Quickest way to learn Chuck and other text based programming

dichotomos · Joined: Feb 08, 2010 Posts: 20 Location: Canada

Hi all

I am an undergrad currently learning chuck in a graduate level seminar class. The previous term we learned Max Msp. This term we are taking on Chuck, Processing and Ardunio. I must say this program is very exciting and challenging. My problem is because I have never learned a text based music language is that the "hump" or "learning curve" is a bit steeper than that of Max Msp.

In Max It was easy to find plenty of help in the help files that are integrated into Max.

Chuck is a different bag altogether, most of the time I'm at a complete loss to find a simple solution, the examples in say the chuck wiki sites are usually advanced and difficult to decipher (after 1 month of text coding under my belt).

I would appreciate any advice, I try to practice at least once a day, making simple sounds and ADSR type filtering. Some of the more advanced stuff seems daunting (ie OSC control, Keyboard and mouse control) the simplicity and elegance of text based music making appeals to me.

All I'm really asking here is a couple of pointers from some tried and true Chuckers.

I guess if I was to ask for a direct question it would be.

- how can I make a trackpad on my Mac control both pitch and velocity?
- I have been trying to figure out the HID in chuck.
- also if possible have the keyboard ( on my laptop ) produce percussive tones at the same time?
- Would I have to spork 2 separate instruments to work like this?

I'm not asking for any direct answers but maybe some pointers/lessons/examples..

thanks.

Inventor · Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:21 am Post subject:

Hi dikotomos and welcome to the forum. We always tell beginners that the best way to get started is to try the examples that come bundled with ChucK when you download it. They are mostly quite simple and you can begin by just changing numberic constants and noticing the effect that the changes have.

There are HID examples and somewhere in there is a keboard organ that you can try. Good luck and please post any further questions you may have here.

Les

dichotomos · Joined: Feb 08, 2010 Posts: 20 Location: Canada

Thanks for the reply. I guess the simplest way to do it is just to suck it up and dig through the examples. I think I went about this the wrong way though. I downloaded the miniaudicle but with none of the examples.

I like the fact that there is a community of Chuckers out there (here) helping and challenging each other.

Inventor · Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:41 am Post subject:

The online page for the examples is here:

http://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/doc/examples/

have fun!

Les

Kassen · Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 7:50 am Post subject:

kijjaz · Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:48 am Post subject:

I learn a lot from following the walkthrough in the ChucK manual pdf. After playing around with more examples, i tried to learn about more functions and UGens from the reference / web reference and tried to combine them and see what happens. it's actually playing around. but since i'm still not deep in any particular techniques, i still can't go that deep. gotta dig more.

witt0191 · Joined: Feb 13, 2008 Posts: 23 Location: UK

The tutorials and examples are a great resource though the thing that really helped make ChucK work for me was when I managed to relate to the reference section of the pdf.

With the things you suggest you are interested in the key thing to consider is that the dsp and the control of the dsp are two separate things which are connected.

Good luck Chuck is ace!!!