Project: Drum Machine
March 16, 2020I can’t remember why I decided to build a drum machine in Csound. After spending a few weeks on the James Tenney instrument, which generates notes in a very randomized way, I must have been interested in generating notes within a metrical framework. In other words, I wanted to learn how to use the metro opcode.
But first, why would you build a drum machine when there are dozens of free, full-featured drum machines available online? Two reasons:
- You’ll learn a lot about Csound by building one yourself.
- You can custom code the drum machine to do anything you’d like.
Study: James Tenney
March 8, 2020
I like to study the writings of computer music practitioners and try to implement their ideas in Csound. This expands my Csound skillset and exposes me to different compositional strategies. For example, I spent a few weeks this fall closely reading composer James Tenney’s essay “Computer Music Experiences, 1961-1964,” published in 1969. This essay documents Tenney’s experiences working with the MUSIC-N computer synthesis program at Bell Labs from September 1961 to March 1964.
Helpful Resources for Csound
February 3, 2020
Even with the best documentation and most supportive user community Csound would still be difficult for anyone to learn. That’s because digital audio generation and processing is hard to grasp conceptually. It has been for me anyway. Tremendously hard.
The Mysterious World of Csound
October 6, 2019Six months ago when I started to learn Csound I struggled to wrap my head around what exactly it was and what people were doing with it. At the most basic level I knew it could be used to make strange sounds, but even after I read online documentation, read the first chapters of Csound textbooks, and watched YouTube videos, I still had unanswered questions.
- How many people are using Csound?
- What are they doing with it?
- Where can you find it under the hood in software/hardware applications?
- Is this a ubiquitous language in the music world, or is it an obscure language only used by a cultish group of practioners?
Let Me Explain
September 21, 2019I’ve learned that I can’t predict where my curiosity will lead me or what obsessions will take hold of me. For instance, six months ago I did not suspect I would soon be devoting most of my time to learning Csound, a computer programming language for music, and yet today I do just that. This is all the more surprising given that six months ago I knew nothing about computer programming.