The Sound of Music: Is It Live or Memorex?

This course examines ways that music technology evolved to simulate the sounds of musical instruments, using synthesizers and digital samplers: 1) How various musical instruments produce their characteristic sound 2) A visual analysis of the details in the sounds of those instruments 3) How music synthesizers work – and how they are “played” 4) How instrument sampling technology works – and why it sounds so real. These technologies of synthesis and sampling enable new kinds of electronic musical instruments which recreate traditional sounds or produce entirely new kinds of musical sounds and even put a simulated orchestra inside a laptop computer. There will be gadgets and demonstrations.

Barry Cook has a Ph.D. in social psychology and taught at Yale and Hunter College, before working in audience research for NBC, USA Network and Nielsen Media Research. As a keyboard player and electronics hobbyist, he also enjoyed decades of learning and experimentation with hardware and software electronic music technology. The goal has not changed: make music. But now, the tools are cooler.