Course Information

Teaching Assistants

• Elliot Patros: epatros@ucsd.edu
• Ke Chen: kec204@ucsd.edu
• Matthew Chung: mfchung@ucsd.edu

Meeting Time and Place

Meeting Dates: 10/26/2019 - 12/05/2019

	Time	Location	Instructor
Lecture:	T/Th 3:30PM - 4:50PM	CPMC 136	Smyth
Office hours (labs):	T/Th 5:00PM - 5:50PM	CPMC 136	Patros/Chen/Chung/Smyth
Project presentation:	M (12/09/19) 3 - 6 PM	CPMC 136	All

Course Description

This is an introduction to computer music and audio synthesis, both in theory and in practice, using the Pd program.

Prerequisites

Willingness to learn!

Grading

• 3 Exams: 45%
• 5 Assignments 35%
• Final Project 20%

Required Textbooks

• Music 171 on-line notes.

Resources

Pd is free and you can run it on Windows, Linux, or Mac OSX. You can get it here.

Reference

• Puckette, Miller, The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music.
• A Digital Signal Processing Primer, Ken Steiglitz, Addison Wesley, 1996, 9780805316841

Final Project

• The final project should take on the form of a Pd patch which will be briefly demonstrated during the scheduled final exam.

• Patches must be submitted the day before presentations so they can be loaded and sequenced on the instructor's computer to ensure efficient transitions between presentations (time will be short!).

• Some project ideas (adapted Miller Puckette's list)
  • Make a piece of music (lasting about a minute) in the form of a Pd patch.
  • Make a drum machine / sequencer that plays a loop of (percussive) sounds with variation from cycle to cycle.
  • Make a patch that plays a Bach 2-part invention.
  • Experiment with random processes, e.g. a random note generator, that provides control of melodies, chords, or an entire composition.
  • For the computer savvy, write your own Pd external.
  • Make up your own idea (though come to office hourse to talk about it first).

• Proposal Requirement: Each student must submit a project proposal with a brief (one paragraph) description by the deadline.

Important Dates

• Exams: Thursday, 10/17 (w3), 11/7 (w6), 12/5 (w10), 2019.
• Thanksgiving (NO CLASS) Thursday 11/28 (w9), 2019.
• Project proposal: Tuesday 11/19 (w8), 2019.
• Project presentations: Monday 12/9, 3 - 6 PM (scheduled final exam), 2019.