Customer Reviews

The Csound Book: Perspectives in Software Synthesis, Sound Design, Signal Processing,and Programming

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First, I have to admit I'm one of the contributors to the book. However, I'll make every effort to provide an unbiased review to help you decide if the book is for you.

For those who don't know, Csound is a software synthesizer written by Barry Vercoe in the 1980s that continues to be used by mostly university-based composers of electronic music and computer music. Lately, because today's ordinary personal computers are more powerful than the mainframes used by the pioneers of computer music and come with decent sound cards, and also due to the spread of software synthesis into popular music with techno and electronica, independent composers and even some more pop-based musicians are beginning to use Csound.

I find that the book is an enormously useful resource for computer musicians, even though the material is sometimes repetitive and is of uneven quality. With about 50 contributors, sometimes more than one person covers the same ground. Probably a sizeable chunk of the people seriously using Csound contributed to the book!

Csound is one of the most powerful software synthesizer in existence (it is unquestionably the most powerful one that costs nothing!), and that makes it one of the most powerful musical instruments in history. However, it's not a physical object but a computer program, and in fact it's not even a finished program, it's a programming language. So, it's hard to use Csound, and even harder to get started.

Not surprisingly, one of the main purposes of the Csound book is to explain how to program Csound. I find that the book does a pretty good job of this for beginners, and there is not much competition, so if you want to learn Csound, you need this book. However, the book is a collection of articles and does not present a seamless progression from easy to difficult, nor are all of the chapters of high quality, so if you're a beginner, you may find it hard to discern your path through the book. It may be that the biggest gap, as far as beginners are concerned, is not technical at all, but rather the lack of a clear explanation of where computer music fits into the larger world of music. I doubt that many pop musicians realize that digital audio, hard disk recording, software synthesis, and digital audio signal processing were all invented by academic computer music people! Nor do I think many people understand how the aesthetic attitude and compositional techniques arising from avant-garde electronic and computer music have come to permeate contemporary rap, techno, and film music. A brief introductory chapter on basic history would have been most welcome.

If you already have experience with Csound, or with other software synthesizers such as Reaktor or Buzz, or with analog synthesizers or virtual analog synthesizers such as the Nord Virus, then you may find the book quite useful because it explains the principles of digital signal processing and software sound synthesis very clearly with numerous examples and articles. Best of all, each example comes with a working Csound orchestra and score, and on the CD ROMs that accompany the book, there are sound examples that you can play right away to hear how the orchestras work. If you then start modifying the example orchestras and listening to the results, you are on your way to becoming a Csound composer.

In fact, I am sure the book would make an excellent textbook for a conservatory course in electronic music or computer music, because the CD ROMs contain the Csound program (which is freeware!) and other auxiliary programs, which in themselves are a rich resource, as well as the many examples and a variety of actual compositions created with Csound. Unfortunately, the compositions are not often up to the usually high standard of the technical material. This is a pity, because there are some wonderful pieces of music done, in whole or in part, using Csound. Sill, no other computer music textbook (and I have them all, as far as I know) has so many working examples of instruments all ready to run, or even has any real sample pieces at all. So if you're a composition or synthesis teacher, you need to check it out.

Finally, if you're a composer of electronic music or computer music, you cannot find anything this useful anywhere! The only comparison I can think of is the tracker resources on the Web, but they do not cover nearly as much ground. The vast library of sample instruments and compositions is a bleeping treasure trove waiting to be plundered. And thanks probably to the fact that the book's editor, Richard Boulanger, teaches at Berklee College where many jazzers and session players go, the examples are not limited to academic styles of music but also cross over into techno and pop. The CD ROM chapters, many of them by composers, discuss not only Csound, but also issues in music theory and composition that are relevant to computer music and indeed to music in general.

I suppose that since I was confused just by the description of this book on the back, I probably shouldn't have bought it. But I did. I have a limited background in computer music, and had heard all about Csound and how great it was, and wanted to give it a shot. I had the Csound Reference Manual, which was not helpful at all, so I thought a book like this would be good to buy.

I would like to warn people that if you are looking to learn computer music on your own, this is not the book to start with. To really be able to use the book, you need to be very familiar with how computer music works, and with the major sound synthesis methods. I should add, too, that if you don't know much about computer music in the first place, Csound probably isn't the best choice for a program to learn it on. I was hoping for an organized introduction to Csound that would take me step by step through learning it, and that is not what this book is. To me, as a beginner, it's just a bunch of scattered information. And the CD's are confusing, as well. I had a hard time just finding the files to use for the first tutorial. Several of the example instruments require sound files that aren't even included in the same folder as the instrument's score and orchestra files.

Overall, to me, the book is a confusing, overwhelming mish-most of information that I mostly don't understand. Unfortunately, I can't return it because I opened the CD. If you are an experienced computer musician with some experience in Csound, or if you have a teacher to help you, this book would be great as it is full of excellent resources. But it's NOT for the novice computer musician! I should have gone through it more carefully before blowing my $55, so don't make the same mistake I did!

While the price of the book is substantial, compare it to a college course in designing and manufacturing computer sounds... if there's one in your area. It must be said, CSOUND IS NOT AN EASY STUDY. I suspect that for most people, gaining fluency is a matter of YEARS, at least if you're not a dedicated sound hacker. But if you're determined and have some background in audio (if you don't... STOP HERE!), this book will help you to use Csound to make some interesting sounds quickly. The (literally) thousands of pre-designed instruments are ready to use... you only have to create the scores (or modify those provided). Creating scores is NOT a joy. Basically it means typing in long columns of numbers.... because every instrument "call" has to have n parameters sent to it. If that sounds like gobbledygook, you might want to pass on Csound for now. Would that there were a sophisticated tool to assist in the job. If it's here I haven't found it yet. My major nitpick with the book (which, if you're inclined, is full of intriguing concepts and tricks) is the disorganization of the CD-ROMs. Yeah it was a big job, and I guess nobody really wanted to tackle it properly. On the other hand, by creating your own organization, you'll more quickly grasp the scope of the wealth of material here. If you don't like technology and haven't the time to specify controls in detail, look elsewhere. Csound gives you the freedom to design sounds that have never been heard before... but you hafta be willing to part with some blood, sweat and tears.

This is a remarkable book, in that it covers an entire sub-community of computer music making that has until now been mostly ignored in print: the Csound community. Huge, diverse, and active, Csound represents the best of what the Net/hacker culture can achieve. But this diversity is both a strength and a problem: this book ranges from clever tutorial to deeply personal research... it will be the rare reader who finds all of this Omnibus volume to their liking. But most of the devoted hackers who use csound will find this odd collection of articles indispensable! The online Csound communitee is strong and greatly diverse, and this long awaited volume reflects that. I cannot recommend this volume too highly for the motivated musician/hacker interested in the state-of-the-art in digital synthesis.

Csound is probably the most powerful digital synthesizer software available. And it is essentially free. But writing code to produce music can feel like creating your own custom draw program from scratch to create a painting. There is no noodling with a keyboard or twisting knobs and listening to instant results. No, you create an .orc and a .sco file, one for the instruments and the other for the "notes"(though the language can be used to create filters and process sound). This gives you unlimited control, but you pay the price of programming headaches e.g. debugging, crashes, etc. There is also a very steep learning curve. Csound is a work in progress, though. Matt Ingalls's (and others) tireless work has made Csound easier to use, and has even updated it to Mac OS 10. He has also created an extension that allows Csound to interface with Max/MSP, perhaps simplifying the composers task. Nevertheless, Csound has a long legacy as a musicN language, and it has its roots in computer science.

If you are getting started in electronic or computer music and have little background in the field, this book may ultimately prove frustrating. Chapter one provides a perfect example. It opens with an .orc file and uses terms like control rate and sampling rate, but it isn't until much later that we find out what these things mean. Much of the first section is difficult to work through because of this approach. I think that the book would benefit from a rewrite, and I mean truly rewriting section one from scratch so the foundation is Basics of Synthesis. A section written like a "Dummies" book would be helpful for beginners like me, while the Csound mavens could simply flip to chapter X,Y, or Z and read at their level. Otherwise, the author should dispense with the basics and focus on making this a book for those already familiar with Csound. Obviously, the author/editor put tremendous effort into this book, so it seems a pity that it is kind of poorly organized. Finally, The Csound Book would benefit from careful spell checking (the author refers to GEN21 creating "Poison" distributions).

After having spent a year with the Csound book, I can make some recommendations for someone wanting to start electronic composition. You must read Curtis Roads's Computer Music Tutorial, probably the best electronic music book written. Don't let the dry title fool you, it is great reading. It will teach you the fundamentals and will serve as a reference if you decide to tackle Csound. Or, consider using Max/MSP instead of Csound. It isn't free, but it does have a graphical interface, yet it does not sacrifice flexibility. And you can now use Csound as a sort of "plug in" for Max/MSP. If you want to make popular music, Csound will probably only prove useful if your current software can't make a sound that you want.

As I said, Csound is a work in progress. A new book called "Virtual Sound" by Riccardo Bianchini and Alessandro Cipriani, reviewed in the Spring 2002 Computer Music Journal may be a better resource.

I've found that the Csound book provides more than just a way to learn Csound but rather a way to expand your knowledge in computer music as a whole. The basics of Csound are covered in chapter 1 of the book, which is what anyone who is new to csound should spend all of their time on until they understand how the language works. What I felt that the majority of the book and CDROM focused on were principles of computer musis such as synthesis, composition and performance, using Csound as the medium. It is much more than a "how to turn the knob" tutorial. I found this book to be a wonderful asset in that while learning about a particular topic, I can also render the sounds and modify each instrument at a minute level to gain a real understanding of how the principles work. If you are looking for a quick way to make analogy or other wierd sounds for the computer, this may not be the best choice, as Csound takes some time to learn. It took me quite a few weeks to get a grasp on what Csound was doing and how it works. The book does provide the easiest way to learn Csound, though Csound is by no means simple. It took me quite a few weeks to get a grasp on what Csound was doing and how it works, But once one starts to get a grasp on the language, the other chapters provide a lifetime of synthesis to explore.

This book is one of a relatively small number of texts that are essential for the library of the computer music practitioner. The book has two CD-ROMs full of several books worth of material. This book is not only a remarkable reservoir of information specific to the Csound compiler, it is also very useful as a general source concerning many aspects of computer music techniques and synthesis methods.
Many have lamented the terse documentation of the Csound manual since it does not provide sufficient examples of how the various opcodes and features of the language may be used by composers and researchers. The Csound Book succeeds brilliantly in filling the void. Even for the seasoned computer musician, the text provides numerous opportunities for "ah ha!" moments and spurs renewed creative responses to musical problems. Part of the reason for this lies in the abundant resources of the language itself and its continued development and refinement by members of the Csound community.
This is a great companion book, allowing the reader to explore practical applications of concepts such as Fourier synthesis, digital filter theory, chaotic systems, reverberation, and algorithmic composition. This is accomplished very elegantly and always with reference to direct experience with the aid of numerous examples of Csound code. The book serves an important function by providing concrete examples of myriad synthesis methods, digital signal processing techniques, and specialized applications within one conceptual framework.
This book is full of excellent graphics, uniform and well commented coding examples, illustrative instrument-design flowcharts, thorough indexing, appendices of various kinds, all of it extremely well edited. There is an impressive unity to the text even though different authors have written the various chapters.
There is a treasure trove of instruments and compositions contained on the CD-ROMs. Many of these are by established composers of computer music and by the authors of the various chapters. Others, however, are by students from around the world. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in computer music in general and Csound specifically.

A word of warning to electronic music newbies: Be sure to learn the fundamentals of synthesis and MIDI before venturing into the realm of Csound. This book assumes a level of knowledge regarding these subjects and will present an insurmountable challenge to someone with no programming experience. However, for those that do, it will present a whole new universe of possibilities.

As a composition tool, there is nothing quite as extensive or powerful as Csound, which is why there is an equally extensive learning curve for its students. I feel that this book is probably better suited as a text for a college course rather than a stand-alone guide for DIYers. But in its defense, I belong to the latter category and have fared pretty well in learning the language.

While I must criticize Mr. Boulanger for not giving thorough enough explanation to some critical topics in his book, overall--this is by and far the best resource for anyone attempting Csound. You will find the contents of the included CD-Roms to be an immense supplement to the book's chapters.

...this book will give you the grand tour of Csound, from theoretical and practical perspectives. It's a comprehensive discussion of computer music synthesis--with pictures of how the sounds may be created and lots of code samples.

Been working with this book for about a month, just looking at it once in a while. I've been really pleased so far with the clear explanations of some of the more recent aspects of Csound such as fof, granular synthesis using grain and granule, and phase coding like linear predictive encoding. From a theoretical standpoint such things as modeling early hardware synths and are discussed. Also, the section on optimizing instruments has begun to save me a lot of processing time and shown me a good look under the hood of Csound.

Csound is a command line synthesis program . It's freely available, and anyone unfamiliar with Csound and its cousins should get them first and play around. Csound is open source, but I think of it especially as being open architecture.

Many of the rock stars of Csound have written articles for this book. I swear these cats live in a world unique to them. My job is to learn from it and make it rock.

The two CDs are great--lots of supplemental information and opinion, as well as manuals and printable tables of reference. There's audio too.

First, I must say that I contributed to the CD-ROM included with the book, so my review is not unbiased. That said, I must also say that I find this book to be the definitive source of information for anyone wanting to learn about Csound. Yes, the writing can be technical, as is in the nature of the thing discussed, but the authors have everywhere endeavored to be clear and helpful. There's so much valuable material here, it's going to take me quite a while to get through it all. Btw, the CDs are organized into HTML docs on the one, Data/Apps on the other. And Csound itself is most definitely included: versions are available (on the Data/Apps CD) for DOS/Windows, DirectX, PPC, SGI, Linux, and ActiveX. All in all, a great companion to another MIT Press book, Curtis Roads' "Computer Music Tutorial".