Mapping the Klangdom Live: Cartographies for piano with two performers and electronics

The use of high-density loudspeaker arrays (HDLAs) has recently experienced rapid growth in a wide variety of technical and aesthetic approaches. Still less explored, however, are applications to interactive music with live acoustic instruments. How can immersive spatialization accompany an instrument already with its own rich spatial diffusion pattern, like the grand piano, in the context of a score-based concert work? Potential models include treating the spatialized electronic sound in analogy to the diffusion pattern of the instrument, with spatial dimensions parametrized as functions of timbral features. Another approach is to map the concert hall as a three-dimensional projection of the instrument’s internal physical layout, a kind of virtual sonic microscope. Or, the diffusion of electronic spatial sound can be treated as an independent polyphonic element, complementary to but not dependent upon the instrument’s own spatial characteristics. Cartographies (2014), for piano with two performers and electronics, explores each of these models individually and in combination, as well as their technical implementation with the Meyer Sound Matrix3 system of the Su ̈ dwestrundfunk Experimentalstudio in Freiburg, Germany, and the 43.4-channel Klangdom of the Institut fu ̈ r Musik und Akustik at the Zentrum fu ̈ r Kunst und Media in Karlsruhe, Germany. The process of composing, producing, and performing the work raises intriguing questions, and invaluable hints, for the composition and performance of live interactive works with HDLAs in the future

Zirkonium: Non-invasive software for sound spatialisation

Zirkonium is a flexible, non-invasive, open-source program for sound spatialisation over spherical (dome-shaped) loudspeaker setups. By non-invasive, we mean that Zirkonium offers the artist spatialisation capabilities without forcing her to change her usual way of working. This is achieved by supporting a variety of means of designing and controlling spatialisations. Zikonium accommodates user-defined speaker distributions and offers HRTF-based headphone simulation for situations when the actual speaker setup is not available. It can acquire sound sources from files, live input, or via the so-called device mode, which allows Zirkonium to appear to other programs as an audio interface. Control data may be predefined and stored in a file or generated elsewhere and sent over OSC. This paper details Zirkonium, its design philosophy and implementation, and how we have been using it since 200

Physical controller development for real time 3D audio spatialization

The development of space as a musical parameter can be traced back to Baroque and Classical periods where performances would make use of unusual places inside churches or concert halls to augment the dramatic impact of some works. Even so, this wasn’t enough for composers that followed, as they started to think about space as a real parameter for musical composition, just as important as for example pitch and timbre. Direction and trajectory were then in the minds of the XXth century composers, and from then on, they were aided by innovative technology and imaginative musical notation formats to take bigger steps towards present day spatialization in music. This dissertation focuses on what happens next, when computers are a common tool for musicians and composers and spatialization is surrounded by technology and software. Different algorithms and spatialization software allow for improved techniques of manipulating a virtual sound source ‘s behavior in space. This manipulation can either be programed or drawn with the aid of a three-dimensional control mechanism. It was then considered that a qualitative methodological approach would help understand some of the choices made until now surrounding this three-dimensional control of sound sources. With that in consideration, this dissertation describes the process and results of developing a three-dimensional control interface that features physical responsiveness to the user’s movement. The study is then divided and presented in three main chapters that offer an historical view and bibliographical research; an overview of the 3d controller design/construction process; and test description and result analyses on some initial behavior of the controller. The final result is a tested controller that uncovers requirements for future work to transform it into a spatialization instrument.O desenvolvimento do espaço como parâmetro musical remonta aos períodos Barroco e Clássico durante os quais performances musicais utilizavam diferentes posições dentro de igrejas ou salas de concerto para aumentar o impacto dramático de algumas obras. Mesmo assim, isso não foi suficiente para os futuros compositores que começaram a pensar sobre o espaço como um parâmetro composicional, tão importante como, por exemplo, o tom e o timbre. Nas mentes dos compositores do séc. XX estavam a direção e a trajetória, e a partir de então foram auxiliados pela tecnologia inovadora e formatos de notação musical imaginativos para caminharem em direção à atual espacialização na música. Esta dissertação descreve o que acontece a seguir, quando os computadores são uma ferramenta comum para músicos e compositores e a espacialização é cercada por tecnologia e software. Diferentes algoritmos e software de espacialização permitem técnicas aprimoradas de manipulação do comportamento de uma fonte de som virtual no espaço. Esta manipulação pode ser programada ou desenhada com o auxílio de um mecanismo de controle tridimensional. Considerou-se então que uma abordagem metodológica qualitativa ajudaria a entender algumas das escolhas feitas até agora, sobre o controle tridimensional de fontes de som. Paralelamente à pesquisa do estado da arte, existiram processos que compreenderam a criação de uma interface de controle tridimensional que também ofereceria capacidade de resposta física ao movimento do usuário. O estudo é então dividido e apresentado em três capítulos principais, que oferecem: uma visão histórica e pesquisa bibliográfica sobre o estado de arte da espacialização sonora num contexto musical; uma visão geral do processo de projeto/construção do controlador 3d; e uma descrição dos testse e a análise dos seus resultados sobre algum comportamento inicial do controlador. O resultado final foi um controlador testado que revela os próximos passos a serem tomados para o transformar num instrumento de espacialização

Musik | Klang | Verwaltung | Dispositiv. Wie Musikklangverwaltungen als Musikmachtdinge mittels Musikmachding Musiktabellenformular das Musikmachen, Musikmachende und Musik verwalten. Ein fiktiver Schriftverkehr

Die Live Loops der Musikapp GarageBand, die Musikästhetik Musique concrète, die Deutsche Musikverwaltung und das Jubiläum 70 Jahre Musique concrète. Musik | Klang | Verwaltung | Dispositiv. Wie Musikklangverwaltungen als Musikmachtdinge mittels Musikmachding Musiktabellenformular das Musikmachen, Musikmachende und Musik verwalten. Ein fiktiver Schriftverkeh

Immersive Pipeline white paper

This report examines immersive experiences in the context of social shared spaces. It presents the Immersive Pipeline research project led by Prof. Atau Tanaka and funded by the AHRC/EPSRC Research and Partnership Development call for the Next Generation of Immersive Experiences from January to June 2018. It covers a historical and technological overview of state of the art on this field, cases of study and interviews in depth with some of the participants

Tangibility, Presence, Materiality, Reality in Artistic Creation with Digital Technology

International audienceThe democratization of Computer Arts and Computer Music has, due to dematerialization (virtualization) consequence of digital technologies, considerably widened the boundaries of creativity. As we are now entering a second phase that has been labeled “post-digital”, we are called to reconcile this openness with notions such as embodiment, presence, enaction and tangibility. These notions are in our view inherently linked to creativity. Here we outline some approaches to this problem under development within the “European Art-Science-Technology Network” (EASTN). Several areas of artistic creation are represented (Music, Animation, Multi-sensory Arts, Architecture, Fine Arts, Graphic communication, etc.). A main objective of this network is to establish common grounds through collaborative reflection and work on the above notions, using the concept of tangibility as a focal point. In this paper we describe several different approaches to the tangibility, in relation to concepts such as reality, materiality, objectivity, presence, concreteness, etc. and their antonyms. Our objective is to open a debate on tangibility, in the belief that it has a strong unifying potential but is also at the same time presents challenging and difficult to define. Here we present some initial thoughts on this topic in a first effort to bring together the approaches that arise from the different practices and projects developed within the partner institutions involved in the EASTN network

Instrumental Radiation Patterns as Models for Corpus-Based Spatial Sound Synthesis: Cosmologies for Piano and 3D Electronics

The Cosmologies project aims to situate the listener inside a virtual grand piano by enabling computer processes to learn from the spatial presence of the live instrument and performer. We propose novel techniques that leverage mea- surements of natural acoustic phenomena to inform spatial sound composition and synthesis. Measured radiation pat- terns of acoustic instruments are applied interactively in response to a live input to synthesize spatial forms in real time. We implement this with software tools for the first time connecting audio descriptor analysis and corpus-based syn- thesis to spatialization using Higher-Order Ambisonics and machine learning. The resulting musical work, Cosmologies for piano and 3D electronics, explodes the space inside the grand piano out to the space of the concert hall, allowing the listener to experience its secret inner life