Interagire con la complessità sonora interna ed esterna: dal microsuono alla composizione con suoni del paesaggio

It is possible to think of the two extremes of the world of sound as the inner domain of microsound (less than 50 ms) where frequency and time are interdependent, and the external world of sonic complexity, namely the soundscape. In terms of sonic design, the computer is increasingly providing tools for dealing with each of these domains, through such practices as granular synthesis and multi-channel soundscape composition

Synthesis of Acoustic Timbres using Principal Component Analysis

We have developed an alternate method of representing harmonic amplitude envelopes of musical instrument sounds using principal component analysis. Statistical analysis reveals considerable correlation between the harmonic amplitude values at different time positions in the envelopes. This correlation is exploited in order to reduce the dimensionality of envelope specification. It was found that two or three parameters provide a reasonable approximation to the different harmonic envelope curves present in musical instrument sounds. T he representation is suited for the development of high-level control mechanisms for manipulating the timbre of resynthesized harmonic sounds

New Approach to Teaching Japanese Pronunciation in the Digital Era - Challenges and Practices

Pronunciation has been a black hole in the L2 Japanese classroom on account of a lack of class time, teacher\u2019s confidence, and consciousness of the need to teach pronunciation, among other reasons. The absence of pronunciation instruction is reported to result in fossilized pronunciation errors, communication problems, and learner frustration. With an intention of making a contribution to improve such circumstances, this paper aims at three goals. First, it discusses the importance, necessity, and e ectiveness of teaching prosodic aspects of Japanese pronunciation from an early stage in acquisition. Second, it shows that Japanese prosody is challenging because of its typological rareness, regardless of the L1 backgrounds of learners. Third and finally, it introduces a new approach to teaching L2 pronunciation with the goal of developing L2 comprehensibility by focusing on essential prosodic features, which is followed by discussions on key issues concerning how to implement the new approach both inside and outside the classroom in the digital era

Electroacoustic Music and the Digital Future

This article outlines the author's views on the contemporary social and economic situation of electroacoustic music and digital technology in general. The dominance of commercial interests in shaping the listener, the artist, and the definition of culture is examined. Issues associated with digital technology, such as standardization, de-skilling, and upgrades, are discussed with respect to artistic practice. It is argued that marginalized artforms such as electroacoustic music have benefited from the windsurfer availability of the digital audio workstation (DAW) for production and the Internet for distribution, but no analogous avenue exists for the creation of the consumer.Cet article présente les points de vue de l’auteur sur la situation sociale et économique actuelle de la musique électroacoustique et de la technologie numérique en général. Il fait ressortir la prédominance des intérêts commerciaux tant dans le conditionnement de l’auditeur et de l’artiste que dans la définition de la culture. Les questions soulevées par la technologie numérique, comme la standardisation, la « désexpertisation » (de-skilling) et les mises à niveau (upgrades) sont examinées en rapport avec la pratique artistique. L’auteur conclut que les formes d’art marginales comme l’électroacoustique ont bénéficié des possibilités de « naviguer » (windsurfer) qu’offre le poste de travail audionumérique (DAW) pour la production et l’Internet pour la distribution. Mais aucune avenue analogue n’existe pour la création du consommateur

MISAME

Recording of Barry Truax's Wings of Fire. For cello and digital soundtracks. This work uses Wings of Fire by B.C. poet Joy Kirstin. In the work, the lover addressed in the poem is personified by the instrument which is also the source of all the material used to create the tape part. This material consists of short fragments of bowing on the bridge of the instrument, natural and artificial harmonics, snap pizzicato, and col legno attacks. The sounds on tape that resemble bowed notes are in fact synthesized using digital resonators that model the behaviour of a string, each tuned to the pitch of one of the cello's open strings. These resonators are used to process both the cello sounds and text such that at certain moments the voice and instrument merge as one

MISAME

Recording of Barry Truax's Soundscape study