Computer Sound Synthesis for the Electronic Musician (Music Technology Series)

By Eduardo Reck Miranda

Introduce computer sound synthesis techniques and synthesis programming to students, researchers, musicians and enthusiasts in the field of music technology. Miranda examines a variety of synthesis techniques and illustrates how to turn a personal computer into a powerful and flexible sound synthesiser. The book also discusses a number of ongoing developments that may play an important role in the future of electronic music making, including the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques in synthesis software and parallel computers. Computer sound synthesis is becoming increasingly attractive to a wide range of musicians. The sound processing power of the computer is increasing and any personal computer will soon be able to run software in real-time, capable of synthesising sounds using every possible technique. The art of sound synthesis is as important for the electronic musician as the art of orchestration is important for symphonic music composers. Those who wish to create their own virtual orchestra of electronic instruments and produce original sounds will find this book invaluable. The accompanying CD-ROM contains examples, complementary tutorials and a number of synthesis systems for PC and Macintosh platforms, ranging from low level synthesis programming languages to graphic front-ends for instrument and sound design. These include fully working packages, demonstration versions of commercial software and experimental programs from top research centres in Europe, North and South America.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 024051517X
• ISBN13: 9780240515175
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Focal Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 0.8" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Complete, clear and well written!

Very good explanation of a number of synthesis techniques, some of which I never heard of before. This book is an excellent source of ideas for creating innovative sounds for my mixes and multimedia works. The CD-ROM features plenty of software for PC and Mac, plus hands-on examples by respected contributors. It is not a book about a particular software or programming language - it is about techinques and methods.

You want to make ORIGINAL noises in synthisis do you?

An extreamely readable and comprehensive coverage of the audio synthisis domain. No high level maths required. This straight forward and lucid descriptions of each of the major synthisis approaches(and some of the more esoteric ones too) will empower the reader to get a deeper (and better) understanding of their synthisis instrument. The addition of several software synthisis applications makes this worth the price alone. New noises abound. As a MAX MSP user this was exactly what I needed to begin designing new synthisis instruments...great book