[PD] pd cheatsheet

[David Powers]

Hi,

Thanks for your help.  I will try some of the suggestions you gave.  The 
bottom line is, maybe the build I'm using is too old, but I just don't 
want to lose access to all the externals and I had great problems 
installing them individually before - until I realized the MIDI IN 
wouldn't work, this distribution was working the best for me.  Maybe I 
just don't like starting from the command line...

I will say, despite my current frustration, I do think that PD, for now, 
is great as a learning tool.  I never understood Reaktor in the past, 
but knowing some PD has allowed me to program incredibly fast in 
Reaktor! I will keep going with PD as it does certain things that 
Reaktor does not, and if I understood OSC, I might even be able to get 
the two programs to play together...  I want to program Python modules 
for Reaktor as well (okay, I lied, I know a little programming, but not 
enough to understand what people are talking about on the list most of 
the time).

I just sometimes would like the open source community to remember that 
if something is going to "catch on" with the general public, it needs to 
have certain basic "out of the box" functionality.  A little more work 
on GUI and provision of a library of oscillators, samplers, and grain-synthesis 
externals, WITH FULL DOCUMENTATION, would go a huge way towards making 
PD competitive with the commercial software packages.  
And, of course, a complete Windoze binary distribution which includes 
the important external libraries, and works (okay I know some of you hate 
it but it works)!

However I will still find uses for PD in the meantime, it is much better 
for testing a concept with dataflow or data manupulation than Reaktor, 
even if Reaktor has more tools right now to create a finished "performance".

~David

jmmmp wrote:

> I'm sorry that I can't help now - I use the other distribution, and as 
> I  still have a slow connection (and now not so much free time), I 
> can't  download the other installation and try it myself. Maybe it 
> would help to  see where you got this version and ask the e-mail 
> contact that might be  there directly (that doesn't seem to be the 
> original Puckette build), or  check Help->about pd and say to the list 
> exactly which version you have  (until now I thought we were speaking 
> about the same thing).
> can you open the .exe from the command window with the flags you need? 
> (I  don't know this distribution, but that would make sense)
>
> if you had the time, you could try to install the "official" version  
> (which you can get in http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html), and 
> then  the externals individually. it isn't that hard, and when you do 
> it once  you do it thousands of times - but if you have already too 
> much on your  mind, then leave it for later.
>
>
>> 1.  Midi In doesn't work.  And the Midi Setup will NOT let me fix 
>> it!   It "sees" the devices but it refuses to enable them.  It says 
>> PD needs a  flag on startup, which I can't supply because my PD does 
>> not start the  normal way (as I'm trying to explain).
>
>
>
>> 2.  The cheatsheet doesn't exist in my PD.
>
>
> that I find strange, and doesn't make that much sense - maybe it was  
> forgotten somewhere. Anyway, I can send you my copy. As I said before, 
> put  it in [pd]/doc/5.reference and it should open automatically - if 
> not, open  it yourself with your text editor.
> Specific to my copy is that I added all the externals that I have  
> installed. the objects are originally divided into categories, and  
> somewhen comes the ";" symbol - after that are externals (which you 
> should  also have, if your version comes with everything).
>
>
>
>> I'm using Reaktor for now, I wanted to do open source but I see that 
>> PD  is just not developed enough yet for the "average" user.  It's a 
>> shame  though, as some operations I can do better with PD objects 
>> (though I  wish PD had the granular samplers and oscillators of 
>> Reaktor as built-in  abstractions or externals).  I'm a composer 
>> though, not a programmer,  and I have an August 11 performance I have 
>> to be ready for.  I can't  afford waste time trying to fix broken 
>> things in a program, when I can  be making tools instead.  And 
>> honestly, right now Reaktor adapts to "my"  ideas that I imagine in 
>> my head much better than PD.  PD has the  potential but I think needs 
>> to be developed farther and with more  attention for the "average" 
>> user needs.
>
>
> well, the most important of all is that each one can go further with 
> their  work, no matter if he uses pd, reaktor or excel.
> I don't know Reaktor (but have always heard good about it), but the 
> main  advantage of pd is also it's biggest frustration: to work with 
> it you must  really know what's going on in all levels. it's good 
> because you get the  knowledge which will later allow you to make your 
> own personal ideas come  true, but it'll take you some time before you 
> can get there and really do  something which sounds nice. I'm also a 
> composer and not a programmer  (never had a programming class or read 
> a computer manual). and with this  kind of practice you'll also learn 
> a lot about acoustics, electronic  music, etc.  if you have some free 
> weeks in the summer you can download  Puckette's book (don't have the 
> link now, try the above mentioned site)  and read through it and try 
> out the examples in pd - that is, if pd is for  you. if not, then 
> better use what it suits you best.
>
>
> when you reply, you should use the "reply to all" button. one 
> specificity  of this list is that if you do only "reply", you reply 
> only to the guy who  wrote the previous mail (that I find not so 
> efficient, but they're used to  it).
>
> good luck,
>
> João