The computer music tutorial
by Curtis Roads · first published 1995
61% recommend39% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Language-agnostic overview of computer music covering synthesis, digital audio and DSP concepts; technical yet accessible, a useful companion to whatever tools you use, and good for browsing for inspiration.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
This text provides a step-by-step introduction to the entire field of computer music techniques. Written for nontechnical as well as technical readers, it uses hundreds of charts, diagrams, screen images, and photographs as well as clear explanations to present basic concepts and terms.
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I've found this http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Music-Tutorial-Curtis-Roads/d... book to be an excellent tour of the standard concepts and techniques of computer music (not just synthesis). It is both technical and accessible. Makes an excellent companion to whatever…
on “Recreating the THX Deep Note - EarSlap” ↗…you to get started with Max/MSP and YouTube videos that already show you how to make the mini-synth you're after (terrible as a programming environment but great as a learning/prototyping tool). The Computer Music Tutorial by Curtis Roads is a good companion here if you want inner workings. You might be able to snag a PDF copy online to see if it's for you. Audio Programming Book is entirely in C and can be a bit of a…
on “Ask HN: How to get started with audio programming?” ↗If you do, I highly recommend The Computer Music Tutorial[0]. It's an older book but provides an excellent overview of how digital audio works. [0] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262680823
on “Installing VLC Media Player voids your speaker warranty” ↗A good book that provides a quite detailed overview of some physical modeling algorithms (and tons of other synthesis algorithms) is The Computer Music Tutorial by C. Roads. With regards to Karplus-Strong for example, it provided an in-depth enough explanation of the algorithm for for me to base an implementation solely on it. There is another description of…
on “Show HN: Karplus-Strong Guitar Synthesizer in JavaScript” ↗…Conference (open access) https://quod.lib.umich.edu/i/icmc/ Andy Farnell, "Designing Sound" A standard introductory DSP textbook such as Ifeachor and Jervis, Orfanidis, Oppenheim and Schafer. "The Computer Music Tutorial" and "Microsound" by Curtis Roads Audio Anecdotes book series "Music, Cognition and Computerised Sound", edited by Perry Cook what am I missing?
on “The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music (2006)” ↗This appears to be mercifully shorter and less intimidating than the must-have bible, "Curtis Roads. The Computer Music Tutorial. MIT Press, Cambs, MA, 1996". It says it was originally published by Wiley in 2009, and the rights reverted to the author in 2025, whereupon the author released it on the net for free.
on “Introduction to Computer Music [pdf]” ↗…mumbo-jumbo other commenters are using freely in their comments: https://www.musictheory.net/lessons If you want to learn why your flute's FFT visualization has multiple bumps, get a copy of Curtis Roads' Computer Music Tutorial from the local library If you want to learn to play an instrument, hire a teacher!
on “Show HN: Teach your kids absolute (perfect) pitch” ↗Shame that The Computer Music Tutorial isn't offered here. I reccomend it to anybody looking for a massive, language-agnostic overview of computer music. It doesn't really offer step by step recipies, but you can flip to a random page, read…
on “Humble Book Bundle: Computer Music by MIT Press” ↗Yeah, the classics are evergreen. Beyond Roads' Computer Music Tutorial, his Microsound is also a classic of the genre and IMO one of the best treatments I've seen of time-based artforms, situating compositional practice in between the Planck time as the lower bound and the…
on “Electronic Music: Allen Strange's Classic Book Reissued” ↗>Boulanger - "The Csound Book" Probably the gold standard for such books, wish all the audio DSLs had a book of such quality. Between it and The Computer Music Tutorial Csound is ahead of the rest when it comes to books. Edit: Was thinking The Computer Music Tutorial was filled with Csound examples but on second thought I don't think it actually is. Been awhile since…
on “The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music (2006)” ↗Another fine text on this subject I can recommend (at a somewhat higher level, and not provided for free) is The Computer Music Tutorial: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262044912/the-computer-music-tu... I suggest having some kind of sequencer and synthesizers (one subtractive, one FM) available to play with while reading. Free VSTs in…
on “Introduction to Computer Music” ↗…accomplished programmer but still comfortable with programming. There are a great many other DSLs but these three have been around the longest and are well established so a very good place to get started. The Computer Music Tutorial is a great book and the best geberal reference for these languages going over all the techniques in a generic way applicable to most of these DSLs. For the non-programmer who does not want to get into…
on “Ask HN: How to get started in electronic music” ↗Another (much more expensive) "standard" reference for synthesis algorithms is Curtis Roads' "The Computer Music Tutorial" http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Music-Tutorial-Technology/dp/...
on “The Synthesizer Academy” ↗Curtis Roads, in the latest edition of Computer Music Tutorial: > A new industry has emerged around AI services for creating generic popular music [...] This is the latest incarnation of a trend that started in the 1920s called Muzak, to provide licensed background…
on “Spotify: Droppin' Some Fake Beats” ↗…synthesis techniques - most notably granular synthesis and physical modeling! To be fair, no single book would be able to cover the entire spectrum of electronic sound synthesis. The second edition of "The Computer Music Tutorial" by Curtis Roads (https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262044912/the-computer-music-tu...) comes close, but it is a massive book with over 1200 pages and took literally decades to write. (The second edition has…
on “The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music (2006)” ↗