The ixiQuarks: merging code and GUI in one creative space

This paper reports on ixiQuarks; an environment of instruments and effects that is built on top of the audio programming language SuperCollider. The rationale of these instruments is to explore alternative ways of designing musical interaction in screen-based software, and investigate how semiotics in interface design affects the musical output. The ixiQuarks are part of external libraries available to SuperCollider through the Quarks system. They are software instruments based on a non- realist design ideology that rejects the simulation of acoustic instruments or music hardware and focuses on experimentation at the level of musical interaction. In this environment we try to merge the graphical with the textual in the same instruments, allowing the user to reprogram and change parts of them in runtime. After a short introduction to SuperCollider and the Quark system, we will describe the ixiQuarks and the philosophical basis of their design. We conclude by looking at how they can be seen as epistemic tools that influence the musician in a complex hermeneutic circle of interpretation and signification

Real-Time Physically Based Sound Synthesis and Application in Multimodal Interaction

An immersive experience in virtual environments requires realistic auditory feedback that is closely coupled with other modalities, such as vision and touch. This is particularly challenging for real-time applications due to its stringent computational requirement. In this dissertation, I present and evaluate effective real-time physically based sound synthesis models that integrate visual and touch data and apply them to create richly varying multimodal interaction. I first propose an efficient contact sound synthesis technique that accounts for texture information used for visual rendering and greatly reinforces cross-modal perception. Secondly, I present both empirical and psychoacoustic approaches that formally study the geometry-invariant property of the commonly used material model in real-time sound synthesis. Based on this property, I design a novel example-based material parameter estimation framework that automatically creates synthetic sound effects naturally controlled by complex geometry and dynamics in visual simulation. Lastly, I translate user touch input captured on commodity multi-touch devices to physical performance models that drive both visual and auditory rendering. This novel multimodal interaction is demonstrated in a virtual musical instrument application on both a large-size tabletop and mobile tablet devices, and evaluated through pilot studies. Such an application offers capabilities for intuitive and expressive music playing, rapid prototyping of virtual instruments, and active exploration of sound effects determined by various physical parameters.Doctor of Philosoph

Comparison of input devices in an ISEE direct timbre manipulation task

The representation and manipulation of sound within multimedia systems is an important and currently under-researched area. The paper gives an overview of the authors' work on the direct manipulation of audio information, and describes a solution based upon the navigation of four-dimensional scaled timbre spaces. Three hardware input devices were experimentally evaluated for use in a timbre space navigation task: the Apple Standard Mouse, Gravis Advanced Mousestick II joystick (absolute and relative) and the Nintendo Power Glove. Results show that the usability of these devices significantly affected the efficacy of the system, and that conventional low-cost, low-dimensional devices provided better performance than the low-cost, multidimensional dataglove

Multiple Media Interfaces for Music Therapy

This article describes interfaces (and the supporting technological infrastructure) to create audiovisual instruments for use in music therapy. In considering how the multidimensional nature of sound requires multidimensional input control, we propose a model to help designers manage the complex mapping between input devices and multiple media software. We also itemize a research agenda

A Conceptual Framework for Motion Based Music Applications

Imaginary projections are the core of the framework for motion based music applications presented in this paper. Their design depends on the space covered by the motion tracking device, but also on the musical feature involved in the application. They can be considered a very powerful tool because they allow not only to project in the virtual environment the image of a traditional acoustic instrument, but also to express any spatially defined abstract concept. The system pipeline starts from the musical content and, through a geometrical interpretation, arrives to its projection in the physical space. Three case studies involving different motion tracking devices and different musical concepts will be analyzed. The three examined applications have been programmed and already tested by the authors. They aim respectively at musical expressive interaction (Disembodied Voices), tonal music knowledge (Harmonic Walk) and XX century music composition (Hand Composer)

Effect of Changing the Vocal Tract Shape on the Sound Production of the Recorder: An Experimental and Theoretical Study

Changing the vocal tract shape is one of the techniques which can be used by the players of wind instruments to modify the quality of the sound. It has been intensely studied in the case of reed instruments but has received only little attention in the case of air-jet instruments. This paper presents a first study focused on changes in the vocal tract shape in recorder playing techniques. Measurements carried out with recorder players allow to identify techniques involving changes of the mouth shape as well as consequences on the sound. A second experiment performed in laboratory mimics the coupling with the vocal tract on an artificial mouth. The phase of the transfer function between the instrument and the mouth of the player is identified to be the relevant parameter of the coupling. It is shown to have consequences on the spectral content in terms of energy distribution among the even and odd harmonics, as well as on the stability of the first two oscillating regimes. The results gathered from the two experiments allow to develop a simplified model of sound production including the effect of changing the vocal tract shape. It is based on the modification of the jet instabilities due to the pulsating emerging jet. Two kinds of instabilities, symmetric and anti-symmetric, with respect to the stream axis, are controlled by the coupling with the vocal tract and the acoustic oscillation within the pipe, respectively. The symmetry properties of the flow are mapped on the temporal formulation of the source term, predicting a change in the even / odd harmonics energy distribution. The predictions are in qualitative agreement with the experimental observations

Sketching sonic interactions by imitation-driven sound synthesis

Sketching is at the core of every design activity. In visual design, pencil and paper are the preferred tools to produce sketches for their simplicity and immediacy. Analogue tools for sonic sketching do not exist yet, although voice and gesture are embodied abilities commonly exploited to communicate sound concepts. The EU project SkAT-VG aims to support vocal sketching with computeraided technologies that can be easily accessed, understood and controlled through vocal and gestural imitations. This imitation-driven sound synthesis approach is meant to overcome the ephemerality and timbral limitations of human voice and gesture, allowing to produce more refined sonic sketches and to think about sound in a more designerly way. This paper presents two main outcomes of the project: The Sound Design Toolkit, a palette of basic sound synthesis models grounded on ecological perception and physical description of sound-producing phenomena, and SkAT-Studio, a visual framework based on sound design workflows organized in stages of input, analysis, mapping, synthesis, and output. The integration of these two software packages provides an environment in which sound designers can go from concepts, through exploration and mocking-up, to prototyping in sonic interaction design, taking advantage of all the possibilities of- fered by vocal and gestural imitations in every step of the process

An epistemic dimension space for musical devices

The analysis of digital music systems has traditionally been characterized by an approach that can be defined as phenomenological. The focus has been on the body and its relationship to the machine, often neglecting the system’s conceptual design. This paper brings into focus the epistemic features of digital systems, which implies emphasizing the cognitive, conceptual and music theoretical side of our musical instruments. An epistemic dimension space for the analysis of musical devices is proposed

An introduction to interactive sonification

The research field of sonification, a subset of the topic of auditory display, has developed rapidly in recent decades. It brings together interests from the areas of data mining, exploratory data analysis, human–computer interfaces, and computer music. Sonification presents information by using sound (particularly nonspeech), so that the user of an auditory display obtains a deeper understanding of the data or processes under investigation by listening