Digital Sound Processing

 1.1 Setting the Context

• The oldest known musical instrument (and discussion on the origins of music).

• A History of Musical Instruments, leading to Electronic Instruments.

• Take a virtual tour of America's Shrine to Music Museum and its galleries of ancient musical instruments.

1.2 The effect of technology on sound production

• Bartolomeo Cristofori (pioneer of touch-response keyboard instruments).

• A thorough review of Electronic Musical Instruments (with many individual links & examples).

• Overview of Electronic Music History.

 

1.3 Musical changes from 1900 - 1950.

 

• Romantic composers. Or another article on the Late Romantic Composers.

  • Gustav Mahler

  • Jean Sibelius

• Impressionism

  • Claude Debussy

  • Maurice Ravel

  • Frederick Delius

• Rhythm

  • Igor Stravinsky and the 'Rite of Spring' riot.

  • Bela Bartok

  • Sergei Prokofiev.

• Atonality

  • Arnold Schoenberg

  • Serialsm

   

• Timbral Exploration

  • Edgar Varese

   

• Catalogue of Early 20th Century Composers.

• You might also like to try the On-line Music Dictionary.

 

• Also mentioned was Bill Gates' book "The Road Ahead".

 

1.4 Early systems for electronic sound generation

• Alexander Graham Bell and his early Telephone.

• Elisha Gray's "Musical Telegraph".

• William Duddell's "Singing Arc" and a detailed technical description.

• The "Telharmonium".

• The "Theremin".

• The "Ondes Martenot", and Olivier Messaien with a sound example from the Turangalila Symphony.

• The Givelet.

 

• Other electronic instruments mentioned are the Staccatone,  Dynaphon, and Trautonium.

• History of keyboard instruments.

 

1.5 Development of Recording technology

• History of the gramophone, and other links to 78's.

• History of Jazz, the first recordings in 1917, or an overview.

• Develpment of Magnetic Tape recording, and a chronology.

• Glossary of Film sound.  Oskar Fischinger, John Whitney and other  Abstract animation links.

• Hip-hop links.

 

• A discussion of current sound recording equipment.

• An overview of how analogue recording works.

 

1.6 Electronic Music Studios

• Pierre Schaeffer and Musique Concrete.

• Karlheinz Stockhausen homepage, or a summary.

 

1.7 Live Electronic Music

• History of the Electric Guitar (with sound examples).  Another good guitar home-page.

• The Violectric.

• Stockhausen's music, including Mikrophonie.

 

1.8 Synthesisers

• The Monochord.

• The RCA Synthesiser, and Milton Babbit.

• The Hammond Organ.

• History of Rock'n'Roll.

• Robert Moog - biography, interview, and synthesiser development.

• Daphne Oram and 'Oramics'.

• Wendy Carlos.

• Tangerine Dream.

• Keith Emerson.

 

• Pictures of early synthesisers.

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Synthesisers.

 

1.9 Digital Sound

• Max Mathews - MUSIC 1 and other programs at the Bell Labs.

• MIT Media Lab research, and Barry Vercoe.

• Csound introduction, Home Page (you can download it from here and read the manual), and a set of scores and orchestras.

 

1.10 The Performance Interface

•  The 'GROOVE' system.

• The MUSYS system, with Peter Zinovieff & EMS Synthesisers.

 

1.11 Digital Computers with Performance Interfaces

• The Synclavier.

• The Fairlight CMI.

• Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel.

 

1.12 The Digital Revolution

• Microprocessors and DSP are dealt with in Chapter 3.

• The Vintage Synthesiser Explorer site.

• Casio VL-tone and other synthesisers.

• Pop music in the early 1980s, especially Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, The Human League and John Foxx.

• MIDI is dealt with in Chapter 4.

 

1.13 Performance Instruments in the MIDI Age

• Yamaha Synthesisers including the DX7.

• Akai Samplers

• Synthesis, sampling and sequencing.

• The 'Linn Drum'.

• Dance Music, and the History of House music.

• Try the MIDI Guitar home page.

• Information on the Casio MIDI horn and the Yamaha WX-7, and a comparison of different wind controllers.  Overview of available wind controllers.

 

1.14 The Microcomputer 

• History of Computing

• Types of MIDI software.

•  IRCAM and the IRCAM Musical Workstation.

• Mike Oldfield.

• Movie Soundtracks: Searchable information on films & composers. Listen to them as MIDI files.

 

1.15 Systems for capturing performance gesture

• Iannis Xenakis and UPIC

• Max Mathews' Radio Baton.

•  MidiGrid (Andy Hunt's computer-based performance instrument from 1987 that's now re-released for Windows95/98)

• MidiCreator & Gesture - MIDI performance products from the University of York, U.K. Other sites explaining MidiCreator :1., 2.

• Soundbeam.

• STEIM: and "The Hands", being played by the inventor of the Theremin.

 

1.16 Interactive music environments

• MAX, by Miller Puckette.

• York's MIDAS system is described in chapter 10.

• Music on the internet : a Forum, a directory of music links and a general search.

   

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