The Computer as a Performing Instrument
Author(s) •
Mumma, Gordon
Smoliar, Stephen
Date Issued
February 1, 1971
Series/Report no.
AIM-213
Abstract
This memo was originally presented as a Project MAC seminar on February 20, 1970. From the outset, the computer has established two potential roles in the musical arts--the one as a sound synthesizer and the other as a composer (or composer's assistant). The most important developments in synthesis have been due to MAX Matthew at the Bell telephone Laboratories [7]. His music V system endows a computer with most of the capabilities of the standard hardware of electronic music. Its primary advantage is that the user may specify arbitrarily complex sound sequences and achieve then with a minimum of editing effort. Its primary disadvantage is that it is not on-line, so that the user loses that critical sense of immediacy which he, as a composer, may deem valuable.
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