Lesson plan
Nyquist (programming language)
Nyquist is a programming language for sound synthesis based on the Lisp programming language. It is an extension of the XLISP dialect of Lisp, and is named after Harry Nyquist. With Nyquist, the programmer designs musical instruments by combining functions, and can call upon these instruments and generate a sound just by typing a simple expression. The programmer can combine simple expressions into complex ones to create a whole composition, and can also generate various other kinds of musical and non-musical sounds. The Nyquist interpreter can read and write sound files, MIDI files and Adagio text-based music score files. On many platforms, it can also produce direct audio output in real time. The Nyquist programming language can also be used to write plug-in effects for the Audacity digital audio editor. One notable difference between Nyquist and more traditional MUSIC-N languages is that Nyquist does not segregate synthesis functions (see unit generator) from "scoring" functions. For example Csound is actually two languages, one for creating "orchestras" and the other for writing "scores". With Nyquist these two domains are combined. Nyquist runs under Linux and other Unix environments, Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. The Nyquist programming language and interpreter were written by Roger Dannenberg at Carnegie Mellon University, with support from Yamaha Corporation and IBM.
Article summary
Nyquist is a programming language for sound synthesis based on the Lisp programming language. It is an extension of the XLISP dialect of Lisp, and is named after Harry Nyquist. With Nyquist, the programmer designs musical instruments by combining functions, and can call upon these instruments and generate a sound just by typing a simple expression. The programmer can combine simple expressions into complex ones to create a whole composition, and can also generate various other kinds of musical and non-musical sounds. The Nyquist interpreter can read and write sound files, MIDI files and Adagio text-based music score files. On many platforms, it can also produce direct audio output in real time. The Nyquist programming language can also be used to write plug-in effects for the Audacity digital audio editor. One notable difference between Nyquist and more traditional MUSIC-N languages is that Nyquist does not segregate synthesis functions (see unit generator) from "scoring" functions. For example Csound is actually two languages, one for creating "orchestras" and the other for writing "scores". With Nyquist these two domains are combined. Nyquist runs under Linux and other Unix environments, Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. The Nyquist programming language and interpreter were written by Roger Dannenberg at Carnegie Mellon University, with support from Yamaha Corporation and IBM.
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.