K509 — Computer Music Seminar:  Syllabus

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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.


Dates Topic Work Present
Week 1
Tue 8/30
 • Course overview
• Studio times, presentations, accounts
• Unix shell 		   
Thu 9/1
 • Intro to RTcmix:
      looping
      randomness
      envelope and wave tables
      pitch computation
      conditionals
      arrays 		DUE: Assignment 1
READ: Roads, pp. 821-836 (algorithmic composition)
 
Algorithmic composition examples
RTcmix packages for OS X
RTcmix Tutorial
RTcmix examples 		 
Week 2
Tue 9/6
 • Acoustics review
• RTcmix 		READ: Hass, Acoustics (modules 1-8, 14-15)  
Thu 9/8
 • RTcmix:
      file input/output
      other instruments 		DUE: Assignment 2
 
RTcmix Quick Reference
RTcmix.org
  
Week 3
Tue 9/13
 • Additive synthesis
• Spectra 		READ: Roads, pp. 134-148 (additive synthesis)
READ: Hass, Waveforms
READ: Dodge, pp. 75-78 (wavetable oscillator)
 
instrument recognition audio test files (IU only)
pulse duty cycle Max demo 		Matthew
Thu 9/15
 • RTcmix:
      buses
      tempo
      global tables 		DUE: Assignment 3
  
Week 4
Tue 9/20
 • Digital audio review
• Additive resynthesis, cross-synthesis 		READ: Principles of Digital Audio
 
CNMAT Max/MSP extensions (Mac)
CNMAT Max/MSP extensions (Win) 		 
Thu 9/22
 • RTcmix
• Max review:
      essential objects
      message routing
      controlling time
      MIDI
      data structures
 DUE: Assignment 4
 
Gibson, Max Quickstart
Hass, 40 Max Objects You Should Know 		 
Week 5
Tue 9/27
 • Ring modulation
• AM synthesis
• FM synthesis
• Waveshaping 		READ: Roads, pp. 215-224 (modulation synthesis)
READ: Hass, FM Synthesis
 Tim
Thu 9/29
 • MSP review:
      audio vs. control
      envelopes
      playing/recording
      delays
      filters
 DUE: Assignment 5
 
Gibson, MSP Quickstart
Hass, 40 MSP Objects You Should Know 		 
Week 6
Tue 10/4
 • Guest [break from reading] David Kim-Boyle (guest)
Thu 10/6
 • Max/MSP
      modulation
 DUE: Assignment 6  
Week 7
Tue 10/11
 • Subtractive synthesis
• Filter types
• Intro to filter theory
• Channel vocoder 		READ: Roads, pp. 184-199 (subtractive synthesis)
READ: Ballora, pp. 113-143 (filters) 		Ryan
Thu 10/13
 • Max/MSP
 DUE: Assignment 7  
Week 8
Tue 10/18
 • Delay effects
• Karplus-Strong 		READ: Roads, pp. 432-440 (delay effects)
READ: Karplus-Strong Plucked String Synthesis (Dartmouth) 		Mara Helmuth (guest)
Thu 10/20
 • Max/MSP
 DUE: Assignment 8  
Week 9
Tue 10/25
 • Granular synthesis
• Granulation
• Concatenative synthesis 		READ: Roads, pp. 168-184 (granular synthesis)
BROWSE: Schwarz, “Real-time Corpus-based Concatenative Synthesis with cataRT”
 
Gibson granulation Max object (Mac): granulate~ 		Jeremy
Thu 10/27
 • Laptop Orchestra
 READ: Trueman, et al., “PLOrk: The Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Year 1”
Begin working on Final Project. 		 
Week 10
Tue 11/1
 • Convolution
 READ: Roads, pp. 419-432 (convolution) Melody
Thu 11/3
 • Laptop Orchestra
 READ: Smallwood, et al., “Composing for Laptop Orchestra”
DUE: Assignment 9 		 
Week 11
Tue 11/8
 • Spectrum analysis
• Feature extraction
• Phase vocoder
 READ: Roads, pp. 550-566 (spectrum analysis)
READ: Roads, pp. 566-577 (phase vocoder) 		Sang Mi
Thu 11/10
 • Max/MSP
 Dudas/Lippe MSP pvoc tutorials: part 1, part 2, part 2 patches
Gibson spectral objects (Mac): specteq~, spectdelay~, patches
Gibson, “Spectral Delay as a Compositional Resource”

Example of using pattr to manage Max presets 		 
Week 12
Tue 11/15
 • Physical modeling synthesis
 READ: Dodge, pp. 277-288 (physical modeling)
BROWSE: Cook, Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications, ch. 4, 9, 11, 14 		Mike
Thu 11/17
 • Max/MSP
 Gibson/Nelson mesh physical model object (Mac): mesh~  
Week 13
Tue 11/22
 • rtcmix~ rtcmix~ info, rtcmix~ examples  
Thu 11/24
 Thanksgiving — no class    
Week 14
Tue 11/29
 • Panning
• Spatialization
• Reverberation 		READ: Farnell, pp. 221-224 (panning) Sang Mi, Melody
Thu 12/1
 Mike, Ryan, Tim
Week 15
Tue 12/6
 • Compression
• Limiting
• Gating
 READ: Audio Compression Explained
READ: Dynamic Range Compression 		Coach Hass
Thu 12/8
 DUE: Preliminary version of the Final Project Matthew, Jeremy
Exam Week
Tue 12/13: 2:45-4:45 pm
 PERFORMANCE OF FINAL PROJECTS ATTENDANCE REQUIRED!

©2011, John Gibson, Jeffrey Hass