Music Software Projects New York University Adjunct Instructor Scott Burton

MSP Introduction Professor Scott Plan for Semester First half: Programming submissions weekly Build foundational components Develop idea for app 1 test Second half: Form teams Develop app on our foundation Presentation/demo at the end 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 Build some Software Build it well ? Clear Testable As simple as possible Performs - speed/size Regression tested Conceptual Integrity It works! Has Users (heavy ones)! 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: 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? Pitch Pitch Sequences -> Melody Scale Mode Key or “Pitch class” Pitch Combinations -> Harmony Interval Chord Rhythm Meter Tempo Timbre or Tone Harmonic Series What makes sounds unique Song Structure 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 Set up development environment on your laptop Choose language Choose sound toolkit Choose GUI framework Generate a 400Hz tone for 5 seconds Questions?