Abstract
SSP (Sound Synthesis Program) is a computer sound synthesis program designed by G. M. Koenig. The program produces sound in real-time (i.e., after a relatively short calculation time). SSP opens an experimental field of sound description because it refers only to amplitude and time values. This biparametric approach allows a complete reexamination of the issue of sound description, in particular the relation of user input to sound output. The major part of this paper is devoted to this problem. The unusual approach of SSP, however, is not without foundation; its background and roots will be discussed briefly before our treatment of sound description. The meaning of sound description here is twofold: it describes (1) a sound that is to be made (specification) and (2) a sound that has been made (analysis). Synthesis techniques can be and are used as a basis for analysis and, conversely, analysis techniques can be and are used as a basis for synthesis. A brief characterization of the approach in SSP is in order. First, predetermined compositional rules are used to build a sound with the basic units of amplitude values and time values. The rules are either various aleatoric procedures or the direct enumeration of a sequence of values. The time and amplitude values are specified. A selection is made from this initial supply using the rules. A selection is then made from this last selection, and the result is called a segment. The segments are selected (ordered) and auditioned. In this way, a composer produces a single sound that may vary in length from a few milliseconds to several minutes. Composition and sound description are the definition of the supply (of amplitude and time values) and the series of selections made from it. A more extensive description of the program is found in the Appendix. This approach to sound synthesis differs from the approach in many well-known computer sound synthesis programs. It does not refer to frequencies, spectral components, pulse-widths, modulation indices, unit generators, or any of a number of other key words. It has nothing to do with additive or subtractive synthesis. It would be difficult to produce familiar melodies or mood music (electronic wallpaper, as it were) with it. SSP is not, however, intended as a reaction to present activities. Rather, it is an outgrowth of certain musical ideas-ideas that led to the stark realization that one could limit oneself to describing sound structures using amplitude and time values as units. Two notions are important in this regard:
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