Csound
software and an audio programming language
Csound is a domain-specific computer programming language for audio programming. It is named Csound because it is written in the language C, in contrast to some of its predecessors. It is free and open-source software, released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) 2.1 or later.
History
Csound was originally developed by Barry Vercoe at the MIT Media Lab in 1985, based on his earlier system called Music 11, which in its turn followed the MUSIC-N model initiated by Max Mathews at Bell Labs. Csound development continued throughout the 1990s and 2000s, led by John Fitch at the University of Bath.
Many developers have contributed to Csound, most notably Istvan Varga, Gabriel Maldonado, Robin Whittle, Richard Karpen, Iain McCurdy, Michael Gogins, Matt Ingalls, Steven Yi, Richard Boulanger, Victor Lazzarini and Joachim Heintz. Developed over many years, as of 2024, it has nearly 1,700 unit generators. One of its greatest strengths is that it is completely modular and extensible, by the user.
Csound is closely related to the underlying language for the Structured Audio extensions to MPEG-4, Structured Audio Orchestra Language (SAOL).
Csound code
Csound takes two specially formatted text files as input.
“Csound” enters the record as software and an audio programming language. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Csound, software and audio can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q259347. The Library of Congress control number is sh2002010420. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1985 and 2024.
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This entry incorporates text from “Csound” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.