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  • IRCAM Announces New Software Release

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    jMax-small.jpg
    A composition using jMax
    (Click for a close-up)

    IRCAM announces first public release of jMax, a new generation of cross-platform software for music performance and real time digital audio processing.

    IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/ Musique) is a non-profit organization associated with the Georges Pompidou National Center of Art and Culture, Paris, France.

    Since its foundation in 1969 by the French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, IRCAM has always been a pioneer in designing real time systems for live interaction between instruments and computers.

    The first generation of systems lead in 1981 to the 4X processor, designed at IRCAM by the Italian engineer Giuseppe Di Giugno. The first compositions using live interaction with a computer, including "Repons" from Pierre Boulez, and "Jupiter" from Philippe Manoury, were done on the 4X. At the beginning of the Apple Macintosh in the 80s, the US mathematician Miller Puckette designed at IRCAM the Max software, that brought a new concept of musical interface, providing a graphical language, based on patches of elementary processing objects, for controlling real time processing algorithms on the 4X. The Max software for the Macintosh was licensed to Opcode Systems Inc.,CA, that adapted it and marketed it worldwide.

    The next generation, the IRCAM Digital Signal Processing Workstation (ISPW), was designed in 1991 at IRCAM by a team headed by Eric Lindemann. The ISPW hardware was made of NeXT computers including up to 3 specific DSP boards, each based on 2 Intel i860 processors, and marketed by Ariel Corp., NJ. The software included a new version of Max by Miller Puckette, used for programming multiprocessor patches including both control and DSP processing. The ISPWs have been used up to now by a considerable number of composers as a basic real time programming environment for interactive musical compositions.

    jMax represents a new generation of real time systems at IRCAM that consists of a fully cross-platform, hardware independent solution, based on latest computer technology that offers backward compatibility to ISPW patches, also known as "Max 0.26" patch format. It is currently being developped by the Real Time Systems team at IRCAM lead by Francois Dechelle with Maurizio de Cecco, Vincenzo Maggi and Norbert Schnell.

    jMax is based on a client/server architecture, where the two main components are the real-time engine, a fully ANSI C, new version of the already known FTS server, and the Java graphical development and control environment, including editors for patches, tables, note sequences, etc... The client applications can live on the same computer as the server or on any other computer running a Java virtual machine, connected to the server through an Internet network connexion (using the UDP protocol on IP). Multiple clients can connect to the same server for controlling the same real time process, while having feedback on other clients' actions.

    jMax is currently being developped on Silicon Graphics Inc. workstations and the first release is on that platform. The SGI workstations offer superior processing, real time performance, reliability and enable stereo and multichannel digital audio I/O using existing or additional hardware in a modular way. jMax will be available on Linux for Intel-compatible processors by the end of 1998. Releases on other platforms are envisaged for 1999, including Apple's MacOS X and Microsoft's Windows NT.

    jMax is modular and configurable in many ways : users can design graphically complex processing and synthesis patches from sets of objects available in libraries; A C API is provided for programming objects that are not available in the libraries; users can design their own Java graphical interface by linking to a Java API that provides required services for applications.

    jMax comes with a rich set of patches and libraries for control and DSP processing, that feature IRCAM's latest and cutting edge DSP technology, including filters, pitch shifters and harmonizers, simple and interpolated delays, short term Fourier transform and phase vocoder, pitch and score following, formant analysis and synthesis, granular synthesis, additive analysis and synthesis, modal synthesis, physical modeling synthesis, Spat 3D audio technology, etc... These libraries are continuously enhanced through the latest research at IRCAM, patches used in new musical compositions and by users outside of IRCAM.

    jMax will be demonstrated at the 105th Audio Engineering Society Convention held in San Francisco, CA, from September 26 to 29, at SGI's room at Hotel Milano (see http://www.aes.org/events/105/) , and at the '98 International Computer Music Conference, held at the University of Michigan, School of Music, Ann Arbor, from October 1 to 6 (see http://www.music.umich.edu/icmc98/index.html).

    jMax will be available for free download on IRCAM's ftp and http site starting the beginning of November 98, with a basic set of DSP libraries and documentation. A full-featured version, including more complete documentation, support, tutorials and an extensive set of IRCAM librairies and patches, is available through the registration, on a yearly basis, to IRCAM's Forum (user group, see http://www.ircam.fr/forum/).




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