Dreamsong

"Dreamsong" is a 1978 recording created by American computer music musician and composer Michael McNabb at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics in Stanford University. The composition has been discussed by numerous composers and book authors, one of them including Adrian Moore who labeled it a "pioneering work" of electroacoustic music. It is significant for being one of the earliest examples of works that combine natural and non-natural "new" sounds in a sophisticated manner with digital processing. MUS10, a compiler developed from Max Mathews' Music IV synthesis software that had a huge amount of flexibility in designing and synthesizing sounds, was used for the instrument design and synthesis of "Dreamsong", a project primarily intended to create an unlimited amount of obtainable new sounds.

"Dreamsong" was composed and produced by McNabb at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics between 1977 and 1978. It was produced with the compiler MUS10, a version of Tovar's MUSCMP developed by Leland Smith from Max Mathews' Music IV synthesis software. MUS10 was used for making the instruments because it allowed for much more control over the design and synthesis of a sound than any other synthesizer or program available during the late 1970s; given that the compiler was programmed with the language ALGOL, a user could control the initialization-time and run-time functions. The fundamental purpose of making "Dreamsong" was to create an unlimited amount of obtainable new sounds, and the amount of flexibility in designing and synthesizing the instruments MUS10 could offer was a necessity in achieving this goal. Composer Loren Rush's program EDSND and the program S by James A. Moorer were used for analysing, filtering and editing the sounds, while notes from some parts of the composition were inputted with the scorewriter SCORE. A DEC KL-10 was used for carrying out all computations for "Dreamsong".

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