K509 — Computer Music Seminar: Syllabus
This syllabus includes topics, assignments, reading, and the presentation schedule.
It is highly recommended that readings be done in advance of the lectures to facilitate maximum comprehension.
Short quizzes pertaining to the week’s readings will be administered at the beginning of most Tuesday classes.
The dates given in the Dates column are for the Tuesday lecture.
| Dates | Dodge Topic and Software Tools | Assignments and Reading | Presentations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 (9/1) |
• Course overview • Administrivia (studio times, accounts, required materials, etc.) • Assignment of Dodge chapters for presentations • Learning Unix: Mac Terminal app |
Assignment 1 |
|
| Week 2 (9/8) |
• [2] Acoustics Review 1 • RTcmix 1 |
Assignment 2 Basic Acoustic Principles (1-10) RTcmix.org RTcmix Tutorial RTcmix Quick Reference RTcmix packages for OS X |
|
| Week 3 (9/15) |
• [2] Acoustics Review 2 • RTcmix 2 |
Assignment 3 Basic Acoustic Principles (11-19) |
Steve (tuning) |
| Week 4 (9/22) |
• [3] Fundamentals of Digital Audio • RTcmix 3 |
Assignment 4 Principles of Digital Audio |
Chris |
| Week 5 (9/29) |
• [4] Synthesis Fundamentals (wavetable synthesis, additive
synthesis) • RTcmix 4 |
Brad Garton: Multi-language Max/MSP |
Kati |
| Week 6 (10/6) |
• [5] Synthesis Using Distortion Techniques (FM synthesis,
waveshaping) • Max/MSP 1 |
Assignment 5 FM Synthesis Max Quickstart |
Brian (FM) |
| Week 7 (10/13) |
• [6] Subtractive Synthesis (filters) • Max/MSP 2 |
Eric | |
| Week 8 (10/20) |
• Max/MSP 3 |
Assignment 6 MSP Quickstart |
|
| Week 9 (10/27) |
• [7] Analysis-based Synthesis Techniques • Max/MSP 4 |
Assignment 7 Roads, Computer Music Tutorial, pp. 1094-1107 — section on the phase vocoder, on E-Reserve Dudas/Lippe MSP pvoc tutorials: part 1, part 2, part 2 patches Gibson spectral objects (Mac only): specteq~, spectdelay~ |
Mark |
| Week 10 (11/3) |
• [8] Granular Synthesis • Max/MSP 5 |
Assignment 8 Truax, Granulation of Sampled Sound Roads, Computer Music Tutorial, pp. 168-184 Gibson granulation object (Mac only): granulate~ |
Gordon |
| Week 11 (11/10) |
• [9] Physical Modeling • Max/MSP 6 |
Darthmouth Karplus-Strong article Julius Smith, A Basic Introduction to Digital Waveguide Synthesis (browse!) |
Josh |
| Week 12 (11/17) |
• [10] Reverberation (+ localization, convolution) • Max/MSP 7 |
Roads, Computer Music Tutorial, pp. 419-432 —
section on convolution, on
E-Reserve
More MSP examples |
|
| Week 13 (11/24) |
• Max/MSP 8 |
Thanksgiving — no class Thursday | |
| Week 14 (12/1) |
• [11] Algorithmic Composition |
Will | |
| Week 15 (12/8) |
|||
| Tuesday, 12/15: 2:45-4:45 pm | PERFORMANCE OF FINAL PROJECTS | ATTENDANCE REQUIRED! |