Sound and Music Computing

Fifty Years of Artificial Reverberation

by Julian Parker

Co-authored with Vesa Välimäki, Lauri Savioja, Julius Smith and Jonathan Abel.

The first artificial reverberation algorithms were proposed in the early 1960s, and new, improved algorithms are... more The first artificial reverberation algorithms were proposed in the early 1960s, and new, improved algorithms are published regularly. These algorithms have been widely used in music production since the 1970s, and now find applications in new fields, such as game audio. This overview article provides a unified review of the various approaches to digital artificial reverberation. The three main categories have been delay networks, convolution-based algorithms, and physical room models. Delay-network and convolution techniques have been competing in popularity in the music technology field, and are often employed to produce a desired perceptual or artistic effect. In applications including virtual reality, predictive acoustic modeling, and computer-aided design of acoustic spaces, accuracy is desired, and physical models have been mainly used, although, due to their computational complexity, they are presently mainly used for simplified geometries or to generate reverberation impulse responses for use with a convolution method. With the increase of computing power, all these approaches will be available in real time. A recent trend in audio technology is the emulation of analog artificial reverberation units, such as spring reverberators, using signal processing algorithms. As a case study we present an improved parametric model for a spring reverberation unit.

In and Out of the Sound Studio conference on gender and technology

by Andra McCartney

Report on the In and Out of the Sound Studio conference, held at Concordia University in July 2005. Includes bio, abstracts and discussion. Some abstracts in English, some French. Mike Alleyne | Michele Anderson | Diane Ballon | Wende Bartley | Katherine
Binns | Hannah Bosma | Éveline Boudreau | David Cecchetto | Owen
Chapman | Sylvie Chenard | Andrea-jane Cornell | Shelley Craig | Elizabeth
Curry | Stacy Denton | Marcelle Deschenes | Beverley Diamond | Shona
Dietz | Chantal Dumas | Jennifer Eisler | AnneMarie Ennis | Victoria Fenner |
Chantal Francoeur | Michelle Frey | Anna Friz | Lisa Gasior | Mark Harris |
Mara Helmuth | Randolph Jordan | Kathy Kennedy | Lara Kohl | Jessica
Landry | Chantal Laplante | Diane Leboeuf | Charity Marsh | Andra
McCartney | Cherie F Moses | Michelle Nagai | Kip Pegley | Claire Piché |
Hélène Prévost | Sam Routley | Anna Rubin | Jacky Sawatzky | Karen
Sunabacka | Charlotte Scott | Oana Spinu | Rae Staseson | Nancy Tobin |
Barry Truax | Karen Vanderborght | Marian van der Zon | Doug van Nort |
Ellen Waterman | Hildegard Westerkamp | Airi Yoshioka | Andrea Young

In and out of the sound studio conference

In and Out of the Studio took place at Concordia University in... more In and out of the sound studio conference

In and Out of the Studio took place at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec from July 25-29, 2005. The conference brought together independent artists, professors and students from across Canada, the United States and beyond to deliver papers, give lectures and perform their work. The event included a number of concerts featuring the participants, as well as a keynote address by Hannah Bosma, a researcher of women and electrovocal music in the Netherlands. The conference was part of the In and Out of the Sound Studio multimedia project, headed by Concordia professor Dr. Andra McCartney.

The In and Out of the Sound Studio project aimed to establish a greater sense of community among women sound producers separated by geographic space, occupation or disciplinary boundaries, and aimed to make the working methods and philosophies of women sound producers accessible to emerging and established artists, as well as scholars in the fields of communication studies, women's studies, cultural studies, media studies, and music. The conference was held in cooperation with SSHRC, the NFB, CIAM, Studio XX, CKUT, and the SAT.

. “Towers Open Fire: From Knowing to Doing” Computers and Composition Online. Special Issue on Sound in/as Compositional Space (Fall 2006).

by Robert Leston

As the theme music plays, take alook at the buttons at the bottom of the page. The play button starts an audio... more As the theme music plays, take alook at the buttons at the bottom of the page. The play button starts an audio composition/sound experimint called "Towers Open Fire." This sound experiment is inspired by the film made by William Burroughs in 1963 that carries the same name.

Emotion rendering in music: range and characteristic values of seven musical variables

by Roberto Bresin

Toward a computational model of expression in music performance: The GERM model.

by Roberto Bresin

Presents a computational model of expression in music performance: the GERM model. The purpose of the GERM model is to... more Presents a computational model of expression in music performance: the GERM model. The purpose of the GERM model is to (1) describe the principal sources of variability in music performance, (2) emphasize the need to integrate different aspects of performance in a common model, and (3) provide some preliminaries for a computational model that simulates the different aspects. Drawing on previous research on performance, the authors propose that performance expression derives from 4 main sources of variability: (1) Generative Rules, which function to convey the generative structure in a musical manner; (2) Emotional Expression, which is governed by the performer's expressive intention; (3) Random Variations, which reflect internal timekeeper variance and motor delay variance; and (4) Movement Principles, which prescribe that certain features of the performance are shaped in accordance with biological motion. A preliminary version of the GERM model was implemented by means of computer synthesis. Synthesized performances were evaluated by musically trained participants in a listening test. The results from the test support a decomposition of expression in terms of the GERM model. Implications for future research on music performance are discussed.

Emotional cues in knocking sounds

by Roberto Bresin

A Reduced Multiple Gabor Frame for Local Time Adaptation of the Spectrogram

by Marco Liuni

(land)moves

by Marco Liuni

Multifog: a Multi-Level Control Device for FOG Granular Synthesis in Max/MSP

by Marco Liuni

Rényi information measures for spectral change detection

by Marco Liuni

Sound Analysis and Synthesis Adaptive in Time and Two Frequency Bands

by Marco Liuni

An entropy based method for local time-adaptation of the spectrogram

by Marco Liuni

Real Time Custom Spatialisation Patch for a large dimension and non conventional area

by Rafael Subía

Different sound spatialisation tools and methods have flourished and been perfected over the years. Conventional... more Different sound spatialisation tools and methods have flourished and been perfected over the years. Conventional methods are used in typical closed music spaces. Richard Moore’s “Space”, Michael Gerzon “Ambisonics” or even traditional “Equal power panning” have all been designed for a closed location with a sweet spot where the listener is placed. However, what to do when a different area other than ordinary music spaces need spatialisation? This paper describes how the spatialisation patch for Buenos Aires Sonora’s “Oi(r) el Ruido” intervention to the (45 x 15 meters) Argentinian Bicentennial Pavilion was cre- ated. How the method was picked out and how it was implemented in Pure Data (PD).

Happy New Era. Graphic Design in the 21st c. Robert Appleton. Zhuangshi Magazine, Tsinghua University, 2012

by Robert Appleton

Corpus-Based Transcription as an Approach to the Compositional Control of Timbre

by Jean Bresson

Aaron Einbond, Diemo Schwartz, Jean Bresson.
Proc. International Computer Music Conference, Montréal, QC, Canada, 2009.

Timbre space is a cognitive model useful to address the problem of structuring timbre in electronic music. The recent... more Timbre space is a cognitive model useful to address the problem of structuring timbre in electronic music. The recent concept of corpus-based concatenative sound synthesis is proposed as an approach to timbral control in both real- and deferred-time applications. Using CataRT and re-lated tools in the FTM and Gabor libraries for Max/MSP we describe a technique for real-time analysis of a live signal to pilot corpus-based synthesis, along with examples of compositional realizations in works for instruments, electronics, and sound installation. To extend this technique to computer-assisted composition for acoustic instruments, we develop tools using the Sound Description Interchange Format (SDIF) to export sonic descriptors to OpenMusic where they may be further manipulated and transcribed into an instrumental score. This presents a flexible technique for the compositional organization of noise-based instrumental sounds.

Processing Sound and Music Description Data Using OpenMusic

by Jean Bresson

Jean Bresson, Carlos Agon.
Proc. International Computer Music Conference, New York / Stony Brook, NY, USA, 2010.

This paper deals with the processing and manipulation of music and sound description data using functional programs in... more This paper deals with the processing and manipulation of music and sound description data using functional programs in the OpenMusic visual programming environment. We go through several general features and present some toolkits created in this environment for the manipulation of different data formats (audio, MIDI, SDIF).

NerVi, NeoRealismo Virtuale and Holophonics

by Salvatore Iaconesi

co-authored with Marco Fagotti, presented at  3rd edition of the ESA Research Network Sociology of Culture mid-term Conference, at Bocconi University

NeoRealismo Virtuale (NeRVi) is an innovative approach through which digital ubiquitous
technologies are used to... more NeoRealismo Virtuale (NeRVi) is an innovative approach through which digital ubiquitous
technologies are used to create, access and visualize additional layers to the ordinary reality,
creating stratified continums in which digital content is interconnected interactively with the
physical world. Mobile devices, wearable technologies, interactive architectures, Spimes and
wide tagging techniques are used for this purpose, creating environments that describe new
forms of urban scenarios that encompass the possibility to represent augmented information and
communication practices, creating innovative opportunities for relation and interaction. The city
becomes a layered reality, creating connections among quantitative information sources,
interpretative layers, emotional and relational domains: traversing urban spaces can in turn,
become a form of writing, reading and relating/interacting with both humans and information
systems. NeoRealismo Virtuale (a mobile application using the same name of the theory) enacts
such processes in visual ways; Holo enacts them using spatialized sounds and audio. Both
revolve around augmented reality applications that implement ubiquitously accessible sensorial
Social Networks in which digital contents can be published by multiple authors and agents in
physical spaces of urban environments, and experienced by using extremely accessible mobile
interfaces, creating new forms of information, communication, relation and interaction.
Keywords: urban spaces, augmented reality, location based services, cognitive sciences,
ubiquitous technologies

At the Crossroads of Evolutionary Computation and Music: Self-Programming Synthesizers, Swarm Orchestras and the Origins of Melody

by Prof Eduardo R. Miranda

On the Music of Emergent Behavior: What Can Evolutionary Computation Bring to the Musician?

by Prof Eduardo R. Miranda

On Computational Models of the Evolution of Music: From the Origins of Musical Taste to the Emergence of Grammars

by Prof Eduardo R. Miranda