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

Reverberation still in business : Thickening and propagating micro-textures in physics-based sound modeling

Artificial reverberation is usually introduced, as a digital audio effect, to give a sense of enclosing architectural space. In this paper we argue about the effectiveness and usefulness of diffusive reverberators in physically-inspired sound synthesis. Examples are given for the synthesis of textural sounds, as they emerge from solid mechanical interactions, as well as from aerodynamic and liquid phenomena

Beneficial Bacteria Isolated from Grapevine Inner Tissues Shape Arabidopsis thaliana Roots

We investigated the potential plant growth-promoting traits of 377 culturable endophytic bacteria, isolated from Vitis vinifera cv. Glera, as good biofertilizer candidates in vineyard management. Endophyte ability in promoting plant growth was assessed in vitro by testing ammonia production, phosphate solubilization, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and IAA-like molecule biosynthesis, siderophore and lytic enzyme secretion. Many of the isolates were able to mobilize phosphate (33%), release ammonium (39%), secrete siderophores (38%) and a limited part of them synthetized IAA and IAA-like molecules (5%). Effects of each of the 377 grapevine beneficial bacteria on Arabidopsis thaliana root development were also analyzed to discern plant growth-promoting abilities (PGP) of the different strains, that often exhibit more than one PGP trait. A supervised model-based clustering analysis highlighted six different classes of PGP effects on root architecture. A. thaliana DR5::GUS plantlets, inoculated with IAA-producing endophytes, resulted in altered root growth and enhanced auxin response. Overall, the results indicate that the Glera PGP endospheric culturable microbiome could contribute, by structural root changes, to obtain water and nutrients increasing plant adaptation and survival. From the complete cultivable collection, twelve promising endophytes mainly belonging to the Bacillus but also to Micrococcus and Pantoea genera, were selected for further investigations in the grapevine host plants towards future application in sustainable management of vineyards

A design exploration on the effectiveness of vocal imitations

Among sonic interaction design practices a rising interest is given to the use of the voice as a tool for producing fast and rough sketches. Goal of the EU project SkAT-VG (Sketching Audio Technologies using Vocalization and Gestures, 2014-2016) is to develop vocal sketching as a reference practice for sound design by (i) improving our understanding on how sounds are communicated through vocalizations and gestures, (ii) looking for physical relations between vocal sounds and sound-producing phenomena, (iii) designing tools for converting vocalizations and gestures into parametrized sound models. We present the preliminary outcomes of a vocal sketching workshop held at the Conservatory of Padova, Italy. Research through design activities focused on how teams of potential designers make use of vocal imitations, and how morphological attributes of sound may inform the training of basic vocal techniques

Physically informed car engine sound synthesis for virtual and augmented environments

The richness of crossmodal feedback in car driving makes it an engaging, complex, yet “natural” activity. Audition plays an important role, as the engine sound, perceived in the cabin, conveys relevant cues about the vehicle motion. In this paper, we introduce a procedural and physically informed model for synthetic combustion engine sound, as an effective, flexible and computationally efficient alternative to sample-based and analysis/resynthesis approaches. The sound model, currently being developed as Max/MSP external, has been integrated in GeneCars, a driving simulator environment for industrial sound design, and SkAT Studio, a demonstration framework for the rapid creation of audio processing workflows

Larix decidua Bark as a Source of Phytoconstituents: An LC-MS Study

Larix decidua bark is a waste of the timber industry and is widely diffused in Northern Italy. This material can be considered a good source of antioxidants and phytoconstituents with possible use in cosmetic or nutraceutical products. In this study, simple extraction of larch bark was performed using mixtures of ethanol/water. Furthermore, the phytochemical composition of larch bark extract was studied using LC-MS(n) methods and the main constituents were identified as flavonoids, spiro-polyphenols, and procyanidins. To confirm the identification by LC-MS semi-preparative HPLC was performed in order to isolate the main constituents and verify the structures by \ub9H-NMR. Antioxidant properties were studied using an in vitro approach combining DPPH assay and LC-MS in order to establish different roles of the various classes of phytochemicasl of the extract. DPPH activity of some of the isolated compounds was also assessed. The overall results indicate this waste material as a good source of antioxidant compounds, mainly procyanidins, whichresulted the most active constituents in the DPPH assay

Algorithms for an Automatic Transcription of Live Music Performances into Symbolic Format

This paper addresses the problem of the real-time automatic transcription of a live music performance into a symbolic format. The source data are given by any music instrument or other device able to communicate through a performance protocol. During a performance, music events are parsed and their parameters are evaluated thanks to rhythm and pitch detection algorithms. The final step is the creation of a well-formed XML document, validated against the new international standard known as IEEE 1599. This work will shortly describe both the software environment and the XML format, but the main analysis will involve the real-time recognition of music events. Finally, a case study will be presented: PureMX, a set of Pure Data externals, able to perform the automatic transcription of MIDI events

Musica Sull\u27Acqua : A motion tracking based sonification of an aquarium in real time

This paper presents a temporary multimedia installation set up at the Civic Aquarium of Milan. Thanks to four web cameras located in front of the tropical fishpond, fish are tracked and their movements are used to control a number of music-related parameters in real time. In order to process multiple video streams, the open-source programming language Processing has been employed. Then, the sonification is implemented by a Pure Data patch. The communication among the parts of the system has been realized through Open Sound Control (OSC) messages. This paper describes the key concepts, the musical idea, the design phase and the implementation of this installation, discussing also the major critical aspects

PureMX: Automatic transcription of MIDI live music performances into XML format

This paper addresses the problem of the real-time automatic transcription of a live music performance into a symbolic format based on XML. The source data are given by any music instrument or other device able to communicate with Pure Data by MIDI. Pure Data is a free, multi-platform, real-time programming environment for graphical, audio, and video processing. During a performance, music events are parsed and their parameters are evaluated thanks to rhythm and pitch detection algorithms. The final step is the creation of a well-formed XML document, validated against the new international standard known as IEEE 1599. This work will shortly describe both the software environment and the XML format, but the main analysis will involve the realtime recognition of music events. Finally, a case study will be presented: PureMX, an application able to perform such an automatic transcription

Music-Related Media-Contents Synchronization over theWeb: the IEEE 1599 Initiative

IEEE 1599 is an international standard originally conceived for music, which aims at providing a comprehensive description of the media contents related to a music piece within a multi-layer and synchronized environment. A number of o_- line and stand-alone software prototypes has been realized after its standardization, occurred in 2008. Recently, thanks to some technological advances (e.g. the release of HTML5), the engine of the IEEE 1599 parser has been ported on the Web. Some non-trivial problems have been solved, e.g. the management of multiple simultaneous media streams in a client-server architecture. After providing an overview of the IEEE 1599 standard, this article presents a survey of the recent initiatives regarding audio-driven synchronization over the Web