Proposal: Abstraction over the DSP graph

[Karl MacMillan]

This is from the jmax list ( a post by John Whitley) and I had some
questions about the description of PD.

<snipped portion describes block~ for jmax users>

> Miller's DSP graph abstraction technique solves a problem that has
> been bugging me for years: how, within the visual language of Max, to
> avoid needless rote duplication.
> 
> A class that abstracts over a portion of the DSP graph can have
> considerable expressive power.  Two more sample applications of this
> technique immediately come to mind:
> 
>  * "voice~" A voxalloc class reimplemented via DSP graph abstraction
>    within a patcher.  voice~'s leftmost input is a control data input,
>    similar to the current voxalloc.  Other inputs are duplicated in a
>    straightforward fashion.  The contents of the patcher represents a
>    single prototypical voice, duplicated according to the number of
>    voices required.  Each voice is transparently switch~'ed on only
>    when required, and the outputs of all voices are summed as with
>    block~.
> 
>  * A "bus~ <N>" class, that causes N copies of the patcher to be
>    connected in series, the output of each connected to the input of
>    the next.  (Offhand, I recall seeing a Shepard tone patch on the
>    ISPW that used this bus technique.)

Is the block~ object the only one that implements this type of
abstraction at the moment?  Has anyone done something like voice~?  Any
clarification about how this is currently implemented would be
appreciated.

Karl


-- 
_____________________________________________________
| Karl W. MacMillan                                 |
| Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University |
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| karlmac at peabody.jhu.edu                           |
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