Hyperacoustic instruments: Computer-controlled instruments that are not electrophones

This paper describes a musical instrument consisting of a physical process that acoustically generates sound from the material world (i.e. sound derived from matter such as solid, liquid, gas, or plasma) which is modified by a secondary input from the informatic world. This informatic input selects attributes such as the frequency range of the musical note being sounded, while the acoustic process is kept in close contact with the user, to ensure a high degree of expressivity. In one example, ice skates with acoustic pickups are used to play music while the skater simultaneously controls a bandpass filter with a hand-held keyer and wearable computer. Each skate works much like the bow on a violin, allowing the player to hit, scrape, rub, or “bow”, the ice in various ways to create a wide variety of musical textures. Additionally the player can select sound samples on a per-note basis and then “scratch” out a melody or harmony (playing multiple samples at once) on the ice on ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ICMCS
• Authors: Steve Mann, Ryan E. Janzen, Raymond Lo
• Keywords: ICMCS 2008, Multimedia, Musical, Musical Instruments, Musical Notes