Editing Unit generator (section)

{{Short description|Basic formal unit in MUSIC-N-style programming languages}}
'''Unit generators''' (or ''ugens'') are the basic formal units in many [[MUSIC-N]]-style [[computer music programming languages]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=ChucK - [Language Specification] |url=https://chuck.stanford.edu/doc/language/ugen.html |access-date=2024-11-03 |website=chuck.stanford.edu}}</ref> They are sometimes called [[opcode]]s (particularly in [[CSound|Csound]]),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lazzarini |first=Victor |date=2017 |title=Supporting an Object-Oriented Approach to Unit Generator Development: The Csound Plugin Opcode Framework |url=https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/11607/ |journal=Applied Sciences |language=en |volume=7 |issue=10 |pages=970 |issn=2076-3417 |doi=10.3390/app7100970|doi-access=free }}</ref> though this expression is not considered accurate in that these are not written directly as [[Machine code|machine-level instructions]].{{cn|date=November 2024|reason=It would be good to have verification here because this reads more like original research or synth, but I'm not familiar enough with the tech to definitively say.}} 

Unit generators form the building blocks for designing [[Sound synthesis|synthesis]] and [[signal processing]] [[algorithm]]s in software.<ref name=supercollider-ugen>{{Cite web |title=UGen {{!}} SuperCollider 3.13.0 Help |url=https://docs.supercollider.online/Classes/UGen.html |access-date=2024-11-03 |website=docs.supercollider.online}}</ref>
The unit generator theory of sound synthesis was first developed and implemented by [[Max Mathews]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Julius |date=2007 |title=Unit-generator architectures in computer music |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252185943 |journal=[[Journal of the Acoustical Society of America]] |volume=122 |issue=5 |page=3080 |doi=10.1121/1.2943000}}</ref> and his colleagues at [[Bell Labs]] in the 1950s.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2000-04-07 |title=Bell Labs: Background: Bell Labs Text-to-Speech Synthesis: Then and Now |url=http://www.bell-labs.com/news/1997/march/5/2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000407081031/http://www.bell-labs.com/news/1997/march/5/2.html |archive-date=2000-04-07 |access-date=2024-11-03 |website=bell-labs.com |url-status=dead}}</ref>