The 6th issue of the Csound Journal has been published at cSounds.com. Here is the list of articles pressent in this edition:
Csound Journal Issue 6
Tag Archives: csound
Segments (Abstract animation and sound)
Abstract animation and synthesized sound by Lou Cohen (loucohen AT jolc DOT net). Software used: Grain and Csound for sound, Motion for animation
Das Kombinat Multimedia
This is the musicvideo of Das Kombinat to the title ‘Multimedia’ from the CD ‘Betriebssystem’. The real life footage was shot 1998 on Hi8 video, but the quality was so low that it couldnt be keyed in a good way so we stored and forgotten about it. In 2002 videosoftware made such advances that we tried a new application and imedantly bought a license because it saved our material. Keying is still poor but much better now. We combined the footage to 3D animations we created. The sound is complete rendered digital with the opensource csound back around 1996. The video was shown several times, for instance before Notstandskomitee concerts, but also included into the blue screen issue of the Berlin CDr artzine t.i.n.a.h. .
By far the coolest video I’ve watched all morning.
Drum Sequencer Event Generator
Getting lost within a list of instrument events is sometimes less desirable than being able to place events on a grid or lattice. This is especially true when working with rhythms. I’m a firm believer that the interface influences the compositional process. This is why I’ve begun development on dseq, an instrument that allows me to input drum patterns in a manner that is much more user-friendly.
Topics:
- Strings
- Drums
- Sequencer
- Event Generators
More at The Csound Blog. For more information about Csound, please visit cSounds.com.
Poor Little Robot
“Poor Little Robot” is a piece of music orchestrated for Banjo and Csound Theremin. And I absolutely love it!!
Composer Joseph Sanger wrote the following description to the Csound mailing list:
I have just posted an mp3 on my myspace site which uses Csound in a small way and wanted to share it. It’s not particularly highbrow but you might find it amusing, it’s a rather poignant duet for Banjo and Theremin. I modelled the theremin in Csound (not complicated) and played it with a MIDI keyboard, recording it live into Ardour via Jack, so no Csound score exists.
A Micro Intro to Macros
“I’m continuing with what I started in the last blog ‘Adding Zak to the Mix.’ As promised, I’m breaking down the zak mixer into its respective modular components, beginning with Csound macros.”
Topics covered:
- Macros
- #define
- #include
More at The Csound Blog. For more information about Csound, please visit cSounds.com.
Adding Zak to the Mix
“It has been too long since the last Csound Blog. This is why I’m personally excited to announce this newest edition, ‘Adding Zak to the Mix.’Today’s topic is how to model a studio mixer in Csound using Robin Whittle’s zak opcodes.[1] I will actually be stretching this subject over an unspecified number of blog entries, as I couldn’t possibly cover every significant nuance in one write-up. What I’m presenting here today is merely an overview, while in the following issues I will break down everything into its respective modular components. Not only will I cover the design of this zak mixer, I will present new ways in which you can organize your orchestras, along with how to unlock the potential of your patches using control instruments.”
Topics covered:
- Zak
- Model of a Studio Mixer
- Macros
- Signal Routing
- Organization
More at The Csound Blog. For more information about Csound, please visit cSounds.com.
Music: a Mathematical Offering
A good friend of mine recently sent me a link to “Music: a Mathematical Offering” by Dave Benson. I’ve only briefly skimmed the text. However, I can already assure you this free online book is full of useful information. It does veer into the technical, as it is packed with equations that may seem a bit alien to some. Don’t let this dissuade you, as there is plenty of knowledge for people of all backgrounds.
The PDF is 524 pages long, making printing a not-so-viable option. For those who wish to read a hard copy, you can purchase the book from Amazon.
Here is a list of chapters in the online version:
1. Waves and harmonics
2. Fourier theory
3. A mathematician’s guide to the orchestra
4. Consonance and dissonance
5. Scales and temperaments: the fivefold way
6. More scales and temperaments
7. Digital music
8. Synthesis
9. Symmetry in music
I would also like to point out that my synthesizer of choice, Csound, is covered.
Home Brewed Convolution
The fifth Csound Blog entry is up.
“According to wikipedia, convolution is ‘a mathematical operator which takes two functions f and g and produces a third function that in a sense represents the amount of overlap between f and a reversed and translated version of g.’ However, this explanation tells us little about convolution as applied to audio…”
Topics covered:
- Convolution
- Impulse Response
- Reverb
- Filter
More at The Csound Blog. For more information about Csound, please visit cSounds.com.
Robot Voices and Android Grooves
The fourth Csound Blog entry is up.
“One of my earliest synthesizer fascinations was the robotic voice produced by band vocoders. While in college, I stumbled across the vocoder schematics in The Computer Music Tutorial by Curtis Roads. Equipped with only Csound and my new-found knowledge, I created my first vocoder instrument. I have since designed many variations, and will likely to continue doing so for many years to come. Because robots rule…”
Topics covered:
- Band Vocoder
- Envelope Follower
- Speech Synthesis
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The Csound Blog