PulsarGenerator READ ME

Curtis Roads and Alberto de Campo

April 2001

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Copyright 2001 The Regents of the University of California

THE UNIVERSITY MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS AND EXTENDS NO 
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, 
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR 
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR 
THAT THE USE OF SOFTWARE WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY PATENT, 
TRADEMARK, OR OTHER RIGHTS. 
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Welcome to PulsarGenerator (PG), a new, interactive sound synthesis 
program for MacOS computers.  Pulsar synthesis produces
a train of sound particles called pulsars that can make rhythms or tones,
depending on the fundamental frequency of the train.
You can also control the frequencies of up to three formants
(peaks in the spectrum), each of which can have an independent
spatial trajectory and amplitude envelope. 
Almost all the parameters of pulsar synthesis are controlled 
by graphical envelopes. 

+ Compatibility

Runs on PowerMacintosh 8600/9600, G3, and G4 computers

Runs under MacOS 8.5.1, 8.6, 9.0, 9.1

Allocate at least 35 MB of RAM to PulsarGenerator

+ ASIO sound driver needed

Like SuperCollider, in which it was written, PG uses the ASIO sound 
driver protocol. If you want to use any kind of internal sound card or 
external converter box, you must download the appropriate ASIO sound 
driver and put it in the ASIO Drivers folder in the PG folder.  
You can obtain these drivers from the manufacturer of your sound card 
or from Steinberg, who created ASIO.

ASIO may conflict with your existing audio setup. 
With a Digidesign Audiomedia III card, for example,
these problems can usually be fixed by tossing the Sound
and Digisetup preferences into the trash, emptying the Trash,
and rebooting before using another digital audio program.

We recommend that you set up a separate, minimal extension set for PG.

+ Documentation

We provide three sources of documentation:

1. The PulsarGenerator Manual of Operation (MS Word format) is a quick
introduction to the basic features of PG. 

2. Launch PG and look under the Documentation and Help folders
using the File/Open dialog.

3. With PG launched, look under the Lib/Shortcuts and Lib/Help menu items.

For more on the theory of pulsar synthesis, see
"Sound Composition with Pulsars" by Curtis Roads in
the March 2001 issue of the Journal of the Audio Engineering
Society 49(3): 134-147.

+ Known bugs and limitations

If you already have SuperCollider installed on your system, do not launch
 it alongside PG (e.g. by double-clicking on any file with the SC icon).
 Unless you quit one of them immediately, this will lead to a system crash.