Computational Music Synthesis

Wow, didn't expect to see my free book on HN. I'm the author.

This seems nice, introductory and very up-to-date. If I may offer some superficial criticism, I found the covered material was at odds with the title. The title evokes themes of algorithmic composition and experimental whole-music generation, while the book is actually about digital synthesizers and effects on a digital signal processing level. Of course I'm having a hard time coming up with anything better, but maybe in the lines of "Audio Programming for Music", "Music DSP for Programmers", "Digital Synthesizers and Effects"...

This format is amazing. I love watching these types of videos on YouTube, but the random video-hopping the algorithm gives me via &quot;recommendations&quot; never <i>feel</i> productive. Now when I procrastinate by watching internet videos I can point to this book and say, &quot;See, this isn&#x27;t procrastination, I&#x27;m actually working towards something&quot;. Many thanks to the author.

Thanks for submitting, I&#x27;m currently working through Stanford Audio Processing for Music Applications but this books looks like a nice companion (and I tend to prefer written content to videos).<p>I studies some signal processing stuff in college but didn&#x27;t really connect it to music unfortunately so struggled. Since then I&#x27;ve gotten very interested in electronic music production so it&#x27;s a 2020 goal to learn more about the underlying software and math techniques, so I really appreciate this resource.

In case you don&#x27;t want to submit your email address, this is the direct download link: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cs.gmu.edu&#x2F;~sean&#x2F;book&#x2F;synthesis&#x2F;Synthesis.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cs.gmu.edu&#x2F;~sean&#x2F;book&#x2F;synthesis&#x2F;Synthesis.pdf</a>

Thanks for submitting this! Sounds really great and I’m excited to read through this. The theory of FFTs, equalizers, etc is sometimes really unapproachable because of the dense mathematics, it’s much easier for me to comprehend algorithms and concepts as code.

Building a synthesizer from scratch was the most fun I&#x27;ve had as a programmer:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.plastaq.com&#x2F;scythe_vst&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.plastaq.com&#x2F;scythe_vst&#x2F;</a><p>I&#x27;d strongly advise against trying to write music software for a living though. The market is just too competitive now and DAWs are increasingly bundling everything a user might need to make music.

A lot of care and work seems to have went into this book, really commend the author.<p>However, I do have to make one slight joke:<p>&gt; &quot;The topics are short and light on theory.&quot;<p>This did not prepare me for full-page greek-letter and symbol walls haha.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;2K7w1vL.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;2K7w1vL.png</a>