Microsound [Hardcover]

Curtis Roads (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262182157 | ISBN-13: 978-0262182157 | Publication Date: March 1, 2002 | Edition: 1st

Below the level of the musical note lies the realm of microsound, of sound particles lasting less than one-tenth of a second. Recent technological advances allow us to probe and manipulate these pinpoints of sound, dissolving the traditional building blocks of music -- notes and their intervals -- into a more fluid and supple medium. The sensations of point, pulse (series of points), line (tone), and surface (texture) emerge as particle density increases. Sounds coalesce, evaporate, and mutate into other sounds.Composers have used theories of microsound in computer music since the 1950s. Distinguished practitioners include Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. Today, with the increased interest in computer and electronic music, many young composers and software synthesis developers are exploring its advantages. Covering all aspects of composition with sound particles, Microsound offers composition theory, historical accounts, technical overviews, acoustical experiments, descriptions of musical works, and aesthetic reflections. The book is accompanied by an audio CD of examples.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The best survey to date of real-time machine techniques for musical composition, performance, and improvisation."--Miller Puckette, Professor, Department of Music, University of California San Diego

" Microsound is packed with insight and stimulating ideas." Douglas Geers Electronic Musician

"Microsound offers an enticing series of slice 'n' dice audio recipes from one of the pioneering researchers into the amazingly rich world of granular synthesis. I can't wait to try these at home."--David Zicarelli, founder and president, Cycling '74

"Roads has assembled a thorough survey of software and techniques for granular synthesis, and provides a useful discussion of related musical practices and aesthetic implications that arise."--Miller Puckette, Professor, Department of Music, University of California San Diego

About the Author

JANE PHILBRICK is a digital artist working with language. Her work wasmost recently on view in "Ameri©an Dre@am" at Ronald Feldman FineArt, New York.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 423 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1st edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262182157
• ISBN-13: 978-0262182157
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,536,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Curtis Roads (b. 1951) holds a joint appointment as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Media Arts and Technology (MAT) and in Music at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he is also Associate Director of the Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology (CREATE). He studied music composition and computer programming at California Institute of the Arts, the University of California, San Diego (BA Summa Cum Laude with Highest Departmental Honors), and the University of Paris VIII (PhD Très honorable avec félicitations). From 1980 to 1986 he was a researcher in computer music at the MIT Media Laboratory. He then taught at the Federico II University of Naples, Harvard University, Oberlin Conservatory, CCMIX (Paris), and the University of Paris 8. He has led masterclasses at the Australian National Conservatory (Melbourne), Prometeo Laboratorio (Parma), Ionian University (Corfu), Goethe Institute (Rome), Kunitachi College of Music (Tokyo), Royal Conservatory (Aarhus), Catholic University (Porto), and the Zürich University of the Arts, among others. He is co-organizer of international workshops on musical signal processing in Sorrento, Capri, and Santa Barbara (1988, 1991, 1997, 2000). He served on the composition juries of the Ars Electronica (Linz) and the International Electroacoustic Music Competition (Bourges, France). Certain of his compositions feature granular and pulsar synthesis, methods he developed for generating sound from acoustical particles. A cofounder of the International Computer Music Association in 1979, he was Editor of Computer Music Journal (The MIT Press) from 1978 to 1989, and Associate Editor 1990-2000. His books include Foundations of Computer Music (1985, The MIT Press), Composers and the Computer (1985, AR Editions), The Music Machine (1989, The MIT Press), Representations of Musical Signals (1991, The MIT Press), The Computer Music Tutorial (1996, The MIT Press), Musical Signal Processing (co-editor, 1997, Routledge), L'audionumerique (1998, Dunod), The Computer Music Tutorial - Japanese edition (2000, Denki Daigaku Shuppan) and Microsound (2002, The MIT Press), which explores the aesthetics and techniques of composition with sound particles. A revised edition of L'audionumerique was published in 2007. A Chinese version of The Computer Music Tutorial is scheduled for publication in 2010 as a national textbook. His music is available on compact discs produced by Asphodel, MODE, OR, the MIT Media Laboratory, and Wergo. His composition Clang-Tint (1994) was commissioned by the Japan Ministry of Culture (Bunka-cho). His electronic music collection POINT LINE CLOUD won the Award of Distinction at the 2002 Ars Electronica and was released as a CD + DVD on the Asphodel label (San Francisco) in 2005. In 2007 he received a National Science Foundation grant for research in algorithms for sound analysis (dictionary-based pursuit). He is currently completing a new book Composing Electronic Music: A New Aesthetic for Oxford University Press, a revised edition of The Computer Music Tutorial for The MIT Press, and a new set of electronic music entitled FLICKER TONE PULSE.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive guide to granular synthesis, March 24, 2006

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calvinnme - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Microsound (Paperback)

Many people today seem to be obsessed with recreating 'classic' sounds, whether it's Minimoogs, TB303s or even traditional orchestral instruments. So it's refreshing to find that there are still people out there intent on pushing the boundaries of synthesis further and creating new sounds. Curtis Roads has done more than most in this field, and this book on granular synthesis that he has authored is a fairly comprehensive guide to the subject.
Roads' involvement with granular synthesis began in 1972, and his research in the field has resulted in him eventually developing his own software. Granular synthesis deals with sound at a 'quantum' level: the sonic atom being the individual sample (any one of the 44100 taken in a second at the standard sampling rate). To be audible as anything other than a click, samples need to be grouped together to form grains of sound. These grains are typically anywhere between three and one hundred milliseconds in length. Granular synthesis is concerned with the organization and processing of both samples and grains to create sounds that are often far beyond the range of more traditional methods of synthesis.
The technology and software required to manipulate sound at this level is now commonly available. Popular programs like Chaosynth and Max/MSP offer in-depth granular facilities, and Roads' own programs, Pulsar Generator and Cloud Generator, are, as you might expect, specifically designed for this sort of application. Although this technology has made it possible, granular synthesis remains a complex process. Microsound is perhaps the best theoretical and practical guide to date, its 409 pages concisely and fluently written throughout. The first chapters outline basic time scales in musical structure and the history and theory of microsound. Chapters three to six deal with the theory and practice of granular synthesis, examining everything from the organisation and processing of grains to the implementation of micro-scale transformations. The later chapters explore the implications and aesthetics of composing with microsound. The book concludes with a brief chapter about the future of granular synthesis. If there is any fault with this book, it is that it may be rather academic in tone for some readers - it is not a 'how to' book. However, if you are seriously interested in exploring granular synthesis, and understanding the principles behind it, then this book is ideal.
For those readers who would like to get their hands dirty themselves and try programming granular synthesis compositions, you might want to look up Jass and jMusic on the web. Jass is a unit generator based audio synthesis programming environment written in pure Java. Jass requires Java 1.5. jMusic is a freeware API that supports both real-time and non-real-time granular synthesis. jMusic has extensive tutorials and example programs available online.
I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents for this book, so I do that here:
Introduction **
Acknowledgments ix
Overview **
1. Time Scales of Music **
2. The History of Microsound from Antiquity to the Analog Era 43
3. Granular Synthesis 85
4. Varieties of Particle Synthesis 119
5. Transformation of Microsound 179
6. Windowed Analysis and Transformation 235
7. Microsound in Composition 301
8. Aesthetics of Composing with Microsound 325
9. Conclusion 349
References 353
Appendix A: The Cloud Generator Program 383
Appendix B: Sound Examples on the CD 389
NOTE: Sections marked by "**" have sample chapters available at the book's website at MIT Press.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Microsound - the ultimate guide in granular synthesis., January 25, 2005

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Tim Opie (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsound (Hardcover)

Curtis Roads has been working with Granular Synthesis since 1972, following the work of Iannis Xenakis and Dennis Gabor. His decades of research and computer programs in this field have educated and inspired all electronic musicians who work within the particle synthesis field. My first introduction to Granular synthesis was Roads' article from a 1978 issue of the Computer Music Journal entitled 'Automated Granular Synthesis of Sound'.

Microsound marks a milestone in granular synthesis and contains a huge amount of information, relating to it and other forms of particle synthesis, some of which were a direct result of Roads' own research (eg glisson synthesis). The book contains a full history of particle synthesis going back to the early philosophies aroused by the debate of whether sound is a particle or wave, right through to his own recent experiments and instruments. It gives full details on how to work with granular synthesis and also contains a CD full of examples, including some very historically significant pieces of music.

The writing style is easy to follow, including a few humourous anecdotes - well I found them humourous, Roads probably found them frustrating at the time, although I am sure he smiles about it now :)

There are a couple of minor quoting errors, but they do not misconstrue the meaning and are not noticeable unless you are going through the book with a fine tooth comb (like I did).

For anyone interested in working with sound at a low (microsound) level, this is a MUST READ book!

To any reviewers who do not understand all of the terms used, perhaps you should re-read Microsound and also any literature written on this topic in the last 30 years.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Microsound, September 9, 2005

By 

Dr. Sylvia Pengilly (Atascadero, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsound (Paperback)

A really excellent book. It is highly scholarly, yet easy to understand. He articulates concepts I have thought about for years, but was never able to express adequately. Roads has a talent for organizing very complex material within a perspective-oriented framework making the macro concept very easy to grasp.

It would be extremely helpful to all serious composers of electronic/computer music.