Meeting ID: 974 3258 0111
Link: https://zoom.us/j/97432580111

SuperCollider is an open source tool for sound synthesis and algorithmic composition. It is used for composition, generative music, installations, live coding, instrument building and very many other things. It is one of the most popular and widely used programming environments for audio work and is available for free for all platforms.

SuperCollider is useful for many things: algorithmic composition, generative music, live coding performances, in conjunction with microcontrollers and sensors, for installation work, multi-channel work, dsp, research, ambisonics or simply audio hacking.

At these online meetups, SuperCollider users of all skill levels come together to share ideas, frustrations, help each other and showcase projects and workflows in an inspiring and friendly way.

The host: 
The SuperCollider meetups are led by Mike McCormick. Mike McCormick is an artist and programmer working with sound, text and visual media. His work often combines algorithms and human performers. He works extensively with personal material, examining life through a voyeuristic lens to explore the ecstatic, the fragile and the banal. He grew up in Canada's subarctic region, lived nomadically for a decade, and has been based in Oslo since 2017.

Programme 30.04.24

Marcin Pietruszewski: Media Archaeology and SuperCollider
Marcin Pietruszewski, composer and researcher, presents his work on the New Pulsar Generator (nuPG) at an upcoming online SuperCollider user meet-up. The presentation focuses on nuPG as a custom synthesis environment based on pulsar synthesis, developed through research into media archaeology, media specificity, and composition. Rather than treating nuPG as a neutral tool, Pietruszewski frames it as a conceptual instrument that exposes the temporal and material conditions of digital sound production.Drawing from media-archaeological perspectives, the presentation investigates how nuPG reimagines Curtis Roads' pulsar synthesis model, emphasising micro-temporal structures and the compositional use of overlapping pulse trains. Pietruszewski explores how nuPG operates as both a software instrument and a site of aesthetic inquiry, foregrounding the relationship between synthesis techniques and the historical contexts of their implementation.The session includes audio examples, code demonstrations, and discussion on the design philosophy behind nuPG. It offers insight into the intersection of compositional practice and software development, showing how the specificities of media shape musical thinking. By positioning the composer as both theorist and tool-maker, Pietruszewski challenges conventional approaches to synthesis and highlights the critical role of software in shaping contemporary sonic art.

Marcin Pietruszewski (1984, Poland) is a composer and researcher. He is engaged in sound synthesis and composition with computers, exploring specific formal developments in the tradition of electroacoustic music and contemporary sound art. He works across composition, pluriphonic installations, and radio productions. Recurring interests of his practice include synthetic sound, algorithmic systems, and the integration of scientific formalisms as compositional materials. Works exhibited at Remote Viewing (Philadelphia, 2019) and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, 2017). Commissions by Sonic Acts (2024), CTM Festival (2021), ZKM Karlsruhe (2018) and Deutschlandradio Kultur (2016). Collaborations include a sound installation, 'Auditory Scene Resynthesis as Cochlear Wavepackets' (HKW, Berlin, 2021) with Jan St. Werner; NORMIFICATION with Florian Hecker. A recent sound installation - 'Love Numbers' - with Anthea Caddy, premiered at Venice Music Biennale 2023. Marcin has experience as an educator, designing and delivering courses focused on digital instrument design, digital signal processing, sound theory, and practice. He has taught at The Reid School of Music (Edinburgh College of Art, UK) and Design Informatics (The University of Edinburgh, UK). He also writes on issues related to computer music histories, aesthetics, and technology. His texts have been published by Hatje Cantz and ZKM among others. Currently, Marcin holds the position of Fellow in Artistic Research in Acoustic Ecologies and Sound Studies, Department of Media Art and Design, Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany. Marcin lives and works in Berlin  

https://soundcloud.com/marcin_pietruszewski
www.marcinpietruszewski.com
https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/marcin-pietruszewski-shares-an-unreleased-track

Jan-Lars
I (Jan-Lars) is 35 years old and live in Cologne, Germany. Beside my day job as a civil engineer for water economy, i have been studying electronic composition at Folkwang University in Essen for a while (from 2021 - 2023) and use Supercollider for about 5 years now. I'm researching synthesis attempts which have a lot of possibilities for timbral transformation and macro controls with the ability to continuously transform sound objects to create expressive musical gestures. After attending a FluCoMa workshop at Stanford University in 2023 im using the MLP Regressor for preset interpolation and have worked on a GUI which is based on NodeProxyGui2.

A lot of times formal structures are imbedded in the musical material itself or in the tools which are being used to shape the material. Im studying musical material and their possibilities for timbral transformation and then adjusting or extending the synthesis attempts I'm working with. One synthesis attempt I am researching for some years now is Pulsar Synthesis.

In my presentation we will explore phasor based scheduling for sub-sample accurate granulation in Supercollider (a technique I have learned from the book Generating Sound & Organizing Time). I will show two sequencing attempts (one exclusively on the server and the other as a hybrid approach between language and server). Both of these attempts are using continuous, linear ramps between 0 and 1, from which you can derive all sorts of useful information like slopes, triggers, durations and sub-sample offsets. These ramps can be subdivided by non-integer ratios and can be modulated without truncation or distortion of your grain windows. We will look at the basic building blocks for granular synthesis, so you could build your own custom granular synthesis instrument in Supercollider with possibilities for extended modulation and anti-aliasing.

A collection of functions for sub-sample accurate granulation
A collection of unit shapers