The lack of a project to work on has left me quite unsure what to do with myself. So, rather than brood about nothing any longer, it's time to start something new...

Here's the plan: one track a month for at least six months. I will be severely limiting myself to the Csound basics, each month allowing myself slightly more freedom. The hope is that this will (1) allow me to focus on composition more than technical matters and (2) force me to master new techniques before moving on. This blog will serve mainly to give me some vague sense of responsibility, so that I stay on task. But it's a plus if a few people also find it useful and/or interesting.

For the first month/track, I will be limiting myself to this instrument:

;sk Month 01
instr 1

; p3 = dur
; p4 = amp
; p5 = freq
; p6 = attack
; p7 = release
; p8 = left channel strength
; p9 = right channel strength

k1 linen p4, p6, p3, p7
a1 oscil k1, p5, 1
outs (a1*p8), (a1*p9)

endin

And this function table:

f1 0 4096 10 1

Pretty basic, eh? I plan to compose primarily using my frontend: skwrk. Part of the reason I'm giving myself so much time between tracks is that I expect to continue developing skwrk along side this project.

Hopefully I'm back in a month's time with some music and experiences to share. For now, I've attached the first original piece I ever created with Csound. It was made entirely with an instrument very similar to the one posted above.