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Csound is a computer programming language for dealing with sound. It is called Csound because it is written in the C programming language, as opposed to some of its predecessors. Csound was written at MIT by Barry Vercoe, based on an earlier language called Music360. It is free software, available under the LGPL.In a simple usage, the programmer supplies Csound with two specially formatted text files as input: the orchestra describing the nature of the instruments and the score describing notes and other parameters along a timeline. Csound then processes the instructions in these files and renders an audio file or real-time audio stream as output.
The orchestra and score files may be unified into a single structured file using XML tags. Here is a very simple example of a unified Csound data file which produces a wave file containing a one second sine wave tone of 1 kHz at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz:
;
csound -W -d -o tone.wav
sr = 44100
kr = 4410
ksmps = 10
nchnls = 1
instr 1
a1 oscil p4, p5, 1 ; simple oscillator
out a1
endin
f1 0 8192 10 1
i1 0 1 20000 1000 ;play one second of one kHz tone
e
A text editor and command line interfaceA command line interface or CLI is a method of interacting with a computer by giving it lines of textual commands (that is, a sequence of characters) either from keyboard input or from a script. It is occasionally also referred to as a CLUE for Command Li are all that are necessary to create even very sophisticated recordings with Csound. As with many other programming languages, writing long programs in Csound can be eased by using an integrated environment for editing, previewing, testing, and debuggingDebugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs in a computer program and/or a piece of electronic hardware to make it work better, or at all. The more/untidier connections there exist between various subsystems, the harder th. Such environments are available.
Csound is the underlying language for the Structured Audio extensions to MPEG-4MPEG-4 introduced in 1998, is the designation for a group of audio and video coding standards agreed upon by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). MPEG-4 is primarily designed to handle low bit rate content, from 4800 bit/s to approximately 4 Mbit/s. The p.
1 See also
- audio signal processingAudio signal processing sometimes referred to as audio processing is the processing of a representation of auditory signals, or sound. The representation can be digital or analog. An analog representation is usually electrical; a voltage level represents
- software synthesizerSoftware synthesizers A software synthesizer or virtual instrument is a computer program for digital audio generation. It works like a common synthesizer, but is realized entirely in software. A software synthesizer will typically respond to MIDI calls li
- computer musicComputer music is music generated with, or composed with the aid of, computers. Much of the work on computer music has drawn on the relationship between music theory and mathematics. See also: Max Mathews Electronic music Computer music programming langua
2 External link
- Official website contains FAQs, manuals, programming examples, other front end programs, and misc other goodies. The mailing list archive is also a good place to find detailed information.
- Project site at Sourceforge
Domain-specific programming languages
Audio programming languages
Free audio software
