Accessibility and dimensionality: enhanced real time creative independence for digital musicians with quadriplegic cerebral palsy

Inclusive music activities for people with physical disabilities commonly emphasise facilitated processes, based both on constrained gestural capabilities, and on the simplicity of the available interfaces. Inclusive music processes employ consumer controllers, computer access tools and/or specialized digital musical instruments (DMIs). The first category reveals a design ethos identified by the authors as artefact multiplication -- many sliders, buttons, dials and menu layers; the latter types offer ergonomic accessibility through artefact magnification. We present a prototype DMI that eschews artefact multiplication in pursuit of enhanced real time creative independence. We reconceptualise the universal click-drag interaction model via a single sensor type, which affords both binary and continuous performance control. Accessibility is optimized via a familiar interaction model and through customized ergonomics, but it is the mapping strategy that emphasizes transparency and sophistication in the hierarchical correspondences between the available gesture dimensions and expressive musical cues. Through a participatory and progressive methodology we identify an ostensibly simple targeting gesture rich in dynamic and reliable features: (1) contact location; (2) contact duration; (3) momentary force; (4) continuous force, and; (5) dyad orientation. These features are mapped onto dynamic musical cues, most notably via new mappings for vibrato and arpeggio execution

The Bent Leather Band Ensemble : Children of Grainger

This paper discusses technical issues confronting the contemporary electronic instrument builder and presents Bent Leather Band\u27s aim to develop playable instruments

The Bent Leather Band Ensemble: Children of Grainger

Grainger’s Free Music remains a rich source of discovery for contemporary Australian musicians. Free Music represents a significant departure point for electronic musicians and instrument makers searching for new musical language, form and expression. This paper presents research undertaken by the Bent Leather Band exploring Grainger’s Free Music ideas within a twenty first century music making context embracing live improvisation, instrument and software design. Research outcomes presented in this paper includes a range of creative works; Meta Serpent wind controllers, the fourth generation of the Light Harp controller, new MAX based software engines for signal processing, control-modes and strategies for the instruments and music including Bent Leather Band’s latest collection of works “Children of Grainger.” This paper discusses technical issues confronting the contemporary electronic instrument builder and presents Bent Leather Band’s aim to develop playable instruments

Human-Computer interaction methodologies applied in the evaluation of haptic digital musical instruments

Recent developments in interactive technologies have seen major changes in the manner in which artists, performers, and creative individuals interact with digital music technology; this is due to the increasing variety of interactive technologies that are readily available today. Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs) present musicians with performance challenges that are unique to this form of computer music. One of the most significant deviations from conventional acoustic musical instruments is the level of physical feedback conveyed by the instrument to the user. Currently, new interfaces for musical expression are not designed to be as physically communicative as acoustic instruments. Specifically, DMIs are often void of haptic feedback and therefore lack the ability to impart important performance information to the user. Moreover, there currently is no standardised way to measure the effect of this lack of physical feedback. Best practice would expect that there should be a set of methods to effectively, repeatedly, and quantifiably evaluate the functionality, usability, and user experience of DMIs. Earlier theoretical and technological applications of haptics have tried to address device performance issues associated with the lack of feedback in DMI designs and it has been argued that the level of haptic feedback presented to a user can significantly affect the user’s overall emotive feeling towards a musical device. The outcome of the investigations contained within this thesis are intended to inform new haptic interface

Bimanuality in Alternate Musical Instruments

This paper presents a study of bimanual control applied to sound synthesis. This study deals with coordination, cooperation, and abilities of our hands in musical context. We describe examples of instruments made using subtractive synthesis, scanned synthesis in Max/MSP and commercial stand-alone software synthesizers via MIDI communication protocol. These instruments have been designed according to a multi-layer-mapping model, which provides modular design. They have been used in concerts and performance considerations are discussed too