The Computer Music Tutorial

The Computer Music Tutorial is a comprehensive text and reference that covers all aspects of computer music, including digital audio, synthesis techniques, signal processing, musical input devices, performance software, editing systems, algorithmic composition, MIDI, synthesizer architecture, system interconnection, and psychoacoustics. A special effort has been made to impart an appreciation for the rich history behind current activities in the field.

Profusely illustrated and exhaustively referenced and cross-referenced, The Computer Music Tutorial provides a step-by-step introduction to the entire field of computer music techniques. Written for nontechnical as well as technical readers, it uses hundreds of charts, diagrams, screen images, and photographs as well as clear explanations to present basic concepts and terms. Mathematical notation and program code examples are used only when absolutely necessary. Explanations are not tied to any specific software or hardware.

Curtis Roads has served as editor-in-chief of Computer Music Journal for more than a decade and is a recognized authority in the field. The material in this book was compiled and refined over a period of several years of teaching in classes at Harvard University, Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Naples, IRCAM, Les Ateliers UPIC, and in seminars and workshops in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Curtis Roads is Associate Professor of Media Arts and Technology, with a joint appointment in the Department of Music, at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

CONTENIDO

Foreword: New Music and Science, John Chowning
Preface
Acknowledgments

1. Fundamental concepts
Overview to part I
- Digital audio concepts with John Strawn
- Music Systems programming, Curtis Abbott

II. Sound Synthesis
Overview to part II
- Introduction to digital sound synthesis with John Strawn
- Sampling and additive synthesis
- Multiple wavetable, wave terrain, granular, and subtractive synthesis
- Modulation synthesis
- Physical modeling and formant synthesis
- Waveform segment, graphic, and stochastic synthesis

III. Mixing and signal processing
Overview to part III
- Sound mixing
- Basic concepts of signal processing
- Sound spatialization and reverberation

IV. Sound analysis
Overview to part IV
- Pitch and rhythm recognition
- Spectrum analisys

V. The musician's interface
Overview to part V
- Musical input devices
- Performance software
- Music editors
- Music languages
- Algorithmic composition systems
- Representations and strategies for algorithmic composition

VI. Internals and Interconnections
Overview to part IV
- Internals of digital signal processors
- Midi
- System interconnections

VII. Psychoacoustics
Overview to part VII
- Psychoacoustics in computer music

Appendix
- Fourier analysis with Philip Greenspun

References
Name index
Subject index