Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/thestk/stk

The Synthesis ToolKit in C++ (STK) is a set of open source audio signal processing and algorithmic synthesis classes written in the C++ programming language.
https://github.com/thestk/stk

Last synced: 25 days ago
JSON representation

The Synthesis ToolKit in C++ (STK) is a set of open source audio signal processing and algorithmic synthesis classes written in the C++ programming language.

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
# The Synthesis ToolKit in C++ (STK)

By Perry R. Cook and Gary P. Scavone, 1995--2023.



This distribution of the Synthesis ToolKit in C++ (STK) contains the following:



* [`include`](include/):  STK class header files

* [`src`](src/): STK class source files

* [`rawwaves`](rawwaves): STK audio files (1-channel, 16-bit, big-endian)

* [`doc`](doc): STK documentation

* [`projects`](projects): example STK projects and programs



Please read the [Legal and Ethical notes](#legal-and-ethical) near the bottom of this document and the [License](LICENSE).



For compiling and installing STK, see the [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md) file in this directory.



## Contents



* [Overview](#overview)

* [System Requirements](#system-requirements)

* [What's New (and not so new)](#whats-new-and-not-so-new)

* [Disclaimer](#disclaimer)

* [Legal and Ethical](#legal-and-ethical)

* [Further Reading](#further-reading)

* [Perry's Notes From the Original Distribution](#perrys-notes-from-the-original-distribution)



# OVERVIEW



The Synthesis ToolKit in C++ (STK) is a set of open source audio

signal processing and algorithmic synthesis classes written in the C++

programming language.  STK was designed to facilitate rapid

development of music synthesis and audio processing software, with an

emphasis on cross-platform functionality, realtime control, ease of

use, and educational example code.  The Synthesis ToolKit is extremely

portable (most classes are platform-independent C++ code), and it's

completely user-extensible (all source included, no unusual libraries,

and no hidden drivers).  We like to think that this increases the

chances that our programs will still work in another 5-10 years.  STK

currently runs with "realtime" support (audio and MIDI) on Linux,

Macintosh OS X, and Windows computer platforms.  Generic, non-realtime

support has been tested under NeXTStep, Sun, and other platforms and

should work with any standard C++ compiler.



The only classes of the Synthesis ToolKit that are platform-dependent

concern sockets, threads, mutexes, and real-time audio and MIDI input

and output.  The interface for MIDI input and the simple Tcl/Tk

graphical user interfaces (GUIs) provided is the same, so it's easy to

experiment in real time using either the GUIs or MIDI.  The Synthesis

ToolKit can generate simultaneous SND (AU), WAV, AIFF, and MAT-file

output soundfile formats (as well as realtime sound output), so you

can view your results using one of a large variety of sound/signal

analysis tools already available (e.g. Snd, Cool Edit, Matlab).



The Synthesis Toolkit is not one particular program.  Rather, it is a

set of C++ classes that you can use to create your own programs.  A

few example applications are provided to demonstrate some of the ways

to use the classes.  If you have specific needs, you will probably

have to either modify the example programs or write a new program

altogether. Further, the example programs don't have a fancy GUI

wrapper. If you feel the need to have a "drag and drop" graphical

patching GUI, you probably don't want to use the ToolKit. Spending

hundreds of hours making platform-dependent graphics code would go

against one of the fundamental design goals of the ToolKit - platform

independence.



For those instances where a simple GUI with sliders and buttons is

helpful, we use Tcl/Tk (https://www.tcl.tk/) which is freely

distributed for all the supported ToolKit platforms. A number of

Tcl/Tk GUI scripts are distributed with the ToolKit release.  For

control, the Synthesis Toolkit uses raw MIDI (on supported platforms),

and SKINI (Synthesis ToolKit Instrument Network Interface, a MIDI-like

text message synthesis control format).



# SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS



See the individual README's (e.g. README-linux) in the /doc directory

for platform specific information and system requirements.  In

general, you will use the configure script to create Makefiles on unix

platforms (and MinGW) or the VS2017 workspace files to compile the

example programs.  To use the Tcl/Tk GUIs, you will need Tcl/Tk

version 8.0 or higher.



# WHAT'S NEW (AND NOT SO NEW)



Despite being available in one form or another since 1996, we still

consider STK to be alpha software.  We attempt to maintain backward

compatability but changes are sometimes made in an effort to improve

the overall design or performance of the software.  Please read the

"Release Notes" in the /doc directory to see what has changed since

the last release.



A new StkFrames class has been created to facilitate the handling and

passing of multichannel, vectorized audio data.  All STK classes have

been updated to include tick() functions that accept StkFrames

arguments.



The control message handling scheme has been simplified greatly

through the use of the Messager class.  It is now possible to have

access to simultaneous piped, socketed, and/or MIDI input control

messages.  In most cases, this should eliminate the use of the

Md2Skini program.



Realtime audio input capabilities were added to STK with release 3.0,

though the behavior of such is very hardware dependent.  Under Linux

and Macintosh OS-X, audio input and output are possible with very low

latency.  Using the Windows DirectSound API, minimum dependable output

sound latency seems to be around 20 milliseconds or so, while input

sound latency is generally higher.  Performance with the ASIO audio

API on Windows provides much better performance.



As mentioned above, it is possible to record the audio ouput of an STK

program to .snd, .wav, .raw, .aif, and .mat (Matlab MAT-file) output

file types.  Though somewhat obsolete, the program Md2Skini can be

used to write SKINI scorefiles from realtime MIDI input.  Finally, STK

should compile with non-realtime functionality on any platform with a

generic C++ compiler.



For those who wish to make a library from the core STK classes, the

configure script generates a Makefile in the src directory that will

accomplish that.



# DISCLAIMER



You probably already guessed this, but just to be sure, we don't

guarantee anything works.  :-) It's free ... what do you expect?  If

you find a bug, please let us know and we'll try to correct it.  You

can also make suggestions, but again, no guarantees.  Send email to

the mail list.



# LEGAL AND ETHICAL



This software was designed and created to be made publicly available

for free, primarily for academic purposes, so if you use it, pass it

on with this documentation, and for free.



If you make a million dollars with it, it would be nice if you would

share. If you make compositions with it, put us in the program notes.



Some of the concepts are covered by various patents, some known to us

and likely others which are unknown.  Many of the ones known to us are

administered by the Stanford Office of Technology and Licensing.



The good news is that large hunks of the techniques used here are

public domain.  To avoid subtle legal issues, we'll not state what's

freely useable here, but we'll try to note within the various classes

where certain things are likely to be protected by patents.



# FURTHER READING



For complete documentation on this ToolKit, the classes, etc., see the

doc directory of the distribution or surf to

http://ccrma.stanford.edu/software/stk/.  Also check the platform

specific README's for specific system requirements.



# PERRY'S NOTES FROM THE ORIGINAL DISTRIBUTION



This whole world was created with no particular hardware in mind.

These examples are intended to be tutorial in nature, as a platform

for the continuation of my research, and as a possible starting point

for a software synthesis system.  The basic motivation was to create

the necessary unit generators to do the synthesis, processing, and

control that I want to do and teach about.  Little thought for

optimization was given and therefore improvements, especially speed

enhancements, should be possible with these classes.  It was written

with some basic concepts in mind about how to let compilers optimize.



Your question at this point might be, "But Perry, with CMix, CMusic,

CSound, CShells, CMonkeys, etc. already cluttering the landscape, why

a new set of stupid C functions for music synthesis and processing?"

The answers lie below.



1) I needed to port many of the things I've done into something which is generic enough to port further to different machines.



2) I really plan to document this stuff, so that you don't have to be me to figure out what's going on. (I'll probably be sorry I said this in a couple of years, when even I can't figure out what I was thinking.)



3) The classic difficulties most people have in trying to implement physical models are:



    A) They have trouble understanding the papers, and/or in turning the theory into practice.



    B) The Physical Model instruments are a pain to get to oscillate, and coming up with stable and meaningful parameter values is required to get the models to work at all.



This set of C++ unit generators and instruments might help to diminish the scores of emails I get asking what to do with those block diagrams I put in my papers.



4) I wanted to try some new stuff with modal synthesis, and implement some classic FM patches as well.



5) I wanted to reimplement, and newly implement more of the intelligent and physical performer models I've talked about in some of my papers. But I wanted to do it in a portable way, and in such a way that I can hook up modules quickly.  I also wanted to make these instruments connectable to such player objects, so folks like Brad Garton who really think a lot about the players can connect them to my instruments, a lot about which I think.



6) More rationalizations to follow . . .