CataRT
From IMTR
Real-Time Corpus-Based Concatenative Synthesis
by Diemo Schwarz, IMTR Team, Ircam--Centre Pompidou, and collaborators.
CataRT is based on FTM&Co. by Norbert Schnell and collaborators.
CataRT comes in three flavours:
- CataRT classic, a modular system for Max/MSP with the FTM&Co. extensions (for Mac and Windows), described here
- CataRT Standalone Application, distributed by the Ircam Forum (for Mac)
- CataRT by MuBu, an example patch for Max/MSP using only 4 objects from the MuBu library, and descriptor analysis via the PiPo framework
See also:
- CataRT as an expressive performance instrument, collection of audio and video examples
- CataRT Music, music made with CataRT
- CataRT_Screenshots
- Corpus-Based Concatenative Synthesis, the idea behind it all
- Corpus-Based Sound Synthesis Survey, ongoing web and literature study of approaches and advances in the field of CBCS
Contents |
Description
The concatenative real-time sound synthesis system CataRT plays grains from a large corpus of segmented and descriptor-analysed sounds according to proximity to a target position in the descriptor space. This can be seen as a content-based extension to granular synthesis providing direct access to specific sound characteristics.
CataRT is implemented in MaxMSP and takes full advantage of the generalised data structures and arbitrary-rate sound processing facilities of the FTM and Gabor libraries. Segmentation and sound descriptors are loaded from text or SDIF files, or analysed on-the-fly.
CataRT allows to explore the corpus interactively or via a target sequencer, to resynthesise an audio file or live input with the source sounds, or to experiment with expressive speech synthesis and gestural control.
CataRT is explained in more detail in this article and is an interactive implementation of the new concept of Corpus-Based Concatenative Synthesis.
Download
CataRT is offered as free and libre open source software in the spirit of the GNU GPL. All we want is some feedback from you. Or in more details:
- CataRT is offered for free, so you can make music and create.
- CataRT is offered as open source software, so you can look into it, learn from it, and adapt it to your needs.
- CataRT, up to version 0.9.8, is offered under the GNU General Public License (GPL), which means that any modifications you make, or any software that uses CataRT in whole or in parts, must be distributed under the GNU GPL also, so the improvements, variations, adaptations you make will benefit the community of users. (See below for the full license.)
- CataRT is offered with the wish that you give some feedback if you use it, how you use it, how you would like to use it, what you use it for, or why you don't use it in order to learn from it and to have arguments for Ircam to continue work on CataRT.
The download links send you to the FTM sourceforge project download page which hosts CataRT. (You can choose the download mirror and also activate monitoring of the CataRT package, to be notified of new releases automatically.)
For FTM 2.5 on Max 5 (versions FTM 2.5-beta10 or higher for Max 5.1)
- cataRT-1.2.4 for FTM 2.6, 01.04.14
- cataRT-1.2.4-beta for FTM 2.6, 04.03.13
- cataRT-1.2.3 for FTM 2.6, 12.11.12
- cataRT-1.2.2 for FTM 2.5-beta20, 31.07.11
- cataRT-1.2.1 for FTM 2.5-beta17, 01.12.10
- cataRT-1.2.0 for FTM 2.5-beta17, 25.11.10
- cataRT-1.1.4 for FTM 2.5-beta17, 18.11.10
- cataRT-1.1.3 for FTM 2.5-beta10, 30.07.10
- cataRT-1.1.2 for FTM 2.5-beta10, 10.03.10
- cataRT-1.1.1 for FTM 2.5-beta6, 11.11.09
- cataRT-1.1.0 for FTM 2.5-beta6, 30.10.09
- cataRT-1.0.3 for FTM 2.5-beta5, 20.10.09
- cataRT-1.0.2 for FTM 2.5-beta5, 20.09.09
- cataRT-1.0.1 for FTM 2.5-beta5, 09.09.09
- cataRT-1.0.0 for FTM 2.5-beta5, 19.08.09
For FTM 2.3 on Max/MSP 4 (versions FTM 2.2.0 or higher for Max 4.6)
- cataRT-0.9.8 for FTM 2.3.7, 18.08.2009
- cataRT-0.9.7 for FTM 2.3.5, 19.09.2008
- cataRT-0.9.6 for FTM 2.3.5, 06.09.2008
- cataRT-0.9.5 for FTM 2.3.5, 06.06.2008
- cataRT-0.9.4 for FTM 2.3.4, 15.05.2008
- cataRT-0.9.3 for FTM 2.3.4, 06.03.2008 (unreleased)
For FTM 2.2 (versions FTM 2.2.0 or higher for Max 4.5 or Max 4.6)
- cataRT-0.9.2 for FTM 2.2.4, 25.01.2008
- cataRT-0.8.3 for FTM 2.2.4, 05.12.2007
- cataRT-0.8.1-beta for FTM 2.2.0, 19.11.2007 (FTM 2.2.0 is the last Mac FTM version running on Max 4.5, running on MacOS 10.3.)
For FTM 1.7 (versions FTM 1.7.11 through 1.7.13):
- cataRT-0.4.2, 18.10.2007
- cataRT-0.4.1, 20.06.2007
- cataRT-0.4.0, 06.06.2007
Requirements
You need Max/MSP 4.5 or 4.6 and the FTM&Co extensions installed which you can download from ftm.ircam.fr. CataRT runs on Mac OSX and Windows XP (less tested than Mac, so we welcome any experiences) and maybe Vista (completely untested).
License
- CataRT is distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Other licenses can be obtained by contacting us, and we'll work something out. The full license comes with the download in file COPYING, and can be read here.
Documentation
- The CataRT ReadMe contains a QUICK START which is a good starting point.
- The CataRT Documentation gives a complete reference of the usage and the user interface elements.
- Look at the catart.lcd doc for an explanation of the lcd controller.
- A growing list of help patches and tutorials within the distribution explain the usage of the CataRT modules to make new applications.
- The internals of CataRT start to be documented at CataRT Internals Documentation.
- Media:Catart_7.3_Ircam_Overview_2011_en.pdf
FAQ and examples
- The CataRT FAQ is hosted on the collaborative FTM wiki, which means that you can add questions and answers (but post them also on the concat mailing list).
- There's a number of tutorial patches within the distribution.
Articles and Presentations
- Principles and Applications of Interactive Corpus-Based Concatenative Synthesis JIM 2008. The most complete article, with architecture and applications, 10 page PDF.
- CataRT reference article expanded version 1.1 of the submission to DAFX 2006, 7 page PDF
- What Next? Continuation in Real-Time Corpus-Based Concatenative Synthesis ICMC 2008 paper on corpus-based sequence modeling and generation.
- Musical Applications of Real-Time Corpus-Based Concatenative Synthesis ICMC 2007 paper
- Real-Time Corpus-Based Concatenative Synthesis with CataRT DAFx 2006 paper
- DAFx 2006 poster, presented at the 9th Int. Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx-06), Montreal, Canada, September 2006
- Prisma group VII international meeting, Sept. 2006
- ICMC 2005 Workshop Audio Mosaicing: Feature-Driven Audio Editing/Synthesis, organised by Adam T. Lindsay at the International Computer Music Conference, Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 2005.
Screenshots
Community
Mailing List
- The concat list will receive announcements of news about CataRT and serves for general discussion about concatenative and corpus-based synthesis.
User Reactions
What users say about CataRT:
CataRT is a fascinating tool both conceptually and in the sounds produced.
Ian Blake
J'ai vraiment adoré la simplicité et la beauté de l'idée ainsi que les applications qui pouvaient en découler...
La structuration de données granulaire ouvre des possibilittés inédites et d'une beauté évidente !
Tiivi
Music and installations made with CataRT
- Music and installations made with CataRT. This page is inevitably incomplete, so please let us know of any music produced with the help of CataRT!
- CataRT's myspace profile, be CataRT's friend, listen to contributed sound examples and compositions
- CataRT as an expressive performance instrument, collection of audio and video examples
- Fine sound art by Diemo Schwarz, music mostly made with CataRT, news, concert dates, installations, releases