Dear Reader of the Csound List,

I am happy to announce that:

The Csound Book is in production at MIT Press!  They will be showing the
pre-production version of the text at the Internation Computer Music
Conference this week.  I am sorry that it took me so long to get it to this
point but it turned out to be a larger than HUGE project.  As you all know,
Csound is a moving target.  And it practically killed me this past spring.
(In fact, my brain was bleeding and shifting shift and I ended up having
heart surgery. But I miraculously survived and managed to finish it  - with
a lot of help and prayers.)

So... after a summer of completely revising the text, correcting all the
figures and debugging all the instuments and code. (With the assistance of
John ffitch  (he lived at my place on weekends during the months of July
and August and Matt Ingals (over the internet) plus the slave labor of a
dedicated group of student assistants including Bobby Pietrusko, Samara
Krugman and Jacob Joaquin (all of whom lived with me for weeks at a time),
the final manuscript was delivered to MIT Press on August 25. (Doug Sery
actually drove to my home to pick it up because I could barely stand on my
feet.)

At the Press, they took a month to read it and gave it the go ahead last
friday (September 25).  They are fast-tracking the production and
publication there, which means I will be called upon for a final read/edit
in a week or so before they begin laying it out.  But it is in the works
now and will soon be in your hands.

So... The 800+ page textbook will include a full and newly revised and
edited reference manual plus 2 CD-ROMS. It will be available in May/June
1999.  Below is the table of contents for the Book (frozen in stone) and
the CD-ROM (still room for some changes here...)

Hope you like what you see.  Sorry for the wait.  But maybe there is time
for you to get your composition/tutorial finished and included on the
CD-ROM.  I'd love to hear from you.  Thanks for your patience and support.

I know Csound pretty well, but I can't tell you how much I have learned.
The contributing authors are the world's experts.  They are the greatest
teachers and have focused their work on their favourite subjects.  I can't
wait for it to be out. Every chapter is dripping with working instruments.
For the first time, I think, you can explore and learn computer music
synthesis, signal processing and sound design with your mind, your eyes,
your hands and your EARS.  It all runs!  And all the code is right there
for you to run on your own pc!  You're not just reading about it... Ever.
It is a perfect complement to the Road's Computer Music Tutorial. All the
theory is there and all of it runs here. Soon it will be all yours.

My thanks to the brilliant and dedicated contributions of all the members
of the Csound community.


RIchard Boulanger

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Dr. Richard Boulanger
Professor - Music Synthesis Department
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street  - Boston, MA  02215-3693
Phone: (617) 747-2485   Fax: (617) 536-2257
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rcb@media.mit.edu * rboulanger@berklee.edu* http://www.tiac.net/users/rcb
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