Name: The Csound Book
ISBN: 9780262325042

What Hacker News says

nonrandomstringDec 2024

Boulanger and Lazzarini "The Audio Programming Book" - great if you want to start working straight away in C

Boulanger - "The Csound Book" (another classic language I still use today)

Greenbaum and Barzel - "Audio Anecdotes". A fascinating series of 3 volumes with all sorts of wisdom on FX design, studio systems and composition

Wilson, Cottle and Collins - "The Supercollider Book". In the style of The Csound Book, but with SC.

Loy - "Musicmathics". A rare and much under-rated two volume set on the equations behind audio DSP

Bilbao - "Numerical Sound Synthesis". A hard but rewarding journey to understanding audio physics as linear diff systems and implementing them efficiently in C, Goes well with Perry Cook's stuff.

Benson - "Music a mathematical offering" Very unusual book that analyses many subjects in music physics. Equations but no code.

Miranda "Computer Sound Design". More about music synthesis than "sound design" imho, but has some interesting fringe methods like cellular autonoma and genetic algorithms.

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ofalkaedDec 2024

>Boulanger - "The Csound Book"

Probably the gold standard for such books, wish all the audio DSLs had a book of such quality. Between it and The Computer Music Tutorial Csound is ahead of the rest when it comes to books.

Edit: Was thinking The Computer Music Tutorial was filled with Csound examples but on second thought I don't think it actually is. Been awhile since I last browsed it.

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nonrandomstringJul 2022

> it remains a source of inspiration for many. What do you think gives this particular text such staying power?

> Jason: I find Allen’s work really weird and enticing. I’m not a musician or composer. I’m at best a student. His book is a masterful enticement to exploration.

In the age of plugins and off-the-shelf products that supplant principles and knowledge we so need arts technology books that hold this torch.

I still go back to Dodge and Jerse, Curtis Roads CMT, or Boulangers Csound Book when I am feeling a little jaded with music tech, just to find a spark of inspiration that sets off a new idea.

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teejaAug 2009

Take a look at ChucK's baby brother 'miniAudicle' if you just want to try the water. It's fun ... you'll have sound in a couple minutes! http://audicle.cs.princeton.edu/mini/

For a book on theory try "Computer Music" by Dodge & Jerse. The Curtis Roads books are v.good too.

I'd just get started improvising with whatever! and then as you get time, check out the (many!) software options and see what fits your mental/musical personality. It's always a battle not to get over-lost in the tech side at first because that can cramp your creativity ... and even your motivation.

Finally, for a DEEP course in EM try The CSound Book. CSound will let you make ~any sound you can conceive ... but it's a heavy lift. (More for studio than live.)

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cesareJul 2009

For SuperCollider there's a book which is not out yet (I have read a draft and found it excellent, especially for beginners) but it should be out soon.

You can try to send an email to one of the authors: http://www.music.utah.edu/faculty/faculty_a-z/david_michael_...

He used to send a pdf of the draft version if you asked him, but since the printed book is due soon (by MIT press) I don't know if this is still true.

There's also 'The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music' by Miller Puckette (the author of Pure Data):

http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/techniques.htm

The examples are, obviously, in Pure Data. But it is an excellent book and all the concepts can be applied to any synthesis language/tool.

For Csound there's 'The Csound Book' by Richard Boulanger (MIT Press):

http://csounds.com/shop/csound-book

This is also excellent. Disclaimer: the author is a friend.

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ofalkaedDec 2024

>I have the book still but the CD is long gone and so is owning a CD rom drive.

https://github.com/SamKomesarook/The-Csound-Book

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