Product Description
“This is the most important book written in the last decade in the field of electronic music. Together with the new Csound technology, it will revolutionize electronic music.” — Max Mathews, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University Created in 1985 by Barry Vercoe, Csound is one of the most widely used software sound synthesis systems. Because it is so powerful, mastering Csound can take a good deal of time and effort. But thi… More >>
The Csound Book: Perspectives in Software Synthesis, Sound Design, Signal Processing,and Programming
Tags: barry vercoe, Book, computer research, Csound, csound book, Design, electronic music, last decade, max mathews, music max, Perspectives, Processingand, programming, Signal, Software, software sound synthesis, software synthesis, Sound, stanford university, Synthesis
#1 by craigb on April 14, 2010 - 8:37 pm
wow, best thing to ever come along so buy 2
for you and your friends. also try the cd with
2000 additional orchestras. together you can
do anything.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by David Benson on April 14, 2010 - 8:47 pm
CSound is a multiplatform *free* software synthesis program. It’s hard to use at first, but is the most powerful thing around.
Almost every synthesis technique you’ve ever heard of is implemented in a very flexible fashion. The first version came out in 1985, and it has been developing steadily since. This book contains separate articles by many authors, so there is something of a lack of overall coherence to the work. It comes with 2 CD-ROMs containing software for Mac, Linux and PC, hundreds of musical compositions, more than 3000 working instruments, and much more. There is a third CD-ROM available separately. This CD-ROM contains over 2000 orchestra and score text files, and the corresponding audio files in mp3 format. It is also possible to order separately an updated version of the 2 CD-ROMs that came with the book, from the same web site, whether or not you own the book.
Rating: 4 / 5
#3 by R. Coen on April 14, 2010 - 10:58 pm
I have been subscribed to the csound mailing (on and off) list for 4 years now. All the topic of the book have been discussed at full length and sometimes even more thouroghly on the mailing list. This book was awaited for 2 years now and most of us thought it would never see the light. I am not impressed, Boulanger chapter, the main tutorial, is all over the place, it might waste time explaining what an envelope is and just fly over the FOSCIL oscillator, i.e. you cannot read this book away from your computer (you will need the reference to CSOUND which is not included in the book). The other chapters do a better job, even if there is a lot of crosstalk across chapters (granular synthesis is presented in several chapters, and some repeat the same material over and over). I find remarkably clear the chapters of Ffitch about the internal workings of CSOUND.
The CD ROM. Never seen content so badly organized, half of it is a download of the CSOUND page at MIT press… the main cdrom has even the ad page for the imminent release of the book (which supposedly you are already reading). The content is layed out very badly, the navigation is atrocious. It is nice to have most of the scores rendered as audio file, however the choice of the format is unfortunate (quick time MOV) and you can hear compression artifacts in the audio samples (why not use a more down to earth MP3 which is not proprietary and it is still cross platform?)
To wrap up, this is an “advanced topics in CSOUND” and not a book for everybody. CSOUND culture is for hackers, if you’re one of them you’ll benefit immensely from this book.
Rating: 2 / 5
#4 by Michael S Rempel on April 15, 2010 - 12:33 am
Beginners be warned. This is not a book that is designed to hold your hand. For that go to http://www.csounds.com and check out the beginners secton. Also join the online forums.
This is the site that the author, Dr. Richard Boulanger maintains for people looking to get started with Csound. It is also the place most of the really good CSound software developers and users hang out.
If you have explored synthesis on another platform, then this is the book for you. If you have explored CSound a bit, and want depth then this is the book for you.
Dr. B has compiled resources and brings together the best of the CSound community in a compilation that is really a collection of CSound essays. Many of the articles are regretably brief. A few sections are missing all together. (Most notably the midi section is not included, and is still not written)
But what is written in this book is the best information you can get anywhere on the subject of computer synthesis in ANY LANGUAGE. I need to clarify that a bit though, two new projects are on the way which will change that. Csound 5 is in developement, and MPEG 4 also has a world class sound engine. But in both cases these new technologies are based on the stuff in this book. Yes, that is right, MPEG 4 has a csound like engine in it.
Csound is first rate. Nothing beats it. I have done the plugin thing, and downloaded or bought just about everything in synthesis available from anywhere. Some tools can offer you nice canned sounds, or pretty patch chords and knobs. But for pure raw power, flexability and creative oomph nothing can equal CSound. This book will take you from the world of patch chords and knobs into the world of programming. That is where the power is baby, in programming. Where anything can plug into anything. All you need are some programming chops and any music or noise you can dream up is at your finger tips.
If it happens in any synth anywhere in the world, then eventually it will happen in CSound. And mostly it already does. And what is more, in CSound you can combine ANY methods of synthesis you want AT THE SAME TIME. No other synth can do that. Period.
BTW the CSound software is free. That is right, free on the PC, free in Linux, and free on the mac. So buy the book, download the software, and meet everyone who wrote the book, and most everyone who writes anything to do with the CSound software on the CSounds web site.
If that is not enough to convince you, consider this: Most of the sound designers in Hollywood use CSound. I know more than a few of them. The guy who invented Trance music, BH is a CSounder. Everyone in his studio owns a copy of this book! I could keep name dropping for a long while, but you get it. CSound is one of the best kept open secrets in the world.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by a reader on April 15, 2010 - 2:33 am
This was a great book in its time, and still provides solid understanding of CSound fundamentals. Much has changed in the last decade, and you’re better off working with a more recent software version. Even so, some of the strangenesses in current versions make more sense when you see how the system evolved.
As great a resource as this is, it’s difficult to convey so much technical material while making sure to explain everything before using it. With a bit of patience, technical readers can put the pieces together. I subtract a rating star only due to technical obsolescence, as of 2009.
Though the CD’s in my (used) copy looked good, many files on them did not load under Windows. I suspect this may be due to insufficient testing across multiple OS’es. Once you see what is supposed to be there, you can probably find reasonable replacement material (also more up to date) on the listed web sites.
Happy composing!
Rating: 4 / 5