This is an online lesson site for learning how to use the Csound sound and music computing system. Users will learn the basic operations of Csound through a series of directed lessons. This site uses a version of Csound compiled for Javascript that allows the code examples to be rendered directly in the browser. The only requirements for running the lesson examples is a modern, Javascript-enabled browser that supports HTML5 Web Audio. No plugins are required to run Csound in the browser.
The main page contains links to individual lessons. Each lesson page is split into two parts: on the left-hand side is a Csound CSD code example, and on the right-side is the lesson text.
The code editor on the left-hand side shows the contents of a Csound CSD project. There are two buttons in the left-hand side of the page, Run and Reset. Pressing the Run button will evaluate the contents of the CSD editor and start Csound rendering in realtime. If you would like to stop the project, press the Reset button. This stops and resets Csound so that it can run again with the Run button.
Because Csound is running within the browser, you can modify the code in the code editor and press Run to hear the modified changes. Some lessons in this site will take advantage of this feature and direct you to modify code and re-render the project to hear the changes. This provides an interactive way to learn Csound and help gain experience through examples you can follow along.
If you haven't already, please try pressing the Run button for the code editor. You should hear the piece "Trapped in Convert" by Dr. Richard Boulanger now rendering live within your browser. From here, please go back to the main page and proceed through the various lessons. The lessons are structured to introduce a new set of ideas and tools in each lesson, building upon the foundation of the previous lessons.
We hope you enjoy this site and have fun learning to make music with Csound! If you have any questions, please feel free to email the Csound User's mailing list, or file an issue at the Lessons with Csound project issue tracker.
Happy Csounding!