COURSE OUTLINE

Introduction to COMPUTER MUSIC

(timings are tentative)

Spring 2008

January 15

Ways in which computers are used in music: sound analysis/synthesis, composition, notation,etc.
Introduction to the Computer Music Project (CMP)
• rules and policies
• audio equipment; using the mixer
UNIX/Linux
• logins, passwords;
• directories and files;
• basic UNIX commands (ls, cat, more, cd, mkdir, rm, rmdir, etc.), sftp, and ssh (telnet)

Brief history of Computer Music. Computer Music centers, organizations, venues.
More UNIX/Linux commands.

About computers:
• representation of numbers (binary, hexadecimal, etc.);
• integers and floats (real/complex numbers)
• parts of a computer: CPU, memory, I/O
• how are operations performed; languages; compilers:
• vector registers and parallel processing; clusters
• representation of sound waves; sampling rate, formats

Sound waves, sound parameters; overtones and partials; Fourier analysis, summation of sine waves; wave shapes; sampling rate, aliasing, and the Nyquist criterion.

Scales, beats, tuning, consonance and dissonance; Rameau's harmony; Helmholtz and the perception of timbre.
More UNIX:
• available editors (vi/vim, emacs, pico, jot, etc.)
• mxv, sweep, audacity, ecasound, xcdroast, etc.
Object-oriented programming and C++

Power and loudness; how do we hear; Fletcher-Munson curves; db, phons, and sones; critical band.

Lab: Recording, editing a sound, effects and mixing.
sox

C++ :
• variables, constants; integers, floats, characters
• cout and cin statements
• how to compile and run a program

Lab: Linux sound tools.

Creative assignment: a short piece using Linux tools due 10/4

C++ :
• Control statements: if, for, while, switch
• Functions

Sound synthesis: additive synthesis. Partials, Fourier analysis, summation of waves, phase, AM and FM.
Other methods, a brief overview:
• FM
• granular
• subtractive
• LPC
• physical modeling.

Brief overview of sound processing techniques:
• reverberation
• localization/spatialization; HRTFs
• the Doppler effect

DISSCO/SoundMaker:
• A critical look at the MusicN paradigm.
• the object-oriented approach
• unifyiing synthesis and composition
• static and dynamic parameters
• tuning and strength of partials; the definition of "timbre"
• loudness in DISSCO
• envelopes

C++ :
• Arrays and pointers

C++ assignment due 11/1

DISSCO/SoundMaker
• reverberation:
  1. hall size
  2. duration
  3. mix
  4. hi/lo factor
• comb filters
• perception of distance/movement
• transients: magnitude, rate, envelope
• glissando, tuning/detuning of partials
  
• anticlip and the loudness routines; critical band; the possibility of producing long works with a wide dynamic range in one run

C++ :
• classes

Lab: working with SoundMaker

Creative assignment: a short piece using SounMaker due 11/15

Computer-assisted Composition:
• stochastic distributions
• Markov chains
• sieves
• genetic algorithms
• AI techniques and expert systems
• other tools
• Manifold compositions

Lab: working with DISSCO/SoundMaker

Assignment: Composition program due 12/06

Tuesday, May 6 1:30 - 4:30 pm.: Presentations of Final projects

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