Pure data
Pd (aka Pure Data) is a real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical processing. It is the third major branch of the family of patcher programming languages known as Max (Max/FTS, ISPW Max, Max/MSP, jMax, etc.) originally developed by Miller Puckette and company at IRCAM. The core of Pd is written and maintained by Miller Puckette and includes the work of many developers, making the whole package very much a community effort.
Pure data offers capabilities to process both audio and video streams and is a great tool for processing A/V for TheArtCollider.
Pd-extended is the most commonly used software package of Pd and includes a couple of handy extras (aka externals) most notably: PDP - a graphics library and oggpd - A/V streaming tools.
To send and receive streams Pd-extended offers 4 built-in objects:
[oggamp~] [oggcast~] [pdp_icedthe~] [pdp_theonice~]
The first two are for sending and receiving audio only, while the pdp elements can do both audio & video. Alternatively there is [readanysf~] which is not included in pd-extended but available for download. The most interesting feature of [readanysf~] and reason to prefer it over [oggamp~] is its capability of parsing playlists.
Here are some basic examples patches using Pd to read and send data from/to TheArtcollider:
Example Patches for reading A/V
Example Patches for transmitting A/V
Pd Applications
Here’s a fully feature A/V mixer (reads files and camera) implemented in Pd, based on Giss.tv’s streaming utility. Note: you’ll need to fill in password (see example patches above) and stream-name before you can start the streaming.
