INTRODUCTION

The CDP System is designed for the in-depth exploration of sound transformation. CDP is not a real-time system, but mostly transforms soundfiles ('samples') – or other CDP system types derived from soundfiles – and writes other (sound)files. There is also a limited, but growing, group of functions for sound synthesis, and several sound-processing functions can be adapted for synthesis. The emphasis is on the design of sounds, either for fully electro-acoustic music compositions or as sound clips or tracks in songs or other media. Many people use CDP alongside other software in a hybrid studio environment.

CDP RELEASE 8

CDP's forthcoming eighth software release (2023) introduces over 60 new processes. These cover a wide variety of spectral, multi-channel, segmentation, waveset and synth functions, among others. Some are updates or alternatives to previous processes, while some are at the more 'experimental' end of sound processing. A few are yet to be fully documented and will be added in due course. SPECFNU, in particular, is worth a special mention as a whole new process group of 23 functions, transforming sounds spectrally while aiming to retain the original formants.

All of the new (documented) processes will be assigned to the various Function Groups within this documentation, as soon as possible.
In the meantime, you can view them as a separate listing, in two html files: cr8new.htm and cspecfnu.htm.

STARTER DOCUMENTS

Various .pdf Starter Documents are available at the top level of the documentation folder:

THE SOFTWARE:

• Welcome to the Composers' Desktop Project Ltd.
• Introducing the CDP Sound Transformation Programs (Release 7)
• Release7 (2014) – New Additions in Release 7
• Release6 (2011) – New Additions in Release 6
PC INSTALLATION:

• PC Installation Notes
• Check PC Installation
MAC INSTALLATION:

• MAC Installation Notes
• Check MAC Installation
• MAC - Manual Configuration
  Several documents relating to MAC installation and SoundLoom are duplicated in a dedicated MAC folder.
  Note especially the SoundLoom Guide.

CDP GUIDE

A classified guide (Oct. 2021) to CDP processes and functions (up to Release 7) in five categories:

1. Soundfile Processes: Envelope, Filter, Pitch, Reverb/Delay, Segmentation, Granular, Pitch-Sync. Grains, Texture, Retime, Wavesets
2. Spectral Processes: Reshape, Filter, Pitch & Frequency, Morph, Formants, Combine, Time, Spec Utils
3. Pitch Data: Conversions, Pitch Processes, Support functions
4. Editing and Mixing soundfiles: Cut, Paste, Splice, Sequence, Level, Channels, Spatial, Mix and Mixfiles, Soundfile Utils
5. Other functions: Synthesis, Information, Data generation and manipulation, System Utils

The guide groups related functions together in familiar categories to help you find your way around CDP. (See the Downloads page to download a copy.)

TUTORIALS

The Tutorials page links to a number of Tutorials, Workshops and Guides for the CDP system. Archer Endrich has written several tutorials introducing key CDP processes; his CDP-Lite collection highlights many of these. There are many worked examples to be found in the 12-step tutorial, the Demo Examples and the Tutorial Workshops. His latest addition is A Learning Manual for CDP, which covers most of the CDP sound transformation processes from the point of view of composition objectives and can be downloaded from the CDP Website.

The Texture Workshop presents a carefully prepared set of introductory examples for the TEXTURE functions.

CHARTS and GUIDES

The CHARTS page links to several charts and glossaries that give further background and reference material. PDF versions of these are also available.

THE REFERENCE DOCUMENTATION

The CDP functions are grouped into Function Groups, most of which are the names of programs, each containing a number of functions. Newer single-function programs have also been allocated to a group, for reference purposes.
The Reference Documentation has a page for each Function Group with a separate reference section for each function.

The Function Groups have two main divisions: TIME-DOMAIN and SPECTRAL (or FREQUENCY DOMAIN).

Natively, CDP programs are run via a Command Line Interface (CLI). The main CDP Reference sections therefore document and describe command-line usage.

• MAIN INDEX – this links to the reference documentation for all Function Groups and has a description of each group.
• TIME DOMAIN INDEX – this links to the reference documentation for the 'Groucho' Time-Domain Function Groups. It also has a Table Index, a list of the functions in each group and an A-Z Index, by function-name.
• SPECTRAL INDEX – this links to the reference documentation for the Spectral (Frequency-Domain) Function Groups. It also has a Table Index, a list of the functions in each group and an A-Z Index, by function-name.

OTHER INDEXES:
• DESCRIPTIVE INDEX – comprises a Table 'button' Index of CDP functions and a descriptive list of all Function Groups and functions, with links to both.
• A-Z INDEX – an alphabetical list of all CDP functions, each linked to its Reference Documentation. (This amalgamates the Time-Domain and Spectral A-Z Indexes.)
• OPERATIONS INDEX – a sub-menu of the Main Index, this is indexed alphabetically by the operation each function does: accelerate, accumulate, envelope, filter, etc. (Sometimes referred to as the Alphabetical Index.)

USAGE AND PARAMETERS

The reference section for each function or process comprises a command-line Usage statement and a list of Modes (where applicable) and Parameters, followed by a description of the process and (usually) suggestions for Musical Applications.

Usage decribes what you type on the command-line (if using the Command Line), or what is assembled by one of the User Interfaces (GUIs - see below).

Modes represent different aspects of the process. Not all functions have them, and sometimes they are radically different from each other; some are more like separate functions.

Parameters are the controls you have over the process and are the key to understanding what the function does. They typically have a single numerical value or the name of a breakpoint text file containing time-varying values. Some require a specialist text data file or text code: see the File Formats page for an explanation of these.

For further details, see the Technical Glossary article on the Command Line.

USER INTERFACES

Most users will probably run CDP software via a graphic user interface (GUI). The two main GUIs for the whole CDP system are:

Sound Loom (PC and MAC)
and
Soundshaper (PC).

Both of these have:

• access to a comprehensive set of CDP processes
• a built-in soundfile editor
• built-in knowledge of CDP parameters and their ranges
• presets for storing parameter settings (called 'Patches' in SoundLoom)
• facilities to store and run multi-process patches (called 'Instruments' in SoundLoom)
• a graphical breakpoint editor
• a Table Editor (Sound Loom) / Data Editor (Soundshaper) for massaging numerical data
• a means of keeping text records of each working session

SoundLoom has developed a Test Bed for new processes. Soundshaper has concentrated on ease of use, with channel-independent input and automatic conversion of CDP file types.

Two further CDP GUIs have been developed as extensions to the REAPER and RENOISE DAWs, each supporting only part of the CDP suite.

All known graphic programs are listed on the GRAPHIC page, with links to further information and reference manuals.

DOCUMENTATION DOWNLOADS

On the Downloads Page you can download a zip file of the CDP documentation as HTML. The page also lists changes to the documentation, by HTML page and date. This will help you keep your HTML documents up-to-date.

The core reference docs and charts are also available in printable PDF format. You can download PDFs individually or as a single zip file on the Downloads Page.

ONLINE DOCUMENTATION

The CDP documentation is also available online and is currently hosted by Ensemble Software: CDP DOCS Home Page. The online docs are always the latest available; PDFs and other updates may be delayed.