The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music [Hardcover]

Miller Puckette (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 2007 | ISBN-10: 9812700773 | ISBN-13: 978-9812700773

This is the first book to develop both the theory and the practice of synthesizing musical sounds using computers. Each chapter starts with a theoretical description of one technique or problem area and ends with a series of working examples (over 100 in all), covering a wide range of applications. A unifying approach is taken throughout; chapter two, for example, treats both sampling and wavetable synthesis as special cases of one underlying technique. Although the theory is presented quantitatively, the mathematics used goes no further than trigonometry and complex numbers. The examples and supported software along with a machine-readable version of the text are available on the web and maintained by a large online community. The Theory and Techniques of Electronic Music is valuable both as a textbook and as professional reading for electronic musicians and computer music researchers.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company (May 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9812700773
• ISBN-13: 978-9812700773
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 6 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #604,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for exploring the junction of programming, math, and music, August 8, 2009

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music (Hardcover)

This is a book about using a computer to record, process, create, and analyze audio signals, and in particular, musical signals. It is one of several books that discuss this subject, but I find it to be more mathematically accessible than some of the other books on the same topic such as the series on Musimathics that came out a couple of years ago. It is quite hands on, and to get the most out of it you really need to work through the various examples and exercises. The book is expensive but worth it. You'll seldom see it marked down because of its clarity and usefulness.

To get the most from this book the reader should be competent in mathematics through algebra and trigonometry. Using math no more complicated than this the author manages to explain electronic music concepts that involve Bessel functions, Chebyshev polynomials and Fourier analysis. You don't need to understand written music notation, although the author does use the tempered scale and the A-B-C naming convention for pitch. It is also assumed you understand the language of musical acoustics. Here I mean simple terms such as sinusoids, amplitude, frequency, and the overtone series.

Every chapter begins with a theoretical discussionof a particular topic. This is followed by examples in PureData (the author's own open source programming language) and many clear illustrations. As the other reviewer mentioned, you could buy this book for the examples alone if you are already familiar with the theory.

The author has graciously provided a copy of his book online so that you can sample it in its entirety. Just type the book's title into google and you should easily find it. Like the author of "The Scientist and Engineer's Guide to DSP", the author of this book knows that if you find the book useful you'll want to buy a bound copy for yourself since it is the type you'll want to write on in the margins. Highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book but Not for Beginners!, April 20, 2009

By 

M. Carroll - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music (Hardcover)

This is an awesome book for those who have taken acoustics and computer music classes. I had the author (Miller Puckett)for an acoustics class at UCSD, and he's a true genius in every form of the word. But like I said this is not for a beginner. Puckett goes heavily into the theory and math, and uses his own free app called PureData for the technique. If you're interested in learning PureData (or Max/MSP) and have a Comp Music background, buy this book for the examples.