PAW 2023
AI and Audio Programming Languages
Marie Curie Library, INSA Lyon (France)
Dec. 2, 2023

The Programmable Audio Workshop (PAW) is a yearly one day FREE event gathering members of the programmable audio community around scientific talks and hands-on workshops. The 2023 edition of PAW is hosted by the INRIA/INSA/GRAME-CNCM Emeraude Team at the Marie Curie Library of INSA Lyon (France) on December 2nd, 2023. The theme of this year's PAW is "Artificial Intelligence and Audio Programming Languages" with a strong focus on computer music languages (i.e., Faust, ChucK, and PureData).

Video recordings of presentations are now available on this website in the Program Details Section.

Program Overview

Morning: Talks

 Amphithéâtre Émilie du Châtelet
09:00
 Registration
09:20
 Opening Speech
09:30
 Machine Learning with Faust and JAX
David Braun
(Princeton University, USA)
10:10
 PureData and AI
Miller Puckette
(University of California San Diego, USA)
10:50
 Coffee Break
11:20
 (X)AI in Live Coding Environments: Pandora’s Dream
Celeste Betancur
(Stanford University, USA)
12:00
 AI and Music Composition
Benoît Carré
(Artiste, France)
12:40
 Lunch Break

Afternoon: Workshops

Amphithéâtre Émilie du Châtelet
14:00
 Faust and AI Workshop
David Braun
(Princeton University, USA)
15:00
 PureData and AI Workshop
Miller Puckette
(University of California San Diego, USA)
16:00
 Coffee Break
16:30
 ChucK and AI Workshop
Celeste Betancur
(Stanford University, USA)
17:30
 PARTAY!!

Program Details

This section will be updated on the fly we additional information as we get closer to PAW-23.

09:30: David Braun — Machine Learning with Faust and JAX

In most examples of modern machine learning, ML practitioners use Python to design complex mathematical models that can be auto-differentiated and then optimized via stochastic gradient descent in order to maximize some objective. Audio engineers, however, don't use Python because it lacks the elegant syntax and powerful libraries of an audio domain-specific language (DSL) such as Faust. We present a pipeline which is one of the first of its kind to bridge the gap between a library-rich audio DSL and a powerful auto-diff ML framework. This Faust-to-JAX pipeline allows audio engineers to auto-differentiate DSP functions that would have been too time-consuming to re-implement in Python or difficult to differentiate manually. Once Faust code is converted to JAX, the XLA compiler produces well-optimized code that scales well in cloud-computing systems. We present several early experiments showing our pipeline's potential to optimize audio-related objectives.

10:00: Miller Puckette — PureData and AI

More details soon...

11:20: Celeste Betancur — (X)AI in Live Coding Environments: Pandora’s Dream

Pandora's Dream is a versatile live coding playground that opens up a world of possibilities integrating CHAI - Chuck for AI, openGL and the Chuck language. Pandora's Dream is an use case of all the new possibilities to use simple and explainable machine learning and AI models and integrate them into live performances. With this in mind is possible to analyze and extract audio features such as Chroma, MFCC, Centroid (and many others) and then train models such as KNN, HMM, SVN and MLP (also the new Wekinator object). In this case, importance is given to the complementary that the system can give to the performance and not to the algorithms itself. Actually, the features, algorithms, and data used are not the most advanced or sophisticated and in the end, the model is dependent on the performer's decisions. Pandora's Dream is centered in musical abstract data and not in the generation of audio at a sample by sample level. Finally, it is important to notice that all the training stages can be done and redone during the live performance to adjust, limit or expand the model.

12:00: Benoît Carré — AI and Music Composition

More details soon...


14:00: David Braun — Faust and AI Workshop

More details soon...

15:00: Miller Puckette — PureData and AI Workshop

More details soon...

16:30: Celeste Betancur — Chuck and AI Workshop

More details soon...

About the Speakers

David Braun

David Braun is a first-year Computer Science Ph.D. student at Princeton University. David has a prior background in software development of real-time computer graphics and audio. After graduating from Brown University in 2014, he used TouchDesigner to develop interactive art installations in his hometown of Chicago for Leviathan Design, which later became Envoy Inc. In 2020, David ventured into audio by entering the MST program at Stanford University in affiliation with the Center for Computer Research in Music & Acoustics. There he learned about machine learning and Faust. During his Ph.D. research, he hopes to remain an interdisciplinary researcher who uses and builds tools such as Faust that push the boundaries of creativity.

Homepage: https://dirt.design/portfolio/

Miller Puckette

Soon...

Celeste Betancur

Celeste Betancur is a multi-instrumentalist musician with a professional degree in guitar from Berklee College of Music and a Master's in digital arts. She's currently working towards her PhD at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University. She works at developing human-machine interfaces, especially designing programming tools and coding environments for musical expression. With these tools she performed live audiovisual sets around the world in more than 20 countries.

Benoît Carré

Soon...

Coming to PAW + Contact

Participants must register online: PAW-23 REGISTRATION.

Registration is free within the limit of available seats.

PAW-23 is taking place at the Marie Curie Library on the INSA Lyon Campus at the following address: 31 Av. Jean Capelle, 69100 Villeurbanne, France.

The easiest way to get there from the city center is to take the tramway T1 or T4 and stop at "INSA - Einstein." Cycling is also a good solution :). The closest hotels are in the Charpennes neighborhood.

Feel free to send your questions to paw_at_grame_dot_fr.

Some suggestions for getting lunch: