Links for sound, music, DSP and game audio development

Resources - computer music and sound

[1]
Nick (?). Fast and accurate sine/cosine. http://www.devmaster.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5784. Note: Good read on fast trig, comparing truncated series with parabolic, polynomial. Nicely presented with code. Descends into amusing pedantry towards the end.
[2]
Ricci Adams. Music theory. http://www.musictheory.net/index.html. Note: Tutorials, software. Classical Music theory.
[3]
J. E. Hetrick Ajay Shah. Free c/c++ sources for numerical computation. http://cliodhna.cop.uop.edu/~hetrick/c-sources.html. Note: Useful resources compiled and maintained by J. E. Hetrick, C, C++, MATLAB and Fortran .
[4]
A.M.Higgins. Envelopes. http://www.clubi.ie/amhiggins/adsr.html. Note: All about envelopes. Begginers introduction.
[5]
Hydrogen Audio. Hydrogen audio - knowledge base. http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Main_Page. Note: Good Wiki with many audio and DSP related entries.
[6]
Brantacan. More about oscillations - bridges and otherwise. http://www.brantacan.co.uk/oscillation2.htm. Note: Architectural physics with nice explanation of escillations in structure.
[7]
Jim Campbell. The equal tempered scale and peculiarities of piano tuning. http://www.precisionstrobe.com/apps/pianotemp/temper.html. Note: String physics. Modes and tuning scales.
[8]
Castle. Tutorials in communications engineering. http://www.complextoreal.com/tutorial.htm. Note: Communications theory tutorials. Encoding, modulation, physical layer, link layer.
[9]
Dmoz. Number taxonomy. http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Recreations/Specific_Numbers/. Note: Number types.
[10]
Christopher Dobrian. Dsp online texts and information. http://music.arts.uci.edu/dobrian/CAMP06/links.htm. Note: Web Resources for Information on Audio DSP and Computer Music.
[11]
Ian Drumm. A guide to decibels and how to use them. http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/acoustics_info/decibels/. Note: Rather nice intro to sound pressure levels, dB, scales, attenuation etc.
[12]
DSP-Related. Fast and accurate sine/cosine. http://www.dsprelated.com/. Note: Top level of DSP-related. Very good extensive resource on all signal processing topics.
[13]
DSPRelated. Cross correlation. http://www.dsprelated.com/comp.dsp/keyword/Cross_Correlation.php. Note: DSP-Related page on cross correlation.
[14]
EM411. Em411. http://www.em411.com/index.php. Note: Forum for electro musicians. Gear talk. Tutorials. Music production talk.
[15]
Computer music bibliography. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/music/midi/bibliography/. Note: Comp Mus Biblio at faqs.org.
[16]
Steven Finch. Math constants. http://www.mathcad.com/library/constants/index.htm. Note: Constants organized by area within mathematics.
[17]
Cristiano M.L. Forster. Musical mathematics. http://www.chrysalis-foundation.org/. Note: Interesting text on experimental and world instruments, tuning ratios and physics, particularly string and wind instruments.
[18]
A. A. Hughes. The sound of bells - the lost peal at coventry cathedral. http://www.hibberts.co.uk/collect/coventry_old.htm. Note: Analysis of bell modes for Coventry, Cathedral Church of St. Michael.
[19]
Hyperphysics sound. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/soucon.html. Note: Taxonomy of physics relating to sound.
[20]
Evans M. Harrell II. A short history of operator theory. http://www.mathphysics.com/opthy/OpHistory.html. Note: Operational matrix calculus - overview or field.
[21]
Iowegian. Fir faq. http://www.dspguru.com/info/faqs/fir/basics.htm. Note: Finite impulse response filters, gentle intro for beginners.
[22]
Christopher K. Koenigsberg. Stockhausen's new morphology of musical time. http://www.music.princeton.edu/~ckk/smmt/scientific.commentary.2.html. Note: Cool analysis that compares Stockhausens work to Gabors theory of acosutic quanta.
[23]
Gareth Middleton. Pitch detection algorithms. http://cnx.org/content/m11714/latest/. Note: Autocorrelation, harmonic product spectrum methods.
[24]
Olli Niemitalo. Simultaneous parabolic approximation of sin and cos. http://www.dspguru.com/comp.dsp/tricks/alg/sincos.htm. Note: Fast approximation of trigomometric functions, with C code.
[25]
J M Rodenburg. The calculus of wave interference. http://www.rodenburg.org/theory/y800.html. Note: Nice beginners explanation of Youngs slit, field superposition etc.
[26]
Craig Stuart Sapp. Biquad filters. http://peabody.sapp.org/class/350.838/lab/mybiquad/. Note: Nice intro to biquad.
[27]
Short music bibliography. http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/. Note: 120 years comp music bibliography.
[28]
Julius O. Smith. Introduction to digital filters. http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/filters/. Note: Julius O Smiths filter page. Very good teaching and reference material. Great place to start for intermediate level.
[29]
Pythagoras' constant. http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/Sqrt2/sqrt2.ps. Note: The square root of two.
[30]
Engineering Tips. Bell modes for a circular tube. http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=152064&page=11. Note: Good thread at Mechanical Acoustics/Vibration engineering Forum at Engineering Tips.


Books - computer audio and DSP

[1]
Stephen Mc Adams and Emmanuel Bigand. Thinking in Sound. Oxford Press, http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Psychology/SensationPerception/?view=usa&ci=9780198522577, 1993. Note: A wonderful book on audio cognitive science. Papers from several researchers under one cover. A big influence on me to study psychoacoustics during my postgrad research. Reccomended as a good overview.
[2]
Dave Benson. Music: a mathematical offering. Cambridge, http://www.maths.abdn.ac.uk/~bensondj/html/maths-music.html, 2006. Note: Maths of musical instruments, scales, tuning, vibrations and more. Relatively new book. Very detailed. Excellent source for anyone following musical instrument physical modelling research along the lines of Cook and Smith. Available in free online pdf version.
[3]
Hal Chamberlin. Musical Applications of Microprocessors. SAMS, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=539797, 1981. Note: This was my uni textbook from which I built a 68000 based polyphonic sampler. Goes right down to the basics of digital audio signals, DACs, memory etc. Hard to get a copy now and probably a bit out of date, but a classic textbook.
[4]
Thomas A. Jerse Charles Dodge. Computer Music. Schirmer Books, http://www.ears.dmu.ac.uk/spip.php?page=artBiblio&id_article=1110, 1985. Note: An original classic, short but full of important theory, nicely written.
[5]
Perry Cook. Real sound synthesis for interactive applications. AK Peters, Ltd, http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~prc/AKPetersBook.htm, 2002. Note: *THE* textbook in my subject area. This is an amazing work in which Perry examines many of the principles of dynamic synthetic audio. Examples are unfortunately in C++ which is less accessible to the average sound designer, but nontheless this is a *must read*. Includes CD of code.
[6]
Curtis Roads Giovanni DePoli, Aldo Piccialli. Representations of Musical Signals. MIT Press, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=131150, 1991. Note: A book from my postgrad days, full of juicy info on modal synthesis, waveguides, wavelets, speech and singing synthesis, granular synthesis and other advanced topics. My copy is tattered and worn down to the bone I've picked it up so often.
[7]
Eduardo Miranda. Computer Sound Design. Focal/Elsevier, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Sound-Design-Techniques-Programming/dp/0240516931, 2002. Note: Good overview of several synthetic methods by this prolific author, written at an easy level. Discussion of software and contains CD-ROM of many sofwtare packages.
[8]
Richard Moore. Elements of Computer Music. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice Hall, http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Computer-Music-Richard-Moore/dp/0132525526, 1990. Note: A great book on all things computer music related, extensive textbook.
[9]
Ken C. Pohlmann. Principles of Digital Audio (3rd Ed.). Mcgraw-Hill, http://mcgoodwin.net/digitalaudio/digitalaudio.html, 1995. Note: First edition published in about 1988, this was one of my univerity textbooks, excellent well written intoduction to digital audio fundamentals.
[10]
Miller S. Puckette. Theory and technique of electronic music. World Scientific Press, http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/techniques.htm, 2007. Note: A thorough and modern work on synthesis and sound signal processing by the author of Puredata.
[11]
C. Roads. The computer Music Tutorial. MIT Press., http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=8218, 1996. Note: A weighty work covering the technology and historical context of computer music. Certainly a vital textbook for anyone on music technology masters or degree. Works on many levels, easily read by non-technical or beginner.
[12]
Robert Rowe. Interactive Music Systems. The MIT Press, Cambridge MA., http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=7807, 1993. Note: Applications of computers to interactive music and composition, analysis and cognition of music and AI composition.
[13]
I.S. Sokolnikoff and R.M. Redheffer. Mathematics of physics and modern engineering. McGraw-Hill, http://www.getcited.org/pub/101186351, 1958. Note: Had this on my shelf since A level/1st year University. A very serious and thorough text. Linear algebra, Laplace, Fourier, functions, field theory, partial differentials, complex variables, Riemann, Lebesgue, numerical analysis... It's got everything needed to grasp physics fairly deeply. Out of print but grab one if you see it.


Algorithmic, procedural, AI composition and sound

[1]
K. H. Burns. Algorithmic Composition Definition. http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~wowem/hardware/algorithmdefinition.html, 1996. Note: Semiotics and history of algorithmic composition.
[2]
John Horton Conway. Regular Algebra and Finite Machines. Chapman and Hall, Ltd. London., http://www.bookfinder.com/author/john-h-conway/, 1971. Note: The original work behind most musical applications such as Mirandas Chaosynth, Conways work in discrete mathematics and game theory lays the foundations.
[3]
D. Cope. An expert system for computer-assisted composition. Computer Music Journal, pages 11(4):30–46, 1987.
[4]
D. Cope. Computer modeling of musical intelligence in emi. Computer Music Journal, pages 16(2):69–83., 1992.
[5]
Griffith. A bibliography of Connectionist Models of Music. http://www.csis.ul.ie/staff/niallgriffith/mnpdpp%5fbib.htm. Note: Extensive bibliography of connectionist musical applications, neural networks. adaptive/cybernetic models of listening and production.
[6]
B. Jacob. Algorithmic composition as a model of creativity. http://www.ece.umd.edu/~blj/algorithmic_composition/algorithmicmodel.html. Note: Creativity, knowledge and composition - intelligent philosophical analysis.
[7]
B. Jacob. Composing with genetic algorithms. Proceedings of the 1995 International Computer Music Conference, Banff, Alberta., 1995.
[8]
H. Jarvelainen. Algorithmic musical composition. Helsinki University of Technology, TiK-111080 Seminar on content creation., 2000.
[9]
K. Jones. Compositional applications of stochastic processes. Computer Music Journal, pages 5(2):45–61, 1981.
[10]
Otto Laske. Algorithmic Composition In the New Century. http://www.perceptionfactory.com/workshop/Otto.htm. Note: The role of composer in relation to software.
[11]
Miranda E. R. Evolving Cellular Autonoma Music. http://galileo.cincom.unical.it/esg/Music/workshop/articoli/miranda.pdf. Note: Mirandas work on concurrent interactive and distributed processes spans composition and signal level synthesis.
[12]
R. Rowe. Interactive music systems. The MIT Press, Cambridge MA.
[13]
Warren S. Sarle. Neural Networks FAQ. ftp://ftp.sas.com/pub/neural/FAQ2.html, 1997. Note: Comprehensive Q&A compiled from newsgroup comp.ai.neural-nets.
[14]
Various. AlgoNet. http://www.flexatone.net/algoNet/. Note: Research resource for computer aided algorithmic music composition.
[15]
Various. Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. http://www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/. Note: Compendium of known integer sequences and their basis, Maintained by N. J. A. Sloane at AT&T.
[16]
I. Xenakis. Formalised music. Indiana University Press, 1971.


Virtual world and game audio related

[1]
Audiokinetic. Wwise middleware game audio delivery system. http://audiokinetic.com/. Note: A game sound system with extensive GUI capabilities for binding and managing audio assets to game world events.
[2]
I. Braben, D. Bell. Elite. Publisher: AcornSoft 1984, http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/, 1984. Note: Elite is one of the oldest and most loved space games has long championed generative methods to create universes from compact algorithms.
[3]
Conor Cahill. The interactive audio game project. MSc. thesis in Multimedia Systems, Trinity College Dublin,, http://www.audiogame.com/, 1997. Note: Conor builds an entire adventure game concept around audio only interaction.
[4]
Karen Collins. Games sound. http://www.gamessound.com/. Note: Academic studies into games sound. Generative soundtracks, music emotion, articles, links to research.
[5]
K. Collins. Music of the Commodore 64. http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME08/Loops%5fand%5fbloops.shtml, 2006. Note: Description of early game sound using the SID architecture.
[6]
Farbrausch Group. fr-08: .the .product,.kkrieger,.debris. Publisher: .product, http://www.theprodukkt.com/. Note: I have been following this group since their early demo scene releases. They now have an entire first person shooter that runs in less than 100k.
[7]
Robert James. A Pictorial History of Real-Time Procedural Planets. http://baddoggames.com/planet/history.htm, 2003. Note: Examples of early procedural world content to about 2002, good to compare with modern output such as Terragen2.Domain expired..
[8]
Guy W. Lecky-Thompson. Infinite Game Universe: Mathematical Techniques. Charles River Media., http://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Game-Universe-Mathematical-Development/dp/1584500581, 2001. Note: World and universe generation, space themed.
[9]
Black Lotus. Demoscene pioneers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Lotus. Note: The famous Black Lotus, demoscene pioneers of procedural content in small memory footprints.
[10]
Aaron Marks. Game Audio. CMP, http://www.gamasutra.com/galleries/audio/aaron_marks/index.htm, 2001. Note: Non-technical book about the game audio business. Valuable advice on contracts and freelancing. Sagely advice on negotiating troublesome IP and NDA demands, invoicing, managing workloads. Rarely shared wisdoms.
[11]
Sean O'Neil. A Real-Time Procedural Universe, Part One: Generating Planetary Bodies. Publisher: Gamasutra, http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20010302/oneil_01.htm , 2001. Note: Part one of a three part series on procedural textures, world geometry and rendering.Content hidden: Gamasutra login required.
[12]
Planetside Software. Terragen. Publisher: Planetside Software., http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/, 1998. Note: Advanced procedural landscape generation software.
[13]
Firelight Technologies. FMOD game audio system. http://fmod.org/. Note: Australian based middleware audio API. Multi platform with more mature dynamic DSP directions but less polished programming IDE.
[14]
Will Wright. Spore. Publisher: Maxis, http://www.spore.com/, 2007. Note: Large scale life simulation game using evolutionary algorithms and fractal generative algorithms to make 3D and sound elements entirely with procedural content.
[15]
Kenneth Young. Game sound. http://www.gamesound.org/. Note: Sound design for games maintained by Kenneth Young. With jobs, articles and book links.


Software - Audio and music related

[1]
Pd community. Puredata extended. http://at.or.at/hans/pd/. Note: Much enlarged version of Pd maintained by the Pd community. Regularly compiled versions by Hans C. Steiner.
[2]
Compilation. Linux audio - one page. http://sound.condorow.net/one-page.html. Note: Big links collection. Music and MIDI software for Linux.
[3]
Mark Danks. Gem - graphics environment fur multimedia. http://gem.iem.at/. Note: Part of Pd, set of objects for 3D visuals using OpenGL.
[4]
Roger Dannenberg. Nyquist. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~music/nyquist/. Note: Powerful and elegant LISP based synthesis and audio processing language. Regaining popularity as an open plugin facility in Audacity. Closely related to CLM.
[5]
GNU. Octave. http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/. Note: Maths and numerical methods playground. Poor mans Maple/Mathematica/MATLAB but extremely capable.
[6]
Niels Gorisse. Cps. http://cps.bonneville.nl/intro.php. Note: Another nice looking visual programming application similar to Puredata for Mac and Windows. Uses Csound for unit operators. Built in Java. Currently not maintained.
[7]
Goto10. Puredyne. http://goto10.org/puredyne-official-release/. Note: Not an application, but a complete live Linux distribution maintained by Goto10. Includes Supercollider, Pd-extended, Audacity, Ardour, GEM and much more. Based on the Dynebolic distribution by Denis (Jaromil) Rojo and team, but Puredyne is optimised for computer music.
[8]
iXi. ixiquarks. http://www.ixi-software.net/. Note: UK software in interesting interactive music.
[9]
James McCartney. Supercollider. http://www.audiosynth.com/. Note: Very versatile real-time synthesis language. Radiation Hazard on main site: wear sun-glasses.
[10]
NOTAM. Notam. http://www.notam02.no/. Note: DSP software for Arts and Education.
[11]
Yann Orlarey. Faust. http://faust.grame.fr/pubs.php. Note: Vastly under-rated and very powerful concept for expressing DSP graphs as symbolic algebra. Converts dataflow expression to highly optimised C++.
[12]
Miller Puckette. Puredata. http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/. Note: Open source visual programming application for audio DSP.
[13]
Barry Vercoe. Csound. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=81968. Note: Still alive and kicking, now at version 5.03 this is the masters weapon in terms of sound quality, but steep learning curve.

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Resources DSP related

[1]
Beginners dsp. http://www.101science.com/dsp.htm. Note: Gentle intro to DSP topics.
[2]
Music dsp. http://www.musicdsp.org/. Note: Good web resource. Links, code and notes on audio DSP.


Books - Programming, general and comp-sci related

[1]
Christiansen and Torkington. The Perl Cookbook. O'Reilly, http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/, 1998. Note: Everyone needs one of these. Perl is a PRACTICAL language that can be used to script anything in no time. No use for Audio DSP, but great for anything else. The Cookbook contains recipes for all occasions.
[2]
Wesley J Chun. Core Python Programming. Prentice Hall, http://vig.prenhall.com/catalog/academic/product/1,4096,0130260363,00.html, 2006. Note: A nice Python book, thorough and well structured for beginner and intermediates.
[3]
Julie Sussman Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman. Structure and interpretation of computer programs. MIT, http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/, 1984. Note: LISP programming. Useful if you want to get into Nyquist or CLM.


Misc music and sound production

[1]
Using pd with jack and ableton live. http://www.zenpho.co.uk/how-to-use-jack-pd-and-live.pdf. Note: Howto for Jack with Live.


Sound design and physical audio resources

[1]
Sven E Carlsson. Filmsound. http://filmsound.org/. Note: Filmsound, Online bible of aesthetic sound design for film, games and radio. Interviews with prominent sound designers and producers. Over 200 articles and in depth studies.


Compiled using bib2xhtml (David Hull 1996, Diomidis Spinelli 2004)

If you can suggest new links for work relevant to advanced game audio and synthesis please contact the author.

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