Csound Music mp3 Pack

Dr. Boulanger has put up a wondeful collection of Csound mp3s at Csounds.com.

Download 4csoundCompositions.zip (99.1 MB)

The pack comes with 20 songs, with everything from ambient to minimal to cheesy techno (that would be my piece) to synth-generated halloween sound fx.  All of the original source code is included in case you are curious to see what these compositions look like in their original state.

CalArts Halloween

Made it down to the Los Angeles area this weekend, where I attended this years CalArts Halloween Bash. Despite the party being a bit on the lame side, I did have a great time. Probably because I ran into an old friend, Johnny Chang, whom I hadn’t seen since graduating in 2002. We did a lot of catching up, and we’re already talking about collaborating on a new project.

I also got a chance to talk with CalArts Bob about the heightened state of security this year. Guards everywhere. Seems like the traditional loose nature of CalArts culture might finally be tightening up after all these years. These events used to be infamous for their outgoing hedonistic tone. So much so, that one year way back in the past, the town successfully stopped the Halloween party from happening. Well, a lot of good that did them. That spring, CalArts threw a new type of party, the Erotic Ball. CalArts now throws two parties a year.

Have a Csound Halloween

Halloween by Hans Mikelson:

hallown.orc
hallown.sco

You’ll need to download Csound to render these two text files into an audio file. And in case you are wondering what Csound is:

Csound is an incredibly powerful and versatile software synthesis program. Drawing from a toolkit of over 450 signal processing modules, one can use Csound to model virtually any commercial synthesizer or multi-effects processor. Csound literally transforms a personal computer into a high-end digital audio workstation — an environment in which the worlds of sound-design, acoustic research, digital audio production and computer music composition all join together in the ultimate expressive instrument.” – Dr. Richard Boulanger (source)

In other words, a straight-up hard-core modular computer music language. Csound makes my top three list of favorite synthesizers of all time. For more info, visit Csounds.com.