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<H1><A NAME="SECTION00300000000000000000">
Foreword</A>
</H1>
<P>
<I>The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music</I> is a uniquely complete
source of information for the computer synthesis of rich and interesting
musical timbres. The theory is clearly presented in a completely general
form. But in addition, examples of how to synthesize each theoretical aspect
are presented in the Pd language so the reader of the book can immediately use
the theory for his musical purposes. I know of no other book which combines
theory and technique so usefully.
<P>
By far the most popular music and sound synthesis programs in use today are
block diagram compilers with graphical interfaces. These allow the composer to
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design instruments by displaying the "objects" of his instrument on a computer
screen and drawing the connecting paths between the objects. The resulting
graphical display is very congenial to musicians. A naive user can design a
simple instrument instantly. He can rapidly learn to design complex
instruments. He can understand how complex instruments work by looking at
their graphical images.
<P>
The first graphical compiler program, Max, was written by Miller Puckette in
1988. Max dealt only with control signals for music synthesis because the
computers available at the time were not fast enough to deal with sound. As
soon as faster computers which could compute soundwave samples in real-time
were available, Puckette and David Zicarelli appended MSP to Max (Max/MSP) thus
making the computer, usually a laptop computer, into a complete musical
instrument capable of live performance.
<P>
Development of Max/MSP was done by Puckette and Zicarelli at IRCAM in the
period 1993 to 1994 . Both have now moved to California. Zicarelli
commercialized and sells Max, MSP, and JITTER (an extension to video synthesis)
as products. Puckette, now a professor at UCSD, wrote Pd (Pure Data). It is
an open source program which is a close equivalent to Max/MSP.
<P>
Max and Pd allow almost anyone to synthesize uninteresting timbres almost
instantly. Making interesting timbres is much more difficult and requires much
additional knowledge. <I>The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music</I> is
that body of knowledge. The theory is important for any synthesis program.
<I>The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music</I> gives copious examples of
how to apply the theory using Pd. The combination of theory plus Pd examples
makes this book uniquely useful. It also contains problem sets for each
chapter so it is a fine textbook.
<P>
I expect Puckette's book to become THE essential book in any electronic
musician's library.
<P>
Max Mathews
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<ADDRESS>
Miller Puckette
2006-12-30
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