samplebrain/README.md

Samplebrain

A custom sample mashing app designed by Aphex Twin.

Samplebrain chops samples up into a 'brain' of interconnected small sections called blocks which are connected into a network by similarity. It processes a target sample, chopping it up into blocks in the same way, and tries to match each block with one in its brain to play in realtime.

This allows you to interpret a sound with a different one. As we worked on it (during 2015 and 2016) we gradually added more and more tweakable parameters until it became slightly out of control.

Quick start:

1. Load a bunch of short wav files into the brain
2. Click (re)generate brain
3. Load a short loop sample into the target
4. Click (re)generate blocks
5. Press play
6. Tweak brain

The default block size (3000) is really high to prevent CPU glitches - 500 to 1000 is a better range. Larger wav files like whole tracks can be used, but take a long time to process, after which they can be saved as "brain" files and instantly reloaded.

Historical note: Samplebrain is a method of sound synthesis called "concatenative sound synthesis" (CSS), which was developed in speech synthesis research in the 1990s: the computer is made to speak by concatenating phonetic "units" together extracted from a database of recorded speech. This was adapted for musical purposes in the early 2000s, with many researchers calling it by different names:

• A. Zils and F. Pachet, “Musical mosaicing,” in Proc. COST G-6 Conf. Digital Audio Effects, (Limerick, Ireland), 2001.
• A. Lazier and P. Cook, “Mosievius: Feature driven interactive audio mosaicing,” in Proc. COST G-6 Conf. Digital Audio Effects, (Queen Mary, University of London), 2003.
• D. Schwarz, "Data-Driven Concatenative Sound Synthesis." PhD thesis, l’Université Paris 6 – Pierre et Marie Curie, 2004.
• sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ! by Sven König in 2006.

For an overview of early computer music research in this area, see D. Schwarz, "Concatenative sound synthesis: The early years", J. New Music Research, vol. 35, no. 1, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1080/09298210600696857 See also the work of Canadian composer John Oswald in the 1980s, who manually explored such approaches in his plunderphonics work

Demo brain session

Load this file using "load session" not "load brain" (sessions contain both the target and brain samples). The original samples used to create the demo session can be found here for testing.

Manual

Full description of all the parameters and a bit of the thinking behind it.

Download

As this is experimental non-commercial software (only originally written to run on a couple of computers!) you will have to bear with us as we gradually stabilise things based on your feedback. There might currently be problems running it on 64bit Windows.

• Windows: samplebrain_0.18.1_win.zip
• Mac (intel/m1): samplebrain_0.18.1_macintel.zip

Thank you to Nik Gaffney for help with the Apple builds

Mac note: As this software is not on the apple store, to run the binary you need to tell your mac it's ok: Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General. At the bottom of the window, select "Allow apps to be downloaded from Anywhere".

Linux install (Ubuntu)

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thentrythis/samplebrain
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install samplebrain

If you'd like the right font, optionally:

$ sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Old/broken/spurious binaries

• *Windows *: samplebrain_0.18_win.zip
• Mac (intel): samplebrain_0.18_macintel.zip
• Mac (m1): samplebrain_0.18_m1_v2.dmg

Building from source

Linux (Ubuntu)

Install libraries for the sample engine (use brew on mac, MinGW on win):

$ sudo apt install libsndfile1-dev portaudio19-dev liblo-dev libfftw3-dev

Install dependencies for the interface:

$ sudo apt install build-essential qtcreator qt5-default

Build & run it:

$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ qmake ..
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ samplebrain

Mac

Install libraries for sample engine:

$ brew install fftw portaudio liblo libsndfile

Install dependencies for the interface:

$ brew install qt
$ brew link qt

Build & run it:

$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ qmake ..
$ make

samplebrain.app should then be in the app folder for you to run.

Mac build additions

To make a mac app bundle:

Run macdeployqt which copies all dependencies inside the app.

$ cd build
$ macdeployqt

If the icon is not visible, you might need to copy desktop/samplebrain.icns (the icon) to the Resources directory in the app bundle.

$ cp ../desktop/samplebrain.icns samplebrain.app/Contents/Resources

Then edit Info.plist to add samplebrain.icns to CFBundleIconFile. Key CFBundleIconFile should match:

<key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
<string>samplebrain.icns</string>

You might also need to resign the app bundle after making any changes

$ codesign --force --deep --sign - samplebrain.app

What's here

1. brain:
   • samplebrain engine code
2. app:
   • code to build the Qt GUI app
3. gui:
   • qt designer project files
4. desktop:
   • various icon files etc
5. cooking:
   • some sketches and ideas
   • proof of concept written in python
   • brief initial (abandoned) attempt at clojure version

MFCC algo courtesy of the Aquila library by Zbigniew Siciarz MIT/X11 licence 2007-2014 (see brain/src/aquila/LICENCE)

This program is free software licenced under GNU General Public License version 2 (see LICENCE).

Written by Dave Griffiths at Then Try This.