pd Bootcamp

Posted by Joel Eaton on Thursday 10 September 2009 at 9:47am
Tags: music | software | sound recordings |

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Pure Data (pd) is a is a real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical processing and can be used creatively in a variety of ways. It is open source software for Windows, Mac OS and Linux and as such is a great alternative to the comparatively expensive MAX/MSP, which was also developed by Miller Puckette, pd's author.

Pd is fast becoming a tool for teaching in education, especially in the fields of Music Technology, Installation Art, Composition, Multimedia and Performance. A major factor of this is that pd can be used to teach the fundamentals of sound design theory, including MIDI and control implementation, allowing students to create their own custom patches based on that they're been taught in highly creative ways.

The week covered topics ranging from designing synthesisers and sequencers, using video to manipulate audio, writing programs for real-time composition and working with HID's (Huma Interactive Devices) such as iPhones and the Nintendo Wii controller.

The bootcamp sessions culminated with a live performance streamed online and listened to internationally. Unfortunately, netpd, pd's server which allows for online control of patches and communications, was temporarily down, but alas, the show went on.

For more information on pd, visit the pd website. Pd software is bundled with loads of great tutorials and help guides to get you started. A great book about pd, released under a creative commons license, Bang, is available to download for free.

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