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)
January 17-24
Brief history of Computer Music.
Computer Music centers, organizations, venues.
More UNIX/Linux commands.
January 29
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
January 31
Sound waves, sound parameters; overtones and partials; Fourier analysis,
summation of sine waves; wave shapes; sampling rate, aliasing, and the
Nyquist criterion.
February 5
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++
February 7
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
February 12
C++ :
- variables, constants; integers, floats, characters
- cout and cin statements
- how to compile and run a program
February 14
Creative assignment: a short piece using
Linux tools due 10/4
February 19
C++ :
- Control statements: if, for, while, switch
- Functions
February 21-28
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.
March 4
Brief overview of sound processing techniques:
- reverberation
- localization/spatialization; HRTFs
- the Doppler effect
March 6-13
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
March 25-27
C++ assignment due 11/1
April 1-3
DISSCO/SoundMaker
- reverberation:
- hall size
- duration
- mix
- 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
April 8
April 10-15
Lab: working with SoundMaker
Creative assignment: a short piece using
SounMaker due 11/15
April 17-22
Computer-assisted Composition:
- stochastic distributions
- Markov chains
- sieves
- genetic algorithms
- AI techniques and expert systems
- other tools
- Manifold compositions
April 24-29
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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