lots_of_comments.csd

Lots of Comments (lots of comments)
Jacob Joaquin
September 27, 2010
jacobjoaquin@gmail.com
csoundblog.com




A Csound block begins with the CsoundSynthesizer tag. Everything outside of this tag is ignored by Csound:

<CsoundSynthesizer>
<CsInstruments>
; The orchestra block begins with the CsInstruments tag




; Header
;
; The header sets up the conditions of a Csound file.

sr = 44100  ; Sampling rate
kr = 4410   ; Control rate
ksmps = 10  ; 10 samples per k-block.  sr / kr = 10
nchnls = 1  ; 1 output channel (mono)
0dbfs = 1   ; The range of the signal is -1 to 1




; A new instrument begins with the keyword instr, followed by a number or name
; for the instrument. In this case, we have assigned it the number 1.  In the
; score, we will refer to this instrument with 1.

instr 1
    ; P-field input
    ;
    ; The following block of code reads in parameter field values (p) passed
    ; into the instrument from the score and assigns them to init type
    ; variables (i-type.) Though you can use p-field values directly in your
    ; instrument, assigning i-type variables to them at the top of your
    ; instrument will make your code easier to read for you and others.

    idur = p3          ; Duration
    iamp = p4          ; Amplitude
    ipch = cpspch(p5)  ; Pitch. cpspch converts octave point pitch-class
                       ;     notation (8ve.pc) to frequency in hertz.
    ifn = p6           ; Function number of the look up table used by the audio
                       ;     oscillator.  There are four defined in this
                       ;     example, created in the score. The table shapes
                       ;     are defined as:
                       ;         1 - Sine wave
                       ;         2 - Triangle wave
                       ;         3 - Saw wave (down)
                       ;         4 - Square wave




    ; Envelope
    ;
    ; The line opcode is a 1-segment envelope generator.
    ;
    ; It takes 3 arguments:
    ;     starting value
    ;     duration in seconds
    ;     ending value
    ;
    ; The output of line is assigned to kenv. The first letter "k" designates
    ; the signal as being a control rate signal.  The value of the signal is
    ; only updated once every 10 times in this example. Why? Because "ksmps" is
    ; set to 10 in the header.
    ;
    ; This signal will be fed to the oscillator in the next line of code.

    kenv line iamp, idur, 0




    ; Audio oscillator
    ;
    ; The oscil opcode is an oscillator that creates a signal by cycling
    ; through values stored in a look up table. These look up tables are
    ; created using the GEN routines. In this example, they are created in the
    ; score using the "f" statement.
    ;
    ; It requires 3 arguments, and takes 1 additional optional argument (not
    ; shown here):
    ;     amplitude
    ;     frequency in hertz
    ;     function table number
    ;     starting phase (optional)
    ;
    ; The amplitude is being modulated by the envelope. Over the duration of an
    ; instance of the instrument, the amplitude will go from the value stored
    ; in iamp (p4) to 0.
    ;
    ; The output in this case is an audio rate signal , designated by the first
    ; letter "a" in "a1." Though a k-rate signal updates once every ksmps value,
    ; an a-rate signal is updated for every sample.

    a1 oscil kenv, ipch, ifn  ; Amp modulated table oscillator




    ; Output
    ;
    ; This last step sends the audio from "a1" to either the digital audio
    ; converter (DAC), or to a soundfile, depending on your command-line
    ; settings.
    ;
    ; The out opcode is for mono renders. "nchnls" in the header is set to 1.
    ; If this example was designed for stereo, "nchnls" would be set to 2 and
    ; instead of using out, you would use the outs opcode instead.

    out a1  ; Output signal

; The instrument block ends with endin.
endin

; The orchestra block ends with /CsInstruments
</CsInstruments>
<CsScore>
; The score block begins with the CsScore tag.



; Tables
;
; The "f" statement in the score allows users to create function tables. The
; data generated depends on the GEN routine used. Two GEN types are used in
; this example: 7 and 10.  GEN 10 "Generate composite waveforms made up of
; weighted sums of simple sinusoids." Gen 7 "Constructs functions from segments
; of straight lines."
;
; The first 5 parameters for every f-statement are:
;     f
;     table number
;     when the table is created
;     the size of the table
;     the GEN routine to use
;
; Any additional paramenters are depend on the GEN routine used.

f 1 0 8192 10 1                     ; Sine
f 2 0 8192 7 -1 4096 1 4096 -1      ; Triangle
f 3 0 8192 7 1 8192 -1              ; Saw (down)
f 4 0 8192 7 1 4096 1 0 -1 4096 -1  ; Square




; Tempo
;
; The score works in beat time. It defaults to 60 beats-per-minutes (BPM),
; which is the same as working in seconds. This example sets the BPM to 120.
t 0 120




; Instrument events
;
; i-events is what starts, and some times stops, instruments from the
; orchestra.  Each of the following four i-events starts a new instance
; of instr 1.

;p0  p1     p2          p3        p4         p5     p6
;    instr  start_time  duration  amplitude  pitch  function_table
i    1      0           4         0.707      7.07   1
i    1      4           4         0.4        7.09   2
i    1      8           4         0.2        7.03   3
i    1      12          4         0.1        7.00   4


; The score block ends with the /CsScore tag
</CsScore>
</CsoundSynthesizer>
The Csound block ends with the /CsoundSynthesizer tag.