Csound

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Csound is the music and audio signal processing language developed by MIT's Barry Vercoe. Csound will provide audio services for the XO computer. Csound is both a programming language and a sound synthesis engine. Csound, as included in the OLPC project, can be used by Activities or directly by the children and teachers. It can be accessed in a variety of ways. In the XO platform, two basic ways are provided:

  • Through the Python programming environment: eg. programmed in Activities.
  • Through its 'classic' command-line frontend, directly invoking it from the Terminal activity.

Further information about Csound is on their website: http://csounds.com/ or see their instructions for playing Csound in Pippy [1].

Csound code and CSD files

Csound code is most commonly written in the Unified Csound File format (CSD). This uses a XML-like tags to contain the different code elements in sections. Two of these are required: orchestra (<CsInstruments>) and score (<CsScore>) contained within the <CsoundSynthesizer> tags. Here is a trivial instrument and score:

<CsoundSynthesizer>
<CsInstruments>
instr 1
a1 oscili  p4, p5, 1 
   out a1
endin
</CsInstruments>
<CsScore>
f1 0 16384 10 1
i1 0 1 10000 440
</CsScore>
</CsoundSynthesizer> 
   

This will give you a nice 1-second sinewave beep.

MIDI playback

Csound can play back midi files. All you need is Csound code that understands MIDI and the compilation option -F <your-midi-file>. For example, if you want to build a General MIDI (GM) soundfont synthesizer for playing GM files, the following code will give a good example of how it can be done. It is based on two Csound instruments: one that parses raw MIDI data and another one that actually plays it.

 File: GM_example.csd
<CsoundSynthesizer>
<CsInstruments>
ichn = 1
lp1: massign   ichn, 0
loop_le   ichn, 1, 16, lp1
pgmassign 0, 0
gisf   sfload    "gmgsBank1.sf2"
sfpassign  0, gisf

/* this instrument parses MIDI input
   to trigger the GM soundfont synthesis
   instrument (instr 10
*/
instr 1
idkit = 317 /* drum-kit preset */
tableiw idkit, 9, 1
irel = 0.5 /* release envelope */

ipg = 1
ivol = 2
ipan = 3

nxt:
  kst, kch, kd1, kd2 midiin

  if (kst != 0) then
    kch = kch - 1
    if (kst == 144 && kd2 != 0) then ; note on
        kpg table kch, ipg 
        /* instrument identifier is 10.[chn][note] */
        kinst = 10 + kd1/100000 + kch/100  
        if kch == 9 then
         /* exclusive identifiers */
         if kpg == idkit+7 then
           krel = 2    /* add extra release time for orch perc*/
         else
           krel = 0.5
         endif
         if (kd1 == 29 || kd1 == 30) then ; EXC7
          kinst = 10.97
         elseif (kd1 == 42 || kd1 == 44 || kd1 == 46 || kd1 == 49) then ; EXC1
           kinst = 10.91
         elseif (kd1 == 71 || kd1 == 72) then ; EXC2         
           kinst = 10.92
         elseif (kd1 == 73 || kd1 == 74) then ; EXC3         
           kinst = 10.93
         elseif (kd1 == 78 || kd1 == 79) then ; EXC4         
           kinst = 10.94
         elseif (kd1 == 80 || kd1 == 81) then ; EXC5         
           kinst = 10.95
         elseif (kd1 == 86 || kd1 == 87) then ; EXC6         
           kinst = 10.96
         endif
        else
         krel = 0.5
        endif
        event "i", kinst, 0, -1, kd1, kd2, kpg, kch,krel  
     
    elseif (kst == 128 || (kst == 144 && kd2 == 0)) then ; note off
        kpg table kch, ipg
        kinst = 10 +  kd1/100000 + kch/100
        if kch == 9 then
         if (kd1 == 29 || kd1 == 30) then ; EXC7
          kinst = 10.97
         elseif (kd1 == 42 || kd1 == 44 || kd1 == 46 || kd1 == 49) then ; EXC1
           kinst = 10.91
         elseif (kd1 == 71 || kd1 == 72) then ; EXC2         
           kinst = 10.92
         elseif (kd1 == 73 || kd1 == 74) then ; EXC3         
           kinst = 10.93
         elseif (kd1 == 78 || kd1 == 79) then ; EXC4         
           kinst = 10.94
         elseif (kd1 == 80 || kd1 == 81) then ; EXC5         
           kinst = 10.95
         elseif (kd1 == 86 || kd1 == 87) then ; EXC6         
           kinst = 10.96
         endif
        else
         kpg = 0
        endif
        event "i", -kinst, 0, 1 
     
    elseif (kst == 192) then /* program change msgs */
       if kch == 9 then
         kpg = idkit
         if kd1 == 8 then
         kpg = idkit+1
         elseif kd1 == 16 then
         kpg = idkit+2
         elseif kd1 == 24 then
         kpg = idkit+3
         elseif kd1 == 25 then
         kpg = idkit+4
         elseif kd1 == 32 then
         kpg = idkit+5
         elseif kd1 == 40 then
         kpg = idkit+6
         elseif kd1 == 48 then
         kpg = idkit+7
         endif
       else
       kpg = kd1 
       endif
       tablew  kpg, kch, ipg
    elseif (kst == 176 && kd1 == 11) then /* volume msgs */
       tablew kd2, kch, ivol
    elseif (kst == 176 && kd1 == 7) then /* pan msgs    */
       tablew kd2, kch, ipan
    endif
     kgoto nxt
  endif

endin

/* this is the GM soundfont synthesizer instrument */
instr 10
kenv linenr 1,0.001,p8,0.001
iamp table p5, 5
a1, a2 sfplay p5, p4, iamp,1, p6
kv table p7, 2
kvol tablei kv, 5 
kpan  table p7, 3
kpan = (kpan - 64)/128
       outs a1*kvol*(0.5-kpan/2)*kenv, a2*kvol*(0.5+kpan/2)*kenv 
endin

</CsInstruments>
<CsScore>
/* program preset (memory) table */
f1 0 16 -2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 226 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
/* velocity (memory) table */ 
f2 0 16 -2 127 127 127 127 127 127 127 127 127 127 127 127 127 127 127 127 
/* pan (memory) table */
f3 0 16 -2 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 
f5 0 128 5 0.1 128 1   /* velocity mapping: less nuanced */
f6 0 128 5 0.01  128 1 /* velocity mapping: more nuanced */
i 1 0 360000
e
</CsScore>
</CsoundSynthesizer> 

The above example is not very typical of MIDI usage in Csound, as it handles MIDI data at its lowest level. Much simpler examples of how MIDI can be used by Csound exist. However the example is a good demonstration of how a universally-existing standard such as GM can be handled by Csound.

Csound activities

Tam Tam uses Csound, but you would never know it as its interface is designed to wrap the Csound engine with a child-friendly look and feel. This excellent grouo of Activities allows kids to make sounds, make music, jam, record and transform their voices in an intuitive way. TamTam Edit allows students to patch together Csound's opcodes (modules) and teaches them all about signals, synthesis, and synthesizers. TamTam Activities demonstrate well how the power of Csound can be harnessed in the XO platform. For more information see:

 http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Tamtam

You can see a number of activities developed by Greg for 542, mostly uploaded here:

 http://csounds.com/GregCsoundActivities.zip

Pippy uses Csound to help teach children the Python programming language and to build XO Activities.

 http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Pippy

csndsugui

You can also use csndsugui, a Python toolkit for the development of Csound-based audio and music activities. The code, plus examples and documentation, can be found in:

 http://dev.laptop.org/git/activities/csndsugui

Tutorials

See Csound tutorials for a wiki introduction to using Csound for music development.

Sample Code

  • A simple Python project using Csound to create an audible system load monitor using the standard Python Csound binding
  • TamTam uses a custom C++ wrapper around Csound and has a very large sound library available
  • Activity example shows a complete Python and Csound code for a simple Activity.