Product Description
The Computer Music Tutorial is a comprehensive text and reference that covers all aspects of computer music, including digital audio, synthesis techniques, signal processing, musical input devices, performance software, editing systems, algorithmic composition, MIDI, synthesizer architecture, system interconnection, and psychoacoustics. A special effort has been made to impart an appreciation for the rich history behind current activities in the field.Profusely illustrated and exhaustively referenced and cross-referenced, The Computer Music Tutorial provides a step-by-step introduction to the entire field of computer music techniques. Written for nontechnical as well as technical readers, it uses hundreds of charts, diagrams, screen images, and photographs as well as clear explanations to present basic concepts and terms. Mathematical notation and program code examples are used only when absolutely necessary. Explanations are not tied to any specific software or hardware.Curtis Roads has served as editor-in-chief of Computer Music Journal for more than a decade and is a recognized authority in the field. The material in this book was compiled and refined over a period of several years of teaching in classes at Harvard University, Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Naples, IRCAM, Les Ateliers UPIC, and in seminars and workshops in North America, Europe, and Asia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Invaluable resource
I use this book both in my own work as a computer music composer and as an instructor in computer music at my university. It is clear and detailed without being cumbersome or laborious. Indeed, for a 1200 page book it feels remarkably concise in its explanations. The biggest drawback for me is that I suck at math, which means there are times when I have to work at it to make sense of some passages. This is a fault of my own (due to sheer laziness) and not of Roads. Even so, I've been able to read about techniques that I didn't know much about beyond their sound and immediately implement them in Max/MSP simply by having had their the mechanics explained in clear detail. This is a brilliant, invaluable book for deepening my understanding of and work in computer music theory and technique.

great
this was my first purchase through amazon, and i had a very good first impression. the delivery was very quick (it arrived sooner than expected), and the product was in perfect conditions. plus, the material i ordered has very valuable content, and it would have been very hard for me to get it elsewhere. thus, i am not only satisfied, but also very happy with this deal. you can be sure amazon will be my first choice for further hard-to-get books or media. thanks.

Pretty much a computer music bible
This book is the best book to get started and continue with music involving electronics and computers.The book covers the basics and keeps going.If you touch any type of electronic device to make music, this book should be on your shelf.I can't say enough good things about this book.

The vast majority of the book is still useful and relevant
Don't peruse through this book and let the pictures of people from the 1970's and 1980's working with musical instruments and synthesizers that appear to be assembled from Heathkits scare you away. This book still has vast quantities of information that are very relevant today to the person interested in computer music. In this age of "Garageband", it's just hard to find information on the mathematics of sound synthesis and signal processing as it applies to music in a detailed well-illustrated format. Of course, many people don't need this information nor do they want it - but if you do this is one of several sources that I turn to. It assumes that you know music, but that you do not have a background in mathematics past algebra, and it is wonderful at explaining what goes on mathematically in computer music so that you can turn to a language like CSound and put to work what you learn in this book. I even know some engineering students have had difficulties with certain signals and systems concepts that I refer to this book, and afterwards they are crystal clear.

The first four sections of the book are completely relevant today, and they deal with fundamentals, synthesis, mixing and signal processing, and sound analysis. That is the first 600 pages of the book. Section five, on the musician's interface, is relevant and correct as to history and the basic facts. Many of the instruments used as illustrations no longer exist, but the theory of operation is still employed today. The section does discuss the "Max" software in the context of interactive performance, and Max is still used in various forms. Other systems such as MODE, MacMix, and NoteWriter, are now obsolete. However, even these sections are worthwhile in talking about how such systems work even if these particular systems are defunct.

Section six, on Internals and Interconnections, is probably the section with the most obsolete material, and even then it is not that bad. The sections on MIDI and the internals of digital signal processors are good detailed explanations. DSP hardware and dataflow are especially clearly explained. However, in the chapter on system interconnections, we are in a time gone by as there is much material on how to connect to devices no longer in existence such as the 2-track and 4-track recorder. Section seven is a very short one on psychoacoustics. It is not that it is dated, it is just a very short introduction to the subject. Among the appendices, there is a very useful section on the details of Fourier analysis. This is essential knowledge for the computer musician.

I would still highly recommend this book. Just recognize that a very few sections - and a good number of the photographs of actual equipment - are dated.

Cmt
Nice book.
Although it may seem outdated, trying to making up one's mind one has to consider a few things:

It's true that synthesis techniques have evolved in a very impressive way during theese 20 years (the book as you may guess has been written during the 80's), but it's also true that many of today's so called "new" synthesis techniques (as some software synthesis companies are fond of saying) are simply the natural evolution of past ones.
Just to give you an example the plugin "melohman" by ohmforce can be viewed as moving wavetable synthesis tool combined with ring modulation and effects like delay filters etc.

On the other hand, somechapters like ones on music equipment or software for algoritmic composition -fields in which technology plays a very important role- do are really outdated.

Cmt is a very complete book, it covers most important fields involved in electronic music composition, as one can see stepping through the index. Explanation of FFT calls for a review of trigonometry and algebra if you didn't studied them well at school, like me for example.

This review must come to an end, so here it is:
If you are/want to become self-taught serious about computer music and you like to make music with softwares like Pure Data or Max/MSP this book is a good place to start. Buy it.
Profund understanding of the possibilities of synthesis techniques or effects design of course requires more specifc scientific/academic readings.
... Read more

Product Description
This volume contains the complete set of tutorial papers presented at the 16th IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) Working Group 7.3 International Symposium on Computer Performance Modelling, Measurement and Evaluation, and a number of tutorial papers presented at the 1993 ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Special Interest Group METRICS Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems. The principal goal of the volume is to present an overview of recent results in the field of modeling and performance evaluation of computer and communication systems. The wide diversity of applications and methodologies included in the tutorials attests to the breadth and richness of current research in the area of performance modeling. The tutorials may serve to introduce a reader to an unfamiliar research area, to unify material already known, or simply to illustrate the diversity of research in the field. The extensive bibliographies guide readers to additional sources for further reading. ... Read more

Product Description
Introductory Tutorials from the South-Western Computer Education Series provide a complete learning package that makes the mastery of software applications both easy and fun. ... Read more

Product Description
Introductory Tutorials from the South-Western Computer Education Series provide a complete learning package that makes the mastery of software applications both easy and fun. ... Read more

Product Description
Introductory Tutorials from the South-Western Computer Education Series provide a complete learning package that makes the mastery of software applications both easy and fun. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The only book there is?
Image generation -- especially real time image generation -- is a VERY difficult subject to present.. or to understand.In the present case the book does not sufficiently cover the priciplesof perception -- how humansperceive the outside world and thus how visual information must bepresented to maximize its impact. Certainly, the importance of flicker,peripheral vision, contrast and the acuity of the human eye are essentialto presentation of image generation theory and practice.

The importanceof polygon rates and pixel fill rates were not presented adequately.Inaddition, transport delay and its destruction of valid training benefitswas not adequately covered. The fact that image generators have internalprocesses which can vary in processing time from frame to frame was notadequately covered.

The various methods of handling levels of detail andtheir impact on frame rates and transport delay were not covered.

Moredata on the impact of Phong shading or Gouraud shading on frame rates wasneeded.

A better discussion of nearest neighbor, MIP MAP, bilinear MIPMAP, triliniear MIP MAP and Anisotropic texture was needed.

As fordisplay systems, collimated displays -- glass and MYLAR -- and especiallyCalligraphic displays are all essential to understanding real time imagegeneration and its display systems. ... Read more

Product Description
Introductory Tutorials from the South-Western Computer Education Series provide a complete learning package that makes the mastery of software applications both easy and fun. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent reference
I keep coming back to this title where other texts like Foley and Van Dam and Angel come short.All the basic hidden surface and shading techniques from which today's architectures are derived are described in detail.Modeling techniques are left out.My only wish was that there was a more recent collection including current hardware accelerators, plus some modeling techniques like subdivision surfaces and DirectX 8's patches.

Excelent!
This is a wonderful collection of very important papers on image synthesis. It's all there: hidden surface removal, ray tracing, radiosity, texture mapping, and anti-aliasing. The annotated bibliography at the endis very helpful. ... Read more