Skip to content

References: Audio Synthesis, Oscillators & Envelopes

  1. Synthesizer - Wikipedia - Comprehensive overview of electronic sound generation, additive and subtractive synthesis, frequency modulation, and analog-to-digital signal generation for modern music production and acoustic design.

  2. Envelope (music) - Wikipedia - Detailed breakdown of Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release (ADSR) temporal amplitude contours governing how acoustic instruments and synthesized notes evolve over time.

  3. Web Audio API - Wikipedia - W3C standard high-level JavaScript system for processing and synthesizing audio in web applications, modular audio routing nodes, and hardware scheduling.

  4. The Computer Music Tutorial (Second Edition) - Curtis Roads - MIT Press - Roads formulated the definitive foundational pedagogical textbook on digital sound synthesis, oscillator waveforms, digital filters, and acoustic signal processing for computer music students.

  5. Designing Sound - Andy Farnell - MIT Press - Farnell pioneered procedural audio pedagogy, teaching how to synthesize natural acoustic events (rain, wind, footsteps) purely through mathematical DSP principles and modular audio graphs.

  6. p5.sound Library Reference - p5.js Foundation - Official API documentation for p5.Oscillator, p5.Envelope, p5.SoundFile, p5.Gain, p5.Filter, and userStartAudio() web audio context triggers for browser sound synthesis and playback.

  7. MDN Web Audio API Concepts and Usage - MDN Web Docs - Authoritative guide on AudioContext, AudioNode graph routing, oscillator nodes, gain nodes, and precise audio hardware timestamp scheduling in modern web browsers.

  8. The Coding Train: Sound Synthesis with p5.sound - The Coding Train - Visual video tutorials explaining waveform types (sine, triangle, sawtooth, square), ADSR envelope triggers, and interactive musical note triggering in p5.js sketches.

  9. W3C Web Audio API Recommendation - World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - Official standards specification detailing audio processing graphs, spatial audio panning, convolution reverbs, and sample rate parameter definitions for web platforms.

  10. Ableton: Learning Synths - Ableton - Interactive web-based synthesizer playground teaching waveform timbres, filter cutoffs, resonance, LFO modulation, and ADSR amplitude envelopes with hands-on sound synthesis widgets.