Out Of Phase: Digital Music Synthesis On General Purpose Computers

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  What Is Out Of Phase?
       Out Of Phase is a program for digital music composition and
       synthesis on general purpose computers. It is available for
       Macintosh and hopefully other machines some time in the future. We
       are attempting to meet these goals:
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    Flexibility
            The program is powerful enough to satisfy the most demanding
            composers. There are no arbitrary limitations and the
            synthesis process is flexible enough to allow the generation
            of complex, evolving sounds.
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    Portability
            The program is [hopefully] easily portable to many
            architectures. There is no dependence on sophisticated sound
            hardware or MIDI equipment. A computer with a DAC is
            sufficient.
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    Quality
            The program is capable of producing high quality soundtracks.
            Non-realtime synthesis is supported to enable slower machines
            to produce high quality output.
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  Who Is Working On Out Of Phase?
          + Thomas R. Lawrence
               o Design and Implementation
               o Bug Report Contact Person
            
            
    tomlaw@world.std.com
          + Eric R. Oehler
               o Synthesis Concepts
               o Testing
            
            
    wonko@yar.cs.wisc.edu
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  Specifically, What features Does Out Of Phase Have?
          + Distributed Under The GNU General Public License
            The software is freely available for people to use and
            modify.
          + No Arbitrary Limitations
            Arbitrary limitations (such as the 32-sample limit of MOD
            files or the 16-channel limit of General MIDI) are silly. Our
            data structures were carefully designed to avoid as many
            unnecessary limitations as possible. A song may have any
            number of instruments, tracks, simultaneous notes per track,
            oscillators per instrument, samples, and wave tables.
          + Flexibility
            Our score format is flexible. Each note has more than 15
            parameters, including:
               o Pitch bend, portamento, and detuning controls
               o Multiple accents for adjusting envelopes
               o Loudness
               o Stereo positioning
               o Duration and hit-time adjustment
               o Ties and slurs
               o Envelope sustain-release points
          + Envelope Driven Synthesis
            Envelopes provide a flexible way of controlling aspects of
            synthesis that gradually change over time. Most aspects of
            this synthesizer are under the control of envelopes,
            including loudness, pitch bend, vibrato, tremelo, and
            modulation.
               o Envelopes may have any number of segments
               o Both amplitude-linear and decibel-linear segments are
                 provided
               o Envelope values may be adjusted on a per-note basis
                 using four parameters in each note as well as the pitch
                 and loudness of the note
               o Two fully adjustable sustain points, and a third at the
                 end of the note
               o Origin point for synchronizing multiple envelopes
          + Sampled Oscillators
            Samples can be algorithmically constructed or imported from
            WAV or AIFF files and then played back at any pitch. This is
            useful for drums and complex or accoustic instruments.
               o 8 and 16 bit, mono and stereo samples
               o Three loop sections corresponding to the three envelope
                 sustain points
               o Origin point synchronized to envelope origins
               o Multisampling based on pitch
          + Wavetable Oscillators
            In wave table synthesis, an index value is used to select
            from a series of single-period wave samples. By varying the
            index under the control of an envelope and providing suitable
            wave samples, dynamic sounds can be generated with low
            overhead.
          + Effects Processing
            Out Of Phase supports effects processing. A linear sequence
            of effects can be applied to the output of a single
            oscillator, all oscillators on a given track, or the entire
            score. Effects parameters can be changed via commands in the
            score. The following effects processors are provided:
               o Filters, including resonant lowpass filter and filter
                 building blocks
               o Arbitrary multitap delay line
               o Nonlinear processor
               o Sampling rate decimator
               o Compressor/Expander
          + High Quality Output
               o 8, 16, 24, and 32 bit output
               o Output to a file or an audio device
               o Arbitrary sampling rates
               o Mono and stereo
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  Downloading Out Of Phase?
       The latest official version of Out Of Phase is 1.3
       Version 1.4 is in development and will be released 'soon'.
       FTP Out Of Phase files
       
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   Last Modified: 16 August 1995
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