Being able to build synth designs on a breadboard is a really handy way of testing circuits out before you permanently solder them onto a circuit board. However, what if you wanted an even less resource-intensive way of building circuits that also could also be quicker to use?

Pure Data is a free to obtain programming software first written by Professor Miller Puckette in 1996. However, the difference between Pure Data and other proprietary sound softwares such as Pro Tools Or Max MSP is that it is open source, meaning users can change, rewrite, and rerelease their own versions of the program. There are many different versions of the software users can download, but for my first couple of tries I only used PD Vanilla which is the most basic version.

My first synth was a basic sine tone with a slider to control the pitch. At first I had success with it, however after a while the slider stopped working properly and only made a clicking noise. I tried to edit the frequency value on Pure Data but every time I clicked on it, I wasn’t allowed to edit anything even though I was on edit mode. I could see that the frequency number was very low, however it wouldn’t change no matter what I tried. I found this a little frustrating but it may have been something I overlooked that was causing this – below is a video of the sine wave with the clicking noise:

My next encounter with Pure Data was an attempt to recreate the ‘Noise Toaster’ DIY synth by Music From Outer Space.

This was more successful, although I had difficulty finishing it as I was beginning to find the software very confusing and didn’t really know where to take it. At the top there is a slider which controls the pitch of the synth. There are two sound waves; a sine wave and a saw wave. There is a little box that says ‘send frequency’, under the slider – this then sends the frequency to the two waveforms which have ‘receive frequency’ commands. This means that the pitch of both waves is controlled by the slider. This is a video of what the synth sounded like at the point that I stopped:

It’s a very basic sound, but quite good, especially if you were to run it through some effects.

I do like the concept of Pure Data, and the idea of of open source software is amazing, and I hadn’t really heard of it before. The fact that the software is so accessible to anyone with a computer, and the fact that people can modify it to suit their own needs, is impressive and I would like to explore more free software. However, in practice I did find Pure Data a little confusing and not quite as engaging as real-life circuit building. It’s certainly technically easier to build patches on the software as you don’t have to physically obtain parts and solder them together/put them on a breadboard, however I personally find it harder to visualise what I am trying to build if there’s no tangible components that I can put together. I appreciate that this is just my experience though, and I’m sure it is a very useful software for many practising artists. However, I think I will be sticking to physical circuits for the remainder of this project.