MAT 275: Music Systems Programming in SuperCollider

UCSB, Fall quarter, 2003

Overview

This course will introduce the use of the SuperCollider programming language for music and sound applications. This year, we will use both SuperCollider version 3 running on Mac OS X and SuperCollider version
2 running on Mac OS 9.

We will present the basics of the language and give extensive examples of sound synthesis, composition techniques, and facilities for building interactive applications with SuperCollider.

Students are expected to know the fundamental concepts of digital audio and the basics of sound synthesis. Some programming experience (e.g., csound, Java, C, etc.) is also a plus. The course will meet once a week for a 3-hour session and there will be homework assignments and several quizes. Students are also expected to prepare final projects for the last session of the course.

Course Materials

  • SuperCollider Course Swiki
  • SuperCollider on-line documentation and Examples (see www.audiosynth.com)
  • Albert de Campo's SC Tutorial (see help folder in SC distribution, also on-line at http://www.audiosynth.com/schtmldocs/Tutorials/SC2_Tutorial_0.8.5)
  • "Sound and Music Processing in SuperCollider" by Stephen Pope (see http://create.ucsb.edu/htmls/sc.book.html)
  • "Digital Synthesis Using SuperCollider" by David Cottle (see http://www.byu.edu/music/labs/ems/287/DSwSC.pdf)
  • Course web site (http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/220)
  • SC users mailing list (sc-users@create.ucsb.edu; to sign up, go to http://www.create.ucsb.edu/mailman/listinfo/sc-users)
  • Course mailing list (275@mat.ucsb.edu, sign up at http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/mailman/listinfo/275)

    • Other Courses on the Web

  • Dartmouth (Larry Polansky) see http://music.dartmouth.edu/~cc12/code.list.html
  • Central Washington U. (Mark Polishook) see http://www.cwu.edu/~compcomp/SuperCollider.html
  • Peabody (Ichiro Fujinaga) see http://gigue.peabody.jhu.edu/~ich/classes/synth/synth98f.html

    • Course Schedule (may be subject to change)

    Week 1

  • Welcome and orientation
  • Introduction to digital audio
  • Introduction to digital sound synthesis
  • PulsarGenerator demo
  • Introduction to SC and patterns
  • SC2 and SC3 demonstration

    • Week 2

  • Quiz 1 (Computer music basics)
  • The SC environment, editors, and menus
  • Real time and sound files
  • Basics of OOP
  • Syntax of SC
  • The most important objects

    • Week 3

  • Synthesis techniques
  • Envelopes and spawn

    • Week 4

    Week 5

    Week 6

    Week 7

    Week 8

    Week 9

    Week 10