ECE 402 - Electronic Music Synthesis

Summer 2009 | Fall 2009 | Spring 2010 | Summer 2010
Section Type Times Days Location Instructor
L DIS 0800 - 0920 T R   260 Everitt Lab  Lippold Haken

Web Page http://courses.ece.uiuc.edu/ece402/
Official Description Historical survey of electronic and computer music technology; parameters of musical expression and their codification; analysis and synthesis of fixed sound spectra; time-variant spectrum analysis/synthesis of musical sounds; algorithms for dynamic sound synthesis. Prerequisite: MUS 103, ECE 290, and ECE 410.
Hours 3 hours.
Subject Area Biomedical Imaging, Bioengineering, and Acoustics
Course Prerequisites Credit in MUS 103
Credit in ECE 290
Credit in ECE 410
Course Directors Lippold Haken
Description Historical survey of electronic and computer music technology; parameters of musical expression and their codification, analysis and synthesis of fixed sound spectra, time-variant spectrum analysis/synthesis of musical sound, algorithms for dynamic sound synthesis.
Credit 3 hours
Goals To provide a familiarity with current methods of electronic/computer music synthesis and their theory of operation and design. Emphasis is on systems concepts which are not likely to change with technology, and have application in Multimedia, Sonification, User Interface, and other fields.
Topics
  • Survey of Electronic Music Technology since 1900
  • Music Encoding and Generation
  • Sound Perception and Analysis
  • Subtractive Synthesis: Processing of Fixed Waveforms
  • Sampling Synthesis
  • Modulation Synthesis
  • Additive Synthesis
  • Additive Synthesis with Complex Basis Functions
  • Physical Models
  • Pitch Processing
  • Real-Time Performance Interfaces and Implementation
  • Simulated Environments
Computer Usage Weekly sound design lab provides hands-on experience designing, implementing, and testing real-time audio signal processing algorithms for computer music.
Course Prerequisites MUS 103, ECE 290 and ECE 410.
Topical Prerequisities
  • Music notation, elementary chord structures
  • Fourier series and transform
  • Introductory digital systems
  • Computer programming in a higher-level language
Texts Course Packet (journal articles and standards specifications)

Recommended Texts:
C. Scaletti, Kyma X Revealed, Symbolic Sound Corp., 2004.
ABET Category Engineering Science: 3 credits or 100%