: not just a program, a programming language! similar syntax to C (and
: therefore to Java or Perl)
Oh, but if it were! Csound uses an arcane syntax which descends from
assembler languages, not block-structured languages like C and friends.
Loops have to be tediously constructed from goto's. There are no arrays.
The type of a variable is determined by its first letter, like early
FORTRAN. And the note list format was originally derived from punch cards!
In short, it's horrible. But it's better than anything else out there
if you want the most powerful and flexible software synthesis system
around. Expect a steep learning curve. And it helps a lot if you
know a programming or scripting language to relieve the tedium of
creating the numeric score. Basic math skills are essential, with
knowledge of DSP or acoustics a definite plus.
The good thing is that there are a lot of folks out there who have come
up with methods and tools for using Csound (including somewhat limited
graphic interfaces), and who probably have already coded tools or
instruments that do something close to what you want. Acquire and
tweak until it does what you want or sounds right to you.
Aside from the Csound Front Page, which focuses on Prof. Richard Boulanger's
(of Berklee Music School) book "The Csound Book":
http://www-mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/csound/frontpage.html
there is Csounds, Boulanger's on-line project:
http://www.csounds.com
and Robin Whittle's introduction to Csound:
http://www.firstpr.com.au/csound/
and for Linux folks, there is Dave Phillips' page (though there are also
some good general (non-Linux-specific) info and links):
http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/linux_csound.html
and for the software itself, John ffitch's Official release site:
ftp://ftp.maths.bath.ac.uk/pub/dream/
Chasing links from these places will turn up all sorts of other stuff.
Finally, here is an emailing list you can subscribe to through:
csound-subscribe@lists.bath.ac.uk
Csound is the Mountain That Must Be Climbed for some, and something best
avoided by others. It's very powerful (and free), but the fact that it
isn't more widely used is in some ways related to the difficulty of using
it, and probably also has to do with its origin in academia (which costs
it coolness points for many).
-Ed
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