University of York Music Technology Group

Music Technology Group

Departments of Music and Electronics

MA/MSc and Diploma in MUSIC TECHNOLOGY

Course Unit Outlines

Please note:

Students will need to purchase an Iomega Jaz cartridge for backup purposes, prior to the start of the course. You will also need to purchase several 120 Minute DAT tapes to store your own sounds on as well as for submitting assignments

Unit 1: Electroacoustic Music

Aims

To provide an insight into compositional processes and tools of electroacoustic composition through practical experience.

Content

This module covers the following aesthetic and practical issues:

Assessment:

An electroacoustic composition, based on sounds recorded from the environment.

Preliminary Listening:

Please note that it is strongly suggested that you make every effort to listen to and study at least some of these pieces before starting the course.

Preliminary Reading:

Unit 2: 'An Introduction to Musical Computing'

Aims and Objectives

To introduce approaches to the musical application of technology and to develop an understanding of the processes and methods used for creative music making with computers.

The course will consider:
The potential of computer technology.
Parametric thinking.
How computers can be used for music making applications.
Different applications of technology:
Synthesisers, sequencers, samplers, recording technology, computer-specific applications, etc. etc.
Twentieth century musical thoughts and ideas
Electroacoustic music

Assessment

The composition of a short electroacoustic piece applying computer technology to manipulate and develop musical material from recorded sound sources.

Unit 3: 'Musical Applications of the C Programming Language'.

This unit is taught throughout the first term. The fundamentals of programming will be taught as well as the specifics of the 'C' Programming language. Musical illustrations, applications and exercises will be given at each stage of the course.

Topics include:

Introduction:
Using the Computer Systems at York.
Fundamental concepts of programming [ sequence / iteration / choice / procedures ]
Editing, Compiling, Linking and running a simple program.
C Language: Concepts, Syntax & Use
main(), #include, and function calls.
The 'int' type and the concept of variables.
The 'while' loop:The 'for' loop.
Comments.
The 'if' statement / Equalities / the if-else construct.
Variable types (char / int / short / long / float) .
Scope of variables [ global / local ]
'printf' and 'scanf'- organising input and output.
Arrays and strings; Multi-Dimensional arrays.
Logical operators and increment abbreviations (++ / --)
Addresses and their meaning.
Function details [ declaration and function bodies; return values]
Pointers; Arrays of pointers; Structures; Arrays of structures.
Other Topics:
Binary and Hexadecimal.
Recommended program layout and style.
De-bugging strategies.
Software Interfacing to MIDI
Generating music using computer algorithms.
Critical listening to computer-generated musical output.
Introduction to the University of York's Musical Instrument Digital Array Signal processing system (MIDAS)
The MIDAS Programming Library and its use in audio/graphical processing and control.
Unit Generators and their function in Musical Programming environments.

Unit 4: 'Microprocessors'.

The Unit will include the following topics:

Introduction to digital logic.
Microprocessor fundamentals:
architecture; bits; bytes; machine-code; assembler and high-level languages.
Interfacing and high-level languages. (The programming language 'C' will be used for Lab. work.):
Parallel interfaces (polled and interrupt driven); Analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue conversion.
User ports; serial ports; other LSI interface devices.
Brief treatment of serial communications protocols - the MIDI interface as a case study.
The compilation process:
preprocessor parsing, code generation; linking and loading;
The role and structure of Libraries; incorporating device drivers into libraries.

Unit 5: 'MIDI'.

This unit studies major aspects of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface.

Topics will include:

Unit 6: 'Signal Processing'.

This course unit will cover the following topics

Unit 7: 'Acoustics'.

This unit introduces basic acoustic principles and applies them to:
(a) sound production in the main classes of musical instruments; and
(b) the acoustics of enclosed spaces.

The following topics are covered:

Basic Acoustics:
basic definitions; characteristics and propagation of a sound wave; reflection, refraction, diffraction and interference; resonance; bandwidth and damping; inverse square law; pitch vs. frequency; waveforms and spectra.
Acoustics of musical instruments:
open and closed pipes; flue and reed action in organ pipes; acoustic synthesis with a pipe organ; plucked and bowed strings; percussion instruments; the piano; woodwind and brass instruments; the professional singing voice and the effects of singing training.
Acoustics of enclosed spaces:
standing waves; calculation of room modes; comb filtering; absorption; diffusion; reverberation time; reverberant field; critical frequency; the design of a room with a 'well balanced and pleasing acoustic'.

Unit 8: 'Psychoacoustics'.

This unit introduces the human hearing system and considers perceptual correlates of sound using musical examples wherever possible.

Topics covered include:

The Hearing System:
the anatomy and function of the outer, middle and inner ears (conductive - sensorineural - central); measurement of hearing ability (detection and discrimination), acoustic reflex, critical bands, threshold of hearing, masking.
Loudness, pitch and timbre:
musical dynamics and intensity; bandwidth, spectrum, masking, temporal integration and loudness; jnd's for pitch and loudness, effect of loudness and duration on pitch; mel and Bark scale; Seebeck's experiments; Ohm's law; residue pitch; place and temporal theories of pitch perception and their limitations; repetition pitch; acoustic cues in music; tristimulus diagrams; long-term average spectra; 3-D displays and their usefulness; multidimensional scaling; binaural effects (directionality, lateralization, intelligibility - binaural masking); acoustic cues in speech; categorical perception; major/minor labelling - learning and categorical perception.
Superposition of tones:
log frequency scale and the musical stave; combination tones; consonance; dissonance; consonance and composition; musical intervals; pitch perception of multiple complex tones; temperament and tuning systems .
Auditory illusions:
Deutsch scale illusion; grouping effects streaming; chroma and pitch height; Shepherd tones; Illustrations of psychoacoustic effects.

Unit 9: Advanced Electroacoustic Techniques

Unit 10: 'Studio Recording'.

This unit consists of roughly equal parts of theory and practice.

The theoretical studies will cover;

Topics covered in the practical work will include:

Students will be assessed on a short recording to professional standards, which will normally include a demonstration of live sound recording, processing and editing, together with a report covering the techniques used and the reasons for using them. The precise details may differ from year to year.

Unit 11 : Multiple Media Techniques

Term 3 Group Projects

In the first three or four weeks of the Summer term, students embark upon a group project based on a Software Engineering exercise. Each student is assessed individually and the mark is worth the same as one course unit from terms 1 or 2.

Software Engineering Project

The issue of control of large software projects is addressed through the undertaking of a software engineering group project. Students work in groups of about eight to tackle a large software task which is beyond the resource of any one individual. The issues to be addressed include the design issues identified during the lectures (outlined below), but also involve the problems of group management of the interaction between individuals. The whole project is based on the processes of Quality Assurance (QA) schemes within software implementation, and the assessment of the way in which these QA processes are applied forms an important part of the project. The use of the UNIX facilities SCCS and MAKE form an integral part of the process. All students, MA and MSc, are expected to play a full role in the Group Project, individual tasks being set by the students in the group according to need, bearing in mind each individuals abilities.

The course lectures address the problem of proceeding in an orderly manner from problem conception; through to a design solution in the form of a structured 'pseudo-code', which can be readily implemented in an appropriate programming language, typically 'C', or structured assembler. The course also includes a discussion of the phases of the software life-cycle, highlighting those critical issues which are significant in the production of large software systems.

Content:

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If you have any suggestions, comments or requests you can reach me at dgm2@york.ac.uk .

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Last updated on 17th December 1997
©Music Technology Group, University of York 1996