This comprehensive handbook of mathematical and programming techniques for audio signal processing will be an essential reference for all computer musicians, computer scientists, engineers, and anyone interested in audio. Designed to be used by readers with varying levels of programming expertise, it not only provides the foundations for music and audio development but also tackles issues that sometimes remain mysterious even to experienced software designers. Exercises and copious examples (all cross-platform and based on free or open source software) make the book ideal for classroom use. Fifteen chapters and eight appendixes cover such topics as programming basics for C and C++ (with music-oriented examples), audio programming basics and more advanced topics, spectral audio programming; programming Csound opcodes, and algorithmic synthesis and music programming. Appendixes cover topics in compiling, audio and MIDI, computing, and math. An accompanying DVD provides an additional 40 chapters, covering musical and audio programs with micro-controllers, alternate MIDI controllers, video controllers, developing Apple Audio Unit plug-ins from Csound opcodes, and audio programming for the iPhone.The sections and chapters of the book are arranged progressively and topics can be followed from chapter to chapter and from section to section. At the same time, each section can stand alone as a self-contained unit. Readers will find The Audio Programming Book a trustworthy companion on their journey through making music and programming audio on modern computers.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"I particularly like the way in which the authors treat Csound both as a tool and as a computer program whose internals are worthy of study and understanding. Again, the material here should be useful to experienced programmers who are just beginning with digital audio, as well as to those with a good understanding of digital sound who want to learn more about C programming." Paul LaFollette Computing Reviews
"The Audio Programming Book is an invaluable resource for composers, sound designers, and programmers. The contributors have done an outstanding job of communicating not only the technology but also the artistry of programming audio applications. That art will surely flourish further, thanks to their efforts." Robert Rowe, Director, Steinhardt Music Composition Program, New York University
"Thanks to The Audio Programming Book, it has become practical for musicians to compose music and sounds themselves and to explore their own sonic world without limitations." Jean-Claude Risset, composer
"The essential reference in digital audio programming, linking the rich knowledge and techniques of our past and present to a rapidly evolving future, The Audio Programming Book provides its reader with a comprehensive body of programs and processes and teaches the programming skills and math to use them." John Chowning, Professor of Music, Emeritus, the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University
"This book represents the meeting point of divergent lines of study that young computer musicians are desperate for. There is an extrodinary demand for a book where computer science, digital signal processing, music synthesis, electronic music, and algorithmic composition all come together. This is the only book you'll ever need if you want to learn to make your own plug-ins. An essential read, at the perfect time." BT (aka Brian Transeau), composer/technologist
About the Author
Richard Boulanger is Professor of Electronic Production and Design at the Berklee College of Music and editor of The Csound Book: Perspectives in Software Synthesis, Sound Design, Signal Processing, and Programming (MIT Press, 2000).
Victor Lazzarini is Senior Lecturer in the Music Department and Director of the Music Technology Laboratory at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
Victor Lazzarini is Senior Lecturer in the Music Department and Director of the Music Technology Laboratory at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By chrismortega
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a seasoned coder new to audio processing I give this book 5 big stars. It explains through numerous coding examples and projects all of the major aspects of coding for audio. It also provides cross-platform libraries you will find essential, as well as extra chapters not included in the book via the included DVD. I was able to synthesize my own sound waves, and even write my own wav file player within a week.
That said I would not recommended this book to someone who is unfamiliar with coding. The authors do try to give an introduction to c programming, however I found that the examples in this book would be very difficult for a new programmer to be able to follow, let alone compile, given that there are many libraries which must be linked etc. Personally though, I loved that upon opening the book for the first time I could flip through the pages gingerly and see tons and tons of straight c code. The theory is there, but more importantly so is it's practical application, and that's what makes this book awesome.
That said I would not recommended this book to someone who is unfamiliar with coding. The authors do try to give an introduction to c programming, however I found that the examples in this book would be very difficult for a new programmer to be able to follow, let alone compile, given that there are many libraries which must be linked etc. Personally though, I loved that upon opening the book for the first time I could flip through the pages gingerly and see tons and tons of straight c code. The theory is there, but more importantly so is it's practical application, and that's what makes this book awesome.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By Travis K
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I had been coding in C/C++/Objective-C for a year or so when I first picked up this book. As a musician all my life, I wanted to be able to get a fundamental understanding about what goes on under the hood when computers process audio signals, and hopefully start writing my own programs that do just that. In the content and coding practice realm, the book is TOP. NOTCH. You will not find a more comprehensive guide on Digital Audio Processing anywhere. In the first two chapters (being Chapter 0 and Chapter 1), there are some great techniques and strategies for really getting the most out of pointers, and, unlike most C programming books I've skimmed through, it jumps right into grabbing input for the command line, and introduces you to the proper defensive programming strategies and refactoring methods (i.e. encapsulating code into functions, using preprocessor definitions/macros, always keeping variable scope in mind) that you'll need to make strong, versatile programs. And on the audio side, it covers everything from Spectral Audio Processing to simple DSP to filter Design to effects such as Ring Modulation. And the DVD has tutorials about using C++ with either QT or Carbon to build GUIs for audio Apps, VST plug-ins, and even has a tutorial on designing an audio app for the iPhone. If you're a very advanced programmer with some signal processing background, you might find the DVD more valuable than the actual book itself.
A few warnings about this book though:
1) It is not, I repeat, NOT, for beginners. If you have just started learning C, or are switching over to C from a higher-level language that's not C++ or Objective-C, I HIGHLY recommend you read (or at least read the last half of) Kochan's "Programming in C" to get up to speed before you try to tackle this book. Chapter 1 claims to be an introduction to C , but having read through some of it to get a feel for the book's layout, I can tell you that if you do not have ample programming experience in C you will get very lost. Make especially sure that you have a thorough understanding of pointers and how they are used in all aspects of the language before diving into this book. But to be completely honest if you're a programming newbie why in the world would you want to start off learning SIGNAL PROCESSING, an advanced topic even for seasoned coders? Also, it might be important to note that you also have to have a solid understanding of sound and its basic principles, as well as some advanced composition knowledge (serial music, etc..) if you want to fully understand all the examples in the book.
2) This book is a bit dated. For a number of reasons. The first is that it is absolutely pre-C99. Variables aren't declared inside of loops anywhere (even where it would be more readable and more appropriate to do so). All of the comments have the /* text */ format, even the single-line comments. Furthermore, they tell you to install Gnuplot using Aquaterm, which has been deprecated since Snow Leopard was initially released (you have to now ./configure it using X11, google "Gnuplot in Snow Leopard" and click on the first link for a quick tutorial on how to do so). Finally, there is a whole Chapter dedicated to writing OpCodes for CSound. Now yes, CSound was invented at MIT and this book is published by the MIT Press, and yes, it is still a widely used program, however, my personal opinion is that this could have easily gone in the DVD section and been replaced with a section on writing GUIs, VSTs, Mobile Applications, or heck even programming external objects for MaxMSP (which to my knowledge is used more often than CSound nowadays).
All in all I absolutely love this book and will definitely keep it as a reference throughout my entire audio programming career; I just wish they would update it.
A few warnings about this book though:
1) It is not, I repeat, NOT, for beginners. If you have just started learning C, or are switching over to C from a higher-level language that's not C++ or Objective-C, I HIGHLY recommend you read (or at least read the last half of) Kochan's "Programming in C" to get up to speed before you try to tackle this book. Chapter 1 claims to be an introduction to C , but having read through some of it to get a feel for the book's layout, I can tell you that if you do not have ample programming experience in C you will get very lost. Make especially sure that you have a thorough understanding of pointers and how they are used in all aspects of the language before diving into this book. But to be completely honest if you're a programming newbie why in the world would you want to start off learning SIGNAL PROCESSING, an advanced topic even for seasoned coders? Also, it might be important to note that you also have to have a solid understanding of sound and its basic principles, as well as some advanced composition knowledge (serial music, etc..) if you want to fully understand all the examples in the book.
2) This book is a bit dated. For a number of reasons. The first is that it is absolutely pre-C99. Variables aren't declared inside of loops anywhere (even where it would be more readable and more appropriate to do so). All of the comments have the /* text */ format, even the single-line comments. Furthermore, they tell you to install Gnuplot using Aquaterm, which has been deprecated since Snow Leopard was initially released (you have to now ./configure it using X11, google "Gnuplot in Snow Leopard" and click on the first link for a quick tutorial on how to do so). Finally, there is a whole Chapter dedicated to writing OpCodes for CSound. Now yes, CSound was invented at MIT and this book is published by the MIT Press, and yes, it is still a widely used program, however, my personal opinion is that this could have easily gone in the DVD section and been replaced with a section on writing GUIs, VSTs, Mobile Applications, or heck even programming external objects for MaxMSP (which to my knowledge is used more often than CSound nowadays).
All in all I absolutely love this book and will definitely keep it as a reference throughout my entire audio programming career; I just wish they would update it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Oskar
Format:Hardcover
I really, really like this book. I'd been looking for a good introductory text on audio programming for a while when I found out this book was going to be released. It was an instant order.
I don't have a background in either C, engineering or mathematics. Still, I was able to get a whole lot out of the first couple of chapters from this book. There is a conceptual level of the topics that are transferable to other languages that I really appreciate. And more importantly, I got a great sense of what I need to get a grip on, other than the C language, to really grasp the topics on a deeper level.
Having said that, I did have issues with the code included. I don't know why one would, in an introductory text, not use sensible variable names? Using camel-case and full variable names would have made it a so much easier read. I constantly had to remind myself of abbreviations while simultaneously trying to grasp a concept, which needless to say isn't optimal. For instance; fpamp, bps_tick and brkampSize (note the odd camel case) is not a nice read. But hey, maybe this is the C way of doing things?
Also worth noting is that every chapter (with a few exceptions) are written by different authors and are not built upon each other. For instance, chapter 3 - "working with audio streams" references programs and concepts that has not been included in the text before reading that chapter (provided you read the book in a linear fashion). So one has to keep a "fuzzy logic" mindset.
I don't have a background in either C, engineering or mathematics. Still, I was able to get a whole lot out of the first couple of chapters from this book. There is a conceptual level of the topics that are transferable to other languages that I really appreciate. And more importantly, I got a great sense of what I need to get a grip on, other than the C language, to really grasp the topics on a deeper level.
Having said that, I did have issues with the code included. I don't know why one would, in an introductory text, not use sensible variable names? Using camel-case and full variable names would have made it a so much easier read. I constantly had to remind myself of abbreviations while simultaneously trying to grasp a concept, which needless to say isn't optimal. For instance; fpamp, bps_tick and brkampSize (note the odd camel case) is not a nice read. But hey, maybe this is the C way of doing things?
Also worth noting is that every chapter (with a few exceptions) are written by different authors and are not built upon each other. For instance, chapter 3 - "working with audio streams" references programs and concepts that has not been included in the text before reading that chapter (provided you read the book in a linear fashion). So one has to keep a "fuzzy logic" mindset.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Resource, needs better editing.
First and foremost this, book is a great resource for understanding how to program audio. It is area is the severely lacking in the computing world, so every little bit... Read more
Published 2 months ago by S Rosenbaum
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Useful
This was a gift for my son who is in college. He was thrilled with it and will put it to good use, I'm sure!
Shipping was expedient . . . Read more
Shipping was expedient . . . Read more
Published 4 months ago by Logsdon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very helpful book!
I've just reviewed Designing Audio Objects for Max/MSP and Pd and referenced this book so it's only fair I review this as well. Read more
Published 5 months ago by JDT
2.0 out of 5 stars
Needs proofreading
I've never read a published text that was so hastily proofread. There is missing punctuation all over the place (on one page I flipped to at random, there were errors in each of 4... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Ernie
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great resource
Go this book for an Audio programming class (duh) and have loved it! Can be a bit technical at times but, that's why you buy a textbook right?
Published 19 months ago by James G. Frierson
1.0 out of 5 stars
Programming CSound Opcodes? REALLY?
A book released 2010 that discusses the programming of csound opcodes? I laughed so hard I fell of my DINOSAUR.
Published on April 24, 2011 by Michael
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book!
This is a great book that I'd recommend to intermediate and hard-core coders. All the concepts are very clear and it provides TONS of tools to get the job done. Read more
Published on March 8, 2011 by Rafael Vega
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