Csound is a text-based software sound synthesis system, created by Barry Vercoe in 1985

Csound is a text-based software sound synthesis system: rather than patching a graphical synth, the user writes code that describes instruments and the notes that play them, and Csound renders the audio. It was created in 1985 by Barry Vercoe and is one of the oldest and most widely used software synthesis systems, with deep roots in academic computer music. Because it is entirely text-driven and very powerful, it doubles as a teaching vehicle for the whole synthesis canon — additive, subtractive, FM, granular, and physical-modeling methods can all be built and inspected in plain code. The Csound Book (MIT Press, 2000, ed. Richard Boulanger) is its canonical reference, with 32 tutorial chapters by leading practitioners. Its power comes with a cost: mastering Csound ‘can take a good deal of time and effort.’ Knowing what Csound is orients a learner deciding between code-based and graphical routes into synthesis.

Examples

You describe a sound in text (an instrument plus the notes to play it) and Csound renders audio from it, in contrast to dragging cables in a modular or turning knobs on a hardware synth. The Csound Book’s chapters walk through additive, subtractive, FM, granular, and waveguide methods one at a time.

Assessment

State who created Csound and in what year, and explain in one sentence how a text-based synthesis system like Csound differs in workflow from a graphical modular patching environment.