[linux-audio-dev] XAP: a polemic

Paul Davis paul at linuxaudiosystems.com
Sat Dec 14 18:35:01 UTC 2002


>>	* Is there a good reason to make event system timestamps
>>	  relate to musical time rather than audio time?
>>
>Again, I would rather let the timestamps deal with audio time.  Hosts 
>which work in bars/beats/frames
>should be capable of doing the necessary conversion.  Remember, there 

you're ignoring *plugins* that want to work with B|b|t durations. the
canonical examples that i've mentioned several times are tempo-synced
LFO's and delays. these can either be plugins on their own or more
likely for XAP, integrated into a modulation section of an
"instrument".

>are plenty of parameters which might need some time indications but
>which are completely unrelated to notions of tempo.  I'm thinking
>mostly about LFOs and other modualtion sources here (although there
>might be good grounds for lumping these in with frequency controlled
>parameters.)  Just as I would rather

yes, sometimes you might want to control them quite independently of
tempo. but lots of the most interesting instruments in the software
synth world now allow tempo sync as an option, and its very nice to
have it available. 

>see pitch control make as few assumptions as possible about tuning
>and temperament, I would like to see time control make as few
>assumptions as possible about tempo and duration.  Sequencers
>generally do operate within the shared assumptions of traditional
>concepts of periodic rhythm, but in a lot of music (from pure ambient
>to many non-Western musics to much avant-garde music) such notions
>are irrelevant at best.

true, and i've been known to make this point myself. but the fact that
there is a lot of music in which periodic rythmn is irrelevant doesn't
erase all the music in which its a central organizing principle. coming 
up with an API that doesn't facilitate periodic (even if highly
variable) structure when arranging things in time makes working with
such music more cumbersome than it need be, some of the time.

--p



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