Paul Lansky, professor of music at Princeton University, welcomed Iowa State students to computer-generated music, a field in which computer programs are used to create sound, on campus over the weekend.

Lansky appeared at the LIPA Festival, a musical event held annually at ISU, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week.

“The computer is an instrument of the imagination,” Lansky said. “It is not constrained by physics or history. With a little programming and pencil and paper, you could create something new.”

Thursday night Lansky gave a technical presentation to electrical engineering and computer science students at the general meeting of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

“Digital Signal Processing (DSP) is how computers deal with sound,” Lansky said.

DSP involves digitally converting real sounds so that pitch, timbre and duration of a sound can be detached and manipulated, Lansky said. This enables the programmer to increase the speed of a voice sample without getting the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” effect, he added.

Lansky also stressed the importance of DSP as a career opportunity to the IEEE students.

“DSP is one of the hottest jobs out there in the field,” he said.

Lansky held two “digital” concerts on Friday and Saturday nights in the Recital Hall of the Music Building. His works are available at most record stores and via the internet with a credit card.

His home page can be accessed on the World Wide Web at: http://www.music.princeton.edu/~paul.