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VASP modular - vector assembling signal processor
Introduction
- VASP modular is a package for Pure Data and Max/MSP consisting of a number of externals extending these systems with functions for non-realtime array-based audio data processing.
- VASP modular is capable of working in the background, therefore not influencing eventual ongoing DSP.
- VASP modular has been inspired by Günther Rabl's VASP system and shares some basic ideas but no code.
Background
For compositional work the real-time domain is not generally the most suitable choice. It has severe drawbacks:
- Real time always goes forward, yet a composer often wants to generate structures (e.g. algorithmically defined) independent of the actual time he/she is working in, and go back and forth in time repeatedly.
- In real-time systems spectral processing is confined to granular methods (like "sonograms"), imposing artifacts and limited resolution. The so called "Giant-FFT" (as opposed to the granular STFT) allows to work with the spectral representation of a larger piece of sound (e.g. some minutes)
Additionally the VASP modular objects work have proven to be useful as helpers for various array-based applications.
Basics
The VASP modular system is message (as opposed to signal) based. All VASP modular objects are driven by references to one or more fragments of sampled audio data on which the respective operations are performed.
VASP modular deals with 5 basic types of data:
- real numbers (floats)
- complex numbers (2 floats, real and imaginary part)
- envelopes (value/time real number pairs)
- vasps (references to audio data, sharing a common length but in general different offsets into the data). Depending on the operation (e.g. complex FFT) vasps can also be treated as complex pairs of data vectors.
- double precision floats ("double [float] [float]" messages)... some operations will take advantage of the higher precision of arguments set with a double message (the floats are internally summed up with double precision)
Documentation
Some frequently asked questions can be found in the FAQ section. For more detailed questions, encouragement or other contributions, please join the vasp mailing list.
Be sure to check out the readme.txt for instructions on how to get started with VASP modular. A history of changes can be found in changes.txt.
In order to build VASP modular from source, you'll need to download, build and install the flext layer first.
Download
Binary versions for various platforms can be downloaded from http://grrrr.org/ext/beta.
These binaries need a couple of supplementary files that can be conveniently downloaded using Subversion. If you are new to subversion you can get instructions here.
Pure Data
The accompanying set of Pd abstractions can be found here, help files for Pure Data here.
There is also a number of real-world examples (for Pd) illustrating VASP modular functionality to be found here.
Max/MSP
The (outdated) help files for VASP modular can be found here, some accompanying files here.
Please note that the Max/MSP version is not actively maintained, but i'd be glad for a refresh of the help files and additional examples.
Source code
For the source code version, i recommend checking out the package from the subversion repository at grrrr.org.
Support
You can either support the development by giving feedback on the mailing list, by reporting bugs and/or providing patches or by financially supporting the development and maintenance of this project via paypal.
I'm also very happy about examples of artwork done by use of any of my externals.
License
The VASP modular environment is covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Thanks
My thanks go out to Florian Bogner and Oliver Grimm (the "patcher boys") as well as Marius Schebella ("die parasitäre Kapazität") who have spent countless hours on compiling a hopefully usable and complete documentation of the VASP modular system.
