Csound/Blue (was: new piece: TimeWave Canon)

Csound definitely has a learning curve, and so does Blue itself, but Blue is very powerful and makes things a lot easier than they would otherwise be. I've only started to scratch the surface of what is possible with either of them.

For Csound, I recommend the Csound5.02.1-win32-d.exe installer[1], which is capable if 64-bit floating-point samples, for the high-quality output. There are online tutorials at http://www.csounds.com. I don't know about you, but I learn best by example, so I recommend reading and running other peoples' compositions. I have a bunch of them at http://mysterybear.net, and they are generally pretty simple.

For Blue, you need to have Java installed first, then download the latest installer[2]. It's a beta, but don't worry about that; Steven writes good stuff. If you have Java properly installed, you should be able to just double-click on the installer file to run it. Blue ships with some sample projects (including one of my pieces), and I have other pieces (like TimeWave Canon) that were written in Blue that you can open up and try out.

Both programs have mailing list where you can ask question and get help, and you should feel free to ask my questions too. Good luck!

- Dave

[1] http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/csound/Csound5.02.1-win32-d.exe?download

[2] http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/bluemusic/blue_0.106.0_beta3_installer.jar?download

J.Smith wrote:
> Well done, Dave. I've been thinking about breaking into composition > with something like Csound. I looked at the links to both Csound and > Blue, but I'm a bit bewildered at all the different file options. I > have Windows XP...what files would a rank beginner like myself need > to download to begin experiments with Blue and Csound? (The less > command line input, the better. I really, really, really would > prefer a GUI interface, if possible.)