Time Schedule:
Juan C. Pampin
MUSIC 401
Seattle Campus
Introduction to software sound synthesis techniques. Includes acoustics and psychoacoustics; virtual synthesizers and unit generators; table-lookup oscillators and wavetable synthesis; additive synthesis; modulation synthesis; ring amplitude, phase and frequency; granular synthesis; noise; subtractive synthesis and filters. Offered: jointly with DXARTS 461; A.
Class description
Music 401-3 is a year-long course on the fundamentals of computer sound synthesis, composition, and research.
It is designed to provide a thorough technical and conceptual grounding for future exploration for composers or digital sound synthesis designers.
It is a course that emphasizes this thorough grounding over immediate return; often it takes well into two quarters before students are able make sounds of a quality that they would want their dog, let alone their peers, to hear.
It is a course in which students learn to use programming languages to design sound synthesis algorithms.
It is a course on the use of computer programming as a music-compositional tool.
However, the course does not presume knowledge of computer programming of entering students.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
