Schedule and Assignments

Below is our current schedule, with pointers to all reading assignments, lecture overheads, and homework/lab assignments for the course.

Please bookmark this page (reachable from the class home page) and check it at least weekly for updates.

To obtain printable versions of the assignments and solutions from off-campus locations, you can use commands such as

scp you@ccrma-gate.stanford.edu:/usr/ccrma/web/html/courses/420/hw/hw1/hw1.pdf .
scp you@ccrma-gate.stanford.edu:/usr/ccrma/web/html/courses/420/hw/hw1/hw1sol.pdf .

• Week 1: Course Intro, Demos (HTML) (PDF), Delay Lines
  • Read ``MUS420 Administrative Info'' (this document)
  • Download the Synthesis Tool Kit (STK), and install it following the directions in the online document, ``Introduction to the Synthesis Tool Kit (STK)'' (which can be printed out if desired).
  • Read ``Introduction to the Synthesis Tool Kit (STK)'' (13 pp.)
  • Optional: Read ``Signal Processing in Faust and PD'' (20 pp.)
  • Review Matlab, if necessary.
  • Verify that you have had adequate prior exposure to elementary spectrum analysis and digital filter analysis.
  • Start reading Chapter 1 of PASP: ``Acoustic Modeling with Delay.'' (43 pp.)
  • HW#1

• Week 2: Delay Lines, Comb Filters, Feedback Delay Networks, TDLs, Allpass Filters
  • Finish Chapter 1 of PASP entitled ``Acoustic Modeling with Delay.'' (43 pp.)
  • HW#2

• Week 3: Interpolating Delay Lines
  • Chapter 3 of PASP entitled ``Time-Varying Delay Effects'' ($47-x$ pp.)
  • Appendix of PASP entitled ``Higher Order Delay Line Interpolation''
  • HW#4
  • Supplementary:
    • Virtual Analog and Variable Filter Design
    • Papers on Virtual Analog Synthesis

• Week 4: Bandlimited Interpolation and Sampling-Rate Conversion; Flanging, Phasing, Chorus, Leslie
  • HW#5
  • Supplementary:
    • DAFx06 keynote lecture II
    • DAFx02 paper on Leslie modeling

• Weeks 5-6: Plucked/Struck Strings, Electric Guitars
  • Read Chapter 4 of PASP entitled ``Elementary String Instruments'' through Section 4.14 entitled ``Amplifier Feedback'' (32 pp.)
  • HW#6
  • Supplementary: Virtual Stringed Instruments

• Week 7: Scattering Junctions; s and z planes; Laplace Transforms; Impedance and One-Ports
  • Review, if necessary, Appendix E of PASP entitled
    ``Elementary Physics, Mechanics, and Acoustics'' (20 pp.)
  • Review, if necessary, Appendix B of Introduction to Digital Filters entitled
    ``Introduction to Laplace Transform Analysis'' (8 pp.)
  • In PASP , read the first two sections of Appendix J (``Introduction to Lumped Models''), entitled ``Impedance'' and ``One-Port Network Theory'' (9 pp.)
  • HW#7

• Week 8: Scattering Junctions; Ideal String Struck by a Mass; Commuted Synthesis
  • Read Appendix G of PASP entitled ``Digital Waveguide Theory'' ($70$ pp.)
  • Read section 4.10 entitled ``Ideal String Struck by a Mass'' (10 pp.)
  • HW#8
  • Lab Reading:
    • Remainder of Chapter 4 of PASP regarding ``Commuted Synthesis'' (4 pp.)
    • Appendix of PASP entitled ``Resonator Factoring'' (11 pp.)
  • Supplementary Reading:
    • Five Lectures on the Acoustic Piano
    • Julien Bensa's PhD thesis on piano modeling
    • Weinreich on Coupled Piano Strings

• Week 9: by senior EE graduate student David Yeh
  Currently planned lectures (subject to revision):
  1. Overview of numerical methods for solving nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs)
  2. Digital audio effects based on ODE solving in real time

• Week 10 - Review

• Final Exam - Monday, March 17, 2008, 12:15-3:15 PM, in our usual classroom.
  The exam will cover
  • homework/lab assignments, and
  • assigned reading (not including ``supplementary'').
  • The exam will be closed book, except that you may bring an 8.5" by 11" sheet of paper, covered front and back with notes.
  • No calculators allowed (you shouldn't need one).
  • Practice Questions