Michael Edwards - Software - Artimix

This software is no longer supported. I know of no one working with audio on the SGI platform anymore, but perhaps some of the routines in the C++ code will be useful for other purposes.

The code was written back in 1995/96 when memory and CPU power was at a premium. What the software accomplishes could now easily be accomplished with fairly simple Max/MSP, PD, or supercollider code, but back then, streaming a few hundred megabytes of sound data from the tip of your fingers was quite something.

Read the programme notes to segmentation fault beta 1.0, the piece Marco Trevisani and I made using artimix to trigger and mix sounds in real time (the first paragraph also presents a short description of the software). Recording available from sumtone or Sargasso.

Silicon Graphics

Download the C++ source code (plus makefile), a pre-compiled binary (compiled on a Silicon Graphics Indy running IRIX 5.3) and a test sound->key mapping file.
(112,643 bytes, gzip'ped and tar'red)

Download the example sounds that are mapped in the given sound->key mapping file (or use your own and modify the sound->key mapping file to reflect your sound file names--if you do this, the following instructions will not apply, you will have to make some (pretty obvious) changes.).
(6,197,200 bytes gzip'ped and tar'red)

Once you've downloaded them, and assuming you're lucky enough to be sitting in front of a Silicon Graphics machine, put both files in the same directory, cd to that directory in a shell window and exectute the following command:

% gunzip sounds.tar.gz; gunzip artimix.tar.gz; tar xf sounds.tar; tar xf artimix.tar

Don't forget to make sure the pre-compiled binary is executable before you try to run it (chmod u+x artimix if it's not.). Once you've done this, you can run the programme by cd'ing to the artimix directory and typing the following:

% artimix -m test.txt

Then type away like a lunatic (use keys q,w,e,r,t,y on your keyboard and type Control-C when you've had enough).

Minimal help is available by typing artimix (just the program name, no arguments).

A couple of caveats:

• artimix tries to keep you informed (by printing to the terminal) of what is happening with the program in real time. But, because there is no interface right now, you need to maximise your shell window so that you don't get an endlessly scrolling window with lots of meaningless numbers. If you're confused, just run artimix with the -s flag and things should run without printing to the terminal.
• If you haven't got your SGI MIDI ports open (i.e. either you or your sys admin has not yet configured the port to accept MIDI data) you will get an error message to this effect when you start artimix. Then, when you quite the program (Control-C), you'll get a segmentation fault and a core dump. (Sorry about this, just noticed it for the first time when running the programme over here on a non-MIDI enabled SGI.)