Introduction to Computer Music

Oh man, I get that as an author you have to choose a path to introduce the new learner to...but it bums me out to see that the material completely avoids tracking as one of the preeminent ways to make music on computers.

Instead it goes down the midi path, which of course ultimately is the dominant commercial technology today. But I've always thought that the complexity and expense of a good midi setup is more of a prosumer-type thing.

Tracking gets you quick entry from chiptunes through extraordinarily expressive sampling to VSTs and even into midi at the edges, and there's trackers for pretty much every kind of computer that can make music.

You can very cheap/free/easily explore the main musical concepts presented here from synthesis to digital audio.

Bonus, most classical tracker files are a kind of "open source" music in that you can see all the note data, the techniques the composers used, and have access to all of their instruments. You get to "see" both composition and performance details down to the note.

I really wish that the academic computer arts educators would catch on to these core pieces of the demoscene -- which is now UNESCO recognized by now six countries as intangible cultural heritage for all of humanity -- and were developed to both challenge and wow the audience and make production by literally penniless children possible.

No mention of Daphne Oram [1] in the history of electronic music. :(

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_Oram

Just slimmed some chapters, but this looks like a great resource! If someone wants to dive more deeply into digital synthesis, I can recommend "The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music" by Miller Puckette (creator of Max and Pure Data): https://msp.ucsd.edu/techniques/latest/book.pdf. All examples are actually Pure Data patches that you can try out and experiment with.

Alternatively there is Curtis Roads' "The Computer Music Tutorial" [0]

[0] https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262044912/the-computer-music-tu...

Another fine text on this subject I can recommend (at a somewhat higher level, and not provided for free) is The Computer Music Tutorial:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262044912/the-computer-music-tu...

I suggest having some kind of sequencer and synthesizers (one subtractive, one FM) available to play with while reading. Free VSTs in the free Reaper DAW are a fine starting point.

"Computer Music" is a very broad term (no surprises here) so, like many here, I can point out topics that are not covered. In particular, computer music (aka algorithmic) composition [1], or very recent AI techniques like the Google seq2seq example at [2], or the (unpublished, but probably a form of generative adversarial networks) techniques used by SunoAI and Udio.

[1]. https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~blackrse/algorithm.html

[2]. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.11325

I’m interested in the subject but not really a fan of the presentation. Is there an ePUB version or similar that I’m not seeing?

Any way to compose compelling electronic music without having to spend time learning a commercial app like Ableton?

I love that people share historical pioneers in electronic music, but I'd also want to add some artists of the last decade who really pushed new directions and visions. The PC Music collective/label has been one of my favorite bunch of artists. AG Cook, Danny L Harle, Finn Keane (FKA EasyFun), and all of their tangential collaborators outside the label have been making such awesome computer music.

Let's not forget the contributions of Bernie Hutchins (Electronotes):

https://archive.org/details/electronotes-meh-ebgpcc-torrent

https://www.timstinchcombe.co.uk/synth/Electronotes_EN_index...

The full set is very rare--but what a treasure trove of high quality material.

Its a good read, provides a good introduction - but imho, loopops incomplete guide to electronic music is a much better investment of time and energy ..

http://patreon.com/loopop

.. very definitely worth the effort to get it downloaded for offline reading, also.

I judge technical explanations of audio gear by their description of balanced signals. A common error is to focus on the positive and negative signals having opposite polarity, which is entirely irrelevant for canceling out interference (it may improve headroom, but what is actually important for eliminating common mode noise is to have identical impedance with respect to ground).

I would say this text fails this test, which gives me pause. The description is: "The two conductors carry the same signal, but with reverse polarity (meaning that one conductor carries a signal that is the mirror image of the other). If external noise and interference enters the cable, it will probably affect both conductors equally."

Quickly read thorough it, is indeed a nice introductory read. Recommending, may be suitable for 10th-12th graders also.

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