Hand-on Exercise Assignment 1

COMP685B
Hands-on Experience Assignment 1

Csound Basics

Download and save the files, sinewave.orc and sinewave.sco, into your "M:" (network) directory.
Compile and play the files using Winsound (available in CS Lab4 in the Start -> Programs -> Music folder)

Start Csound (double-click on Winsound.exe).
Fill in the name of the orchestra (sinewave.orc) and score (sinewave.sco) files, and the name of the output soundfile (sinewave.wav).
Wait for the computer to compile them. It will create a soundfile called "sinewave.wav" in the same directory.
Double-click on the soundfile (sinewave.wav) to "play" it.
It should sound like this.

For Reference: Csound Manuals and Software

The Official Csound Page -- everything about Csound

Mirror of the Online Csound Manual

PC and Mac versions of Csound Software

Sound Editing

Save (save link as) the soundfile trumpetC4.wav.
Open the file in CoolEdit (available in CS Lab4 in the Start -> Programs -> Music folder) or another sound editor.
Listen to the sound and look at its waveform.

Find the Frequency of the Sound

One way to find the frequency of your tone is to run a Spectrogram on it. Spectogram is available in CS Lab4 in the Start -> Programs -> Music folder.

[NOTE: Good news about Spectrogram. This software is reasonably priced and good value for money, and worth buying if you want to use it on your home PC.]

On the File menu, chose Scan File and set the Pitch Detector on.

Watch the upper right section of the screen and the analyis frequency will flash by (it's fairly quick, you'll miss it if you don't pay attention).

Note that you can also place the cursor over the fundamental to get the frequency, but it changes as you move it along the line.

The Waveform Analysis program may also help you find the frequency of your tone. (This program is set up to analyze Bell tones, so it may not work for every other kind of tone!)

[NOTE: Better news about the Waveform Analysis program. This software is FREE, and you can use it on your home PC.]

Available in CS Lab4 in the Start -> Programs -> Music folder
In the upper right of the window, chose Analyze Bell.

The Edit Partials window opens up:

We are looking for a pitch around C4, frequency about 261.6, so ignore the lowest partial at 60 hertz and start with the 2nd one, 264.5. This tone may be slightly sharp (high). All the other frequencies (in the red box) form a nearly perfect harmonic series from this frequency.
There is a lot of other information outside the red box, but it is not useful for our purposes now.

PVan Spectrum Analysis

Run PVan.exe (available in CS Lab4 in the Start -> Programs -> Music folder)

[NOTE: Good news about PVan. This software is FREE, and you can use it on your home PC.]

Use the "File" submenu:

Click on the "New" button.
Specify the input .wav file (trumpetC4.wav) and analysis frequency (264.5) in the dialog box.

You should see a Perspective Plot when the analysis is complete (it may take some time).

"Save As" to save and name your pv analysis file trumpetC4.pvn.
"Print" to print your graphs.

If this does not work on your printer, "copy" (Edit submenu) the graph into MS Word and print the Word file.

Click "Open" to reopen a saved pv analysis file.

Use the "Window" submenu and look at the graphs of the:

Perspective Plot.

Right click on the graph and choose Color Shade.
look at the amplitudes of the first 20 harmonics.
Notice the amplitude fluctuation due to the performer's vibrato and natural noise in the tone.

Spectral Snapshot.

Use the "Edit" submenu and "Copy" -> "Data" to copy the values from the spectral snapshot. Then you can paste them into your text files.

Amplitude Envelope.

look at the shapes of the first 20 individual harmonics.

Frequency Envelope.

Here is an example, showing the noise at the beginning and end of the sound, and notice that the average pitch is not a straight line either!

Use the "Spectrum" submenu, choose "Synthesize" and "Play" the sound. Compare it to the original sound in CoolEdit. They should sound very similar.
Make a list of the amplitudes of the first 20 harmonics:

Choose "Spectral Snapshot" and look at the first 2 harmonics.

Check "When peak R.M.S. amplitude is reached" and that will fill in the snapshot time and display the graph of the amplitudes of the first 2 harmonics.

Update the snapshot to display 20 harmonics.

Print the spectral snapshot and make sure you saved the file.
Now run pvan on this voice soundfile.

HINT: First find the frequency.
Remember to save the pvan file as soon as it opens up.
Resynthesize the tone and print the spectral snapshot when the peak R.M.S. amplitude is reached.

You will need these spectral snapshots in the next step!

A Simple Csound Trumpet and Voice

Starting with sinewave.orc and sinewave.sco, make a simple additive synthesis trumpet called trumpet.orc and trumpet.sco with 20 harmonics, using the amplitudes at the trumpetC4 spectral snapshot when the peak R.M.S. amplitude is reached.
Make a simple additive synthesis voice called voice.orc and voice.sco with 20 harmonics, using the amplitudes at the voice spectral snapshot when the peak R.M.S. amplitude is reached.

Check List — What to Show to Get Credit for the Assignment:

Turn in your additive synthesis instruments:

trumpet.orc and trumpet.sco
voice.orc and voice.sco

Due date: Tue 7 March 2006
Either give me hardcopies, or email them as attachments.