University of Utah
Intro
to Computer Music
Technology
Instructor: Dr. David Cottle (Mike)
email: d.cottle@utah.edu
Suggested texts: Modern Recording Techniques (Huber & Runstein), The Mixing Engineer's Handbook (Owsinski)
Suggested materials: blank CDs, external firewire hard drive
The goal of this class is to cover the terminology, equipment, and techniques developed during the past 40 years by musicians using electronic and computer devices to realize, reinforce, and publish their ideas. These include the Macintosh operating system, microphone types and placement, mixers, multi-track recording and editing, audio file formats, electronic media publishing formats, music related software, music related HTML, music concrète, classic analog synthesis (though in a digital realm), synthesizer parameters and instrument design, basic MIDI concepts, digital synthesis, and computer assisted composition using a programming language.
Most classes will be lecture followed by practical application.
Material
and Projects
Macintosh basics: folders, icons, documents, applications, memory (ram), opening an app, opening a doc, extension sets, conflicts, binary searches, backup strategies, storage media, system folder, control panels, sound settings, hard drives, virtual drives, (partitions), the desktop, folders, shortcuts, recovery strategies, searching, searching by content.
Hello World- Apply for space on the music server. Create a simple text document containing your name, email, phone, etc. Save it to your area on the server with the naming convention "dcottle_hello" (e.g. your user name, underscore, assignment name). Hand in all subsequent assignments using this convention. Do a search for the file by name. Send the instructor an email when you have completed the assignment.
My Mac- Demonstrate how to modify the options for sound. Open three applications. Switch between the applications. Save a file in one application and open it in another. Demonstrate how to quit and force quit an application, how to restart and force restart the computer.
Computer Music File Formats- (chapter 7) MIDI, NIFF, XML, PDF, JPG, AIFF, WAV, SDII, MP3, channels, instruments, synthesizers, notation programs, instruction programs, MIDI sequencing, recording, and editing.
Gutenberg- Create a copy study with three independent voices, title, author, and lyrics using Lime. It may be serious or whimsical.
Switched on Bach- Import a MIDI file into a ProTools session. Make some creative edits. Use channel assignments and an external synth to orchestrate the piece. Bounce the session to a MIDI file. Hand in the MIDI file.
The Nature
of Sound:
Wave form
characteristics,
amplitude,
frequency,
phase, harmonic
characteristics,
envelopes,
reflection,
constructive
and destructive interference, intervals and ratios, space,
position, ambient sound.
1.0136- Prove the Pythagorean comma.
Pro Tools-
The session components (audio folder), editing tools and
techniques, non-destructive editing, bit/sample rate, disk
allocation, audio/midi tracks, inputs, outputs, record enable,
shortcuts, saving, server backup, import audio, import CD
Romance- Open the file provided by the instructor. Correct the two left/right position error being careful not to create phase cancellation. Use the two takes to cut and paste sections into one take with no errors. Use cross-fades for clean edits.
Classic analog systems; signal path and signal control, patch diagrams, Steiner modules, K2000 components
Digital synthesis; virtual synthesizers (overview)
Intro to MSP; objects, messages, arguments, patches, connections, shortcuts
Synthesis fundamentals; frequency, amplitude, timbre. VCOs, VCAs, VCFs
Control sources; envelopes, triggers, LFOs, sequencers, sample and hold
Modeling techniques: additive synthesis, subtractive synthesis, AM, FM, waveshaping, wavetables, physical modeling, granular synthesis, Karplus-Strong
Intro to computer languages, MusicN, Csound, SC, Max, Objects, Messages, Arguments, (Functions, Lists).
Aesthetics of computer music; music machines, indeterminacy continuum (completely different, random perception, exactly the same), surprise (requires a pattern), control, escaping human bias, creativity through scientific methods, intuitive and systematic composition, level of integrity to a system, power, speed, accuracy, global composition, generative and evolutionary music, specific/general, abstract/concrete
Methods; exhaustive iteration, ignorant iteration (my next piece . . .), random walks, random seeds, biased random walks and probabilities, (offset and scale, even distribution, min, max, n/2, expon., weighted coins, stacked deck, tables or mapping), mutation (borrowing existing structures), serialization issues, extra-musical input (text), transition maps, grammars, automata, Markov chains, formal grammars, finite state automata
Iterative processes; chaos and fractals, neural networks, algorithmic composition, evolutionary music, AI
