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Information about Computer Music

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Computer music is music generated or composed with the aid of computers. It also refers to a field of study that examines both the theory and application of new and existing technologies in the areas of music, sound design and diffusion, acoustics, sound synthesis, digital signal processing, and psychoacoustics. The field of computer music can trace its roots back to the origin of electronic music, and the very first experiments and innovations with electronic instruments and techno music at the turn of the 20th century.

Much of the work on computer music has drawn on the relationship between music theory and mathematics. The world's first computer music was generated in Australia by programmer Geoff Hill on the CSIRAC computer which was designed and built by Trevor Pearcey and Maston Beard. Subsequently, Lejaren Hiller (e.g., the Illiac Suite) used a computer in the 1950s to compose works that were then played by conventional musicians. Later developments included the work of Max Mathews at Bell Laboratories, who developed the influential MUSIC I program. Vocoder technology was also a major development in this early era. In the 1980s, Music Construction Set gave the average computer user the ability to compose music using standard notation, though its abilities were limited. Recently, MIDI technology has allowed personal computers to interact with synthesizers through a standardized interface, which has widened the use of computer technology.

Throughout the world there are many organizations and institutions dedicated to the area of computer and electronic music study and research, including the ICMA (International Computer Music Association), IRCAM, GRAME, SEAMUS (Society for Electro Acoustic Music in the United States), and a great number of institutions of higher learning around the world.

Nowadays, modern computer and web technology such as MIDI and mp3 give enthusiasts and composers unprecedented power to compose, manipulate, and play or perform music.

Types of Software

We can easily distinguish music software. There are sequencers, samplers, VSTs, Virtual Studios.

Sequencers, such as Cubase, Nuendo, Logic, are programms which allows you to add tracks MIDI or audio tracks and record or import audio and MIDI files. Allong with the sequencers you can use VSTs (Virtual Instruments) or samplers. The other category, Virtual Studios, include many instruments, soft synths and samplers and you can master your own mix. For example, with Reason you get a large number of synths, samplers, compressors, eq, etc, you can mix and master your own song but you can't plug your instrument and record audio.

Key topics

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computer is a machine which manipulates data according to a list of instructions.

Computers take numerous physical forms. The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century (around 1940 - 1941), although the computer concept and various machines
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Sound design is a technical/conceptually creative field. It covers all non-compositional elements of a film, a play, a music performance or recording, computer game software or any other multimedia project.
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Acoustics is the branch of physics concerned with the study of sound (mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids). A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician. The application of acoustics in technology is called acoustical engineering.
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Synthesizer is generally any kind of electronic musical instrument, or electronic device capable of producing or manipulating audio tones, such as musical notes, through audio signal processing.
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Digital signal processing ('DSP') is the study of signals in a digital representation and the processing methods of these signals. DSP and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing.
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Psychoacoustics is the study of subjective human perception of sounds. Alternatively it can be described as the study of the psychological correlates of the physical parameters of acoustics.
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Electronic music refers to music that emphasizes the use of electronic musical instruments or electronic music technology as a central aspect of the sound of the music. [1]
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Mathematics (colloquially, maths or math) is the body of knowledge centered on such concepts as quantity, structure, space, and change, and also the academic discipline that studies them. Benjamin Peirce called it "the science that draws necessary conclusions".
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CSIRAC (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Automatic Computer), originally known as CSIR Mk 1, was Australia's first digital computer, and the fifth stored program computer in the world and presently the oldest
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Trevor Pearcey (March 1919 - 27 January 1998) was a British born Australian scientist, who created CSIRAC, one of the first ever stored program electronic computers in the world.
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Lejaren Hiller (b. February 23, 1924, New York City, d. January 26, 1994, Buffalo, New York) was an American composer who founded the Experimental Music Studio at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1958 and collaborated on the first significant computer music
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Max Vernon Mathews (* November 13, 1926, in Columbus, Nebraska) was a pioneer in the world of computer music. He studied electrical engineering at the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving a Sc.D. in 1954.
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MUSIC-N refers to a family of computer music programs and programming languages descended from or influenced by MUSIC, a program written by Max Mathews in 1957 at Bell Labs, it is widely considered to be the first computer program for making music (in actuality, sound) on a digital
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A vocoder or voder (a portmanteau of voice and encoder) is a speech analyzer and synthesizer. It was originally developed as a speech coder for telecommunications applications in the 1930s, the idea being to code speech for transmission.
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Music Construction Set (MCS) is a music composition notation program. It was originally developed in 1984 for the Apple II, and quickly ported to other systems of the era. It was designed and developed by Will Harvey and published by Electronic Arts.
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MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface; IPA: /ˈmɪdi/) is an industry-standard protocol that enables electronic musical instruments, computers and other equipment to communicate, control and synchronize with each other.
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The International Computer Music Association (ICMA) is an international affiliation of individuals and institutions involved in the technical, creative, and performance aspects of computer music.
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IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) is one of the most important European institutes for both science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music.
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Seamus is a male first name of Celtic origin. It is an Irish derivative of the name James. Its meaning is "one who supplants" or "substitute". In America, the name "Shamus" is sometimes used as a slang word for private detective.
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MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface; IPA: /ˈmɪdi/) is an industry-standard protocol that enables electronic musical instruments, computers and other equipment to communicate, control and synchronize with each other.
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MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3

File extension: .mp3
MIME type: audio/mpeg
Type of format: Audio MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is an audio encoding format.
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Acousmatic music is a specialised sub-set of electroacoustic music. It is created using non-acoustic technology, exists only in recorded form in a fixed medium, and is composed specifically to be heard over loudspeakers.
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Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music.

Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoint, for example, can often be
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chiptune, or chip music, is music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in realtime by a computer or video game console sound chip, instead of using sample-based synthesis.
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Chucks is the name given affectionately to the popular canvas shoe, the Converse Chuck Taylor All Star.
  • Chucks is also a short form for nunchucks or nunchaku, a kind of martial arts weapon

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    • Computer assisted composition (or computer-assisted composition) is the technique or practice of using a computer to aid in the composition of music, though the music itself may be performed either electronically or on traditional, non-electronic instruments without the use
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    Computer-Aided Algorithmic Composition (CAAC, pronounced "sea-ack") is the implementation and use of algorithmic composition techniques in software. This label is derived from the combination of two labels, each too vague for continued use.
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    An audio programming language is a programming language specifically targeted to sound and music production or sound synthesis.
    • ABC
    • ChucK : strongly-timed, concurrent, and on-the-fly audio programming language
    • CMix
    • CMusic
    • Common Lisp Music (CLM)

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