Transcript MSP_lecture1x

Music Software Projects
New York University
Adjunct Instructor Scott Burton
MSP Introduction
• Professor Scott
• Plan for Semester
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First half:
• Programming submissions weekly
• Build foundational components
• Develop idea for app
• 1 test
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Second half:
• Form teams
• Develop app on our foundation
• Presentation/demo at the end
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Periodic tests to check your programs and domain knowledge
Programming phases will evolve to our final product
Part of final grade is class vote for best product /presentation 
MSP Introduction...
• Class Objectives
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Build some Software
Build it well
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• Clear
• Testable
• As simple as possible
• Performs - speed/size
• Regression tested
• Conceptual Integrity
• It works!
• Has Users (heavy ones)!
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Implement living specs provided as spreadsheets
Build a cool app in the music domain
Attain some domain knowledge along the way!
• Teacher Objectives
• Student Objectives –
Musician? First musical experience? Favorite genre? Favorite artist?
MSP Introduction (cont)
• Grading:
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Weekly programming phases
3 tests
Presentation of final app
Class participation
Attending all classes will help your grade
Missing more than two classes will hurt your grade
Where is the math in music?
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Pitch
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Pitch Sequences -> Melody
 Scale
 Mode
 Key or “Pitch class”
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Pitch Combinations -> Harmony
 Interval
 Chord
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Rhythm
 Meter
 Tempo
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Timbre or Tone
 Harmonic Series
 What makes sounds unique
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Song Structure
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Q: Can we quantify what sounds “good” ?
The notes available in
western music
 What is an octave and why is it special?
 Why are their 7 notes in a key (8 including octave)?
 Why are there 12 divisions in the octave?
 Why can’t there be more than 12?
 What is “micro-tonality”?
 Why has the 12 tone scale we accept today been
“adjusted” over the last few centuries?
How do we define pitch?
 Represented as the frequency in Hz of the
“Fundamental” (or most pronounced pitch)
 Approximately 20-20k for humans
 The vibrating string
 Harmonic Series produces harmonic ratios
 Harmonics = Overtones = Partials
 Integer multiples of a base frequency
 Overtones are not all harmonious (even and odd)
Assignment For Next Week
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Set up development environment on your laptop
Choose language
Choose sound toolkit
Choose GUI framework
 Generate a 400Hz tone for 5 seconds
 Questions?