Making music with MATLAB: An electronic music synthesis course for engineering students

An elective course in electronic music synthesis has been developed for electrical and computer engineering students. The course provides an interesting way to integrate and apply DSP and computer manipulation concepts studied in previous courses, and extends student understanding of more advanced concepts such as time-evolving spectra. MATLAB is a standard platform used in the signals and DSP courses, so MATLAB forms the primary tool for converting algorithmic descriptions of waveforms into sound. The paper outlines course topics and methods, includes a detailed example of pedagogy, and presents assessment results. Example MATLAB code, graphics, and sound clips are available on-line at http://www.rose-hulman.edu/similar to doering/icassp99.