Category: Uncategorized

Creating Ubiquitous, Composable, Performant DSP Modules – Stefano D’Angelo – ADC23

Join Us For ADC24 - Bristol - 11-13 November 2024
More Info: https://audio.dev/
@audiodevcon​

Creating Ubiquitous, Composable, Performant DSP Modules - Stefano D’Angelo - ADC23

Companies and independent developers don't restart from scratch at each new project. They rely on a reusable technological base and build their final products upon that. For most software development tasks it is absolutely normal to use libraries developed by external suppliers, but for a number of very specific reasons this is less common when it comes to music DSP.

In a way, this is the sequel to my previous ADC talk. I'll show how my company, following my own advice, managed to create a toolkit of actually (re)usable music DSP algorithms while featuring unprecedented levels of ubiquity, composability, and performance.

In this talk I'll describe the cultural, architectural, and technical challenges we faced and the solutions we adopted in detail, especially with respect to:
• choice of DSP algorithms
• inadequacies and limitations of general-purpose programming languages
• minimizing reliance on programming language and target platform features
• designing consistent, performant, and unopinionated APIs
• running identical code on all platforms, from microcontrollers to the web, including desktop and mobile
• integration with external tools

Link to Slides:
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Stefano D'Angelo

I am a music DSP researcher and engineer, as well as the founder and CEO of Orastron. I help companies around the world, such as Arturia, Neural DSP, Darkglass Electronics, and Elk, in creating technically-demanding digital synthesizers and effects. I also strive to push audio technology forward through scientific research and experimental projects.
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Streamed & Edited by Digital Medium Ltd: https://online.digital-medium.co.uk
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Organized and produced by JUCE: https://juce.com/
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Special thanks to the ADC23 Team:

Sophie Carus
Derek Heimlich
Andrew Kirk
Bobby Lombardi
Tom Poole
Ralph Richbourg
Jim Roper
Jonathan Roper
Prashant Mishra

#adc #audiotech #dsp #dspmusic

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Properties of Chaotic Systems for Audio – George Gkountouras and Christopher Johann Clarke – ADC23

Join Us For ADC24 - Bristol - 11-13 November 2024
More Info: https://audio.dev/
@audiodevcon​

Properties of Chaotic Systems for Audio - George Gkountouras and Christopher Johann Clarke - ADC 2023

Chaotic systems appear naturally in sufficiently complex interactions, whether in electrical circuits, classical mechanics or entirely invented scenarios. It is therefore no surprise that people realised the potential of such systems for generating and transforming sound in unique and creative ways.

However, it is not easy to explore the topic using intuition alone. It is prudent to follow any theoretical introduction with interactive tools capable of visualising phase plots, tracking nonlinear orbits and estimating numerical properties. For this reason, we will provide code examples for all systems presented in the talk.

After a short dive into fixed points and bifurcation, we will show practical examples of chaotic systems. Notably, we will focus our attention on modding/bending them to achieve musically relevant outcomes. We will tame chaos, reining it in and making it work for us.

Next, we will tie back the theory to differential equations. There, we will discover the direct implementation of a chaotic system with an analog circuit.

Finally, provided there is enough time, we will move onto more advanced topics: measuring fractal dimensions, introducing/removing synchronisation in dynamic fashion and producing delay coordinate maps.

Link to Slides: https://data.audio.dev/talks/2023/properties-of-chaotic-systems-for-audio/slides.pdf
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George Gkountouras

George Gkountouras (MSc ECE) is a software engineer, researcher and entrepreneur in the audio software industry. He believes that AI will enable the creation of state-of-the-art music technology products. He has previously given talks at ADC about his quantum sequencer application and Fractional FM synthesis. During his academic career, George regularly taught DSP to undergraduate students. He's worked on compilers, circuit simulators and audio plug-ins. He is also interested in Android audio applications, embedded systems (MCUs, FPGAs) and julialang.
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Christopher Johann Clarke

Senior AI Engineer
Singapore
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Streamed & Edited by Digital Medium Ltd: https://online.digital-medium.co.uk
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Organized and produced by JUCE: https://juce.com/
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Special thanks to the ADC23 Team:

Sophie Carus
Derek Heimlich
Andrew Kirk
Bobby Lombardi
Tom Poole
Ralph Richbourg
Jim Roper
Jonathan Roper
Prashant Mishra

#adc #pythonprogramming #dsp #audio #audiosoftware

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The Sound of Audio Programming – Developing Perfect Glitch – Balazs Kiss – ADC23

Join Us For ADC24 - Bristol - 11-13 November 2024
More Info: https://audio.dev/
@audiodevcon​

The Sound of Audio Programming - Developing Perfect Glitch - Balazs Kiss - ADC 2023

Audio programming mistakes can produce very interesting sounds. In this talk we are going to look at these mistakes and even listen to them. We’ll try to identify some of the coding errors solely by ear and develop “perfect glitch”. Some examples that we will examine: clipping, discontinuity, aliasing, phase cancellation, latency issues, buffering problems. Through practical demonstrations, we will not only listen to these unique sounds but also learn how to recognize them in our own audio projects. Moreover, we will delve into techniques to mitigate and avoid these typical problems.
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Balazs Kiss

I enjoy developing high-quality audio software. I am interested in life and things.
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Streamed & Edited by Digital Medium Ltd: https://online.digital-medium.co.uk
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Organized and produced by JUCE: https://juce.com/
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Special thanks to the ADC23 Team:

Sophie Carus
Derek Heimlich
Andrew Kirk
Bobby Lombardi
Tom Poole
Ralph Richbourg
Jim Roper
Jonathan Roper
Prashant Mishra

#adc #audioprogramming #dsp #audio

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Fast Audio Thread Synchronization for GPU Data – Evan Mezeske – ADC23

Join Us For ADC24 - Bristol - 11-13 November 2024
More Info: https://audio.dev/
@audiodevcon​

Fast Audio Thread Synchronization for GPU Data - Evan Mezeske - ADC 2023

While building my GPU-based physics simulation instrument Anukari (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUO6iMcbao4), I had to solve a number of significant challenges, and I'll explain my solutions in this talk. The talk is not about Anukari per se; rather it's about some of the interesting solutions I developed as part of building it.

One challenge had to do with synchronizing the Anukari's data model from the GUI thread to the audio thread. Anukari models arbitrary networks of masses and springs, and can simulate close to a thousand masses and many thousands of springs. This data model is thus rather large, and it was nontrivial to provide model updates from the GUI to the audio thread. I designed a reliable wait-free approach that works without mutexes, without memory allocation, has support for transactions, and with minimal data transfer between threads. I will discuss a few technologies that I used together, including wait-free SPSC queues, the difference between wait-free and lock-free algorithms, reasons for avoiding mutexes and memory allocations, and custom data structures for avoiding memory allocations.

Another challenge was in regards to running GPU physics simulations at audio sample rates (48kHz). Memory bandwidth was a major issue, as well as kernel execution latency and cross-GPU-thread synchronization. I will discuss the OpenCL language and its limitations, the approaches I used to deal with OpenCL kernel execution latency, and the on-GPU thread synchronization, and memory optimizations..

And, of course, I will show how all of this ties together into a reliable system for synchronizing the GUI and audio threads with no waits, despite a large data model and compute-intensive physics simulation.

Prerequisite(s): Familiarity with C++ programming Familiarity with thread synchronization primitives like mutexes.
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Evan Mezeske

Evan Mezeske is a software engineer and amateur musician based out of Arizona, USA. He spent the last 10 years working as a senior engineering leader on large-scale distributed systems at Google before defecting in early 2023 to found his music software company, Anukari Music. Anukari's upcoming eponymous flagship product will allow users to construct 3D arbitrary models of springs and masses and to manipulate them in real time to produce music, sound effects, and audio filters (https://www.youtube.com/@anukarimusic). Primarily a jazz guitarist, Evan also plays keyboards, produces electronic music, and enjoys learning obscure musical instruments (such as the two-chamber Peruvian Ocarina). Anyone interested in learning more about Anukari is encouraged to join Anukari's Discord server! https://discord.gg/ywwYfhGbDp
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Streamed & Edited by Digital Medium Ltd: https://online.digital-medium.co.uk
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Organized and produced by JUCE: https://juce.com/
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Special thanks to the ADC23 Team:

Sophie Carus
Derek Heimlich
Andrew Kirk
Bobby Lombardi
Tom Poole
Ralph Richbourg
Jim Roper
Jonathan Roper
Prashant Mishra

#adc #cppprogramming #dsp #audio

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The Architecture of Digital Audio Workstations (& Other Time-Based Media Software) – Ilias Bergström

https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon​

The Architecture of Digital Audio Workstations (and Other Time-Based Media Software) - Ilias Bergström - ADC23

The ADC community has produced a wonderful wealth of material on audio software development!

But there is a relative dearth on the big picture of how all these coding techniques, practices, strategies, and design patterns, can interrelate, giving rise to the complex beast that is a modern Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

While there are some open-source DAWs to study, there is little material on their architecture, apart from the source code itself - with the main exception being the (GUI-less) Tracktion engine of course.

Although implicit / emergent architecture may be sufficient for small to medium size codebases, a large codebase such as a DAW demands deliberate attention to design.

We present the low-level design patterns for the DAW engine and presentation layers, the UI/UX design patterns these interrelate to, and the architectural design patterns for the complete system. Crucially, the main emphasis of our talk is not the details of the above, but how they all together define a modern DAW.

We then present the challenges faced in defining such an architecture to satisfy the specific Attributes of a DAW - e.g. a non-destructively alterable model, and the real-time constraints that necessitate lock-free communication between threads. We discuss the compromises needed to satisfy such conflicting needs, and some future challenges presented, as the software category evolves into the future, e.g. with MIDI 2.0 around the corner.

While we concentrate on DAWs, much of this discussion also generalises to the broader category of Time-Based Media software.

The presentation is grounded in two DAW-like applications we have developed: one is a desktop application with a GUI, and the other is a "headless" embedded DAW, with a separately executed GUI application. They are both very different, each lacking central features that the other has. But together, and even more so through their differences, they serve as great illustrations of the concepts we present.

This subject area is vast, and a review of every topic and technique is impossible in the scope of a single talk. We give a good introductory overview, hopefully laying a foundation for further learning and knowledge dissemination in the community.

Link to Slides: https://data.audio.dev/talks/2023/the-architecture-of-daws/slides.pdf
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Ilias Bergström

Senior Software Engineer, ElkComputer Scientist, Researcher, Interaction Designer, Musician, with a love for all music but specially live performance. I've worked on developing several applications for live music, audiovisual performance, and use by experts, mainly using C++. I get very excited whenever anybody mentions "control data" in my vicinity!
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Streamed & Edited by Digital Medium Ltd: https://online.digital-medium.co.uk
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Organized and produced by JUCE: https://juce.com/
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Special thanks to the ADC23 Team:

Sophie Carus
Derek Heimlich
Andrew Kirk
Bobby Lombardi
Tom Poole
Ralph Richbourg
Jim Roper
Jonathan Roper
Prashant Mishra

#adc #daw #dsp #audio

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The Current State of Spatial Audio Tools and Formats – Guillaume Le Nost & Olivier Petit – ADC23

https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon​

The Current State of Spatial Audio Tools and Formats - Guillaume Le Nost & Olivier Petit - ADC 2023

In the past few years, “spatial audio” (or rather object-based audio) has made its way from the movie theatre to the home cinema and is now reaching about a 100 million potential pairs of ears through major streaming services. For artists, space is a whole new creative dimension they can start exploring, but creative-focused tools are currently lacking. For mixing engineers, 3D panning is a new tool joining EQ and compression to achieve their goal: a clear mix where each element has its own place and contributes to a great overall result. Mastering engineers are facing unique challenges as on-device rendering of spatial audio makes it extremely difficult to control the final result.

In this talk we will look at the tools and formats currently available for music production, mixing in the studio or mixing for a live show. This includes DAWs, media engines, live renderers. We will focus on their specificities, the challenges for interoperability, as well as the missing bricks required to enable smoother and more enjoyable workflows.

Link to Slides: https://data.audio.dev/talks/2023/industry-standards/slides.pptx
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Guillaume Le Nost

Shaping the future of live sound with immersive audio technologies and innovative Sound Experiences. Interests in spatial audio, object-based audio, creative technologies, music technology and live sound. Keen musician (flute, bass, piano).
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Olivier Petit

After an MSc in Integrated Circuit design, I have joined the Creative Technologies department of L-Acoustics in 2018 as a C++ software engineer. I have been taking an active part in developing innovative technologies to bring immersive audio to live performances, striving to better connect the artists with their audiences. I love the challenge of deploying audio solutions at large scales with high sound quality and (of course) reliability. Making sure our products are as intuitive and easy to use is also a priority for me. Unlike most of my peers I don’t play any instrument, I love climbing though!
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Streamed & Edited by Digital Medium Ltd: https://online.digital-medium.co.uk
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Organized and produced by JUCE: https://juce.com/
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Special thanks to the ADC23 Team:

Sophie Carus
Derek Heimlich
Andrew Kirk
Bobby Lombardi
Tom Poole
Ralph Richbourg
Jim Roper
Jonathan Roper
Prashant Mishra

#adc #dsp #audio #spatialaudio

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Unlock Your Audio Processing Superpowers With Rest API – Baptiste Vericel & Alexandre Louiset – ADC23

https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon​

Unlock Your Audio Processing Superpowers With Rest API - Baptiste Vericel & Alexandre Louiset - ADC 2023

For any audio feature you need to implement in your product, API integration will grant you limitless capabilities, with numerous advantages (low code, fast deployment, scalable). During this talk we'll highlight the key concepts of Rest APIs for audio processing, its relevancy and benefits for any type of audio software and app development workflows, through a groundbreaking demo, showcasing best-in-class technologies straight from IRCAM lab we’re aiming at making accessible.
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Baptiste Vericel

With a background in acoustics and signal processing (ENSEA, IRCAM), he has worked with a number of companies (Arkamys, Devialet) for more than a decade as a signal processing and electroacoustics engineer. Passionate about audio and live music, he set up his own podcasting company.
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Alexandre Louiset

Alexandre is on a mission to make the IRCAM sound research technology resonate and unlock new territories for the pro audio community.
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Streamed & Edited by Digital Medium Ltd: https://online.digital-medium.co.uk
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Organized and produced by JUCE: https://juce.com/
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Special thanks to the ADC23 Team:

Sophie Carus
Derek Heimlich
Andrew Kirk
Bobby Lombardi
Tom Poole
Ralph Richbourg
Jim Roper
Jonathan Roper
Prashant Mishra

#adc #audiodev #dsp #audio

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Building a Music Assessment Engine: Requirements, Challenges, and Solutions – Martin Gasser – ADC23

https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon​

Building a Music Assessment Engine: Requirements, Challenges, and Solutions - Martin Gasser - ADC23

Automatic music assessment systems have become an integral part of music (self-)education in recent years, with systems like Yousician, Smart Music, and MuseClass gaining widespread attention. In this talk, Martin Gasser will share an overview of the requirements of a music assessment system — both from a musical and a technical point of view. Technical limitations in low-resource environments like smartphones will be discussed. Solution approaches will also be described, and Martin will briefly demonstrate the performance of Muse Group's new music assessment system on real-life data.
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Martin Gasser

Martin Gasser is a Senior Developer at Muse Group. Formerly a leading researcher in the field of Machine Learning & Music at the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Martin has years of expertise in AI, musical software development, hacking C++, and more. Full bio: https://martingasser.com/bio/
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Streamed & Edited by Digital Medium Ltd: https://online.digital-medium.co.uk
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Organized and produced by JUCE: https://juce.com/
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Special thanks to the ADC23 Team:

Sophie Carus
Derek Heimlich
Andrew Kirk
Bobby Lombardi
Tom Poole
Ralph Richbourg
Jim Roper
Jonathan Roper
Prashant Mishra

#adc #audiodev #ai #audio

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Music Hack Day India Winner Presentations – ADCx India 2024

Join Us For ADC24 - Bristol - 11-13 November 2024
More Info: https://audio.dev/
@audiodevcon​

Music Hack Day India Winner Presentations - - ADC 2023

Music Hack Day India is a gathering of researchers, developers, creative coders, musicians, makers, engineers, audiophiles and more. It was hosted on 5th & 6th Jan 2024, preceding ADCx India and included many interesting hacks from the participants.

The winners of the hackathon were invited to present their idea on the ADCx India platform.

Inspira - A Tool for Musical Inspiration

Chordeezy - Complex chord generation made simple

Fly by Ear - An Audio Game Accessible to People with Visual Impairments

Link to Slides:

https://data.audio.dev/talks/ADCxIndia/2024/music-hack-day-india-inspira.pdf
https://data.audio.dev/talks/ADCxIndia/2024/music-hack-day-india-chordeezy.pdf
https://data.audio.dev/talks/ADCxIndia/2024/music-hack-day-india-fly-by-ear.pdf
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Edited by Digital Medium Ltd - online.digital-medium.co.uk
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Organized and produced by JUCE: https://juce.com/
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Special thanks to the ADC24 Team:

Sophie Carus
Derek Heimlich
Andrew Kirk
Bobby Lombardi
Tom Poole
Ralph Richbourg
Prashant Mishra

#adc #dsp #audio #audiotech #audiotechnology

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Singing Synthesis Beyond Human-Level Naturalness: Not What You Think – Kanru Hua – ADC23

https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon​

Singing Synthesis Beyond Human-Level Naturalness: Not What You Think - Kanru Hua - ADC 2023

Achieving human-level naturalness is often viewed as the pinnacle of vocal synthesis research. While recent advances in Text-to-Speech (TTS) using deep generative models has reported subjective ratings comparable to human speech, singing synthesis hasn't reached this milestone. In this presentation, we showcase a singing synthesis system that, intriguingly, exceeds raw recordings in comparative mean opinion score tests—with statistical significance. However, as we delve deeper, we highlight the subtle but crucial differences between true human parity and competitive ratings in subjective tests, challenging our understanding of “naturalness” in this domain. We will also unpack the complexities of subjective quality evaluation, the unique challenges posed by singing versus speech, and shed light on the implications these findings hold for future designs of singing synthesis systems.

Link to Slides:
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Kanru Hua

Kanru Hua founded Dreamtonics (developer of Synthesizer V) in 2019, after dropping out of University of Illinois. A self-taught programmer and researcher, Kanru has been focusing on bridging speech signal processing algorithms with the latest advances in generative models, as well as addressing the production challenges of deploying neural networks for audio processing. He was nominated for Forbes JAPAN 30 UNDER 30 in 2022.
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Streamed & Edited by Digital Medium Ltd: https://online.digital-medium.co.uk
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Organized and produced by JUCE: https://juce.com/
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Special thanks to the ADC23 Team:

Sophie Carus
Derek Heimlich
Andrew Kirk
Bobby Lombardi
Tom Poole
Ralph Richbourg
Jim Roper
Jonathan Roper
Prashant Mishra

#adc #audiodev #dsp #audio #audiotech

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