3rd International Linux Audio Conference
21 - 24 April 2005 | ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany
 
Proceedings

Complete Proceedings (5 MB)

11:00 Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano
Keynote
11:45 Peter Brinkmann
MidiKinesis - MIDI controllers for (almost) any purpose

Slides Paper

MidiKinesis is a Python package that maps MIDI control change events to user-defined X events, with the purpose of controlling almost any graphical user interface using the buttons, dials, and sliders on a MIDI keyboard controller such as the Edirol PCR-30. Key ingredients are Python modules providing access to the ALSA sequencer as well as the XTest standard extension.
12:30 Lunch break
13:30 Victor Lazzarini
Extensions to the Csound Language: from User-Defined to Plugin Opcodes and Beyond

Slides Paper

This article describes the latest methods of extending the csound language. It discusses these methods in relation to the two currently available versions of the system, 4.23 and 5. After an introduction on basic aspects of the system, it explores the methods of extending it using facilities provided by the csound language itself, using user-defined opcodes. The mechanism of plugin opcodes and function table generation is then introduced as an external means of extending csound. Complementing this article, the fsig signal framework is discussed, focusing on its support for the development of spectral-processing opcodes.
14:15 Albert Gräf
Q: A Functional Programming Language for Multimedia Applications

Slides Paper

Q is a functional programming language based on term rewriting. Programs are collections of equations which are used to evaluate expressions in a symbolic fashion. Q comes with a set of extension modules which make it a viable tool for scientific programming, computer music, multimedia, and other advanced applications. In particular, Q provides special support for multimedia applications using PortAudio, libsndfile, libsamplerate, FFTW, MidiShare and OSC (including a SuperCollider interface). The paper gives a brief introduction to the Q language and its multimedia library, with a focus on the facilities for MIDI programming and the SuperCollider interface.
15:00 S.Letz, D.Fober and Y.Orlarey
jackdmp: Jack server for multiprocessor machines

Slides Paper

jackdmp is a C++ version of the Jack low-latency audio server for multi-processor machines. It is a new implementation of the jack server core features that aims in removing the limitations of the current design. The activation system has been changed for a data flow model and lock-free programming techniques for graph access have been used to have a more dynamic and robust system. We present the new design and the implementation for MacOSX.
15:45 John ffitch
On The Design of Csound5

Slides Paper

Csound has been in existence for many years, and is a direct descendant of the MusicV family. For a decade development of the system has continued, via some language changes, new operations and the necessary bug fixes. Two years ago a small group of us decided that rather than continue the incremental process, a code freeze and rethink was needed. In this paper we consider the design and aims for what has been called Csound5, and describe the processes and achievements of the implementation.
16:30 Pau Arumí and Xavier Amatriain
CLAM, an Object Oriented Framework for Audio and Music

Slides Paper

CLAM is a C++ framework that is being developed at the Music Technology Group of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain). The framework offers a complete development and research platform for the audio and music domain. Apart from offering an abstract model for audio systems, it also includes a repository of processing algorithms and data types as well as a number of tools such as audio or MIDI input/output. All these features can be exploited to build cross-platform applications or to build rapid prototypes to test signal processing algorithms.
17:15 Break
20:00 Opening Concert,
Gerard van Dongen: bb-7
Georg Holzmann: ATT
John ffitch: Boundless Space
Joachim Goßmann: Audio Fraktal
Marije Baalman: Imagines Fragosi Minorum
11:00 Ivica Ico Bukvic
Made in Linux - The Next Step

Slides download Slides Paper

It's been over half a decade since the Linux audio began to shape into a mature platform capable of impressing even the most genuine cynic. Although its progress remains unquestionable,the increasing bleed over of the GNU software onto other platforms,fragmentation of the audio software market,as well as wavering hardware support, pose as a significant threat to its long term prosperity. Made in Linux is a newly proposed incentive to create a non profit foundation that will bridge the gap between the Linux audio community and the commercial audio market in order to ensure its long term success.
11:45 Christoph Eckert
Linux Audio Usability Issues

Slides Paper

Free audio software has become very powerful the last years. Otherwise, there are still lots of confusing things which will prevent normal computer users, e.g.Musicians, to use all the amazing applications. From a user's point of view, some examples will show which circumstances can possibly cause users to give up. Some general ideas how to make applications more user friendly will be presented. Intended audience are application developers as well as documentation writers and common audio users.
12:30 Lunch break
13:30 Marije Baalman
Updates of the WONDER software interface for using Wave Field Synthesis

Slides Paper

WONDER is a software interface for using Wave Field Synthesis for audio spatialisation. Its user group is aimed to be composers or sound artists of electronic music. The program provides a graphical interface as well as the possibility to control it externally using the OpenSoundControl protocol. The paper describes improvements and updates to the program, compared to last year.
14:15 Georg Bönn
Development of a Composer's Sketchbook

Slides Paper

The goal of this paper is to present the development of an open source and cross-platform application written in C++, which serves as a sketchbook for composers. It describes how to make use of music analysis and object-oriented programming in order to model personal composition techniques. The first aim was to model main parts of my composition techniques for future projects in computer and instrumental music. Then I wanted to investigate them and to develop them towards their full potential.
11:00 Jürgen Reuter
SoundPaint - Painting Music

Slides Paper

We present a paradigm for synthesizing electronic music by graphical composing. The problem of mapping colors to sounds is studied in detail from a mathematical as well as a pragmatic point of view. We show how to map colors to sounds in a user-definable, topology preserving manner. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach on our prototype implementation of a graphical composing tool.
11:45 Michael Schüepp, Rene Widtmann, Rolf "Day" Koch and Klaus Buchheim
System design for audio record and playback with a computer using FireWire

Paper

This paper describes the problems and solutions to enable a solid and high-quality audio transfer to/from a computer with external audio interfaces and takes a look at the different elements that need to come together to allow high-quality recording and playback of audio from a computer.
12:30 Lunch break
13:30 John ffitch, Tom Natt
Recording all Output from a Student Radio Station

Slides Paper

Legal requirements for small radio stations in the UK mean, inter alia, that the student station at Bath (University Radio Bath or URB) must retain 50 days of the station's output. In addition, as it has recently become easier to transfer data using disposable media, and general technical savvy amongst presenters has improved, there is now some interest in producing personal archives of radio shows. Because existing techniques, using audio videos, were inadequate for this task, a modern, reliable system which would allow the simple extraction of any audio was needed. Reality dictated that the solution had to be cheap. We describe the simple Linux solution implemented, including the design, sizing and some surprising aspects.
14:15 Nicola Bernardini, Damien Cirotteau, Free Ekanayaka and Andrea Glorioso
AGNULA/DeMuDi - GNU/Linux and Free Software for the pro audio and sound research domain

Slides Paper

AGNULA (acronym for A GNU/Linux Audio distribution, pronounced with a strong g) is the name of a project which has been funded until April 2004 by the European Commission (number of contract: IST-2001-34879; key action IV.3.3, Free Software: towards the critical mass). After the end of the funded period, AGNULA is continuing as an inter- national, mixed volunteer/funded project, aiming to spread Free Software in the professional audio/video arena. The AGNULA team is working on a tool to reach this goal: AGNULA/DeMuDi, a GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian, entirely composed of Free Software, dedicated to professional audio research and work. This paper describes the current status of AGNULA/DeMuDi and how the AGNULA team envisions future work in this area.
15:00 Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano
Surviving on Planet CCRMA, two years later and still alive

Paper

Planet CCRMA at Home is a collection of packages that you can add to a computer running RedHat 9 or Fedora Core 1,2 or 3 to transform it into an audio workstation with a low latency kernel, current ALSA audio drivers and a nice set of music, midi, audio and video applications. This presentation will outline the changes that have happened in the Planet over the past two years (since the previous presentation at LAC2002).
11:00 Julien Claassen
Linux as a textbased Studio

Paper

This talk could also be called "ecasound textbased harddisk recording". I'm gong to demonstrate a few of the most important features of ecasound and how to make good use of them in music recording and production. This talk explains:
1. What ecasound is and what its advantages are
2. How a braille display works
3. Ecasound's basic features (playback, recording, effects and controllers)
4. A few of ecasound's more advanced features (real multitrack recording and playback and mastering)
11:45 Frank Eickhoff
"terminal rasa" - every music begins with silence

Slides Paper

In this paper i want to question some general problems in audio software development: How could an interface look like for a software which is playable like an instrument with the ability of automation? How could a GUI (Graphical User Interface) look like which doesn't look like the next version of Spaceship Enterprise but simple, pragmatic, giving a good visualization of the software processes? With the audio software project "fui" i want to present a method of solution.
12:30 Lunch break
13:30 Werner Schweer and Frank Neumann
The MusE Sequencer: Current Features and Plans for the Future

Slides Paper

The MusE MIDI/Audio Sequencer has been around in the Linux world for several years now, gaining more and more momentum. Having been a one-man project for a long time, it has slowly attracted several developers who have been given cvs write access and continuously help to improve and extend MusE. This paper briefly explains the current feature set, gives some insight into the historical development of MusE, continues with some design decisions made during its evolution, and lists planned changes and extensions.
14:15 Nasca Octavian Paul
ZynAddSubFX - an open source software synthesizer

Slides Paper

ZynAddSubFX is a open source real time software synthesizer that produces many types of sounds. This document will present ZynAddSubFX synthesizer and some ideas that are useful in synthesizing beautiful instruments without giving too much (mathematical) detail.
15:00 Stefan Westerfeld and Tim Janik
BEASTs place in the creative free music software world

Paper

BEAST is a powerful music composition and modular synthesis application. This paper describes the motivation for creating BEAST and the task BEAST wants to accomplish: providing an integrated interactive workspace for musicians. Besides the usage scenario of an all-in-one package, interoperability with other free music software is discussed, and a few technical facts on the implementation.
15:45 Paul Davis
The Ardour Digital Workstation - Software Demo
20:00 Concert Space and Time
Jan Jacob Hofmann: Tensile Elements
Paul Davis: Shimmer
Ivica Ico Bukvic: Symmetries
Jan Jacob Hofmann: Oscillating Fields
Panayiotis Kokoras: SLIDA
Ludger Brümmer: Xronos
21:30 Linux Sound Night,
Frank Barknecht
[unfortunately cancelled: ap (Martin Howse, Jonathan Kemp)]
Tim Blechmann, Thomas Charbonnel
Dave Griffiths aka nebogeo (toplap)
Streaps
--:-- Plug&Chill
11:00 Davide Fugazza and Andrea Glorioso
AGNULA Libre Music - Free Software for Free Music

Slides Paper

AGNULA Libre Music is a part of the larger AGNULA project, whose goal as a european-funded (until April 2004) and as mixed private-volunteer driven (until today) project was to spread Free Software in the professional audio and sound domains; specically, AGNULA Libre Music (ALM from now on) is a web-based datase of music pieces licensed under a "libre content" license. In this paper Andrea Glorioso (former technical manager of the AGNULA project) and Davide Fugazza (developer and maintainer of AGNULA Libre Music) will show the technical infrastructure that powers ALM, its relationship with other, similar, initiatives, and the social, political and legal issues that have motivated the birth of ALM and are driving its current development.
11:45 Dave Phillips
Where Are We Going And Why Aren't We There Yet?

Paper

A survey of Linux audio development since LAC2004. Commentary on trends and unusual development tracks, seen from an experienced user's perspective. Magic predictions and forecasts based on the author's experience as the maintainer of the Linux Sound And Music Applications website, as a professional journalist specializing in Linux audio, and as a Linux-based practicing musician.
12:30 Lunch break
13:30 Presentation of results of interest group meetings

The programme is subject to change.