Integra Live is an

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...

for interactive

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating auditory elements of media. It involves specifying, acquiring and creating audio using production techniques and equipment or software. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking ...

developed and maintained by the Integra Lab at

Birmingham Conservatoire Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is a music school, drama school and concert venue in Birmingham, England. It provides education in music, acting, and related disciplines up to postgraduate level. It is a centre for scholarly research and doct ...

, part of

Birmingham City University Birmingham City University (abbrev. BCU) is a university in Birmingham, England. Initially established as the Birmingham College of Art with roots dating back to 1843, it was designated as a polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic in 1971 an ...

. This software processes audio inputs from a computer's

audio interface An audio interface is a piece of computer hardware that allows the input and output of audio signals to and from a host computer or recording device. Audio interfaces are closely related to computer sound cards, but whereas sound cards are opt ...

or an audio file and supports various audio transformations. It is utilized in live performances and studio environments for sound creation and music composition. Integra Live is supported on PC computers running the

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

operating system and on Apple computers running

OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

History

Origins of Integra Live

Integra Live originated as the Integra Environment proposed as one of the outcomes of the first phase of the Integra Project (Integra 1), which ran from 5/9/2005 to 4/9/2008. The aim of the Integra Environment was to create a "new software environment for the composition and performance of live electronic music" that would "simplify, standardize and humanize the use of live, interactive music technologies". With regard to the aim to "standardize"
Lamberto Coccioli
co-author of the original Integra bid and Project Manager of the Integra Project, stated in 2006 that "...We have to think of technology as just another instrument that needs to be played..." and "...just as you write for instrument combinations that are readily available around the world, the same should happen with technology. You should use tools that are more or less standardized...". Most of the development resources in Integra 1 were devoted to exploring ways to describe audio processing setups, and store audio processing parameter states in an implementation-independent manner. This resulted in the development of libIntegra, a library originally written in C. libIntegra is capable of de-serialising

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

files used to describe audio module interfaces, reading and writing module state, instantiating modules within a given audio module host via a 'bridge' architecture, and presenting an external

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

to its functionality. In the final year of the Integra 1 project, several GUI prototypes were developed for the Integra Environment by the Integra Canadian partner CIRMMT. One of these, the Integra GUI, was developed in the Max/MSP environment by Sean Fergusson, Marlon Schumacher and Geof Holbrook and contained a number of features that were later incorporated into the Integra Live design such as the inclusion of a separate "Performance Pane", a high-level module library, single-level containers for modules (Events), a module "Routing Pane", and the association of breakpoint control curves for module parameters with Events.

Early Development of Integra Live

The early development of Integra Live took place as part of the second phase of the Integra Project (Integra 2), which ran from 1/12/2008 to 11/30/2011. Integra 2 involved a more substantial and structured software development programme, building on that of Integra 1. Development responsibilities were assigned as follows amongst the project Scientific partners: * Birmingham Conservatoire: Leighton Hargreaves (GUI developer)
Jamie Bullock
(lead developer and development manager) * Institut für Elektronische Musik und Akustik (IEM): Thomas Musil and IOhannes Zmoelnig (

Pure Data Pure Data (Pd) is a visual programming language developed by Miller Puckette in the 1990s for creating interactive computer music and multimedia works. While Puckette is the main author of the program, Pd is an open-source software, open-source ...

module developers) * Muzyka Centrum: Krzysztof Trzewiczek (module controls developer) * Malmö Academy of Music: Henrik Frisk (XML formats and concept developer) * NOTAM: Kjetil Matheussen (scripting developer) In addition, the project commissioned the services of design compan
Less Rain
and involved

's now-defunc
User Lab
facility. In the early stages of Integra 2, Jamie Bullock produced a formal design requirements document in collaboration with Daniel Beattie (of Less Rain) and Lamberto Coccioli, the Integra 2 Project director. The document detailed the design vision for the project alongside results from a survey of 76 potential users and 4 user interviews. An up-front design was then commissioned from Less Rain based on the requirements provided. The design included a complete set of wireframes outlining the functionality of the software and a number of visual design mockups illustrating the intended look and feel of the software.

Version 1.0

The first public release of Integra Live was made on July 30, 2010 when the software entered its

open beta The software release life cycle is the process of developing, testing, and distributing a software product (e.g., an operating system). It typically consists of several stages, such as pre-alpha, alpha, beta, and release candidate, before the fi ...

development phase. The version 1.0.x series of releases was for Mac OS X only, (version 10.4 upwards) and required users to manually install the

Adobe AIR Adobe AIR (also known as Adobe Integrated Runtime and codenamed Apollo) is a cross-platform runtime system currently developed by Harman International, in collaboration with Adobe Inc., for building desktop applications and mobile application ...

runtime. The software was released as a ZIP archive containing the software ".app" bundle and a PDF "Quick Start Guide".

Version 1.2

In version 1.2.x the application remained Mac OS X only, supporting OS X (Intel) 10.5 or later. It included a significant number of improvements including the use of Adobe's AIR installer system, removing the need for users to manually install the AIR runtime. Version 1.2.x was the final version to be released during the Integra Project. It was used by the BBC Symphony Orchestra to perform the 'live electronics' elements in a performance of Jonathan Harvey's Madonna of Winter and Spring on January 28, 2012.http://integralive.org/pipermail/dev_integralive.org/2012-January/000745.html

Version 1.3

After the Integra Project ended, the development of the Integra Live software continued at

, with Leighton Hargreaves developing the GUI and Jamie Bullock developing the libIntegra library, Integra module library and module host. Hargreaves also developed a Windows-specific build system and installer. Version 1.3.x was released in June 2012 and was the first release to feature both Windows and Mac OS Versions. The Mac version made use of Adobe's "captive runtime" to distribute the

runtime within the .app bundle and avoid the requirement for an installer.

Version 1.5

Version 1.5 was released in January 2013 and introduced a new "Info View" to the software. The Info View displays contextual information to users based on the UI element currently under the cursor. The Info View is significant, being the first major UI component to be introduced that was not specified in the original Integra 2 Project design phase.

Musicians and Institutions that use or have used Integra Live

External links

* *

References

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