Installing a UGen

[terminalwaltz]

Hello! This is my first post with you all, and I would very much appreciate a hand!

I am still somewhat of a noob when it comes to dealing with SuperCollider, and my current headache involves installing new UGens. I am working with Ubuntu 9.04.

Specifically, I have been trying to get the Nes2 chip emulator installed. I dropped the Nes2 folder into SuperCollider's "Extensions" folder. It seems as though this worked, because when I inspect the UGen "Nes2" in SuperCollider it is able to pull up the UGens definition.

However, anytime I try to execute a patch, for example:

{Nes2.ar(Impulse.kr(3), a0:2r00010111, a2:2r10000000, smask:2r00000001)}.play

my error reads:

Synth("temp__0" : 1000)
exception in GraphDef_Recv: UGen 'Nes2' not installed.
*** ERROR: SynthDef temp__0 not found
FAILURE /s_new SynthDef not found


I suppose, then, my question is: How do I go about "installing" the Nes2 UGen? There are many of these chip emulators that I am interested in experimenting with, but I continue to run into this error.

I feel like there is a fundamental piece of information I am missing, or I simply am not asking the right question, but my Google searches on this topic have been fruit-less. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

[dewdrop_world]

Welcome! Hope you have lots of fun with SuperCollider.

A unit generator consists of two parts:

- The UGen class, which is installed into the language and used to build SynthDefs (which is what implicitly happens with { ... }.play);

- And the UGen binary, which is loaded into the server and performs the DSP operation.

You've installed the class but not the binary. So here's what happens (useful to understand the architecture!):

- The language executes the line and builds a network of UGens including Nes2. Since the class was installed, there's no issue here.

- The language sends a binary representation of the UGen network over to the server.

- The server sees the reference to Nes2, but it doesn't have that UGen. Hence the error "not installed."

Fredrik compiled it for OSX and Windows. In Linux, looks like you'll have to compile the binary yourself. Unfortunately there's no README or INSTALL document in the zip. I'm not sure what's required for building. Best idea would be to contact Fredrik directly using the _info page at http://www.fredrikolofsson.com/.

Or, join the mailing list (or use Nabble.com). I'm basically the only SC user answering questions here. Fredrik reads the list.

Come to think of it, why don't I pose the question on the list myself?

James

[dewdrop_world]

[terminalwaltz]

James! Thank you so much for your willingness to lend a hand!

I have followed what was posted by Fredrik, but I regret to say it's a little over my head.

He posted terminal input, yes? g++ is installed, but I am still getting acclimated to the command line. For instance, is the folder "Lintian" simply Fredrik's user folder, or am I completely missing something?

Again, your help is greatly appreciated!

[dewdrop_world]

Yeah, I understand.

I have to admit, I'm under a fair amount of time pressure at the moment and I don't think I can take all the responsibility of walking you through the process. The actual building should be fairly easy as Fredrik posted on the list, but it may take a bit more time to get all of the things that will be necessary to build (SuperCollider source tree, developer package dependencies listed in the Linux README). None of it's especially difficult but it would be a bit more back-and-forth than I can safely commit to at this point.

I'd suggest, if you don't want to get all the SC mailing list messages, sign up for Nabble and (as the instructions say on the Nabble page) subscribe to sc-users-acl for the posting privilege. Lots of people there are highly knowledgeable about building and can help you through it.

Make sure you ask about checking out the 3.4 branch. By default (following the instructions on the SC developer page) you'll get the bleeding-edge developer sources, which raises some risk of build problems, features not working etc. as with any software's development head. Go for the stable 3.4 sources.

If you're learning SC, the users mailing list is extremely helpful so I think it's a good idea to sign up. Whether you use it by way of your inbox, Nabble or newsgroup mirror doesn't matter... but you'll probably need to use it sometime

Good luck!
James

[dewdrop_world]

BTW Fredrik posted some notes for linux compilation, one of the comments on the same thread linked above.