BitBox!:A case study interface for teaching real-time adaptive music composition for video games

Real-time adaptive music is now well-established as a popular medium, largely through its use in video game soundtracks. Commercial packages, such as fmod, make freely available the underlying technical methods for use in educational contexts, making adaptive music technologies accessible to students. Writing adaptive music, however, presents a significant learning challenge, not least because it requires a different mode of thought, and tutor and learner may have few mutual points of connection in discovering and understanding the musical drivers, relationships and structures in these works. This article discusses the creation of ‘BitBox!’, a gestural music interface designed to deconstruct and explain the component elements of adaptive composition through interactive play. The interface was displayed at the Dare Protoplay games exposition in Dundee in August 2014. The initial proof-of- concept study proved successful, suggesting possible refinements in design and a broader range of applications

Musica ex machina:a history of video game music

The history of video game music is a subject area that has received little attention by musicologists, and yet the form presents fascinating case studies both of musical minimalism, and the role of technology in influencing and shaping both musical form and aesthetics. This presentation shows how video game music evolved from simple tones, co-opted from sync circuits in early hardware to a sophisticated form of adaptive expression

Sampling the past:a tactile approach to interactive musical instrument exhibits in the heritage sector

In the last decade, the heritage sector has had to adapt to a shifting cultural landscape of public expectations and attitudes towards ownership and intellectual property. One way it has done this is to focus on each visitor’s encounter and provide them with a sense of experiential authenticity.There is a clear desire by the public to engage with music collections in this way, and a sound museological rationale for providing such access, but the approach raises particular curatorial problems, specifically how do we meaningfully balance access with the duty to preserve objects for future generations?This paper charts the development of one such project. Based at Fenton House in Hampstead, and running since 2008, the project seeks to model digitally the keyboard instruments in the Benton Fletcher Collection and provide a dedicated interactive exhibit, which allows visitors to view all of the instruments in situ, and then play them through a custom-built two-manual MIDI controller with touch-screen interface.We discuss the approach to modelling, which uses high-definition sampling, and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the exhibit as it currently stands, with particular focus on its key shortcoming: at present, there is no way to effectively model the key feel of a historic keyboard instrument.This issue is of profound importance, since the feel of any instrument is fundamental to its character, and shapes the way performers relate to it. The issue is further compounded if we are to consider a single dedicated keyboard as being the primary mode of interface for several instrument models of different classes, each with its own characteristic feel.We conclude by proposing an outline solution to this problem, detailing early work on a real-time adaptive haptic keyboard interface that changes its action in response to sampled resistance curves, measured on a key-by-key basis from the original instruments

Jazz and the art of anticipation

This article explores the limitations of current methods for implementing real-time adaptive music soundtracks in computer games. Outlining the existing technical solutions, including event-driven music cues, horizontal resequencing and vertical reorchestration, the article discusses where these technical approaches fall short in terms of the user experience, and concludes by suggesting parallels in other areas of music making, significantly jazz improvisation, that might provide a platform for development

All aboard the impulse train:a retrospective analysis of the two-channel title music routine in <i>Manic Miner</i>

The launch of the ZX Spectrum in the UK in April 1982 almost single-handedly kick-started the British computer games industry. Launched to compete with technologically superior rivals from Acorn and Commodore, the Spectrum had price and popularity on its side, and became a runaway success. However, one feature of the Spectrum that was found lacking was its sound hardware—just a single channel of 1-bit sound playback. Few improvements to the machine’s hardware were made during the first generation of Spectrum titles. Programmers soon realised, however, that with clever machine coding, the Spectrum’s speaker could do more than that for which it was originally designed. This creativity, born from constraint, represents a very real example of technology (or rather, limited technology) as a driver for creativity. These solutions gave rise to a characteristic sound that in time defined the aesthetic of ZX Spectrum music. At the time, there was little interest in the formal study of either the technologies that support computer games, or of the social and cultural phenomena that surround them. This knowledge gap is redressed in this retrospective study through a deconstruction and analysis of a key turning point in the musical life of the ZX Spectrum. The title music for Manic Miner was the first attempt at a true two-channel sound routine on the platform, and so marked the point at which music moved from being largely functional and utilitarian, to becoming an important and expressive dimension of the Spectrum gaming experience. This paper begins with an overview of 1-bit sound and the range of tones that are natively supported by a 1-bit system, followed by a demonstration of how these can be extended using frequency dividers and counters to create time-varying tones and pseudo two-channel sound. The limitations of this technique are highlighted, and the key adaptations that would make it a viable approach for two-channel sound in later games are outlined

Chips with everything:coding as performance and the aesthetics of constraint

Constraint has always been a powerful driver for musical creativity. Every culture expresses shared ideas about musicality. Arguably, it is the role of the musician both to satisfy and to challenge these ideas by extrapolating from the agreed norms that emerge largely from the constraints of musical structure. Without these, music would develop by aleatory, making it near-impossible to recognise expressed musical creativity. One style of music for which constraint is a primary driver is the chiptune, a minimalist electronic style that evolved from the programmable sound generators (PSGs) of home computers and video game consoles of the early 1980s. Early gaming hardware offered limited scope for musical expression, usually only a few channels of polyphony a prescriptive palette of waveforms. In response there arose from this digital frontier a period of intense creativity, as game programmers and musicians coaxed the hardware into performing feats of musicality that it had never been designed to achieve. This paper explores the role of technical constraint in the developing aesthetic of the chiptune. By considering PSGs as expressive musical instruments whose hardware specification embodies their form and function as do the wood and strings of a clarinet or violin, we explore coding as both the virtuosic expression of technique and the means by which players might explore and transcend the boundaries of the instrument. We conclude by reflecting on the implications for chiptune analysis, both in terms of its expression as game music and in its recent emergence as a popular musical style

The sound of 1-bit:technical constraint and musical creativity on the 48k Sinclair ZX Spectrum

This article explores constraint as a driver of creativity and innovation in early video game soundtracks. Using what was, perhaps, the most constrained platform of all, the 48k Sinclair ZX Spectrum, as a prism through which to examine the development of an early branch of video game music, the paper explores the creative approaches adopted by programmers to circumvent the Spectrum’s technical limitations so as to coax the hardware into performing feats of musicality that it had never been designed to achieve. These solutions were not without computational or aural cost, however, and their application often imparted a unique characteristic to the sound, which over time came to define the aesthetic of the 8-bit computer soundtrack, a sound which has been developed since as part of the emerging chiptune scene. By discussing pivotal moments in the development of ZX Spectrum music, this article will show how the application of binary impulse trains, granular synthesis, and pulse-width modulation came to shape the sound of 1-bit music

Applications of Dynamical Systems to Music Composition

Mathematics and music have long enjoyed a close working relationship: mathematicians have frequently taken an interest in the organisational principles used in music, while musicians often utilise mathematical formalisms and structures in their works. This relationship has thrived in recent years, particularly since the advent of the computer, which has allowed mathematicians and musicians alike to explore the creative aspects of various mathematical structures quickly and easily. One class of mathematical structure that is of particular interest to the technologically-minded musician is the class of dynamical systems - those that change some feature with time. This class includes fractal zooms, evolutionary computing techniques and cellular automata, each of which holds some potential as the basis of a composition algorithm. The studies that comprise this thesis were undertaken in order to further examine the relationship between mathematics and music. In particular we explore the notion that music can essentially be thought of as a type of pattern propagation: we begin with initial themes and motifs - the musical patterns - which, during the course of the composition, are subjected to certain transformations and developments according to the rules dictated by the composer or the musical form. This is exactly analogous to the process which occurs within a cellular automaton: initial configurations of cells are transformed and developed according to a set of evolution rules. We begin our study by describing the development of the CAMUS v2.0 composition software, which was based on an earlier system by Dr. Eduardo Miranda, and discuss how best to use the system to compose new musical works. The next step in our study is concerned with highlighting the limitations of CAMUS as it currently stands, and suggesting techniques for improving the capabilities of the system. We then chart the development of CAMUS 3D. At each stage we justify the changes made to the system using both aesthetic and technical arguments. We also provide a composition example, which illustrates not only the changes in operation, but also in interface. The system is then re-evaluated, and further developments are suggested

A Picture of the Research Field of Doctoral Education from the Students’ Perspectives : Studies Using Questionnaires and Scales

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