Specifications

3
later in a flexible way. A practical, systematic approach to procedural audio is
taught by example and supplemented with background knowledge to give a firm
context. From here the technically inclined artist will be able to build their own
sound objects for use in interactive applications and other projects. Although
it is not intended to be a manual for Pure Data, a sufficient introduction to
patching is provided to enable the reader to complete the exercis es. References
and external r esources on sound and c omputer audio are provided. These in-
clude other important textbooks, webs ites, applications, scientific papers a nd
research supporting the material develop e d here.
Audience
Modern sound des igners working in games, film, animation and media where
sound is part of an interactive process will all find this book useful. Design-
ers using traditional methods but looking for a deeper understanding and finer
degree of control in their work will likewise benefit. Music production, tradi-
tional recording, arrangement, mixdown or working from sa mple libraries is not
covered. It is assumed you are already familiar these concepts and have the
ability to use multi-track editors like Ardour and Pro Tools
TM
, plus the other
necessary parts of a large r picture of sound design. It isn’t aimed at complete
beginners, but g reat effort is made to ease though the steep learning curve of dig-
ital signal processing (DSP) and synthesis at a gentle pace. Students of digital
audio, sound production, music technology, film and game sound, and develop-
ers of audio software should all find something of interest here. It will appeal
to those who know a little programming, but previous programming skills are
not a req uirement.
Using the book
Requirements
This is not a c omplete introduction to Pure Data, nor a compendium of sound
synthesis theory. A sound designer requires a wide background knowledge, ex-
perience, imagination and patience. A grasp of everyday physics is helpful in
order to analyse and understa nd sonic processes. An ambitious goal of this text
is to teach sy nthetic sound production using very little maths. Where possible
I try to explain pieces of signal processing theory in only words and pictures.
However, from time to time code or equations do appe ar to illustrate a point,
particularly in the earlier theory chapters where formulas are given for reference.
Although crafting sound from numbers is an inherently ma thematical pro-
cess we are fortuna te tha t tools exist which hide away messy details of signal
programming to allow a more direct ex pression as visual code. To get the best
from this book a serious s tudent should embark up on supporting studies o f
digital audio and DSP theory. For a realistic baseline, familiarity with simple
arithmetic, trigonometry, logic and graphs is expected.
Previous experience patching with Pure Data or Ma x/MSP will give you
a head start, but even if you’ve never us e d it before the principles are easy