2CAudio Kaleidoscope | It's A Trip | Latest Update 1.1

[aMUSEd]

Does the Architecture Vol. 1 KS version have presets for KS? besides the images, waves, and scales?

Very cool demo so far. I have a bad feeling that the money in my pocket will eventually end up in your pocket.

No presets in AV1.

The Kaleidoscope Demo contains: • 747 Total Files • 250 Presets • 347 Images • 115 Scales • 35 Waveforms

Kaleidoscope Retail contains: • 2,477 Total Files • 1,166 Presets • 945 Images • 254 Scales • 92 Waveforms

Architecture Volume 01 KS contains: • 14,059 Total Files • 7,696 Images • 4,545 Scales • 1,818 Waveforms

Architecture Waveforms 2010 contains: • 25,724 Waveforms

If you have your own waveforms where is it best to put them so they also show in the browser? Can that be done? What sort of waveforms work best?

[rustman]

Also, are the demo files a subset of the A01 KS option or will 01 KS add 14,000+ files to what is in the demo?

I'm not clear on the waveform stuff yet. I assume that my 32 bit A2010 waveforms are of no use here? Would I benefit from buying them again in 64 bit?

[Andrew Souter]

If you have your own waveforms where is it best to put them so they also show in the browser? Can that be done? What sort of waveforms work best?

From the manual:

File Formats

Image Formats

Images should be either:

• 24-bit PNG (8-bit per channel RGB, no Alpha transparency channel)
• 48-bit PNG (16-bit per channel RGB, no Alpha transparency channel)

Kaleidoscope used the Red and Green channel of these images. Red is used for the left audio channel, and Green is used for the right audio channel. Blue is disregarded completely. Kaleidoscope can remap these color channels to achieve different color schemes on the GUI, but new images should always be designed and saved to disk using the Red and Green channels.

Image size should be 1024x1024 pixels – even numbered pixels are used for up to 512 resonator lines. This allows for future expansion.

Scale Tuning Format

Scale Tuning Files are text files that loosely follow the Scala file format syntax developed by Manuel Op de Coul in the Netherlands. Those interested in alternative tuning theory and practice are encouraged to go here:

http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/

• The first line should start with a “!” and then list the file name.
• The second line should be only a “!” character.
• The third line can contain comments or be blank/empty.
• The forth line should specify the number of Ratios in the file
• The fifth line should be only a “!” character
• The remaining lines should specify the tuning ratios for each line Example:

!Semitones.txt
!
12-Tone Equal Temperament 12
!
1.000000
1.059463
1.122462
1.189207
1.259921
1.334839
1.414213
1.498307
1.587401
1.681792
1.781797
1.887748

Tuning ratios can be decimal in full double precision floating point or fractions with the numerator and denominator separated by a “/” symbol.

Waveform Tuning Format

Microsoft WAV format audio files are used to implement the tuning data. The files should be 64-bit floating point and Mono.

Waveforms must be 2048 samples long. (This is for future expansion) Every 4th sample in the waveform is used to achieve the (current) 512 samples tuning table. The Sample rate header does not matter.

Files should go inside /2CAudio Resource Library/ in their respective folders. There is a User folder in all of there. Prob best to put your files inside /user/ There are no directory rules inside the Resource library other than this. So you make as many sub-folders as needed. Well one rule: don't put files and folders at the same directory level. A folder should contain only more folders, OR files. NOT both!

As for what works best in terms of waveform content? That is a completely open ended question, and there is really no good answer for it. This is completely uncharted territory afaik...

Waveform tuning mode is generally going to result in atonal, non-musical, sound-design-oriented tonalities. You're not generally going to generator pretty chords/melodies this way. But this is VERY, VERY fertile ground for sound-design for visual media, and to make "one-hit" special FXs for example....


the general idea:

Additionally and perhaps even more importantly to sound-designers, Kaleidoscope is not only concerned with “musical” sound. It is concerned with all sound. Traditionally musical organization of sound is a very small subset of all sound that is possible. Every human being on earth, as well as every other creature, intelligent or not, here and elsewhere, is exposed on a daily basis to audio signals that follow much different organization principals. Animal sounds, nature sounds, mechanical-industrial sounds, sounds from deep space, music of the spheres, galactic radiation, alien sounds (?) etc. all have their own organizational principles. The good news is that with the right tuning and the right Image Map performance it is possible to emulate such sounds, as well as create an entirely new universe of sounds that have never before been heard – at least by us humans.

All sound in the universe is created by one form of resonance or another. Everything in nature can be modeled through the summation of sine waves and exponentials. Kaleidoscope’s Spring resonators produce exponentially decaying sine waves. Summing them together at different frequencies and time varying amounts can, in theory, effectively model anything and everything.

In addition to allowing the reference frequency to be set as a musical note and using standard musical tunings in the form of scale files Kaleidoscope can also set the tuning of each resonator in:

• Absolute Hertz: useful to match exactly measured resonances of real physical objects or “healing music”
• Period in Seconds
• Size in Meters: useful to model resonances of large acoustic spaces to create reverb presets using String modes
• BPM and Sync Period: useful to create tempo synced delay effects using String and FIR modes

WAVEFORM TUNINGS
In effort to completely blow your mind, we also allow the use of Waveforms to function as tuning maps. Galbanum Architecture Waveforms for example, can be used in place of Scale files as tuning functions. We offer two bipolar waveform modes where the waveform function is centered on a reference note or frequency, which are good for creating microtonal clusters and spectrums. We also offer a Min and Max Hertz mode where the waveform tuning function is scaled to fit perfectly within the specified hertz range. You could for example, decide you needed some additional textural special effect in your mostly complete, dense electronic music mix. You could look at a spectrum analyzer and find some area of lower energy and use the Waveform Min Max Hertz mode to confine your new sound effect only to this range. Alternatively you might need some eerie high frequency texture effect to wind up the tension and cue impending doom in the sci-fi movie or game you are doing sound-design for. Or perhaps some textural sub-bass drone to emulate the sound of space ship warp drives in homage to Ridley Scott?

Stop wasting time searching through sample libraries for the perfect sound effect that fits your production needs. Instead simply generate a unique one that no one else has completely from scratch according to your exact and specific needs. Waveform tuning modes are excellent for creating experimental atonal special effects!

As you can see above, unlike FFT-based solutions, tunings do not need to be in order. Any resonator line can have any perfectly precise tuning ratio. Gaps between the frequencies of two adjacent resonators can be completely arbitrary and variable. Out-of-order tunings, such as occurs when adding Partials, can produce quite interesting results even with simple Image Maps. A simple diagonal gradient Image Map will give a filter sweep effect for example if the tuning is in- order, but the result will be much more complex and interesting if the tuning is out-of order. Kaleidoscope can optionally sort a given tuning so that the frequency of each resonator line is either in ascending or descending order. This is useful to try different variations of the same spectral content. Additionally, in-order tunings are a bit easier to think about and intuitively grasp the impact of the Image Map, which can be helpful when first learning Kaleidoscope.

Short version: waveform tuning is highly experimental and ripe for discovery.

[Andrew Souter]

Also, are the demo files a subset of the A01 KS option or will 01 KS add 14,000+ files to what is in the demo?

In general: I have been making more resources for KS. I have all the original AV1 content, reformatted for KS, plus I have new materials I have stated to make while developing KS. Beta testers had this material also. Presets are made by selecting resources to use and then making all the additional settings in KS. In the end we collected whatever was used in presets and included this as the factory Resource Library. So, some (a lot) of it came from AV1. So there are duplicates between the factory Bank and the AV1 collection. But it's less than 10%.

I also added about 1100 new images to the AV1 KS collection that were not int he original AV1. This is new stuff I made while developing KS. This is actually some of the coolest images, like the "Scalar" folders and new rhythmic stuff... I used a lot of this in the factory content.

I'm not clear on the waveform stuff yet. I assume that my 32 bit A2010 waveforms are of no use here? Would I benefit from buying them again in 64 bit?

You do need the 64-bit format yes. If you have any other format of this already you can get it for 50% off.

As to whether or not you would benefit? I don't know. Waveform tuning mode is great for the reasons explained above, but it is not for everyone. If you want to use KS for purely musical things, probably it is not needed. If you are a sound-designer for visual media, or like experimental things and like to explore new areas of possibility then yes. I figure the 1,818 waveforms in AV1 are enough to satisfy the casual user, so I don't try to make everyone buy the full 2010 waveforms set at this point. Purely optional.

The thing about waveforms is this: a scale consists of fixed ratios, say semitones for example. Every step is always the same ratio and always results in same absolute frequency when applied to the same reference pitch. A waveform is more like a "relative geometry" you scale it to fit any frequency range you would like.

Therefore a SINGLE waveform can really be used to create an infinite number of tonality sets. For example if you use a Sine waveform that is scaled to occupy the space of one semitone, it is going to sound completely different than a sine waveform that is scaled to stretch from 20 to 20,000 Hz. Or 1 to 100,000 Hz, or something even more extreme.

So for atonal/experimental, generally non-musical tonalities/spectrums, using waveforms is more powerful than using scales...

Depends on what you want to do with KS if this is useful or not to you...

Hope it helps.

[aMUSEd]

Why do they have to be 64 bit? That's a bit of a problem, I think most of my wav samples are 24-32 bit max. Would they just not load?

[rustman]

Also, are the demo files a subset of the A01 KS option or will 01 KS add 14,000+ files to what is in the demo?

I'm not clear on the waveform stuff yet. I assume that my 32 bit A2010 waveforms are of no use here? Would I benefit from buying them again in 64 bit?

I just bought KS and A01 KS anyway...

[Andrew Souter]

Why do they have to be 64 bit? That's a bit of a problem, I think most of my wav samples are 24-32 bit max. Would they just not load?

Need to be 64-bit, 2048-pt. Dem's da rules.

[Andrew Souter]

I just bought KS and A01 KS anyway...

Cool. Welcome!

[aMUSEd]

If I buy Architecture too will it also work in Metasynth?

AV01 KS will NOT work with Metasynth.

The original AV1 will of course.

I can make some kind of small "add another format" charge, like I have for Architecture Waveforms. Let's say $25 for AV1 if you want both AV1 for KS and AV1 for MS. You can do that after the fact. Does not need to be in the same purchase if you like.

OK I'm just trying to work out how to do this.

Bump

[Andrew Souter]

Regarding an earlier comment about "the developer being obsessed with his own content", as you see above all file formats are industry standard and all files are isolated and fully exposed directories in the resource library. Whoever is ambitious enough to make their own scales, images, waveforms, is more than welcome to do it. This is why we have the various import commands. But it has been my experience with these things, that it is a small percent of user-base who wants to get this deep. But maybe I will be surprised. We are listening, if bunch of people request this kind of control...

the other thing to realize is that this forum may represent the top 1% or so of knowledgeable people on these topics, so you guys requesting this are far more advanced than most... but it is a product for advanced users, it's true... so again, if you guys keep requesting, we are listening...

But I really believe development of these kind of things is best done as a separate process, and then put into a library to choose from when doing higher level preset design and actually using the product for music, or sound-design for visual media etc.

The textual tools someone mentioned earlier do look pretty cool. I would suggest if you use them to make a bunch and then import to your library. Then explore them in use. More efficient that way. One picture can sound VERY different do to the myriad of variables in how it can be used.

Our resource browser can easily and efficiently handle hundreds of thousands of files, which you have always available at all times, and load pretty much instantly from a fast hard drive.

[abstractcats]

Abou 2min, from buying, BUT cant get the demo working, in FLS 11. (it wont load into the Pattern list, tells me to try it in the mixer FX section, I assume thats right) but cant get any sound from it.

[Andrew Souter]

also DON"T put stuff in our factory folders. We CAN NOT garanteee that our installers will preserve it if you do this. Factory content is assumed to be ours, and our installers may want to overwrite and/or update it. Best to keep stuff in the USER directories to be sure.

[Andrew Souter]

If I buy Architecture too will it also work in Metasynth?

AV01 KS will NOT work with Metasynth.

The original AV1 will of course.

I can make some kind of small "add another format" charge, like I have for Architecture Waveforms. Let's say $25 for AV1 if you want both AV1 for KS and AV1 for MS. You can do that after the fact. Does not need to be in the same purchase if you like.

OK I'm just trying to work out how to do this.

Bump

send me an email with your real name etc.

[Andrew Souter]

Abou 2min, from buying, BUT cant get the demo working, in FLS 11. (it wont load into the Pattern list, tells me to try it in the mixer FX section, I assume thats right) but cant get any sound from it.

To get sound you need to:

1) Authorize (enter SN) if you are using the full version (or make sure Demo is still active if using Demo)
2) Link to the Resource Library
3) Load a preset. You should see an image in the image display area, NOT a completely black area.
4) Feed KS some input signal, or set white to 200% and lock.
5) Start playback in host (if Phase Lock is set to "To Host" as is the default -- if set to "Internal" the clock will be free-running, always on)

Does it help?

[abstractcats]

Abou 2min, from buying, BUT cant get the demo working, in FLS 11. (it wont load into the Pattern list, tells me to try it in the mixer FX section, I assume thats right) but cant get any sound from it.

To get sound you need to:

1) Authorize (enter SN) if you are using the full version (or make sure Demo is still active if using Demo)
2) Link to the Resource Library
3) Load a preset. You should see an image in the image display area, NOT a completely black area.
4) Feed KS some input signal, or set white to 200% and lock.
5) Start playback in host (if Phase Lock is set to "To Host" as is the default -- if set to "Internal" the clock will be free-running, always on)

Does it help?

DOH! Yeah, that did the trick! Thanks. Feeding it wave files and images NICE! SOLD! Thanks I've only had a min. with. I assume, I can add my own images?