Paul Nasca is the creator of  superstar timestretch tool, PaulStretch, which stretches audio up to a billion times its original length.

J. BIEBZ – U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis

We spoke to Paul, who lives in Romania, about the rapid rise to fame of his free open-source PaulStretch tool, why he wrote it, how it performs its magic and he also shares a few tips for any musicians using it.

MAT JARVIS: How long have you been programming, what makes you create audio software and do you have any other software available?

PAUL NASCA: I am in programming since 1992 but I do audio software since 1996. My first software was a non-realtime software synthesizer “Paul’s Sound Designer” a DOS program which lets you synthesize sounds by adding many waveforms.

Since 2002 I am working on open-source realtime software: ZynAddSubFX which has many sound synthesis methods and effects (including a new sound synthesis algorithm designed by me: PADsynth ). ZynAddSubFX is included in many Linux distributions (or at least in default repositories) and (I believe) it is much more used than PaulStretch.

Also, I wrote some minor audio software (like Hypermmamut, unfinished software which converts audio to images and vice-versa) and I contributed to other open source projects (e.g: I wrote a few effects for Audacity).
Another open source project written by me, but unrelated to audio, is some software which enhances pictures: zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/other/tonemapping, and here are some videos processed with it: vimeo.com/user1194931/videos.

Regarding on what makes me create audio software is that I like to make beautiful sounds and I try to experiment a lot with audio. Some audio software (or part of them) was created because different reasons (more personal ;-) (MJ: intriguing! ) .

Gas – Microscopic 600 (edit) by microscopics
Free downloadfor a limited time (89mb)

MAT: Do you make these audio tools to help with your own music making or for others?

PAUL: It depends: Paulstretchwas made for myself, but after hearing the results I decided to share it. On the other hand, ZynAddSubFX and the PADsynth algorithm was made with sharing in mind.

MJ: What was the original inspiration, why did you decide to create such an extreme timestretch program?

PN: A few years ago I heard about 9 beet stretch (MJ: A 24 hour streaming version of Beethoven’s 9th) and I thought that it would be nice if I made myself some stretches. I searched for a program to do it or at least for an algorithm. I couldn’t find anything useful, so I decided to think how I could make it by myself. After a few days I had the idea of Paulstretch and after another few weeks I made an improved version of this new algorithm.

MJ: The long stretches are remarkably smooth, how does it perform its magic?

PN: Before describing how it makes the sound smooth, I want to tell you about how do I model the sound. I described it here: zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/doc_0 in this discussion is important the first two points (MJ: a very interesting piece on the theories of producing quasiperiodic waveforms, as opposed to static periodic ones,  to create sounds with life and variety, like real analog synthesizers as opposed to the static waveforms on most plugin synthesizers. A must read).

So basically I model the musical sound as a collection of “harmonics” and each “harmonic” is composed from many close frequencies with random phases (like you do a bandpass filter of a noise to get one “harmonic”). This idea models very closely the sound of ensembles (like large choirs, orchestras, etc) (MJ: Zynaddsubfx does create some remarkable choirs).

Paulstretch works in this way (for each step): take a buffer from the position x of the input audio, do the FFT of the windowed buffer, randomize the phases, do the IFFT and overlap-add to the output audio. The output audio amplitude is corrected by a small amount of tremollo (to avoid changing the overall amplitude caused by the overlapping). The value of x is incremented to a value which depends on the stretch amount (for very large steps the x position is incremented with a very small step and for huge stretches is incremented only once a while – which depends on the stretch amount). You can see an example where the input position of the buffers are shown in the image above.
The most important thing in each step is randomization of the phases (which is described in the point 2 of above, of how I model the sound). This makes the sound smooth and non-repetitive.

MJ: So is PaulStretch breaking the audio down into its component frequencies, modulating/ randomising their phases and reconstructing it back together again?

PN: Yes, the trick is to randomise the phases and to change slightly the position of the input buffer.

MJ: Interesting. So is that similar to how digital reverb works, with modulated and randomised impulses?

PN: Not exactly, I simply replace the original phases with random phases (more exactly, I discard the phase information for each buffer and I add random phases). You can see in the code at: Stretch.cpp in function FFT::freq2smp, where I make the phases random.

MJ: Do you have any tips for musicians?

PN: Yes I do:
1 Use very large window sizes (few seconds) and small amount of stretching to get the “essence” of the music (which keeps only the overall chords).
2 Play with the “Bandwidth/Spread” (from Process tab)
3 With the Arbitrary filter, remove a bit from the high pitched sounds
4 Right click on the Play button to hear the original sound
5 For the best results use PaulStretch for sounds which contains choirs/ensembles

MJ: It’s been out for a while, over four years now, so were you surprised when it suddenly became so talked about on the Internet? Have the number of downloads suddenly rocketed?

PN: Yes, I found last week that I received many emails and I didn’t know why. I did a search and I found the reason. Yes, the number of downloads skyrocketed.

This is the graph showing the downloads spike on the day the Bieber version was posted. Before the spike it was happily being downloaded at a respectable 20 copies a day, then overnight jumped up to 10000 a day at the peak, and has now settled to around 1000 downloads a day. This is just the Windows and Linux version, with the Mac version on another site I’m sure having a large spike too.
This really goes to show how much exposure counts in software as much as music. It was the same software that has been freely available for the past four years, the only thing that has changed is that people are now aware of it. Well deserved exposure too.

MJ: Do you have any future plans for new features or refinements?

PN: Yes, I hope that in the next days (or weeks) to release a new version. This new version will have some bugs fixed, parameter loading/saving and an experimental stretch mode which tries to preserve better the attacks (to stretch less on attacks).

MJ: Many thanks Paul, so what is next and what are you currently working on?

PN: In this period I am doing the master studies (in IT). Also, I am doing some small experiments regarding the audio software, I work a bit on ZynAddSubFX and PaulStretch (depends a lot of how much free time I have).

Many thanks to Paul for taking the time to answer our questions in the middle of his studies and creating remarkable software.

You can try PaulStretch for yourself and his other audio software, all free to download…
PaulStretch (win/ linux)
PaulStretch (mac)
ZynAddSubFx (win/ linux)
PADsynth (win/ linux)

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Howdy folks,

Just wanted to let you know that update 1.6.3 for iPad just hit the store.

Here are the details:
- Level tweaks: Warped Chaos levels 3 to 9 were too easy. Much more interesting now! (Same as on iPhone now.)
- Level tweaks: Made a number of Odyssey levels a tiny bit easier. If you were stuck, give it another try.
- Play your own music. (By starting Osmos while your music is playing.)
- Fix for achievement granting bug.
- Other minor bug fixes.

Cheers!
Eddy Boxerman

ps. now would be an excellent time to write a nice, “useful” review, as the App Store review page resets on update. Thanks!

Visit Hemisphere Games…

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The original before editing is just over one hour long. The world’s longest single is 43 minutes, so perhaps we should have uploaded the original.
On the maximum hyperStretch setting the track comes to a rather lengthy 18822 years for a full performance, with a bpm approaching negative numbers.

 Close the curtains and turn off the lights.
Gas – Microscopic 600 (edit) by microscopics
Free download for a limited time (89mb)

And compared to the 9 minute original.Gas – Microscopic by microscopics
Free download (9mb)

UPDATE: read our interview with PaulStretch creator Paul Nasca

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TOM McBRIDE:
The way I put music to video is simply find things that fit as opposed to making them fit.

The video sampled was from ‘Way Stations in Space’ (1961), which was an educational film that introduced “the basic scientific principles of using a manned space platform in helping explore the universe.”

I felt that this portion of the film captured a kind-of passive innocence that resonated throughout the three minutes and four seconds of “The Earth at Night”.

At first, I thought the track title and video clashed horribly but then I developed a small storyline to make them mesh. At the beginning the space ship arrives to re-supply and give communiques from Earth that are to be relayed into space. The video then pans to an underground communications facility where the greetings are being relayed, then to people working on the Lunar surface who are maintaining the communications equipment. Finally, the ship leaves right after the last greetings is sent, and then proceeds onto Mars and subsequently the rest of of the universe.

Many thanks Tom!

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Uncoincidentally, today is Charles’ birthday.

I should post a picture of the Arrange page from Logic, I seem to remember using over 300 tracks for the remix. There is an unreleased mix somewhere too, with more of a beat. Vocals by Xan.

Happy birthday Charles!

UPDATE: It would appear that the record company has removed the above video from YouTube. Shame.

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Microscopics Moog 1:8 scale model, front.

The Minimoog, which often tops polls of the best and  most loved synthesizer of all time, was first released in 1970 by Moog Music Inc. It was the first to filter the essential modules from the huge room-filling modulars into a portable and affordable instrument. It distilled the complex modular pathways in to a simple VCO>VCF>ENV+LFO path, easy to understand and is still the standard layout today.

“It took the synthesizer from the studio and into the concert hall” David Borden.
“absolutely changed the face of music” Rick Wakeman,

 Famous users include Boards of Canada, Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, Future Sound of London, Air, Yes, Pink Floyd, Klaus Schulze…
Moog Music still make a 21st century Minimoog, the hugely successful Minimoog Voyager, which adds MIDI and memories amongst other extras.

Microscopics Moog, rear.

Minimoog reproduced by kind permission of Moog Music Inc.

The Minimoog comes free with all orders of Gas 0095 on CD or Flac24; and both versions also includes the full 320k mp3 version as an instant download (including booklet and extra goodies), and free shipping.

ORDER YOUR FREE MINIMOOG NOW…

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Enter the ambient world of Osmos: elegant, physics-based gameplay, dreamlike visuals, and a minimalist, electronic soundtrack. Videos below…

Includes music and fx by Gas and High Skies – get our free music download from Osmos (High Skies – The Shape of Things to Come).

Some are calling it – gasp – the definitive version of Osmos. Gizmodo even called it “What iPad Gaming Should Be All About.” and “immersive tablet gaming fully realized: just your fingers, some motes, and beautiful physics.” BoingBoing said in a feature, “it’s quickly become one of my iPad favorites”

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UPDATE: Woah, Osmos for iPad is iTunes App of the Week and No1 paid App in the US, UK and nine other countries!

UPDATE 2: We have free High Skies and Gas music downloads from Osmos

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OSMOS for iPad features…

• Multitouch awesomeness: pinch to zoom, tap to eject mass, flick to warp time…

• Eight Distinct level types: Ambient, Antimatter, Solar, Sentient, Impasse, Warped Chaos, Epicycles, and Repulsor.
• Two game modes: Odyssey and Arcade. Odyssey mode is a 27-level guided tour through the Osmos Blobiverse, while Arcade mode allows you to play any level type at your choice of difficulty.
• Sublime electronic soundtrack by Biosphere, Gas/ High Skies, Julien Neto, Loscil and more.
• Wind your way through simple and complex solar systems, feeling and using the force of Attractors and Repulsors.
• Confront four distinct personalities of intelligent opponents, with goals and abilities similar to your own.
• Procedural content: play random versions of any level in Arcade mode.
• Thirteen lucky achievements to earn, with OpenFeint integration.
• Dynamic time-warping: slow down the flow of time to outmaneuver agile opponents; speed it up to raise the challenge.

Osmos for iPad in the App Store

Osmos is also available for Mac, PC and Linux, all three versions together are $10 from Hemisphere Games. Also on Steam.

Coming very soon is the iPhone/ iPod Touch version.

It’s available now for the bargain price of $5 / £3. View Osmos for iPad in App Store...

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Part II of my interview with Paul Frankland (Woob) on his Season 9 blog, where we talk about future work, future synthesis, favourite gear and recording Gas 0095.

High Skies – Sounds of Earth by  microscopics

Part I of our previous interview is here…

Read the interview Part II…

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UPDATED

Wikipedia, the free, openly-editable, online encyclopedia has begun deleting pages of fellow Emit artists.

Already deleted are Woob and IPG.

The reasoning on the Woob delete (removed 6th June by user SchuminWeb ) was that it broke the rule Criteria for speedy deletion, rule A7

A7. No indication of importance.

An article about a real person, an organization (e.g. band, club, company, etc.), that does not indicate why its subject is important or significant.

The dictionary.com (circular) definitions…

Important – great significance or consequence.
Significant – important, of consequence.
Consequence – importance or significance.

So it would seem that the issue is with the articles on the pages rather than the artists themselves not being significant enough. I’m not sure how you would state or prove that any album or artist is important or significant though, especially for the more underground and indie artists and albums, and even harder for new releases; is a new album important?
How would you state the importance or significance of any Emit artist or the label itself? Woob is important to many people, but how would you state that in a dry article? Do artists even have to be significant? Surely it’s enough that an album or artist exists and that their Wikipedia page gives facts about the release or artist?

Wikipedia should be the fountain of all knowledge, a reference for everything that was ever thought, created or existed. It shouldn’t be a badge of honour or Who’s Who.

Is Wikipedia editor SchuminWeb going to delete more Emit pages unless they prove their significance to him?

HOW THIS CAME ABOUT

PAUL FRANKLAND
“As far as I can make out the whole thing came about because a fan posted a Repurpose page which was deleted while he was writing it!  He complained, then another moderator – SchuminWeb deleted the main Woob page, then the discussion about the Woob page was deleted!
Then another fan wrote a separate Repurpose page which was deleted because it linked to a page – the main Woob page, that now didn’t exist!”

If pages are being deleted whilst still being written, then it would seem to be even harder to prove any significance. This is Wikipedia gone bad.

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OTHER INCONSISTENCIES
Our Gas (band) page has been merged with the Mat Jarvis page, which is fine, but if you’re searching for Gas you’ll never find it because someone has deleted the link from the Gas (disambiguation) page, yet (correctly) leaves the Gas (musician)page of Wolfgang Voight.

We’ve had reports from several people where their edits and facts added to our page have been deleted. one example is the deletion of note about the high selling price of the Gas 0095 album on CD  ($460), with the comment from the Wiki editor as ‘give it a rest dude’, which implies that he doesn’t like the fact rather than he doesn’t think it is true.

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Wikipedia is a great resource, but I’ll leave you to make up your minds about the motives of some of the editors. How would you state in a dry manner that an album or artist is important and should that even be a criterion? And how do we get Woobback on Wikipedia and stop the deletion of any more Emit pages?

UPDATED 1
The editors claim was that there was no attempt to assert ANY kind of importance, but I’ve viewed the deleted Woob page on Archive.org (from 2006) and it clearly states…

…the label’s second release was a solo CD by Woob, which many regard as a milestone ambient release.

That’s a pretty big claim to significance. Clearly Wikipedia are wrong even by their own strange rules.

UPDATED 2
I’ve added some (edited) notes from Will M, with the full version in the comments below…

Will M

Hi – I’m the person who wrote the Repurpose article and had it deleted whilst working on it.  This page and the Woob page were both deleted on the grounds of a lack of significance, yet were described elsewhere on Wikipedia as being of importance.
I can see that Wikipedia might regularly be bombarded with unmerited entries for new bands desperate to make a mark, but this is different. This is an artist who produced a “classic ambient album” that’s proved to be “enormously influential”, and those aren’t my words – they’re Wikipedia’s. 

Thanks to Qaz for adding this post on Digg.com Digg this post

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Visit MySpace Music…
Gas – Gas 0095
High Skies – Sounds of Earth

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