[PD] Cubemixer with hdsp and 8 lodspeakers?

[rodrigo at anorg.net]

hello again,

I'm trying to set up the CUBEmixer now, but there's a problem with the
first-order-ambisonics setting. I cannot set the value to 1 (it seems to
be the last argument of the "The_MIXER~" abstraction). There is no
abstraction with the name "1_ambi_enc~". Is this a problem?
I also cannot find the equivalent to the angles.mtx file. There is a
compensation.txt file. This is, I think, the equivalent to the
calibrate.mtx file in the abcdefg. I' a right?
There is an "sr_list.txt" file, but it is empty.

One more problem. There are a number of errors in the DSP patch:

error: Bad arguments for message 'plugin~' to object 'objectmaker'
 plugin~ $0 COMPANDER $1 $2
... couldn't create
error: Bad arguments for message 'plugin~' to object 'objectmaker'
 plugin~ $0 DISTANCE $1 $2
... couldn't create
(a lot more of this kind) (I have plugin~ installed)

number_of_zeros_in_decoder:: 44
error: aconnect: Connection failed (Invalid argument)
(10 aconnect errors like this)
tried but couldn't sync A/D/A

Aconnect has something to do with alsa right? Alsa is doing funny things
with the hdsp (distorted signals). It works with oss, though. Is alsa
necessary (I'm using debian sid)?

About the abcdefg:
Of course I would like to use the CUBEmixer, but for the tests I'm doing
now, I can stick to the abcdefg. I need to find out what channel gets
assigned to what speaker. About the automatic patch generation of the
abcdefg: I certainly want to edit the patch. Probably I can save the
generated patches, kick all the object creators out, and start them
without the script, or make my own.

Thanks a lot for your help!

rodrigo







> hi
>
> rodrigo at anorg.net wrote:
>> I made some progress thanks. I took a look at the abcdefg 3D-Mixer from
>> IOhannes (great stuff), which was a little easier for me to understand:
>> http://puredata.info/Members/zmoelnig/abcdefg
>>
>> and it has a documentation(!):
>> http://iem.at/~zmoelnig/publications/abcde/
>>
>> I think this is much more fun than computing b-format files, because
>> evrything can be done in realtime. I still have to check out which
>> output
>> channel gets asigned to what speaker. I think this must correspond to
>> the
>> order of the angles.mtx file, where the positions of the speakers are
>> written, but I'm getting some funny sound positions. Most probably some
>> mystake of mine.
>> It was rather easy to set everything up until now. Just a few more
>> questions.
>
>> - Is the cubemixer better (dispite of the gui) than the abcdefg-3Dmixer?
>> It looks more fancy, but is there some important feature I'm missing?
>
> well the CUBEmixer is kind of "abcdefg-ng".
> i wrote abcdefg as my thesis somewhen in 2002. CUBEmixer has been
> written in 2005 by a team of "senior" (the youngest coming into the
> 30ies...) programmers.

ok.

>
> in abcdefg, a lot of things or done automagically: this in theory should
> ease the setup of such a system. iirc, it even automtically degrades the
> order of the ambisonic system if you only have a limited number of
> speakers (e.g. 8).
> while the AUTO is cool the MAGIC used to be a pain, since it takes a lot
> of thought if you want to customize the whole system (patches are
> autogenerated at runtime; editing these patches is a no-no.)
> furthermore, abcdefg is not actively maintained any more (i haven't
> looked into it for years...)

>
> CUBEmixer on the other hand is much more static. but it has a
> plugin/extension architecture (which of course is badly documented...)
> which allows you to customize it much more easily.
> the features of CUBEmixer are based on our experiences with composers
> who wanted to "just use" our system, but had several ideas of "extras"
> (like being able to route several channels directly to a speaker,...)
> it is the software that we are currently using (heavily!): it is work in
> progress, which means that bugs are fixed all the time.
> otoh, it is currently really an expert system.
>
>
>>
>> - IOhannes wrote: "you will also have to reduce the ambisonics order to
>> 1st
>> order only (which is b-format) since the number of loudspeakers must be
>> =
>> the number of ambisonic channels which are (n+1)² (with n being the
>> order)"
>> How do I reduce the ambisonic order in the abcdefg? Is this necesary for
>> the abcdfg? Is it just about reducing the number of output channels from
>> the encoder, in the abcdefg.conf file?
>
> if i only knew ;-(
> as said above, in theory it should be enough if the angles.mtx just
> defines 8 speakers - the degredation should be done automatically. if
> you can set the ambisonic order in the abcdefg.conf file, you should of
> course do it (i don't have abcdefg installed on my machine, so i cannot
> check)
>
>>
>> - I've read in the documentation, that for sounds to come from the
>> bottom,
>> one has to put loudspeakers on the floor. Are the elevation angles for
>> the
>> position of the speakers in the angles.mtx file negative? Like 0 -90?
>
> correct (although i wonder how you will put the speaker at this
> position: most of the time you will not be able to produce sound that
> will appear to come from below, unless you are able to put the audience
> at a bridge in the middle of the room)
>
> mfga.sdr.
> IOhannes
>