The Music machine: Selected readings from Computer music journal

Powered by gusts of wind, the Aeolian harp made music automatically in the last century. The digital electronic computer is today's music machine. "The technology is now so accessible, " Curtis Roads observes, "that virtually any musician can set up a home computer music studio for research, composition, or play." "The Music Machine "brings together valuable primary source articles on the art, science, and technology of computer music for this growing community.The 54 articles including several major articles that are now out of print were published in Computer "Music Journal "between 1980 and 1985. The subject matter extends beyond that of a companion volume, "Foundations of Computer Music," which contains revised and updated articles from the years 1977 - 1979 on digital sound synthesis, synthesis hardware, music software, and psychoacoustics and signal processing. The new collection includes interviews with major figures in the field and articles devoted to composition, artificial intelligence, and the popular Musical Instrument Digital Interface. There is a new article on applications of the MIDI standard. The editor has written a preface and seven short overviews that summarize the contents of book's seven parts.Curtis Roads is a composer, a producer, and the editor of "Computer Music Journal."