Surfing the Waves: Live Audio Mosaicing of an Electric Bass Performance as a Corpus Browsing Interface

In this paper, the authors describe how they use an electric bass as a subtle, expressive and intuitive interface to browse the rich sample bank available to most laptop owners. This is achieved by audio mosaicing of the live bass performance audio, through corpus-based concatenative synthesis (CBCS) techniques, allowing a mapping of the multi-dimensional expressivity of the performance onto foreign audio material, thus recycling the virtuosity acquired on the electric instrument with a trivial learning curve. This design hypothesis is contextualised and assessed within the Sandbox#n series of bass+laptop meta-instruments, and the authors describe technical means of the implementation through the use of the open-source CataRT CBCS system adapted for live mosaicing. They also discuss their encouraging early results and provide a list of further explorations to be made with that rich new interface

Three Solitudes and a DJ: A Mashed-up Study of Counterpoint in a Digital Realm

This dissertation is primarily concerned with developing an understanding of how the use of pre-recorded digital audio shapes and augments conventional notions of counterpoint. It outlines a theoretical framework for analyzing the contrapuntal elements in electronically and digitally composed musics, specifically music mashups, and Glenn Gould’s Solitude Trilogy ‘contrapuntal radio’ works. Conventional studies of counterpoint encompass sixteenth- through early twentieth-century modernist and neo- classical materials but stop there. Composition by magnetic tape and computer software using pre-existing recorded audio offers the potential for a new study of music that displays clear contrapuntal elements but lacks the analytical models to outline the underlying musical systems. Central to these investigations is the assertion that counterpoint operates not only within the sphere of art music but also in the compositional logic of non-musical sound works (radio documentary) and in the harmonic and melodic underpinnings of popular music. The first chapter examines technological and cultural developments that contribute to the formation of digital contrapuntal music. The second and third chapters outline the traditional musical elements—harmony, form, and texture—of contrapuntal radio and mashups, respectively. Chapter Four explores how counterpoint exists in the sonic space of the stereo or mono sound field. Chapter Five presents the notion of program as a useful concept for analyzing interaction between lyric samples to form original narratives. These two final chapters present the original contributions from contrapuntal radio and mashups to a study of counterpoint. In each of these chapters, counterpoint forms the basis for how we perceive the underlying systems of musical works composed by traditional counterpoint or by assembling pre-existing recorded audio. The connection between the old and new is important, as one does not supplant but augment the other. As such, counterpoint is a fluid musical concept, rather than a fixed system of rules governing composition in a narrow musical palette

Compositions Combining Acoustic, Electro-Acoustic And Synthetic Instruments For Modern Jazz Performance

Compositions Combining Acoustic, Electro-acoustic and Synthetic Instruments for Modern Jazz Performance presents a series of seven compositions by vibraphonist and composer David Kemp. The seven works primarily explore combining acoustic (trumpet and drums), electro-acoustic (electric guitar, bass guitar and pickup equipped vibraphone) and synthetic (electronically created synthesizer patches on a Roland XV5050 Sound Module) instruments, mixing musical styles, using rhythm and duration as a governing force in composition, using an extensive harmonic palette and incorporating technology. In this document, the scores are presented in full in a Portfolio Volume, accompanied by recorded performances in audio and visual formats and written analyses of the compositions. Included is a discussion of archetypal composers, similar stylistic traits of their music to mine, and conclusions drawn from the project. The document is completed by a bibliography and discography

Space and Voice: Compositions for Contemporary Cello

This dissertation contains a diverse portfolio of ensemble and solo compositions for contemporary cello. Throughout the accompanying paper, the concepts space and voice are utilized as analytical lenses, as they are central to my compositional approach. The evolution of cello space in Western art music is contrasted with cello space in jazz, and the modes of sound production in the classical cello tradition are compared to the voice of the jazz cello. While examining jazz cello voice, the notion of idiomatic improvisation is considered and the paper turns to original research regarding the recordings of Harry Babasin, Oscar Pettiford, and Fred Katz, who introduced the cello as an improvising instrument to the jazz genre. The remainder of the written component focuses on my composition process and aesthetic considerations. Composition and improvisation are treated as distinct but interrelated points along a continuum of creative music practice. Within the composition process, improvisation is used to generate musical materials, and various methods of structuring pieces to incorporate improvisation are employed. Commentaries on the composition process, including the salient features pertaining to space and voice, are included for each score

Intelligent Tools for Drum Loop Retrieval and Generation

Large libraries of musical data are an increasingly common feature of contemporary computer-based music production practice, with producers often relying heavily on large, curated libraries of data such as loops and samples when making tracks. Drum loop libraries are a particularly common type of library in this context. However, their typically large size, coupled with often poor user interfaces means navigating and exploring them in a fast, easy and enjoyable way is not always possible. Additionally, writing a drum part for a whole track out of many drum loops can be a laborious process, requiring manually editing of many drum loops. The aim of this thesis is to contribute novel techniques based on Music Information Retrieval (MIR) and machine learning that make the process of writing drum tracks using drum loops faster, easier and more enjoyable. We primarily focus on tools for drum loop library navigation and exploration, with additional work on assistive generation of drum loops. We contribute proof-of-concept and prototype tools, Groove Explorer and Groove Explorer 2, for drum loop library exploration based on an interface applying similarity-based visual arrangement of drum loops. Work on Groove Explorer suggested that there were limitations in the existing state-of-the-art approaches to drum loop similarity modelling that must be addressed for tools such as ours to be successful. This was verified via a perceptual study, which identified possible areas of improvement in similarity modelling. Following this, we develop and evaluate a set of novel models for drum loop analysis that capture rhythmic structure and the perceptually relevant qualities of microtiming. Drawing from this, a new approach to drum loop similarity modelling was verified in context as part of Groove Explorer 2, which we evaluated via a user study. The results indicated that our approach could make drum loop library exploration faster, easier and more enjoyable. We finally present an automatic drum loop generation system, jaki, that uses a novel approach for drum loop generation according to user constraints, that could extend Groove Explorer 2 as a drum loop editing and composition tool. Combined, these two systems could offer an end-to-end solution to improved writing of drum tracks

Analysing multi-person timing in music and movement : event based methods

Accurate timing of movement in the hundreds of milliseconds range is a hallmark of human activities such as music and dance. Its study requires accurate measurement of the times of events (often called responses) based on the movement or acoustic record. This chapter provides a comprehensive over - view of methods developed to capture, process, analyse, and model individual and group timing [...] This chapter is structured in five main sections, as follows. We start with a review of data capture methods, working, in turn, through a low cost system to research simple tapping, complex movements, use of video, inertial measurement units, and dedicated sensorimotor synchronisation software. This is followed by a section on music performance, which includes topics on the selection of music materials, sound recording, and system latency. The identification of events in the data stream can be challenging and this topic is treated in the next section, first for movement then for music. Finally, we cover methods of analysis, including alignment of the channels, computation of between channel asynchrony errors and modelling of the data set

Musical Haptics

Haptic Musical Instruments; Haptic Psychophysics; Interface Design and Evaluation; User Experience; Musical Performanc

Proceedings of the 7th Sound and Music Computing Conference

Proceedings of the SMC2010 - 7th Sound and Music Computing Conference, July 21st - July 24th 2010

Beyond key velocity: Continuous sensing for expressive control on the Hammond Organ and Digital keyboards

In this thesis we seek to explore the potential for continuous key position to be used as an expressive control in keyboard musical instruments, and how preexisting skills can be adapted to leverage this additional control. Interaction between performer and sound generation on a keyboard instrument is often restricted to a number of discrete events on the keys themselves (notes onsets and offsets), while complementary continuous control is provided via additional interfaces, such as pedals, modulation wheels and knobs. The rich vocabulary of gestures that skilled performers can achieve on the keyboard is therefore often simplified to a single, discrete velocity measurement. A limited number of acoustical and electromechanical keyboard instruments do, however, present affordances of continuous key control, so that the role of the key is not limited to delivering discrete events, but its instantaneous position is, to a certain extent, an element of expressive control. Recent evolutions in sensing technologies allow to leverage continuous key position as an expressive element in the sound generation of digital keyboard musical instruments. We start by exploring the expression available on the keys of the Hammond organ, where nine contacts are closed at different points of the key throw for each key onset and we find that the velocity and the percussiveness of the touch affect the way the contacts close and bounce, producing audible differences in the onset transient of each note. We develop an embedded hardware and software environment for low-latency sound generation controlled by continuous key position, which we use to create two digital keyboard instruments. The first of these emulates the sound of a Hammond and can be controlled with continuous key position, so that it allows for arbitrary mapping between the key position and the nine virtual contacts of the digital sound generator. A study with 10 musicians shows that, when exploring the instrument on their own, the players can appreciate the differences between different settings and tend to develop a personal preference for one of them. In the second instrument, continuous key position is the fundamental means of expression: percussiveness, key position and multi-key gestures control the parameters of a physical model of a flute. In a study with 6 professional musicians playing this instrument we gather insights on the adaptation process, the limitations of the interface and the transferability of traditional keyboard playing techniques