A Music Bar for active listeners: An example of Virtual Electronic Lutherie for a history 50 years long

This paper presents initial results of an ongoing project devoted to the analysis and virtualization of the analog electronic devices of the "Studio di Fonologia Musicale", one of the European centres of reference for the production of electroacoustic music in the 1950's and 1960's. After a brief summary of the history of the Studio, the paper discusses a particularly representative musical work produced at the Studio, namely the analogue tape work Scambi composed in 1957 by Henri Pousseur. Finally, the paper presents initial results on the analysis and simulation of the electronic lutherie used by Pousser in this composition, and the ongoing work finalized at developing an installation that re-creates such electronic lutherie

Active preservation of electrophone musical instruments : the case of the “liettizzatore” of “Studio di Fonologia Musicale” (RAI, Milano)

This paper presents first results of an ongoing project devoted to the analysis and virtualization of the analog electronic devices of the \u201cStudio di Fonologia Musicale\u201d, one of the European centres of reference for the production of electroacoustic music in the 1950\u2019s and 1960\u2019s. After a brief summary of the history of the Studio, the paper dis- cusses a particularly representative musical work produced at the Studio, Scambi by Henri Pousseur, and it presents initial results on the analysis and simulation of the electronic device used by Pousseur in this composition, and the ongoing work finalized at developing an installation that re-creates such electronic lutherie

Installazioni interattive per la valorizzazione di strumenti musicali antichi: il flauto di Pan del Museo di Scienze Archeologiche e d’Arte dell’Università degli Studi di Padova

Questo articolo descrive un progetto relativo all\u2019implementazione di un flauto di Pan virtuale all\u2019interno di una installazione museale che verr\ue0 esposta presso il Museo di Scienze Archeologiche e d\u2019Arte dell\u2019Universit\ue0 degli Studi di Padova. In primo luogo, l\u2019articolo introduce il problema della conservazione attiva e della valorizzazione degli strumenti in ambito museale. A seguire descrive l\u2019installazione multimediale progettata appositamente per valorizzare un antico flauto di Pan ritrovato in Egitto, negli anni Trenta, durante una campagna di scavi archeologici. Il reperto \ue8 stato sottoposto a svariate analisi, quali scansioni 3D e Tomografia Computerizzata, da cui sono state estratte le misure interne ed esterne del flauto. Queste sono state indispensabili per ricavare l\u2019intonazione delle canne e quindi creare il modello alla base del flauto virtuale. Infine, l\u2019articolo descrive in maniera approfondita le scelte progettuali, le modalit\ue0 di interazione e l\u2019implementazione delle due sezioni dell\u2019installazione dedicata al suono. L\u2019utente, infatti, pu\uf2 \u201csuonare\u201d il flauto utilizzando come input sia i comandi touch, sia il \u201csoffio\u201d

Psychostimulant effect of the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-018 and AKB48: Behavioral, neurochemical, and dopamine transporter scan imaging studies in mice

JWH-018 and AKB48 are two synthetic cannabinoids (SCBs) belonging to different structural classes and illegally marketed as incense, herbal preparations, or chemical supply for theirs psychoactive cannabis-like effects. Clinical reports from emergency room reported psychomotor agitation as one of the most frequent effects in people assuming SCBs. This study aimed to investigate the psychostimulant properties of JWH-018 and AKB48 in male CD-1 mice and to compare their behavioral and biochemical effects with those caused by cocaine and amphetamine. In vivo studies showed that JWH-018 and AKB48, as cocaine and amphetamine, facilitated spontaneous locomotion in mice. These effects were prevented by CB1 receptor blockade and dopamine (DA) D1/5 and D2/3 receptors inhibition. SPECT-CT studies on dopamine transporter (DAT) revealed that, as cocaine and amphetamine, JWH-018 and AKB48 decreased the [123I]-FP-CIT binding in the mouse striatum. Conversely, in vitro competition binding studies revealed that, unlike cocaine and amphetamine, JWH-018 and AKB48 did not bind to mouse or human DAT. Moreover, microdialysis studies showed that the systemic administration of JWH-018, AKB48, cocaine, and amphetamine stimulated DA release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell of freely moving mice. Finally, unlike amphetamine and cocaine, JWH-018 and AKB48 did not induce any changes on spontaneous [3H]-DA efflux from murine striatal synaptosomes. The present results suggest that SCBs facilitate striatal DA release possibly with different mechanisms than cocaine and amphetamine. Furthermore, they demonstrate, for the first time, that JWH-018 and AKB48 induce a psychostimulant effect in mice possibly by increasing NAc DA release. These data, according to clinical reports, outline the potential psychostimulant action of SCBs highlighting their possible danger to human health

C-Si hybrid photonic structures by full infiltration of conjugated polymers into porous silicon rugate filters

Loading of one-dimensional (1-D) porous silicon photonic crystals (PS-PhCs), known as rugate filters, with luminescent materials is generally limited by the potential for (undesired) “pore clogging,” in relation to the size of the nanoparticles (e.g. quantum dots) or molecular species, and so far mainly restricted to small molecular weight materials or small nanocrystals, or in situ polymerized dyes. Here we report the infiltration 1-D PS-PhCs with a green-emitting commercial luminescent polymer (F8BT, poly[(9,9-di-n-octylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt-(benzo[2,1,3]thiadiazol-4,8-diyl)]), with a molecular weight of approximately 46 kDa across their whole depth (approximately 7.5 μm), thereby showing that pore clogging is not a concern for these structures. We also characterize the modification of the photoluminescence (PL) and decay rates, and investigate the detailed inner morphology of the filters with the help of (scanning) transmission electron microscopy. We observe both suppression (in the stop-band) and enhancement (at the high-energy band-edge) of the PL. We also find that the photonic stop-band is red-shifted after polymer infiltration, due to the increased effective refractive index of the polymer-infiltrated nanostructured system. The presence of just one unbroadened peak in the reflectance spectra after infiltration confirms that infiltration extends for the whole depth of the rugate filters

Sound and music computing using AI: designing a standard

While there are currently various approaches that define and adapt the conditions in which the user experiences content or service for several music and audio-related applications including entertainment, communication, audio documents preservation/restoration, we are missing worldwide accepted standards that enable data exchange and interoperability based on common interfaces for such applications. The Moving Picture, Audio and Data Coding by Artificial Intelligence (MPAI) is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to develop such standards. Relying on Artificial Intelligence (AI), MPAI creates a workflow of AI Modules (AIM) that are interchangeable and upgradable without necessarily changing the logic of the application. A specific area of work, MPAI Context-based Audio Enhancement (MPAI-CAE), is showing tremendous possibilities for the Sound and Music Computing (SMC) community. MPAI-CAE applies context information to the input content to deliver the audio output via the most appropriate protocol. Three MPAI-CAE case studies particularly relevant for the SMC community will be presented in this paper: Audio recording preservation (ARP), a use case that covers the whole “philologically informed” archival process of an audio document, from the active sound documents preservation to the access to digitized files; Audio-on-the-go (AOG), which aims to improve safety and listening quality for situations in which the users are in motion in different environments; and Emotion-enhanced speech (EES), a use case that implements a user-friendly system control interface that generates speech with various levels of emotions

Listening the Photos

In the music field, an open issue is represented by the creation of innovative tools for acquisition, preservation and sharing of information. The strong difficulties in preserving the original carriers, together dedicated equipments able to read any (often obsolete) format, encouraged the analog/digital (A/D) transfer of audio contents in order to make them available in digital libraries. Unfortunately, the A/D transfer is often an invasive process. This work proposes an innovative and not-invasive approach to audio extraction from complex source material, such as shellac phonographic discs: PoG (Photos Of Ghosts) is the new system, able to reconstruct the audio signal from a still image of a disc surface. It is automatic, needs of low-cost hardware, recognizes different rpm and performs an automatic separation of the tracks; also it is robust with respect to dust and scratches. \ua9 2010 ACM