Music Technology H1017 Index Page

Web Based Resources

Tutor

Tuition Times

Lecture Notes

Lab Worksheets

References

Coursework

Useful pd patches

Software

Tutor

Matthew Yee-King

m.j.yee-king _At_ sussex ac.uk

Office hour: Friday, after the lecture, Music Informatics Research lab.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions/ are unable to come at this time and need support.

Tuition Times

Lecture Notes

PDFs of the lecture notes will appear here.

1. Lecture 1 - Introduction. Download lecture 1 as a PDF
2. Lecture 2 - Sound synthesis I. Download lecture 2 as a PDF
3. Lecture 3 - Sound synthesis II. Download lecture 3 as a PDF
4. Lecture 4 - Sequencers. Download lecture 4 as a PDF
5. Lecture 5 - Sequencers II and Digital Sampling. Download lecture 5 as a PDF
6. Lecture 6 - Digital Sampling 2Download lecture 6 as a PDF
7. Lecture 7 - Audio EffectsDownload lecture 7 as a PDF
8. Lecture 8 - Audio Effects II and the Fourier TransformDownload lecture 8 as a PDF
9. Lecture 9 - Music Information RetrievalDownload lecture 9 as a PDF
10. Lecture 10 - Algorithmic composition and state of the artDownload lecture 10 as a PDF

Lab Worksheets

PDFs of the lab worksheets will appear here.

1. Lab worksheet 1 - Introduction to Pure Data - making a ring tone. Download the worksheet as a PDF
2. Lab worksheet 2 - Synthesizing percussion sounds. Download the worksheet as a PDF
3. Lab worksheet 3 - Synthesizing bell sounds. Download the worksheet as a PDF
4. Lab worksheet 4 - Building an analogue style sequencer. Download the worksheet as a PDF
5. Lab worksheet 5 - Using sampled audio in PD. Download the worksheet as a PDF
6. Lab worksheet 6 - Advanced use of sampled audio in PD. Download the worksheet as a PDF
7. Lab worksheet 7 - Audio effects. Download the worksheet as a PDF
Lab worksheet 8 - Music Information Retrieval with Last FM. Download the worksheet as a PDF

Useful/ example pd patches

Examples

• lab1_counter_plus_synth.pd
• lecture_2_lfo_modulates_frequency.pd
• lect_3_additive.pd
• lect_3_fmexample.pd
• lect_3_wtexample.pd
• Lab 3 drumkit
• Lab 4 simple sequencer
• Lab 5/6 sample playback

Utilities

• A spectrum analyser. A test patch for the analyser.
• Audio capture abstraction. Lets you capture audio and save it as a wav. Unpack this archive into your pd path to use (or place files in the same folder as your other abstractions). Feed audio into the left inlet, set the length in seconds to record on the right inlet and bang the middle inlet to start recording. When the recording finishes you will be presented with a file save window.
• Scope abstraction. This shows you a time domain read out of the audio signal sent to the left inlet. Wire a toggle to the right inlet to switch it on and off. Again, place this patch in your path to use.

Coursework

The UG coursework information sheet can now be downloaded. H1017 2008 coursework sheet

The PG coursework information sheet can now be downloaded. 924G5 2008 coursework sheet

Drum Machines from the Audio Playground Museum An excellent starting point for drum machine interface research.

A more exotic sequencer

References

• Week 1
  
  1. An Acoustic Primer - useful general reference for all aspects of acoustics acoustics.htm
  2. Pd Documentation
  3. A Deeper tome that will may well prove useful in future lab classes: Theory and Techniques of Electronic Music, Miller Puckette
• Week 2
  
  1. 'Synth Secrets' series in Sound on Sound magazine. All the articles in this series are linked from here. This week, you should read part I for an introduction to subtractive synthesis.
  2. '120 Years of Electronic Music - Electronic Musical Instrument 1870-1990'
  3. Csound, a music N language
• Week 3
  
  1. Vintage synth explorer. An excellent source for synth history
  2. Additive synthesis in PD
  3. Historical view of computer music and composers in the USA. Includes information about physical modeling and additive synthesis.
• Week 4
  
  1. Good intro to MIDI
  2. Latest information about OpenSoundControl
  3. Read this for a compact description of OSC
• Week 5
  
  1. A comparison of the leading computer based sequencers
  2. More on digital audio (e.g, oversampling, aliasing)
  3. A more in depth, practical discussion of digital recording
• Week 6
  
  1. A digestible discussion of MP3
  2. Up to date view of samplers
• Week 7
  
  1. Get some samples to put through effects here
  2. Excellent guide to all of these effects
• Week 8
  
  1. Pitch shifting in PD
  2. About reverberation
  3. Spectral analysis - good intro
• Week 9
  
  1. Last FM and Audioscrobbler
  2. Benchmarking Music Information Retrieval Systems - A short paper that presents some examples of Music Information Retrieval (MIR) systens,
  3. Query by Humming
• Week 10
  
  1. Covers the main methods for algorithmic composition
  2. Using algorithmic composition to generate 2 step and UKD Garage beats:

Software

PD is installed on the lab machines and you will be able to complete the coursework and lab work using it. However, it seems it is not possible to use all of the included extensions, e.g. GEM for video and the popular 'knob' GUI object. If you want to use these extensions, you will need to obtain PD from here and install it on your own machine:
http://puredata.info/downloads