a sound file, csound lets you set your preference for both types. Toggle between the two settings with the pop-up menu in the upper left corner of the Set Buffers dialog box. Both settings will be remembered and used appropriately depending on your mode of generation.
The output window can only print at a certain speed, and may sometimes slow things down, such as when you use the verbose option or have a score with many events over a short period of time. The Screen Buffer can be set to avoid this problem. Usually, you want the buffer set to the default value (50 characters), but when you are getting continuous printing to the output window you should increase this size.
In this dialog box, you can also specify the maximum number of graphs perf's graphics window can save.
The Revert to Defaults button will set the Blocksize and Audio Output Buffer to 8192 for file creation, 256 for real-time generation. It will also set the Screen Buffer and the maximum tables in the Graphics Wind