Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
512 lines (322 loc) · 13.7 KB

FxFamily.md

File metadata and controls

512 lines (322 loc) · 13.7 KB

Family of effects

There is a family of effects that are common to electronic music. The module `Csound.Air.Fx.FxBox' defines many typical effects. This code can turn your code into a pedalboard! We can use effects as spice for the tibre. It defines useful functions for typical guitar effects and defines shortcuts to quickly add the effects to your instrument, also it has support for UI. We can not only add effects but also tweak them in real time just like we do it with guitar stompboxes.

All effects are kindly provided by Iain McCurdy and recoded from the original csound files.

To make things more fun I've given names to all instruments. So let's get aquinted to the family of effects:

  • adele - analog delay

  • pongy - ping-pong delay

  • magnus - magnetic tape echo

  • tort - distortion

  • fowler - envelope follower

  • revsy - reverses audio stream

  • flan - flanger

  • phasy - phaser

  • crusher - bit crusher

  • chory - chorus

  • pany - auto-pan

  • tremy - tremolo

  • ringo -- ring modulation

Reverbs:

    room, chamber, hall, cave

Almost all effects have normalized parameters (belong to the interval 0 to 1).

Effects

Adele - analog delay

It's single delay line with low-pass filter in the feedback:

adele :: Sigs a => Balance -> DelayTime -> Feedback -> ToneSig -> a -> a

arguments are:

  • balance -- dry/wet ratio (0, 1)

  • delay-time measured in seconds

  • feedback level (0, 1)

  • tone -- low-pass filter center frequency (0, 1)

If tone is low the echoes are muddy (or muted) and if it's high the echoes are as bright as original signal.

Pongy - ping-pong delay

It's a special version of ping-pong delay. The dry/wet ratio and feedback are controlled with the same parameter.

pongy :: Sigs a => Feedback -> DelayTime -> a -> SE a
pongy feedback delayTime

The signature is generic but it's intended to be used with stereo signals or tuples of stereo signals. It can be used like this:

dac $ pongy $ loopWav 1 "vox.wav"

Magnus - magnetic tape echo/delay

It's a simulation of magnetic tape delay (as found in Roland Space Echo). Original code is developed by Jon Downing, then it was ported to CE.

magnus :: Sigs a => D -> DelayTime -> Feedback -> EchoGain -> ToneSig -> RandomSpreadSig -> a -> a
magnus size feedback echoGain tone randomSpread ain

Arguments:

  • size - how many heads in the tape
  • feedback - controls the number of repeats
  • echo gain - prominence of echo effect
  • tone - normalized center frequency of the filter (0 to 1)
  • randomSpread - quality of the tape (the higher - the worser)

Reverbs

There are usefull functions to easily add a reverb:

room, chamber, hall, cave :: Sigs a => Balance -> a -> a

The first argument is dry/wet ratio.

Tort - distortion

Distortion can make your instrument scream.

tort :: Sigs a => DriveSig -> ToneSig -> a -> a

The arguments are:

  • drive -- amount of distortion (0, 1).

  • tone -- the level of center frequency of the low-pass filter (0, 1).

Fowler - envelope follower

Envelope follower applies a low-pass filter to the audio and the center frequency is controlled by the amplitude of the signal (RMS-level).

fowler :: Sigs a => SensitivitySig -> BaseCps -> Resonance -> a -> a

Arguments:

  • sensitivity -- sensitivity of the envelope follower (suggested range: 0 to 1)

  • baseFrequencyRatio -- base frequency of the filter before modulation by the input dynamics (range: 0 to 1)

  • resonance -- resonance of the lowpass filter (suggested range: 0 to 1)

Revsy - reversing the audio

An effect that reverses an audio stream in chunks

revsy :: Sigs a => TimeSig -> a -> a

time -- the size of the chunck in seconds.

Flan - flanger

A flanger effect following the typical design of a so called 'stomp box'

flan :: Sigs a => RateSig -> DepthSig -> DelayTime -> Feedback -> a -> a

Arguments

  • rate -- rate control of the lfo of the effect NOT IN HERTZ (range 0 to 1)

  • depth -- depth of the lfo of the effect (range 0 to 1)

  • delayTime -- static delay offset of the flanging effect (range 0 to 1)

  • feedback -- feedback and therefore intensity of the effect (range 0 to 1)

phasy - phaser

An phase shifting effect that mimics the design of a so called 'stomp box'

phasy :: Sigs a => RateSig -> DepthSig -> BaseCps -> Feedback -> a -> a
phasy rate depth freq fback ain

Arguments:

  • rate -- rate of lfo of the effect (range 0 to 1)

  • depth -- depth of lfo of the effect (range 0 to 1)

  • freq -- centre frequency of the phase shifting effect in octaves (suggested range 0 to 1)

  • fback -- feedback and therefore intensity of the effect (range 0 to 1)

Crusher - bit crusher

crusher :: Sigs a => BitsReductionSig -> FoldoverSig -> a -> a
crusher  bits fold ain = ...

'Low Fidelity' distorting effects of bit reduction and downsampling (foldover)

Arguments

  • bits -- bit depth reduction (range 0 to 1)

  • fold -- amount of foldover (range 0 to 1)

Chory - stereo chorus

chory :: RateSig -> DepthSig -> WidthSig -> Sig2 -> Sig2
chory rate depth width (ainLeft, ainRight)

Arguments

  • rate -- rate control of the lfo of the effect NOT IN HERTZ (range 0 to 1)

  • depth -- depth of the lfo of the effect (range 0 to 1)

  • width -- width of stereo widening (range 0 to 1)

  • ainX -- input stereo signal

Pany - autopan

pany :: TremWaveSig -> DepthSig -> RateSig -> Sig2 -> Sig2
pany wave rate depth ain

Arguments:

  • wave -- waveform used by the lfo (0=sine 1=triangle 2=square)

  • rate -- rate control of the lfo of the effect NOT IN HERTZ (range 0 to 1)

  • depth -- depth of the lfo of the effect (range 0 to 1)

Also there are special functions with LFO-wave set to specific wave: oscPany, triPany, sqrPany.

Tremy - tremolo

tremy :: Sigs a => TremWaveSig -> DepthSig -> RateSig -> a -> a
tremy wave rate depth ain

; Arguments:

  • wave -- waveform used by the lfo (0=sine 1=triangle 2=square)

  • rate -- rate control of the lfo of the effect NOT IN HERTZ (range 0 to 1)

  • depth -- depth of the lfo of the effect (range 0 to 1)

Also there are special functions with LFO-wave set to specific wave: oscTremy, triTremy, sqrTremy.

Ringo - An ring modulating effect with an envelope follower

ringo :: Sigs a => Balance -> RateSig -> EnvelopeModSig -> a -> a
ringo balance rate envelopeMod

  • balance -- dry / wet mix of the output signal (range 0 to 1)

  • rate -- frequency of thew ring modulator NOT IN HERTZ (range 0 to 1)

  • envelopeMod -- amount of dynamic envelope following modulation of frequency (range 0 to 1)

Presets

Sometimes we want to quickly add some effect. We don't care that much about particular numbers for parameters. We just want to add a bit of distortion, lot's of delay and spoonful of flanger. To achieve that easily we have a predefined presets for every member of fx-family.

The preset name is a name of the member followed by a number 1 to 5 (means small to large coloring). For some members (adele and tort) it has auxiliary suffix m (muted) or b (bright) like adele2m or tort3b. This suffix relates to the effects that have built-in low-pass filter or tone parameter.

UI stompboxes

If we use prefix ui we can create an image of our effect that looks like guitar stompbox. Let's take a distortion fr instance:

type Fx a = a -> SE a

uiTort2 :: Sigs a => Source (Fx a)

We can combine the effects with functions:

fxHor, fxVer :: [Source (Fx a)] -> Source (Fx a)

fxGrid :: Int -> [Source (Fx a)] -> Source (Fx a)
fxGrid numberOfColumns fxs = ...

All these functions stack the effects in the list and align visuals. The visuals can be stacked horizontally, vertically or placed on a square grid.

Let's create a chain of effects and apply it to the input signal:

> let pedals ain = lift1 (\f -> f ain) $ fxHor [uiFlan1, uiAdele2 0.25 0.5, uiHall 0.2, uiGain 0.4]

> let player = atMidi $ dryPatch vibraphone1

> vdac $ pedals =<< player

With uiGain we can change the volume of the output.

Noticw how we used a standard monadic bind operator (=<<) to apply the effects to the signal. How does it work? Let's check out the types:

> :t pedals
pedals :: Sig2 -> Source (SE Sig2)
> :t player
player :: SE Sig2

And bind expects the types to be:

(=<<) :: Monad m => (a -> m b) -> m a -> m b

The SE is a monad but the Source doesn't seem to match for SE b part of signature. It's ok! The Source is an alias for

type Source a = SE (Gui, Input a)

So the uderlying type of pedals is:

pedals :: Sig2 -> SE (Gui, Input (SE Sig2))

and it's just the right food for bind operator.

Also we can apply the UI-widget with FX processing function with the help of the function fxApply:

fxApply :: Source (a -> SE b) -> a -> Source b

If the argument is wrapped in SE we can use the bind operator =<<:

fxApply fx =<< atMidi hammondOrgan

*Reminder: With functions like fxHor and fxGrid we can easily stack many stompboxes. We can stack so many of them that they no longer fit to the screen. To adjust the total size of the window we can use the function resizeSource:

resizeSource :: (Double, Double) -> Source a -> Source a

> dac $ resizeSource (0.75, 1) $ fxApply (fxHor [ ... many stompboxes ... ]) ourInput

Also we can set the default scaling factor parameters wit the options (see the paramter csdScaleUI):

> dacBy (def { csdScaleUI = (2, 2) }) $ ...

Composing mono and stereo effects

It's often happens when chain starts with monophonic processing units (Sig -> SE Sig) and then proceeds with stereophonic processing units (Sig2 -> SE Sig2). The reverb is often used as mono to stereo transition. To make it easy to create chains of effects from mixed up units there are analogs of functions fxHor and fxVer. They have suffix MS for Mono-To-Stereo:

fxHorMS, fxVerMS ::
    [Source Fx1] ->
    Maybe (Source (Sig -> SE Sig2)) ->
    [Source Fx2] ->
    Source (Sig -> SE Sig2)

Type seems to be complicated but let's break it apart. The chain starts with the list of monophonic effects:

[Source Fx1] ->

Recall that Fx1 is an alias for Sig -> SE Sig. Then we encounter a possible bridge from mono to stereo signals:

Maybe (Source (Sig -> SE Sig2)) ->

It's wrapped in maybe type. We have to options. We can explicitly define the effect that takes us from mono to stereo (reverb is often used at this place). Also we can just omit it with Nothing case and then the identity mono to stereo converter will be inserted.

Next we proceed with the chain of stereo effects:

[Source Fx2] ->

At the output we get UI-widget with the mono to stereo effect:

Source (Sig -> SE Sig2)

An example:

> let fx = fxHorMS [uiTort1, uiFlan2] def [uiChamber2]
> :t fx
fx :: Source (Sig -> SE Sig2)

We create the ui widget with a bit of distortion, slightly more flanger and not too big reverb. We use def as an alias for maybe's constructor Nothing. We can apply the effect to the imput signal received from say guitar pluged into audio card.

> dac $ onCard2 $ \(aLeft, aRight) -> fxApply fx aLeft

The onCard2 is a helper function to derive the types. It passes the argument through unchanged but it has more strict type signature. The dac is to much overloaded for this case. We can do without it but then we need to specify the types explicitly.

Example: Virtual pedalboard

We can create a virtual pedalboard quite easily. Here is a complete example:

import Csound.Base

main = run proc

run = dacBy (setAdc <> setJack "fx" <> setRates 44100 32 <> setBufs 64 32)

proc :: Sig2 -> Source Sig2
proc (a1, a2) = fxApply fx a1
    where
        fx = fxGridMS 4 [uiTort1m, uiFlan1, uiPhasy2, uiAdele2 0.4 0.35] def [uiChory2, uiHall2, uiGain 0.6]

Let's take it apart. It uses JACK tool but you can also read from your sound card directly.

With function run we set the global command line flags for JACK:

run = dacBy (setAdc <> setJack "fx" <> setRates 44100 32 <> setBufs 64 32)

We set the jack client name to be "fx". We set the rates and audio IO buffers like in the JACK settings. In your system there might be different settings. So adjust the example!

The next thing is the procedure proc that takes in a stereo signal and produces UI-widget.

proc :: Sig2 -> Source Sig2

In this function we create a chain of effects:

fx = fxGridMS 4 [uiTort1m, uiFlan1, uiPhasy2, uiAdele2 0.4 0.35] def [uiChory2, uiHall2, uiGain 0.6]

Notice the usage fxGridMS function. It creates the chain of effects that start from mono effects and proceeds with stereo effects.

We apply the chain of effects to the first input from the audio-card. This example is for 2x2 audio-card but if your card is different you should adjust the input/output signatures.

proc (a1, a2) = fxApply fx a1

Finally we render the function proc with our function run:

main = run proc

If the run (dacBy in disguise) takes in a function the argument signals of the function are interpreted as input audio channels.

So this is how we can create a pedalboard with Haskell!