| Hello Csounders....
Well... it's not exactly ALL of the Csound Book online... but I did get
permission from MIT Press to put several of the chapters (with all of their
instruments) up on the Csound FrontPage at MIT:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/csound/frontpage.html
When you click on the Csound Book button (the red one) you will notice that
there are two preview chapters. The first is my chapter "Introduction to
Sound Design with Csound". As you will see, in itself this is an entire 12
week software synthesis curriculum.
The second chapter is a CD-ROM chapter by Kim Cascone entitled
"Recontextualizing Ambient Music with Csound". His chapter is the perfect
companion to mine. He focuses on moving from sound design to composition
and documents the process beautifully. And both of these chapters, by the
way, are filled with block diagrams and are fully linked to the html
reference manual. Of course, they include zip files of all orchestras,
scores and samples.
Also, when you click on the Csound Book button (you know... the red one)
you will get to check out the cover to the Csound Book. It was created by
award winning graphic designer Ori Kometani. You might appreciate the
fact that she had taken one of the Csound instruments from my chapter on
Sound Design and converted it into a swirling pattern. For someone that
has never used Csound before, I think she has perfectly captured the
essance of the program... it turns text into beautiful waveforms.
The third chapter is also from the CD-ROM. On The MIT Csound FrontPage
this appears as a new "Universities" button. Of course, I started by
featuring the music by some of my students at Berklee. Many of them have
helped with the Csound Book and I owe them very much for their dedication
and sacrifice. I hope you like their music.
Hey? Do you teach a course in Csound at your university? If the answer is
YES. Please use this as a model and send me your student works so that I
can post them on the site here at MIT. It would be great to find out where
Csound is being taught and what the students are doing. On the CD-ROM
several other universities are featured: Bowling Green, LSU, Glasgow. In
fact, I haven't burnt the CD yet. So, if you get me the materials in the
next two weeks, I might be able to add your university program to the
CD-ROM in addition to posting it on the MIT site.
I will keep you posted on the progress of The Csound Book. MIT Press tells
me that it is currently being typeset and I should have the pageproofs in
about a week. I plan to have a reading party here at my home with all my
student assistants reading and re-reading all the chapters to make sure
there are no mistakes. Then it is off to the printers.... You may be able
to order copies in June... That is the hope. Well see.
For now, I hope you will appreciate all the work that my INCREDIBLE
assistant Jacob Joaquin has done to build, maintain and now redesign the
MIT Csound FrontPage. He is totally committed to keeping it up to date and
continually improving it. He and I both would appreciate any suggestions
and feedback... We would especially appreciate contributions to the FAQ and
the Universities sections. And of course we want to hear your music!
Have a great spring. Enjoy the Matrix and Star Wars Episode 1 and then get
ready for the Summer of Csound. I can't wait until you all get to check
out the wonderful instruments and chapters that the contributers have
written for The Csound Book. The two that I have included on the MIT
Csound FrontPage are just appetizers... the main course is on its way.
Yours Sincerely,
Richard Boulanger
_____________________________________________________________
Dr. Richard Boulanger
Professor - Music Synthesis Department
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street - Boston, MA 02215-3693
Office Phone: (617) 747-2485 Office Fax: (617) 536-2257
Email: radiobaton@earthlink.net OR rboulanger@berklee.edu
_____________________________________________________________
Personal Webpage: http://home.earthlink.net/~radiobaton/
THE Csound Frontpage: http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/csound/frontpage.html
HTML Tools & Tips: http://members.tripod.com/~richardboulanger/btot99.html
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