deform~

DSP waveshaper which uses random splines to generate its transfer function. A Max/MSP external object programmed in C++.

• The fully functional Max/MSP external is located at /externals/deform~.mxe64.
  • Note: changes to min-devkit made for Apple Silicon mean that this external will need to be rebuilt for Max 8.2 onwards.
• The associated C++ code is located at /source/projects/deform_tilde/deform_tilde.cpp.

About

[deform~] generates a random spline $f_n: [-1,1] \rightarrow [-1,1]$, then a sequence of splines varying continuously from $f_n$ to $f_1(x) = x$. Combining these functions with an Intensity parameter $i\in[1,\dots,n]$, we obtain

$$\begin{aligned}f: [-1,1] \times \lbrace 1, \dots, n\rbrace &\rightarrow [-1,1]\\ f(x,i) &= f_i(x)\end{aligned}$$

This yields a waveshaper function whose output can be smoothly varied using the parameter. See below for sample output from an input of a sine wave, a sawtooth wave, and a triangle wave respectively.

Demonstration.mp4

You can read the (very basic) whitepaper I wrote up for the idea here.

Build

Make sure to initialise all the submodules after cloning this repo:

git submodule update --init --recursive

build on macOS

1. Have Xcode installed then run:

   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake -G Xcode ..
   

2. Open up either build/Min-Externals.xcodeproj or the .xcodeproj for a specific external (e.g. build/source/projects/lib.deform_tilde/lib.deform_tilde.xcodeproj) in Xcode.
3. Set the build target to be 'Any Mac (Intel, Apple Silicon)'.
4. Press build. The compiled externals can be found in externals/.

build on Windows

1. Have Visual Studio installed then run cmake --help to get a list of the available generators. Pick the one that corresponds to the Visual Studio version installed e.g. "Visual Studio 17 2022", then run:

   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" ..
   

2. Open up the Visual Studo project file, deform_tilde.sln, in build/source/projects/deform_tilde/.
3. In the menu bar, click 'Build > Build Solution'. The compiled object, deform.maxpat, can be found in externals/.