Viskijukka - Software for Realtime Music Visualization

Viskijukka on ohjelmisto, jota käytetään musiikin reaaliaikaiseen visualisointiin live- tilanteissa, kuten konserteissa. Visuaalien ympärille on rakentunut oma alakulttuurin- sa, jonka edustajia ovat Video Jockeyt eli VJ:t. Tyypillisesti käytetty kuvamateriaali koostuu videoleikkeistä, joiden toistamisen ja efektien tuloksena saadaan aikaan kiin- nostava esitys. Viskijukka lähestyy visuaalien ongelmaa toisesta suunnasta: esitettävä grafiikka tuotetaan reaaliajassa, mikä avaa uusia mahdollisuuksia 3D-grafiikan ja no- pean musiikkiin reagoimisen kautta. Lähtökohdan keskeisiä haasteita ovat esityksen säilyttäminen kiinnostavana sekä joustavan ohjelmiston rakentaminen. Tässä lopputyössä kuvataan Viskijukka-ohjelmistolle asetetut tavoitteet, ohjelmisto- tekninen toteutus ja lopuksi arvioidaan projektin onnistumista. Vertailu muihin ohjel- miin auttaa lukijaa hahmottamaan VJ-kentän työkaluja ja toimintatapoja. VJ-kulttuurin lisäksi ohjelmisto kytkeytyy vahvasti avointen ohjelmien ideologiaan, jonka tradition mukaisesti koko tuotettu lähdekoodi julkaistaan vapaaseen levitykseen.Viskijukka — Whiskey Jockey — is a software platform that is used for the real-time visualization of music in live situations such as concerts. The concert visuals have gi- ven birth to a complete subculture of Video Jockeys (VJ’s). Typically the material used consists of video clips that are played with additional effects to produce an interesting performance. Viskijukka approaches the problem from a different angle: the graphics are produced in real-time which allows for new possibilities such as 3D graphics and fast reacting to the music. The largest challenges of the approach are keeping the per- formance interesting and the programming of the needed flexible software. This final thesis describes the goals set for the platform, the software architecture and finally the evaluation of the project. Some benchmarking against the existing solutions is provided to help the reader understand the tools and methods used by Video Jockeys. Besides the VJ culture the platform is strongly connected to the open source ideology. Following the open source tradition the full source code produced will be released to the community

A Critical Analysis of Synthesizer User Interfaces for Timbre

In this paper, we review and analyse categories of user interface used in hardware and software electronic music synthesizers. Problems with the user specification and modification of timbre are discussed. Three principal types of user interface for controlling timbre are distinguished. A problem common to all three categories is identified: that the core language of each category has no well-defined mapping onto the task languages of subjective timbre categories as used by musicians

A Framework for Evaluating Model-Driven Self-adaptive Software Systems

In the last few years, Model Driven Development (MDD), Component-based Software Development (CBSD), and context-oriented software have become interesting alternatives for the design and construction of self-adaptive software systems. In general, the ultimate goal of these technologies is to be able to reduce development costs and effort, while improving the modularity, flexibility, adaptability, and reliability of software systems. An analysis of these technologies shows them all to include the principle of the separation of concerns, and their further integration is a key factor to obtaining high-quality and self-adaptable software systems. Each technology identifies different concerns and deals with them separately in order to specify the design of the self-adaptive applications, and, at the same time, support software with adaptability and context-awareness. This research studies the development methodologies that employ the principles of model-driven development in building self-adaptive software systems. To this aim, this article proposes an evaluation framework for analysing and evaluating the features of model-driven approaches and their ability to support software with self-adaptability and dependability in highly dynamic contextual environment. Such evaluation framework can facilitate the software developers on selecting a development methodology that suits their software requirements and reduces the development effort of building self-adaptive software systems. This study highlights the major drawbacks of the propped model-driven approaches in the related works, and emphasise on considering the volatile aspects of self-adaptive software in the analysis, design and implementation phases of the development methodologies. In addition, we argue that the development methodologies should leave the selection of modelling languages and modelling tools to the software developers.Comment: model-driven architecture, COP, AOP, component composition, self-adaptive application, context oriented software developmen

The listening room, Camden Arts Centre

This version of The Listening Room is minimal, one microphone and two loudspeakers in the Reading Room of Camden Arts Centre, a relatively small space for this work. The Reading Room is the former entrance to the building, this entrance has been bricked over to create three highly reflective wall surfaces in the room. The room resonance is so pronounced that my usual placement of microphone and speakers would tend to fix on one pitch and stay there - to introduce more of the available frequencies from the space I left the Reading Room table in the space to allow an additional reflective element and used an asymmetric placement of loudspeakers, one at the side and one under the table

Final Research Report for Sound Design and Audio Player

This deliverable describes the work on Task 4.3 Algorithms for sound design and feature developments for audio player. The audio player runs on the in-store player (ISP) and takes care of rendering the music playlists via beat-synchronous automatic DJ mixing, taking advantage of the rich musical content description extracted in T4.2 (beat markers, structural segmentation into intro and outro, musical and sound content classification). The deliverable covers prototypes and final results on: (1) automatic beat-synchronous mixing by beat alignment and time stretching – we developed an algorithm for beat alignment and scheduling of time-stretched tracks; (2) compensation of play duration changes introduced by time stretching – in order to make the playlist generator independent of beat mixing, we chose to readjust the tempo of played tracks such that their stretched duration is the same as their original duration; (3) prospective research on the extraction of data from DJ mixes – to alleviate the lack of extensive ground truth databases of DJ mixing practices, we propose steps towards extracting this data from existing mixes by alignment and unmixing of the tracks in a mix. We also show how these methods can be evaluated even without labelled test data, and propose an open dataset for further research; (4) a description of the software player module, a GUI-less application to run on the ISP that performs streaming of tracks from disk and beat-synchronous mixing. The estimation of cue points where tracks should cross-fade is now described in D4.7 Final Research Report on Auto-Tagging of Music.EC/H2020/688122/EU/Artist-to-Business-to-Business-to-Consumer Audio Branding System/ABC D

Software agents in music and sound art research/creative work: Current state and a possible direction

Composers, musicians and computer scientists have begun to use software-based agents to create music and sound art in both linear and non-linear (non-predetermined form and/or content) idioms, with some robust approaches now drawing on various disciplines. This paper surveys recent work: agent technology is first introduced, a theoretical framework for its use in creating music/sound art works put forward, and an overview of common approaches then given. Identifying areas of neglect in recent research, a possible direction for further work is then briefly explored. Finally, a vision for a new hybrid model that integrates non-linear, generative, conversational and affective perspectives on interactivity is proposed

Designing relational pedagogies with jam2jamXO

This paper examines the affordances of the philosophy and practice of open source and the application of it in developing music education software. In particular I will examine the parallels inherent in the ‘openness’ of pragmatist philosophy in education (Dewey 1916, 1989) such as group or collaborative learning, discovery learning (Bruner 1966) and learning through creative activity with computers (Papert 1980, 1994). Primarily I am interested in ‘relational pedagogies’ (Ruthmann and Dillon In Press) which is in a real sense about the ethics of the transaction between student and teacher in an ecology where technology plays a more significant role. In these contexts relational pedagogies refers to how the music teacher manages their relationships with students and evaluates the affordances of open source technology in that process. It is concerned directly with how the relationship between student and teacher is affected by the technological tools, as is the capacity for music making and learning. In particular technologies that have agency present the opportunity for a partnership between user and technology that enhances the capacity for expressive music making, productive social interaction and learning. In this instance technologies with agency are defined as ones that enhance the capacity to be expressive and perform tasks with virtuosity and complexity where the technology translates simple commands and gestures into complex outcomes. The technology enacts a partnership with the user that becomes both a cognitive and performative amplifier. Specifically we have used this term to describe interactions with generative technologies that use procedural invention as a creative technique to produce music and visual media

Context-aware adaptation in DySCAS

DySCAS is a dynamically self-configuring middleware for automotive control systems. The addition of autonomic, context-aware dynamic configuration to automotive control systems brings a potential for a wide range of benefits in terms of robustness, flexibility, upgrading etc. However, the automotive systems represent a particularly challenging domain for the deployment of autonomics concepts, having a combination of real-time performance constraints, severe resource limitations, safety-critical aspects and cost pressures. For these reasons current systems are statically configured. This paper describes the dynamic run-time configuration aspects of DySCAS and focuses on the extent to which context-aware adaptation has been achieved in DySCAS, and the ways in which the various design and implementation challenges are met