New synths with unique features and layers of complexity are released frequently, with hundreds of different synths currently available in the marketplace. How do you know which ones to use and how do you get the most out of the ones you already own? The Musical Art of Synthesis presents synthesizer programming with a specific focus on synthesis as a musical tool. Through its innovative design, this title offers an applied approach by providing a breakdown of synthesis methods by type, the inclusion of step-by-step patch recipes, and extensive web-based media content including tutorials, demonstrations, and additional background information. Sam McGuire and Nathan van der Rest guide you to master synthesis and transcend the technical aspects as a musician and artist. Synths are presented using a multi-tiered system beginning with basic instructions for all common synth techniques. Historical information is included for each type of synth, which is designed to help you understand how each instrument relates to the bigger picture. Advanced level instruction focuses on modern implementations and on mobile devices, with special focus on performing and practical usage. The goal The Musical Art of Synthesis is to bring all of the different types of together in the same discussion and encourage you to see the similarities and differences that force you to gain a better overall understanding of the synthesis process. Key features of this title: • This book will teach you how to put synthesizers to use with easy-to-use synth patch recipes • Using a unique, multi-tiered approach applicable to the level of equipment in use, this publication introduces concepts that apply to a wide range of hardware/software synthesizers. • A robust companion website, featuring video demonstrations by synthesizer experts, further supports the book: www.focalpress.com/cw/mcguire

New synths with unique features and layers of complexity are released frequently, with hundreds of different synths currently available in the marketplace. How do you know which ones to use and how do you get the most out of the ones you already own? The Musical Art of Synthesis presents synthesizer programming with a specific focus on synthesis as a musical tool. Through its innovative design, this title offers an applied approach by providing a breakdown of synthesis methods by type, the inclusion of step-by-step patch recipes, and extensive web-based media content including tutorials, demonstrations, and additional background information. Sam McGuire and Nathan van der Rest guide you to master synthesis and transcend the technical aspects as a musician and artist. Synths are presented using a multi-tiered system beginning with basic instructions for all common synth techniques. Historical information is included for each type of synth, which is designed to help you understand how each instrument relates to the bigger picture. Advanced level instruction focuses on modern implementations and on mobile devices, with special focus on performing and practical usage. The goal The Musical Art of Synthesis is to bring all of the different types of together in the same discussion and encourage you to see the similarities and differences that force you to gain a better overall understanding of the synthesis process. Key features of this title: * This book will teach you how to put synthesizers to use with easy-to-use synth patch recipes * Using a unique, multi-tiered approach applicable to the level of equipment in use, this publication introduces concepts that apply to a wide range of hardware/software synthesizers. * A robust companion website, featuring video demonstrations by synthesizer experts, further supports the book: www.focalpress.com/cw/mcguire

An anthology of pioneer sound artist Mark Fell's work charting his defiantly unorthodox thinking on time, structure, technology, and the relation between academic and popular electronic music. In this extensive anthology, Mark Fell, a pioneering artist known for his sound installations and his musical work solo and as part of SND and Sensate Focus, assembles a collection of diverse materials charting his defiantly unorthodox thinking on time, structure, technology, and the relation between academic and popular electronic music. An amalgam of workbook and manifesto, featuring a collection of interleaved statements, diagrammatic scores, and instructional texts, Structure and Synthesis is a direct engagement with Fell's original thinking and his continual provocations in regard to "experimental" music. Alongside reflections on theory and practice, the volume includes exercises for dismantling musical expertise, habits, and intuitions, documenting Fell's explorations of the peripheries of rhythm, shape, and time in perception and performance. Long-term collaborator designer Joe Gilmore provides a striking graphic context for Fell's evolving thinking and the methods and structures he has developed through his solo and collaborative work.

Virtual Music is about artificial creativity. Focusing on the author's Experiments in Musical Intelligence computer music composing program, the author and a distinguished group of experts discuss many of the issues surrounding the program, including artificial intelligence, music cognition, and aesthetics. The book is divided into four parts. The first part provides a historical background to Experiments in Musical Intelligence, including examples of historical antecedents, followed by an overview of the program by Douglas Hofstadter. The second part follows the composition of an Experiments in Musical Intelligence work, from the creation of a database to the completion of a new work in the style of Mozart. It includes, in sophisticated lay terms, relatively detailed explanations of how each step in the process contributes to the final composition. The third part consists of perspectives and analyses by Jonathan Berger, Daniel Dennett, Bernard Greenberg, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Steve Larson, and Eleanor Selfridge-Field. The fourth part presents the author's responses to these commentaries, as well as his thoughts on the implications of artificial creativity. The book (and corresponding Web site) includes an appendix providing extended musical examples referred to and discussed in the book, including composers such as Scarlatti, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Debussy, Bartok, and others. It is also accompanied by a CD containing performances of the music in the text.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1912 Edition.

An accessible scientific explanation for the traditional rules of voice leading, including an account of why listeners find some musical textures more pleasing than others. Voice leading is the musical art of combining sounds over time. In this book, David Huron offers an accessible account of the cognitive and perceptual foundations for this practice. Drawing on decades of scientific research, including his own award-winning work, Huron offers explanations for many practices and phenomena, including the perceptual dominance of the highest voice, chordal-tone doubling, direct octaves, embellishing tones, and the musical feeling of sounds “leading” somewhere. Huron shows how traditional rules of voice leading align almost perfectly with modern scientific accounts of auditory perception. He also reviews pertinent research establishing the role of learning and enculturation in auditory and musical perception. Voice leading has long been taught with reference to Baroque chorale-style part-writing, yet there exist many more musical styles and practices. The traditional emphasis on Baroque part-writing understandably leaves many musicians wondering why they are taught such an archaic and narrow practice in an age of stylistic diversity. Huron explains how and why Baroque voice leading continues to warrant its central pedagogical status. Expanding beyond choral-style writing, Huron shows how established perceptual principles can be used to compose, analyze, and critically understand any kind of acoustical texture from tune-and-accompaniment songs and symphonic orchestration to jazz combo arranging and abstract electroacoustic music. Finally, he offers a psychological explanation for why certain kinds of musical textures are more likely to be experienced by listeners as pleasing.

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