While many excellent tools exist for digital image creation and editing, similar tools for manipulating sound with precise timing and control are few and far between. ChucK, an audio-centric programming language, opens new vistas for sound artistry. The ChucK language provides precise high-level control over time, audio computation, and user interface elements like track pads and joysticks. Because ChucK uses the vocabulary of sound, it's easy to learn even for artists with little or no exposure to computer programming. Stable and reliable, ChucK powered the first SMule music apps and is the backbone of dozens of academic programs and laptop orchestras. This book is the first to systematically document and teach this powerful language. Programming for Muscians and Digital Artists: Creating Music with ChucK offers a complete introduction to programming in the open source music language ChucK. In it, you'll learn the basics of digital sound creation and manipulation while you discover the ChucK language. As you move example-by-example through this easy-to-follow book, you'll create meaningful and rewarding digital compositions and "instruments" that make sound and music in direct response to program logic, scores, gestures, and other systems connected via MIDI or the network. You'll also experience how the immediacy of ChucK programming enables the on-the-fly musical improvisation practiced by communities of "live music coders" around the world.