| Instructor | Hao-Wen (Herman) Dong (ude.hcimu@gnodwh) |
| Room | Music 378 (Music Tech Lab) or Zoom |
| Days & times | 3–4:30pm, Mondays & Wednesdays |
| Office hours | By appointment |
[Gradescope] [Last year’s course website]
An introduction to principles and practices of computer programming for musical applications. Students learn visual, procedural, and object-oriented programming in general-purpose and music-specific languages. Projects address important musical programming concepts including algorithmic composition, real-time interaction, and audio buffer processing. Emphasis is on creative and artistic uses of code.
This course counts towards the PAT Minor (PAT Practice), CS-Eng/DS-Eng (Flex Tech Elective), and PCAS Minor (Depth Electives) programs.
| Week | Date | Lecture | Recording | Materials | Assignment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aug 31 | Introduction | |||
| Processing Programming | |||||
| Sep 2 | ├ Processing Basics | ||||
| 2 | ├ |
||||
| Sep 9 | ├ Catch-up | ||||
| 3 | Sep 14 | ├ Keyboard Controls & Randomness | |||
| Sep 16 | ├ Loops & Recursion | HW 1 due | |||
| 4 | Sep 21 | ├ Data Types & Arrays | |||
| Sep 23 | ├ Objects | HW 2 due | |||
| 5 | Sep 28 | ├ Lists & Data I/O | |||
| Sep 30 | ├ Images & Videos | HW 3 due | |||
| 6 | Oct 5 | ├ Transformations & 3D Graphics | |||
| Oct 7 | └ Motion & Physics | HW 4 due | |||
| 7 | Oct 12 | Intro to Max/MSP | |||
| Oct 14 | Midterm Assignment Showcase | Midterm assignment due | |||
| 8 | |||||
| Max Programming | |||||
| Oct 21 | ├ Max/MSP Basics | ||||
| 9 | Oct 26 | ├ Max/MSP Basics II | |||
| Oct 28 | ├ Additive & AM Synthesis | HW 5 due | |||
| 10 | Nov 2 | ├ FM Synthesis & Polyphony | |||
| Nov 4 | ├ Filters | HW 6 due | |||
| 11 | Nov 9 | ├ Drums | |||
| Nov 11 | ├ Networking & Open Sound Control | HW 7 due | |||
| 12 | Nov 16 | ├ Sampling & Delay | |||
| Nov 18 | └ Recording, Panning & Balancing | HW 8 due | |||
| 13 | Nov 23 | Case Studies & Project Consultation | |||
| 14 | Nov 30 | Buffer | |||
| Dec 2 | Project Presentation | ||||
| 15 | |||||
All slides are licensed under CC BY 4.0.
| Assignment | Due |
|---|---|
| HW 1: Bouncing “Hello, World!” | Sep 16 |
| HW 2: Paddle Ball Game | Sep 23 |
| HW 3: Solar System | Sep 30 |
| HW 4: Spectrum Visualizer | Oct 7 |
| Midterm Assignment: Build Your Own Music Visualizer | Oct 14 |
| HW 5: Simple Synth | Oct 28 |
| HW 6: MIDI Keyboard | Nov 4 |
| HW 7: Polyphonic FM Synth | Nov 11 |
| HW 8: Singing Balls | Nov 18 |
| Milestone | Due |
|---|---|
| Presentation | Dec 2 |
| Report | Dec 11 |
All grading and regrade requests will be handled on Gradescope.
| Homework | 50% |
| Midterm assignment | 20% |
| Project | 30% |
The final grading scale is as follows.
| A+ | 97+ | B+ | 87–89 | C+ | 77–79 | D+ | 67–69 | F | <60 |
| A | 93–96 | B | 83–86 | C | 73–76 | D | 63–66 | ||
| A− | 90–92 | B− | 80–82 | C− | 70–72 | D− | 60–62 |
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