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Course Description
This 1st-year seminar course is a lab-oriented introduction to the electrical engineering sub-discipline of digital signal processing (DSP) as it applies to the field of digital music. Topics covered in the lectures/labs include investigating the physics of sound, sampling and quantizing music signals, generating audio special effects through the use of digital filters, compression techniques used in digital audio, and mathematically synthesizing instrument sounds. Current computer audio formats such as WAV, MP3, and MIDI will also be investigated. No musical experience/talent is necessary.
Instructor Information
| INSTRUCTOR |
| David Salvia |
| Instructor of Electrical Engineering |
| 114 E E East |
| 865-7227 |
| dsalvia@psu.edu |
Course Goals
- to introduce 1st-year students to the exciting field of digital signal processing
- to provide a basic understanding of current technology in the vast field of digital audio
- to help 1st-year students adjust to University life.
Course Outline
- Overview/History of Digital Music
- Sound & Music Theory
- Lab 1: "The Math of Music and the Science of Sound"
- A/D Conversion: Sampling, Quantization, and Encoding
- Lab 2: "That Byte Really Hertz"
- Data Compression
- Lab 3: "Making the Data File a 'bit' Smaller"
- Digital Filtering
- Lab 4: "Audio AudioAudioEffects Effects Effects"
- Music Synthesis
- Lab 5: "Violin String or Data String?"
- MIDI Format
- Lab 6: "Turning a Computer Keyboard into a Piano Keyboard"
- Final Project: project varies each semester
Textbook
- Essentials of Music Technology, Mark Ballora, Prentice Hall, 2003
Reference Books (available from the Library)
- The Computer Music Tutorial, Curtis Roads, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1996
- Principles of Digital Audio, Ken Pohlmann, McGraw Hill, New York NY, 1995
- DSP First, James McClellen et al., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River NJ, 1998
- A Digital Signal Processing Primer with Applications to Digital Audio and Computer Music, Ken Steiglitz, Addison Wesley, Menlo Park CA, 1996
Links
There is an abundance of information on the web dealing with digital music, digital audio, computer music, etc. The list of links below is by no means considered complete. It is merely a starting point for your web browsing pleasure.WEB SITES DEALING WITH MUSIC (GENERAL)
- How Stuff Works -- a great web site with lots of well-written articles about a number of subjects. The topics that are most associated with our course are:
- How Speakers Work
- How Microphones Work
- How Analog & Digital Recordings Work
- How CDs Work
- How MP3s Work
- How Soundcards Work
- Eric's Treasure Trove of Music -- site provides definitions for numerous musical terms and has a decent list of reference books for music theory and music history..
- Practical Music Theory -- a GREAT site that covers music theory in detail, complete with drill questions and java-based exercises
- History of Electronic Music -- chronicals some of the major advancements in music from 2800 BC to the present.
- 120 Years of Electronic Music -- timetable of electronic music advances from 1870 - 1990, with lots of interesting pictures.
- Recording Technology History -- a fairly comprehensive look at advances in music technology, with a focus on the various inventions like the original phonograph, gramophone, etc.
- Tinfoil -- a site dedicated to the very earliest sound recording devices -- Edison's wax-cylinder phonographs.
WEB SITES DEALING SPECIFICALLY WITH DIGITAL MUSIC
- Harmony Central -- fantastic site with lots of information in many areas of digital music. The software section is particularly useful, featuring a comprehensive list of shareware application programs (including some of the ones listed later in this page). The MIDI section is also full of good links.
- Music-DSP -- devoted to the more technical side of digital audio, this website is a good starting point for finding other links, books, listservs, etc. on the subject of digital signal processing as it applies to digital audio.
- MIDI Manufacturers Association -- the official MIDI website.
- Crutchfield Home Audio/Video Information Center -- not about digital music, per se, but a great web site for people interested in consumer electronics in general (TVs, CDs, VCRs, etc.)
- The Machine that Changed Our World -- interesting arcticle about the first computer that could play music
TUTORIALS, ARTICLES, DEMOS, AND TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS
- Fourier Synthesis Demo -- a great JAVA applet that illustrates the concept of changing a note's timbre by adding harmonics to the fundamental frequency.
- Tutorial on MIDI and Music Synthesis -- excellent tutorial with great figures.
- Primeline Audio -- a decent discussion of how to play MIDI files on a web page.
- Time and Pitch Shifting -- a technical discussion on how pitch/time shifting is done digitally.
Wotsit's Format -- a technical description of the various digital sound computer file formats, as well as other types of formats: graphics, archive, animation, etc. This site is truly intended for computer junkies.
SHAREWARE/FREEWARE MUSIC APPLICATION PROGRAMS
Disclaimer: I do not have any ties to these products, nor am I claiming that they are necessarily the best products to use. They are simply programs that I think are pretty good.- Goldwave -- digital audio editing program that reads digital audio data in a variety of formats (.wav, .au, .mp3, etc.) and allows the user to edit the file, change format type, or apply a variety of audio special effects.
- Cooledit -- an even more powerful audio editing program than Goldwave, although the demo version that is available for free doesn't allow you to use all of the features at one time.
- Winamp -- a great mp3 player that also plays other digital music formats
- Cakewalk -- one of the most popular MIDI sequencing programs available. This program allows you to edit existing MIDI files as well as create your own MIDI files from scratch.
DIGITAL MUSIC LIBRARIES
- mp3.com -- the official mp3 website with lots of legal mp3 files.
- TV and Movie Themes -- Real Audio and .wav files of songs from hundreds of different TV shows and movies.
- WavCentral.com -- comprehensive site with various categories of wav files (movies, special effects, etc.)
- College Fight Songs -- you can download "Fight on State" (PSU's fight song) as well as songs from other Universities. Most of the songs are in .wav or .au format.
- Classical MIDI Archive -- a great collection of over 7000 classical music MIDI files. Both well-known and obscure composers are represented in this huge archive.
- Standard MIDI files on the Net -- a pretty comprehensive collection of links to MIDI libraries.
- Penn State Blue Band
downloads -- a sampling of the recordings by the Penn State Blue
Band