... on slide 2 are good for details (especially 'Compute

1
Comp342Computer Music

• Course Objectives

2
Course Objectives

• 1. General Appreciation
• 1.1. Have a general appreciation of the use of
  music in computer applications
• 2. Music Theory and Acoustics Based Skills
• 2.1. Understand the basics of common practice
  music notation, including pitch, rhythm, and
  dynamics
• 2.2. Be able to translate common practice music
  notation into computer music languages such as
  Csound
• 2.3. Understand the basics of musical acoustics,
  including vibration and harmonic series

3
Course Objectives

• 3. Sound Analysis Based Skills
• 3.1. Have a working knowledge of spectrum
  analysis, including the phase vocoder
• 3.2. Understand how to analyze the frequency
  content of a sound with applications such as
  Spectrogram and PVan

4
Course Objectives

• 4. Sound Synthesis Based Skills
• 4.1. Have a working knowledge of the most common
  sound synthesis methods, including additive,
  wavetable, FM, and sampling synthesis
• 4.2. Understand how to implement these synthesis
  methods in computer music languages such as
  Csound
• 4.3. Develop instrument designs for acoustic
  music instruments in computer music languages
  such as Csound

5
Course Objectives

• 5. Sound Effects Based Skills
• 5.1. Have a working knowledge of the most common
  sound effects, including echo and reverberation
• 5.2. Understand how to implement these effects in
  computer music languages such as Csound
• 5.3. Apply these effects to different types of
  sounds and understand how they modify the sound

6
Comp342Computer Music
7
Recommended Books

• Computer Music by Charles Dodge T. Jerse,
  Schirmer Books, 2nd Edition, 1997.
  
  
• The Computer Music Tutorial by Curtis Roads
• Cooking with Csound Part 1 Woodwind and Brass
  Recipes by Andrew Horner and Lydia Ayers, A-R
  Editions, 2002

8
Computer Music

• An interdisciplinary field including
• Music
• Computer Science
• Electrical Engineering (signal processing)
• Physics (musical acoustics)
• Psychology (psychoacoustics, music perception)

9
Computer Music Areas(possible Projects
Presentations)

• Signal Processing
• Sound Analysis and Resynthesis
• Physical Modeling of Musical Instruments
• Musical Effects
• 3D Spatialization
• Audio Coding and Compression
• Audio Signal Separation
• Music Signal Pitch Detection
• AI
• Machine Recognition of Audio and Music
• Musical Instrument Recognition
• Music Perception and Cognition
• Psychoacoustics
• AI and Music

10
Computer Music Areas (possible Projects
Presentations)

• Software
• Music Visualization
• Music Composition Systems and Tools
• Music Programming Languages
• Algorithmic Composition
• Music Notation and Printing
• Music on the Internet
• Music in Computer Games
• Sound Effects in Computer Games
• Computer Music and Digital Art
• Database
• Music Information Retrieval
• Musical Informatics
• Music Databases

11
Computer Music Areas (possible Projects
Presentations)

• Computer Engineering
• Audio Hardware
• Music Performance Interfaces (new musical
  instruments)
• Interactive Performance Systems
• Real Time Performance Systems
• Music Workstations
• Soundcards
• Music Synthesizers
• Music and Audio on Mobile Phones
• Wireless Audio Systems
• Music Networks
• MIDI

12
Computer Music Areas (possible Projects
Presentations)

• Theory/Science
• Music Data Structures and Representation
• Musical Tuning and Intonation
• Music Grammars
• Musical Acoustics
• Acoustics of Musical Instruments and the Voice
• You are welcome to propose your own topic that
  includes music and technology

13
COMP342 Project Presentation

• For the comp342 project, you will devise,
  implement, and document your own computer music
  application.
• You will choose your own topic that includes
  computers and music.
• The list in the previous slides (4-7) will give
  you some project ideas.
• The reference books on slide 2 are good for
  details (especially "Computer Music Tutorial").
• The tentative format for the project is the
  following
• 10-minute presentation (like short conference
  presentation, or my lectures)
• 5-minutes for QA (while the next group sets up)
• You will turn in a softcopy of your PowerPoint
  notes
• You will also turn in a short paper (4 pages)
  summarizing your presentation
• You will work in groups of normally 4 people

14
Who Makes Computer Music?

• The 4-person model for computer music

1. RESEARCHER/ PROGRAMMER
15
Brief Overview of Computer Music History
16
Computer Music History

• Pre-history
• Harmonium (1900)
• Electric organ
• Musak (background music in shops)
• 1930s
• Ondes Martenot
• Theremin

17
Computer Music History

• Ondes Martenot
• An early electroacoustic instrument developed by
  Maurice Martenot
• Includes
• 2 oscillators
• 3 loudspeakers
• An oscillating Chinese gong
• A spring reverb unit and sympathetic strings)
• A small keyboard which provides vibrato and a
  wide range of sliding tones.
• 6 Example Olivier Messaien, Oraison (1937)

18
Computer Music History

• ltC2gt Theremin

• Real-time instrument
• Radio antennas used to control pitch and
  amplitude
• Difficult to control, but sounded voice-like in
  the hands of an expert

19
Computer Music History

• 1940s WWII
• Tape recorder
• Computers
• Radio
• 1950s
• RCA Synthesizer
• Speech processing
• Bell Labs
• LPC

20
Computer Music History

• ltC1gt Soundtrack to Forbidden Planet
• by Louis and Bebe Barron

21
Computer Music History

• 1960s Analog Synthesizers
• Arp 2500 2600
• Famous pop musicians started using synthesizers
• Who
• Emerson, Lake, Power - ELP
• Monophonic
• 1970s Fancier Analog Synthesizers
• Moog, Buchla, Korg
• Polyphonic 2-3 voices
• Wendy Carlos - Switched On Bach
• Software synthesis
• VAX780 Computer
• MIT
• Stanford

22
Computer Music History

• Buchla synthesizer
• Manipulate sounds by turning knobs
• Synthesizer didn't have memory, so everything had
  to be recorded on analog tape
• It took a long time to set up the patch chords
  before hearing any sound

23
Computer Music History

• 1980s Digital Synthesizer
• Yamaha DX 7
• FM synthesis
• MIDI communication protocol for synthesizers
• Polyphonic 8-16 voices
• Software synthesis
• Computers Macs PC with soundcards
• 1990s Soundcards
• Sampling synthesis
• Polyphonic 32-64 voices

24
Computer Music Now

• Software synthesis on computers
• Hardware
• Synthesizers
• Soundcards
• Portable devices
• CDs, DAT tapes, and minidisks for storing
  soundfiles
• ltC3gt Interactive body synthesizers

25
What Can a Computer Do?

• Synthesize sounds
• 7 Synthesized sounds can resemble familiar
  sounds or they can sound artificial

• Transform one sound into another, such as 8 a
  horn into an oboe

26
What Can a Computer Do?

• Create the space where sounds move around more
  easily than human performers
• 9 Spatialization of opening bassoon solo in
  Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring

27
What Can a Computer Do?

• 10 Sample sounds

• Process sampled sounds using effects
• 11 Transposition
• 12 Time stretching
• 13 Echo
• 14 Ring modulation
• in a musical 15 collage
• A picture made with materials and objects ...

• pasted on a surface

28
Synthesizing Sounds

• Csound
• A computer music language
• Makes a soundfile by compiling a score and
  orchestra file
• The result is large binary file which the
  computer plays as a "soundfile"
• similar to playing a CD
• .wav file

29
Making a Soundfilefrom Csound
30
A Simple Csound Orchestra

• simple.orc name of orchestra
• CODE on left COMMENTS on right
• sr22050 sampling rate
• kr2205 control rate
• ksmps10 samples/control per.
• nchnls1 1 channel playback
• instr 1 beginning of instr.
• iamp p4 maximum amplitude
• ifreq p5 frequency in Hertz
• iwave 1 use wavetable 1
• asig oscili iamp, ifreq, iwave generate signal
• out asig output signal
• endin end of instrument

31
16 A Simple Csound Score

• simple.sco - use with simple.orc name of score
• function table for waveform for sinewave
  oscillator
• f1 0 4096 10 1
• p1 p2 p3 p4 p5
• start dur amp Hertz
• i1 1 2 4000 440 note statement
• e end of score

32
Many Ways to Process Sounds

• Time stretching
• Stretch and compress sounds
• Make them longer or shorter than their original
  durations
• Requires running a sound analysis program on the
  sample which may leave the file full of pops and
  clicks
• Some files require considerable "clean-up" work
• Too much fixing may change the sound
  dramatically, resulting in either a nice feature
  or a disaster

33
Many Ways to Process Sounds

• Controlling timbre (quality of sound)
• 19 Leaving the pops and crackling in the
  stretched sound made a professional singer sound
  like a witch
• 20 Transposing the pitch of a witch up and down
  produces glottal clicks and chattering sounds

34
Examples of Instrument Modeling

• 25 voices composition program by Chui Lok Sum
  Rod, Chan Ka Lok Carl and Leung Kin Lung Lone
  (050)
• 26 voices Bach, Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude
  class project by Chan Yu Hong, Yeung Kwun and
  Chow Tsz Ho (220)
• 27 voices Vivaldi, Laudamus te class
  project by Lo Hoi Yee, Janice and Chan Wai Yi
  (130)
• 28 voices Palestrina, Sanctus class project
  by Leung Chun Fai, Kevin and Wong Chung Ling,
  Iris (203)

35
Examples of Instrument Modeling

• 29 French horn Richard Strauss, Til
  Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks (09)
• 2 French horn Richard Strauss, Ein
  Heldenleben (29)
• 5 Chinese Dizi Liuban (32)

Andrew Horner