Physics 1240: Sound and Music
Shown above is the control panel of the Subtractor software synthesizer, a part of the Reason digital music system from
Propellerhead software. Reason includes synthesizers (programs that make sounds), a
sequencer (a program that can play sounds in sequence), a drum machine, and many digital audio effects. There are free demo versions for Macs and PCs. Two other programs with similar features are
GarageBand and
FLStudio. There are also programs that can take a chord progression and automatically create a backing track in one of several musical styles (check out
Band in a Box) and composition 'robots' that can be programmed to create music based on an algorithm (see
AnalogBox).
Weeks 13-14 Highlights:
We have reserved the last two weeks of the course to discuss electronics and its many roles music. In week 13 we will introduce the basic ideas of analog electronics, and learn about microphones and loudspeakers. In week 14 we will introduce digital electronics and then learn a little about digital signal processing and audio effects.