Get in da Choppa!

I decided to get back into signal processing recently. I enjoyed it when I took classes, and I went so far as to take a class in computer music and sound synthesis, but it fell by the wayside when I started working. If I ever find a copy of my final project from that class, I'll post it here. I dabbled briefly in Csound (I'm not done; I'll pick it back up again some time), but it never really went anywhere. Earlier this month, I finally put together something resembling a studio in my apartment. Now it's so easy to play around, I've decided to try my hand at coding DSP with REAPER.

For my first effect, I went with one of the simplest things I could think of: a chopper. The effect mutes the signal for a period of time, then un-mutes it. I should note that I don't actually program anything. I made and modified a few World of Warcraft addons, but my only real exprience with programming ended when I finished school. Sadly, I forget programming languages as easily as I forget spoken languages. I can count myself as a former Spanish-speaker as well as a former German-speaker.

After working out the syntax and math errors, I arrived at my basic chopper. The dry signal is here for comparison. Actually beginning to grasp the start of the basics [for Dummies], I added a few more options, like muted:unmuted adjustments and variable volume. Impressed withmyself, I demonstrated the effects for the lady of the house. She complained that it was a bit harsh. Always one to please, I added some smoothing to the effect. There are a few kinks to work out (things like this), but it's a start.

Later on, I came up with this, but it's not really anything yet.

I promise to have fewer sound clips in the future, but this was effecto numero uno.