REAL TIME SYSTEMS TEAM

Activities

The Real Time Systems Team conducts research and development based on computer techniques for interaction and real time processing of musical and sound information. This work, oriented towards musical creation, also has applications for audio and multimedia in larger contexts (in the sectors of pedagogy or industry, for example).

Musical works which incorporate both instrumental and electronic parts in an interactive situation have interested composers for a long time. Computer calculations of sound samples for synthesis in real time (in other words, 'live') necessitate powerful systems, which in turn has long necessitated heavy, custom-made systems.

After the first generations of real time machines (4X), which were developped at the end of the 70s by Pepino DiGiugno at IRCAM, a new equipment and software architechture was developed at the beginning of the 90s by the musical information station led by Eric Lindemann. This computer music station (SIM), based on NeXT computers and including cards designed for sound processing, was widely used in concert situations.

Its primary software components were the real time FTS (Faster Than Sound) executor, which controls signal processing, and the Max graphic programming environment, developed by Miller Puckette. The Max software adapted for Macintosh was commercialised by Opcode, and over 5000 copies were distributed all over the world.

The performance of works which use these systems raises the problem of the availability or obsolescence of equipment. The Real Time Systems Team, created and led by François Déchelle, focusses its activities on the production of a purely software solution. This gave rise to jMax, a free software which is a new portable version of the Max environment.

jMax constitutes an open architecture which permits the development of applications in various contexts : musical creation (score tracking project, Spatialisateur software, etc.) ; research projects (the LISTEN project), or industrial applications such as automobile or submarine simulations.

Areas of Expertise

Real time, Linux, Java, C, Max, interactivity, signal processing

Collaborations

Apple, Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication - Competence Center Virtual Envi-ronments Genesis, GMD, mamalala.de, RedHat, Tempo Reale, University of North Texas,

Team Members

 Projects Manager :François Déchelle
 Engineers and Researchers : Riccardo Borghesi, Norbert Schnell, Diemo Schwarz