Csound

sound rendering and signal processing programming language

Csound is a programming language designed and optimized for sound rendering and signal processing. The language consists of over 450 opcodes - the operational codes that the sound designer uses to build "instruments" or patches. Although there are an increasing number of graphical "front-ends" for the language, you typically design and modify your patches using a word processor. Usually, you create two text files - a .orc (orchestra) file containing the "instruments," and a .sco (score) file containing the "notes." In Csound, the complexity of your patches is limited by your knowledge, interest, and need, but never by the language itself. For instance, a 22,050 oscillator additive synthesizer with 1024 stage envelope generators on each is merely a copy-and-paste operation. The same goes for a 1 million voice granular texture! Have you ever dreamed of sounds such as these? Well in Csound you can. And in Csound these dreams can come true!