Synthesis oriented dilemas

Hi! I’ve made a Rampcode tutorial video in spanish: https://youtu.be/-02ac-z__6E. Anyway, I think it is possible to look at the code an the oscilloscope and understand what’s happening. There is an Atom package available made by Reo Matsumoto (pndmix).

Rampcode is a live coding system I use to play and I’m working on it: https://github.com/gabochi/rampcode. It is based on bytebeat, meaning all audio output is a direct result of an expression (which only variable or input is a regular increment, a ramp signal). So, more than a sequencer or processor, it is very synthesis oriented BUT you’ll notice that I’m very interested in rhythm too so I’m always trying to balance or conciliate these aspects. Since it uses basic logic and math, it is very versatile depending on your knowledge or lucky experimental skills.

The video explains from the basic concepts to the last updates: how to subdivide the signal, making sawtooth and square waves, gates, envelopes, counters, AM, sinewaves, FM, noise, arpeggios, and the recent feature of controlling the expression with another expression, a way to interfere the input signal to create repetition, pitch changing and any other crazy behavior you can code.

To get an idea of the possible results you can skip to 1:20:00 aprox. and then go back to the start and see how you get there. All suggestions, contributions of any kind to the project and comments are very welcome.

I have some questions:

  • Do you think a synthesis oriented language goes in detriment of live coding in the sense that it takes more time to put together something like a pattern?

  • Do you find math and logic interesting in the performance or does the fact that there are almost no words really rejects you? Is it very hard for someone that’s used to sample based technique or does not handle synthesis and dsp concepts?

  • How do you think I could simplify the syntax without loosing synthesis power/possibilities?

  • Are there more similar or related stuff that could inspire or enrich these kind of projects?