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This tutorial introduces some basic sound synthesis and signal processing operations available within Csound, a software audio processing system. This document is designed as a "getting started" primer on

• using Csound oscillators, function table generators (chiefly gen routines 1, 2, 5, 7, 9 and 10), envelope generators, filters, and a few other basic building blocks;
• constructing simple synthesis and signal processing algorithms; and
• finding one's way through the Csound manual.

This tutorial is designed primarily for students in the ADVANCED COMPUTER MUSIC TECHNIQUES (CMP421-2) course at the Eastman Computer Music Center (ECMC), and therefore includes some studio-specific information and examples on using Csound in conjunction with companion ECMC programs, utilities, macros and aliases designed to simplify or accelerate many common tasks with Csound. Score file examples, for instance, generally are provided here as score11 input files, rather than as standard Csound score (.sco) files. References to the Eastman Csound Library refer to "pre-set" instrument algorithms and companion score11 template and usage example files, available to all ECMC users, and to associated ECMC utilities. Currently, most of these additional Csound-related ECMC resources are available only on ECMC systems. However, we plan to make many of these resources available for online browsing, downloading and use by interested non-ECMC users sometime in the near future.

Non-ECMC users accessing this document by means of an internet web browser or a hard copy printout are welcome to use and to download any of public domain materials herein that they find useful. As noted above, however, such users will encounter information on ECMC resources that are not a part of the standard Csound distribution. For the benefit of non-ECMC users who do not have access to score11, Appendix 1, included in the online but not printed version of this tutorial, provides standard Csound score files, which can be used in place of the score11 file examples within this document.

Document history:
Original postscript version: January, 1989; revisions January 1991, January 1993 and January, 1995.
Original HTML version prepared by James Croson, November, 1996; Revised by A.S. June-Nov. 1998

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