Csound is a sound and music synthesis system, providing facilities for composition and performance over a wide range of platforms. It is not restricted to any style of music, having been used for many years in the creation of classical, pop, techno, ambient, experimental, and (of course) computer music, as well as music for film and television.

Csound 5 is the current version and its software architecture has been greatly redesigned, presenting a number of significant advantages over Csound 4 for both the user and for developers wishing to call Csound from their own software. Csound 5 supports the most popular operating systems in use today, including Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Csound 5 will also probably compile and run on other Unix-based systems. (Success has been reported with NetBSD). Mac OS 7 through 9 was supported through Csound version 5.08.

Csound is now free software released under the GNU Lesser General Public License. It is developed by a community of volunteers and new contributors are welcome. Csound was originally developed by Barry L. Vercoe at the Music and Cognition Group of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, with partial support from the System Development Foundation and from the National Science Foundation Grant #IRI-8704665.

All Csound 5.11 downloads now include QuteCsound; the new, full-featured, intuitive, and cross-platform GUI that unleashes the power of Csound in a user-friendly interface.

Csound 5.11 for Mac OS X 10.5 (Intel)
Csound 5.11 for Windows
Csound 5.11 for Linux

If your system is not on the list, please check the most recent releases on the Sourceforge.net Download Page. For older systems and older versions of Csound, click here.

Please contact us if you are not sure which package you need.

In addition to the examples included with the new QuteCsound front-end, Dr. Richard Boulanger has provided the following links, which can also be found at csounds.com.

- Dr.B's HUGE collection of models, examples, MIDI instruments, tutorials, and compositions
   (from The Csound Catalog V3.0).

- Dr. B's Collection of Model Csound Compositions and MP3s

- Additional Example CSD Files from Dr.B.

Csound is also a part of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project and there are many links, examples, tutorials, and models that can be found on their Csound wiki page.

- OLPC's Csound wiki page.

- Dr.B's classic "TOOTS" from The Csound Manual (PDF and CSD files included).

- Dr.B's "Chapter 1" from The Csound Book (PDF and CSD files included).

There is also a tutorial for Windows users written by Michael Gogin's, Csound's lead Windows developer.

- Michael Gogin's Csound 5 Tutorial

• Csound Reference Manual (English)

  • Online Version
  • HTML - (multiple page format)
  • HTML - (single page format)
  • PDF - (U.S. letter size)
  • PDF - (A4 size)
  • Windows Help format - (compressed html)

• Csound Reference Manual (French)

  • French Manual README
  • HTML - (multiple page format)
  • HTML - (single page format)
  • PDF - (U.S. letter size)
  • PDF - (A4 size)
  • Windows Help format - (compressed html)


• Csound API Reference

New users are welcome to join the Csound User Discussion List. The Csound community is always happy to have users of ALL skill-levels, from the newest of newbies to the most serious of gurus! Feel free to join us on the e-mail discussion list by following the instructions provided below ...

• User Discussion List

  
  
  • To subscribe, send a message with "subscribe csound <name>" in the message body to:
    sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk
  
  
  • To post, send messages to:
    csound@lists.bath.ac.uk
  
  
  • To browse the User Discussion List without subscribing, please visit
    csound general discussion on nabble.com


• Developer Discussion List


• Other mailing lists and discussion forums

Csound has many developers and contributors, but the Csound community would like to specifically thank the three lead developers, John ffitch, Victor Lazzarini, and Michael Gogins, for the large role they play in making Csound freely available to us all.

Another big round of thanks goes to Dr. Richard Boulanger, who has been a long-time supporter and champion of Csound at Berklee College of Music's synthesis department. Dr.B's ongoing efforts have been a major contribution to the Csound community's continued growth and education, for which we are very grateful.

We would also like to thank Andrés Cabrera, the lead developer of the QuteCsound front-end and maintainer of the Csound manual. Andrés has made considerable contributions to the Csound community, and his work has helped make learning and using Csound easier than ever.

	The Csound community thanks SourceForge for making this project space available.
	Csound is also a member of Linuxaudio.org

For questions regarding this website, please contact Andy Fillebrown at andy@audiosculptures.com