/houscil

Houscil~ (Houscillator) PureData external, a 7th chord harmonic tone generator

Primary LanguageCOtherNOASSERTION

Houscil~ (PD external)

Created by: Aren Akian

Last updated: Jul 30, 2024

About

  • Houscil~ is a Pure Data (PD) external written in C, built on top of the PD “vanilla” library

  • Houscil~, short for Houscillator, is a 7th chord harmonic generator, creating a tone often used in House music

  • Houscil~ generates a sin signal, and a 7th chord using harmonics (amount controlled by second inlet)

Installation

To use Houscil~, you need to install the correct compiled binary for your system, in your PD externals folder.

- Mac (any 64 bit architecture): .pd_Darwin

- Linux (any 64 bit architecture): .pd_linux

- Windows (any 64 bit architecture): .dll

  1. Find the location your PD externals folder

    • Open PD > Preferences > Path to see the default path to your externals folder

  2. Copy the "houscil~" folder containing the compiled binaries and the houscil~-help.pd files into the externals folder

Typically, the default externals path is as follows:

macOS:

Scope Path
Application-specific:  /$PdPath/Contents/Resources/extra (this is inside the Pd Application (like Pd-0.49-1 in ~/Applications); right click it and choose "Show Package Contents", then navigate to "Resources/extra")
User-specific:  ~/Library/Pd (/Users/user_name/Library/Pd)
Global:  /Library/Pd

Windows

Scope Path
Application-specific:  %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Pd\extra (for 64-bit OS and 32-bit Pd) or %ProgramFiles%\Pd\extra; this is inside the Pd Application (usually in C:\Program Files). This folder needs to be set to writeable.
User-specific:  %AppData%\Pd (usually in C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Roaming\Pd).
Global:  %CommonProgramFiles%\Pd (usually in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Pd).

GNU/Linux

Scope Path
Application-specific:  /usr/lib/pd/extra if installed via a package manager (apt-get) or /usr/local/lib/pd/extra if compiled by yourself.
User-specific:  ~/.local/lib/pd/extra (preferred since version Pd-0.47-1) or ~/pd-externals (deprecated but still usable).
Global:  /usr/local/lib/pd-externals.

In most cases, the “User-Specific” path is reccomended.

  • If unsure, you can add a search path to your custom install location.

How to Run

  1. Open a PD project
  2. Inside the patcher, create a new object (⇧⌘ + 1 or ⇧Ctl + 1)
    • type in "houscil~”

How to Use

  1. Follow the steps above to create a houscil~ object. Connect the outlet to a dac~ or other outlet for further processing
  2. Send a signal value to the first inlet, setting the frequency of houscil~
  3. Then send number values to the second inlet, denoting the amount of 7th harmonic to add to the generated tone
  4. For examples or further help, open “houscil~-help.pd” included in this repo.

Inputs & Message Prototypes

Inlet~ 1: Root Frequency

Info: Inlet 1 accepts a signal input, corresponding to the root frequency of the tone generated by houscil~

Arguments:

  • Frequency~ - the frequency of the root note
    • Tip: use an mtof object to send frequency values into a sig~ object, then connect the sig~ outlet to the first inlet of houscil~ (like in the houscil~-help.pd file)

Inlet 2: Harmonic Amount

Info: Inlet 2 accepts atom values, corresponding to the amount of 7th chord harmonics added to the root tone

Arguments:

  • harmonicAmt - The amount of harmonics to be added (0-100)

Troubleshooting

If the external does not run in PD, or causes any issues, you may need to recompile the included source code for your system. I recommend using pd-lib-builder

Credits