Computer music workstation

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The computer music workstation is a Dell Optiplex 755. It runs Windows Vista Business which is near EOL so halp! The MOTU 828 mkII is connected to it to provide some interesting options for audio I/O. The physical box is located under the Plan 9 workstation and the two share a monitor, but have separate mice and keyboards.

Specs

  • Dual core 2.8 gHz Intel core II duo 64 bit CPU (fast)
  • 4 GB RAM (no ECC)
  • 32 Bit Windows Vista (slow)
  • 160 GB 7200 RPM SATA drive (No DAW Action for us)
  • Fancy Nvidia graphics card (Vancy visuals)
  • Firewire 400 PCI card for multichannel audio interface (pro audio)

Audio

There was a Denon home theater reciever on the hackshelves. I appropriated it for the power amps and myriad supported inputs. The main outputs of the MOTU 828 are wired to the "Stereo CDR [Analog]" inputs of the Denon.

Software

  • Supercollider (digital modular synthesis engine, object oriented DSP language and algorithmic composition environment)
  • Sunvox (tracker style sequencer and DSP platform)
  • Pure Data (patcher language control environment and realtime DSP engine for modular digital synthesis)
  • Sonic Pi ( fun realtime loop composition environment with livecoding language based on Ruby)
  • Audacity ( stereo sound recorder )
  • LTSpice IV (Analog Circuit simulator)

MIDI

The monitor sits next to the Yamaha PSR-1700 MIDI synthesizer and sequencer. Output works. It's possible to control Sunvox from the keyboard by opening it and clicking the mouse on a generator in Sunvox. It's also possible to send MIDI to the keyboard and play lol karaoke files.