[PD] simple dynamic instancing and connection of abstractions

[Dan Wilcox]

Howdy Scott,

you can do this without dynamic patching using clone and (send~/receive~) or (throw~/catch~) objects.

I believe I sent someone an example some months ago but the use case was dynamically routing 8 channel file output to dac~ channels randomly:

https://github.com/danomatika/BangYourHead/tree/master/3.Audio/rand8player <https://github.com/danomatika/BangYourHead/tree/master/3.Audio/rand8player>

The idea is the same though: abstractions loaded in clone objects which route input to output and apply gain and/or pan, etc in between. To enable/disable, I generally use switch~ plus a gain ramp to avoid clicks. When an abstraction is switched off, you save a good amount of CPU so it's worth adding. You then send control messages into clone with the id or all prepended. If you have gain fading and the timing right, you can avoid clicks when configuring connections on the fly.

This approach works well when you know the upper limit of the various components, ie. you have a max of 64 outputs, etc. It is harder if you want true dynamic allocation (although wrapper abstractions help).

If you want a deployed example check out the Zirkonium spatialization server: https://github.com/zkmkarlsruhe/ZirkoniumSpatializationServer <https://github.com/zkmkarlsruhe/ZirkoniumSpatializationServer>

It has multiple layers which can be dynamically configured:
* inputs: adc~
* sourcefiles: up to 8 channels each
* ids: maps input or source file channel to spatialized location (ie. vbap gains per speaker) or direct output channel
* speaker: virtual speaker, receives spatialized id audio and maps to output
* outputs: dac~

By default, there are 64 instances for each layer.

There is also a `modularization` branch which abstracts the zirk_server so you can pass the number of layer objects used by clone via creation arguments. This allows for creating more or fewer instances, as needed but not via dynamic patching, ala zirk_server64.pd is just a wrapper for zirk_server.pd with "[zirk_server 64 64 64 64 64]" inside.

https://github.com/zkmkarlsruhe/ZirkoniumSpatializationServer/tree/modularization <https://github.com/zkmkarlsruhe/ZirkoniumSpatializationServer/tree/modularization>

I may make a simpler input -> id -> output example at some point as the Zirkonium server is admittedly overkill to learn from.

> On Dec 8, 2021, at 3:16 PM, pd-list-request at lists.iem.at wrote:
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2021 04:31:03 -0800
> From: "Scott R. Looney" <scottrlooney at gmail.com <mailto:scottrlooney at gmail.com>>
> To: pd-list <pd-list at lists.iem.at <mailto:pd-list at lists.iem.at>>
> Subject: [PD] simple dynamic instancing and connection of abstractions
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAAo07Q0CXKijqfpdnz=HeOajc25+pzcF2QeuDm=96q0ubLX-+g at mail.gmail.com <mailto:CAAo07Q0CXKijqfpdnz=HeOajc25+pzcF2QeuDm=96q0ubLX-+g at mail.gmail.com>>
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> 
> hi folks, since Alexander was just covering dynamic patching in PD on the
> puredata.info <http://puredata.info/> site i thought i might inquire about options for dynamic
> patching. i've perused a few libraries like iemguts, and a new one called
> clj-puredata using Clojure. i sent this to the dev about my use case and i
> thought i'd post it here for some advice:
> 
> i want the player/user to be able to dynamically add or remove instruments
> from a patch that is already loaded, in a live performance situation.
> 
> i'm planning to have a master module patch with 8 slots for 8 instruments
> with approximately 10 control inlets and 2 signal outlets. i have currently
> 3 unique instruments to load, and planning on more. all of the instruments
> have exactly the same amount of inlets/outlets. all i need to do is load
> them up, hook the I/O up to the slot, and delete them when desired. the
> instruments will be abstractions, not subpatches.
> 
> i would just need a way for the slot to know when an abstraction is loaded
> or deleted. i can uniquely name each slot if that would work better for
> this, though i could probably have a flag, number or string indicating what
> state the slot is in - like 'add', 'remove', 'active' and 'disabled' or
> whatever.
> 
> i have briefly watched a bit of the Youtube video on dynamic patching, but
> rather than roll my own i thought i'd inquire about libraries or externals
> that could handle it. i think iemguts can handle the querying it seems, but
> the docs don't make it clear how objects (abstractions) are instanced and
> deleted or connected. i don't need to move anything - just load and connect
> an abstraction directly under a slot or delete it. any help appreciated!
> 
> scott

--------
Dan Wilcox
@danomatika <http://twitter.com/danomatika>
danomatika.com <http://danomatika.com/>
robotcowboy.com <http://robotcowboy.com/>



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