Chapter 1.
Introduction to Pd
Chapter 1. Introduction
to Pd
Ta b le o f Co nt e nt s
1.1 General remarks
1.2 Installing and setting up Pd
1.1 General remarks
Pd (Pure Dat a) is a programming language
f or elec t ronic music . Creat ing music on a
c omput er is t ec hnic ally ref erred t o as DSP
(digit al signal proc essing). "Digit al" means
t hat inf ormat ion is represent ed by digit s
c omput ers, as y ou may know , w ork only
w it h numbers. "Signal" is t he t ec hnic al t erm
f or a spec ial mode of c omput er operat ion
t hat deals w it h sound. "Proc essing" ref ers
t o f unc t ions exec ut ed by t he c omput er.
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Pd w as init iat ed by Americ an sof t w are
engineer Miller Puc ket t e, w ho prev ious c odev eloped t he w ell know n and similarly
st ruc t ured sof t w are Max/Msp. Pd is not
c ommerc ial sof t w are; i.e., it w as not
dev eloped by a c orporat ion and is not f or
sale. Inst ead, it is "open sourc e": it s
sourc e c ode c an be v iew ed by any one. T his
sourc e c ode is also not t he (pat ent ed)
propert y of a c orporat ion, but is rat her
f reely av ailable t o all. T his also means t hat ,
prov ided suf f ic ient know ledge, any one c an
c hange t he program. T oday , many ot her
programmers, music ians, ac oust ic
engineers, and c omposers hav e joined Miller
Puc ket t e t o c ont inue Pd's dev elopment . As
a result of t his, t here is no f inal, def init iv e
v ersion of Pd; t he program is under
c onst ant dev elopment . In addit ion t o t he
huge adv ant age of f ree av ailabilit y on t he
Int ernet , it is also "democ rat ic ally "
expanded and opt imized on a prof essional
lev el. One draw bac k t o t his is t hat a
det ailed operat ing manual f or users w ho
lac k programming experienc e has not
exist ed unt il now . In c ont rast t o a
c orporat ion, w hic h has a monet ary int erest
in ensuring t hat f irst - t ime users c an easily
operat e new sof t w are, t he open sourc e
mov ement lac ks suc h a driv ing f orc e t o
make it self ac c essible. T his book is an
at t empt t o f ill t hat gap.
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In prec ise t erms, Pd is a "real- t ime
graphic al programming env ironment f or
audio proc essing". T radit ionally ,
programmers w ork w it h t ext - based
programming languages. T hey c reat e w hat
is c alled "c ode", w hic h is proc essed by a
c omput er t o produc e a result . T o c arry out
it s programming f unc t ions, Pd uses v isual
objec t s t hat t he user plac es and alt ers on
t he sc reen. T hese v isual objec t s small
boxes t hat c an be c onnec t ed t o eac h ot her
are a t hrow bac k t o analogue st udios t hat
w ere used t o produc e elec t ronic music
bef ore t he adv ent of c omput ers: v arious
dev ic es t oday sy mbolized by our lit t le
boxes are c onnec t ed t o eac h ot her using
lines t hat like c ables sy mbolize
phy sic al c onnec t ions bet w een t he boxes.
(Due t o t his t y pe of c onnec t ion, Pd is
ref erred t o as a dat ast ream- orient ed
programming language.)
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An analog studio devices are connected
with cables.
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Pd boxes are connected to each other.
One major adv ant age of Pd is t he aspec t of
"real- t ime". T his means t hat , in c ont rast t o
most programming env ironment s w here a
t ext is f irst ent ered t hat must be
separat ely proc essed by t he c omput er
bef ore obt aining a result , c hanges in Pd
c an be made during perf ormanc e. Like on a
c lassic al inst rument , t he user hears t he
result inst ant aneously and c an c hange it
immediat ely . T his makes Pd espec ially w ell
suit ed f or use in liv e perf ormanc e.
Pd has bec ome muc h more t han a
programming language f or elec t ronic music .
Sinc e users ac ross t he globe c an
part ic ipat e in t he projec t , t here are userprogrammed modules f or w hat are c alled
"ext ernals": v ideo, Int ernet c onnec t ion,
joy st ic k int egrat ion, et c . Whole libraries of
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t hese modules ev en exist ("ext ernal
libraries"). Some of t hese ext ernals hav e
been int egrat ed int o t he regular v ersion of
Pd.
I ntr o d uc tio n to
this b o o k 's
m e tho d o lo g y
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Ho m e
1.2 I ns ta lling
a nd s e tting up P d
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