Computer Music

This text reflects the current state of computer technology and music composition. The authors offer clear, practical overviews of program languages, real-time synthesizers, digital filtering, artificial intelligence, and much more.

Inside Computer Music is an investigation of how new technological developments have influenced the creative possibilities of composers of computer music in the last 50 years. This book combines detailed research into the development of computer music techniques with thorough studies of ninecase studies analysing key works in the musical and technical development of computer music. The text is linked to demonstration videos of the techniques used and software which offers readers the opportunity to try out emulations of the software used by the composers for themselves and view videointerviews with the composers and others involved in the production of the musical works. The software also presents musical analyses of each of the nine case studies using software and video alongside text to enable readers to engage with the musical structure aurally and interactively.

Expanded, updated, and fully revised—the definitive introduction to electronic music is ready for new generations of students. Essential and state-of-the-art, The Computer Music Tutorial, second edition is a singular text that introduces computer and electronic music, explains its motivations, and puts topics into context. Curtis Roads’s step-by-step presentation orients musicians, engineers, scientists, and anyone else new to computer and electronic music. The new edition continues to be the definitive tutorial on all aspects of computer music, including digital audio, signal processing, musical input devices, performance software, editing systems, algorithmic composition, MIDI, and psychoacoustics, but the second edition also reflects the enormous growth of the field since the book’s original publication in 1996. New chapters cover up-to-date topics like virtual analog, pulsar synthesis, concatenative synthesis, spectrum analysis by atomic decomposition, Open Sound Control, spectrum editors, and instrument and patch editors. Exhaustively referenced and cross-referenced, the second edition adds hundreds of new figures and references to the original charts, diagrams, screen images, and photographs in order to explain basic concepts and terms. Features New chapters: virtual analog, pulsar synthesis, concatenative synthesis, spectrum analysis by atomic decomposition, Open Sound Control, spectrum editors, instrument and patch editors, and an appendix on machine learning Two thousand references support the book’s descriptions and point readers to further study Mathematical notation and program code examples used only when necessary Twenty-five years of classroom, seminar, and workshop use inform the pace and level of the material

A must-have introduction that bridges the gap between music and computing The rise in number of composer-programmers has given cause for an essential resource that addresses the gap between music and computing and looks at the many different software packages that deal with music technology. This up-to-date book fulfills that demand and deals with both the practical use of technology in music as well as the principles behind the discipline. Aimed at musicians exploring computers and technologists engaged with music, this unique guide merges the two worlds so that both musicians and computer scientists can benefit. Defines computer music and offers a solid introduction to representing music on a computer Examines computer music software, the musical instrument digital interface, virtual studios, file formats, and more Shares recording tips and tricks as well as exercises at the end of each section to enhance your learning experience Reviews sound analysis, processing, synthesis, networks, composition, and modeling Assuming little to no prior experience in computer programming, this engaging book is an ideal starting point for discovering the beauty that can be created when technology and music unite.

This book discusses the applications of evolutionary computation to music and the tools needed to create and study such systems. These tools can be combined to create surrogate artificial worlds populated by interacting simulated organisms in which complex musical experiments can be performed. The book demonstrates that evolutionary systems can be used to create and to study musical compositions and cultures in ways that have never before been achieved.

Electronic music evokes new sensations, feelings, and thoughts in both composers and listeners. Opening the door to an unlimited universe of sound, it engages spatialization as an integral aspect of composition and focuses on sound transformation as a core structural strategy. In this new domain, pitch occurs as a flowing and ephemeral substance that can be bent, modulated, or dissolved into noise. Similarly, time occurs not merely as a fixed duration subdivided by ratios, but as a plastic medium that can be generated, modulated, reversed, warped, scrambled, and granulated. Envelope and waveform undulations on all time scales interweave to generate form. The power of algorithmic methods amplify the capabilities of music technology. Taken together, these constitute game-changing possibilities. This convergence of technical and aesthetic trends prompts the need for a new text focused on the opportunities of a sound oriented, multiscale approach to composition of electronic music. Sound oriented means a practice that takes place in the presence of sound. Multiscale means an approach that takes into account the perceptual and physical reality of multiple, interacting time scales-each of which can be composed. After more than a century of research and development, now is an appropriate moment to step back and reevaluate all that has changed under the ground of artistic practice. Composing Electronic Music outlines a new theory of composition based on the toolkit of electronic music techniques. The theory consists of a framework of concepts and a vocabulary of terms describing musical materials, their transformation, and their organization. Central to this discourse is the notion of narrative structure in composition-how sounds are born, interact, transform, and die. It presents a guidebook: a tour of facts, history, commentary, opinions, and pointers to interesting ideas and new possibilities to consider and explore.

How a team of musicians, engineers, computer scientists, and psychologists developed computer music as an academic field and ushered in the era of digital music. In the 1960s, a team of Stanford musicians, engineers, computer scientists, and psychologists used computing in an entirely novel way: to produce and manipulate sound and create the sonic basis of new musical compositions. This group of interdisciplinary researchers at the nascent Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA, pronounced “karma”) helped to develop computer music as an academic field, invent the technologies that underlie it, and usher in the age of digital music. In The Sound of Innovation, Andrew Nelson chronicles the history of CCRMA, tracing its origins in Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory through its present-day influence on Silicon Valley and digital music groups worldwide. Nelson emphasizes CCRMA's interdisciplinarity, which stimulates creativity at the intersections of fields; its commitment to open sharing and users; and its pioneering commercial engagement. He shows that Stanford's outsized influence on the emergence of digital music came from the intertwining of these three modes, which brought together diverse supporters with different aims around a field of shared interest. Nelson thus challenges long-standing assumptions about the divisions between art and science, between the humanities and technology, and between academic research and commercial applications, showing how the story of a small group of musicians reveals substantial insights about innovation. Nelson draws on extensive archival research and dozens of interviews with digital music pioneers; the book's website provides access to original historic documents and other material.