The BYTE Book of Computer Music Paperback – December, 1980

"The Byte Book of Computer Music"
Edited by Christopher P. Morgan
Copyright 1979
ISBN: 0-07-043097-7

The book isn't what I expected when I first heard about the book . From the sound of the book I thought it was going to be about how to create digital music on a computer... but I wasn't taking into account when most of the articles in this book were written (1977). At that time you had to add boards to your computer (that you would make yourself) in order to get sound at all. The book is a sort of a time capsule. There are articles that explain how to hook up your computer to a pipe organ or explain the insides of a piano so that you can hook your computer up to it. Sure, if you did this is 1977 you had MUCH better sounding music than your computer peers, but at a GREAT, GREAT expense. There ARE digital projects as well. Overall, this book is pretty neat from a technical and historical standpoint, but I'm not sure how useful it actually is to a user today. If you're interested in COMPUTER HISTORY, then I recommend this book highly as it will give you a rare glimpse into an era that is long gone.

Description from the Back Cover of "The Byte Book of Computer Music"
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Would-be musicologists and fugue fanciers take note!

"The BYTE Book of Computer Music" combines the best computer music articles from past issues of BYTE Magazine with exciting new material-- all written for the computer experimenter interested in this fascinating field.

You will enjoy Hal Chamberlin's "A Sampling of Techniques for Computer Performance of Music," which shows how you can create four-part melodies on your computer. For the budget minded, "A $19 Music Interface" contains practical tutorial information-- and organ fans will enjoy reading "Electronic Organ Chips for Use in Computer Music Synthesis."

New material includes "Polyphony Made Easy" and "A Terrain Reader." The first describes a handy circuit that allows you to enter more than one note at a time into your computer from a musical keyboard. The "Terrain Reader" is a remarkable program that creates random music based on land terrain maps.

Other articles range from flights of fancy about the reproductive systems of pianos to Fast Fourier transform programs written in BASIC and 6800 machine language, multi-computer music systems, Walsh Functions, and much more.

For the first time, material difficult to obtain has been collected into one convenient, easy to read book. An ardent do-it-yourselfer or armchair musicologist will find this book to be a useful addition to the library.

Chapters 1-17
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1) SCORTOS: Implementation of a Music Language, By Hal Taylor (Byte, September 1977)

2) A Two Computer Music System, By Jeffrey H. Lederer, Tom Dwyer, and Margot Critchfield (Byte, March 1978)

3) The Microcomputer and the Pipe Organ, By Jef Raskin (Byte, March 1978)

4) Tune In with Some Chips, By Ted Sierad (Byte, September 1977)

5) A $19 Music Interface (And Some Music Theory for Computer Nuts), By Bill Struve (Byte, December 1977)

6) A Sampling of Techniques for Computer Performance of Music, By Hal Chamberlin (Byte, September 1977)

7) Walsh Functions: A Digital Fourier Series, By Benjamin Jacoby, Ph.D (Byte, September 1977)

8) Simple Approaches to Computer Music Synthesis, By Thomas G. Schneider (Byte, October 1977)

9) Notes on Anatomy: The Piano's Reproductive System, By Chris Morgan (Byte, September 1977)

10) Notes of Interfacing Pneumatic Player Pianos, By Carl Helmers (Byte, September 1977)

11) Electronic Organ Chips for Use in Computer Music Synthesis, By Robert Grappel

12) Fast Fourier Transforms on Your Home Computer, By William D. Stanley and Steven J. Peterson

13) Fast Fourier Transforms for the 6800, By Richard Lord

14) Polyphony Made Easy, By Steven K. Roberts (Byte, January 1979)

15) Music from the Altair 8800 Computer, By Loring C. White

16) Teach KIM to Sing, By Peter H. Myers

17) A Terrain Reader, By Richard Gold

Introduction
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Computer music means many things to many people, but to the personal computer experimenter it means creating music with the aid of a small computer system. The first experiments with computer music were conducted in the 1950's at Bell Labs and RCA. The expense of using the huge computers of the day meant that only a handful of people could benefit from the experiments, though.

The microcomputer revolution has changed all that. Armed with inexpensive personal computers, a new generation of music enthusiasts, would-be musicologists and fugue fanciers are sampling the delights of digital music synthesis.

"The BYTE Book of Computer Music" is designed to help you get the most out of your computer music experiments. The best articles from past issues of BYTE have been combined with new material, all geared to the computer experimenter.

Beginners to the field (as well as veterans) will enjoy Hal Chamberlin's "A Sampling of Techniques for Computer Performance of Music", which discusses the basics of polyphonic synthesis and gives you directions for playing four-part melodies on a KIM computer. Or perhaps you're interested in random composition-- if so, read Rich Gold's new "Terrain Reader", a remarkable program that composes music based on land terrain maps.

Other articles range from flights of fancy about the reproductive systems of pianos to a practical $19 music interface circuit. For the more adventuresome reader we offer two new fast Fourier transform programs written in BASIC and 6800 machine language. The fast Fourier transform is a useful tool for analyzing the harmonic content of music.

Also included is Steve Robert's "Polyphony Made Easy;" a handy circuit allows you to enter more than one note at a time into your computer from a musical keyboard.

The list goes on, but we'll let the material speak for itself. We hope this information, collected in one place for the first time, will be a useful addition to your music and computer libraries.