Chapter 6. Unit generators: ChucK objects for sound synthesis and processing

Okay, here’s where it really gets good. Having covered much of how ChucK works, we can start digging into the specifics of synthesis and processing in ChucK. At the heart of the power of ChucK for audio synthesis and processing is the concept of UGens. You’ve already used UGens, starting with our “Hello Sine” example, where you ChucKed a SinOsc UGen to the dac to hear your first sound. You continued to use UGens in pretty much every program you’ve written so far. The nice thing is that you don’t have to worry about how each UGen makes or processes sound; the designer of that UGen took care of that part. You only need to know what they can do and how to use them.

6.1. ChucK’s special UGens: adc, dac, and blackhole

6.2. The pulse width oscillator: an electronic music classic

6.3. Envelope (smooth slow function) unit generators

6.4. Frequency modulation synthesis

6.5. Plucked string synthesis by physical modeling

6.6. Intro to filter UGens: frequency-dependent gain

6.7. More on delays: room acoustics and reverberation

6.8. Delay-based audio effects

6.9. Example: fun with Filter and Delay UGens

6.10. Summary