[Clam-devel] GSoC Ideas

[Michael Chinen]

Xavier,

Thanks for your feedback.  I do agree that it would be nice to have
other examples as well to illustrate the functionality of CLAM.  If
this project gets the go, I would recommend creating a list of all
things (not just sound examples) that would be most helpful to have.
The idea to do just sound examples comes from my own personal
interest, but after reading your comment I have to say that using
other parts of CLAM that are not just sound creation might provide
some inspiration and deeper understanding when I do write sound
examples.

Pau,

Thanks for the comment.  I hope it was clear that I intend to use CLAM
as a C++ library, writing C++ code to generate the examples, which
would consist of well documented code.  That being said, code used to
write experimental music is often the opposite of what 'clean code' is
in the industry (e.g., there are lots of ad-hoc numbers and ad-hoc
structures used to make the music interesting.)   Normally, reading
this kind of code can be uninteresting for those not interested in the
artistic idea.  However, because these examples would be for the
user's comprehension, I will try my best to make the artistic side not
take over the documentary function of the sample code.

If this kind of idea sounds acceptable I will focus on it in my
proposal.  As for the genetic algorithm analysis/synthesis, I just
realized that I could do one sample which uses the genesynth library
linked against the CLAM library.

One thing I am unsure of is how many samples to shoot for.  If anyone
has an idea of how much is reasonable, please let me know.

Best,

Michael

2008/3/26, Pau Arumí <parumi at iua.upf.edu>:
>
>  On dc, 2008-03-26 at 01:20 +0100, Xavier Amatriain wrote:
>  > Hello Michael, and thanks for your interest in CLAM...
>  >
>  > Overall I think your proposal sounds really interesting. I think we all
>  > agree that, like in most OS projects,
>  > documentation is an area we need to work on in CLAM. I like the idea of
>  > having sound examples in the
>  > documentation (written as wiki pages for sure) and linking to the
>  > doxygen code. I also like the proposal
>  > of improving code documentation.
>  >
>  > What I am not so sure is whether restricting this to only "musical
>  > examples" is a good idea. If I were to
>  > promote a project like this I'd like to see it cover as much of CLAM as
>  > possible maybe including audio
>  > effects and why not some MIR examples.
>  >
>  > What do other mentors think?
>  >
>  > Btw, although CLAM was formally connected to MTG for a long time, it is
>  > not anymore but I am sure
>  > that was not the only reason you were interested in CLAM ;-)
>  >
>  > Xavier
>  >
>  >
>  > Michael Chinen wrote:
>  > > Hello,
>  > >
>  > > I am interested in participating in gsoc through CLAM.  I have heard a
>  > > lot of good things about UPF MTG projects and the work you folks do
>  > > overlaps with my own research, so I think CLAM makes the best fit for
>  > > me out of all the GSoC groups.
>  > >
>  > > About me: I am a graduate student in electro-acoustic music at
>  > > Dartmouth College.  My undergraduate degrees are from the University
>  > > of Washington and are in computer science and musical composition.  I
>  > > have been involved in 3 sourceforge audio projects under the handle
>  > > mchinen.  I've worked for a few small companies on big c++/C#
>  > > projects, and one big bad one working on audio dsp. On the creative
>  > > side, I have worked in a game company to do sound effects.  The music
>  > > I write is experimental and algorithmic computer music in
>  > > supercollider or lisp.  However in the past few years all my music
>  > > (including mixing) has been done in C++ and cocoa.  This is why CLAM
>  > > is intersting to me.
>  > >
>  > > I wanted to ask for some feedback on a my idea.
>  > >
>  > > -C++ Documentation by Musical Code Samples/Tutorials
>  > >   While many parts of CLAM are useful for MIR, a lot of it can also be
>  > > used for music composition.  I propose to write well documented
>  > > musical pieces in C++ that demonstrate the C++ library aspect of CLAM.
>  > >  Having well documented samples at several levels of complexity is
>  > > very helpful for the beginning user, even if he or she is well versed
>  > > in C++.  It provides a starting point as well as shows off what the
>  > > library is capable of.
>  > >   A typical musical code sample will be a completely contained C++
>  > > program that links to CLAM and outputs a wav file of the composed
>  > > piece.  It will contain a readme that explains which parts of the
>  > > library are being used to compose this piece, and the code inside will
>  > > be well commented.  The music itself will focus on taking advantage of
>  > > a CLAM component in a clever way.
>  > >   The intent is to have many small and simple examples that show how
>  > > the individual CLAM components work, and also to have two or three
>  > > larger examples that are more complex and explore what is possible
>  > > with the CLAM framework.
>  > >
>  > > I have looked at CLAM and found it to be promising, but I have not yet
>  > > programmed in it.  To select how many examples that I would make, I
>  > > think I should discuss with the developers to find out which they
>  > > believe to be the most interesting.  Please note that the parts of
>  > > CLAM used in these musical examples don't have to be just synthesis or
>  > > effects - it could be about some analysis/feature extraction tool as
>  > > well - the musical output could be based on the analysis features of
>  > > some other musical input, for instance.
>  > >
>  > > While doing this project I can also make sure the CLAM headers are
>  > > well documented and understandable for those that wish to use CLAM as
>  > > a library.
>  > >
>  > >
>  > > If this kind of project is not something that fits gsoc, please let me
>  > > know and I will try to think of another idea.  I do some analysis
>  > > synthesis noiseband-based modeling using genetic algorithms in a
>  > > project called genesynth, and maybe some of these ideas could be
>  > > incorporated into CLAM.
>
>
> Hi Michael, thanks for your interest in CLAM.
>
>  All these ideas fits in of course. Personally I'm more interested in
>  mentoring *coding* projects (there are more mentors though).
>  I like this idea of incorporating genetic algorithms (and maybe making
>  use of CLAMs spectral data?) for sound synthesis.
>
>  Cheers,
>
> Pau
>
>
>
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