Papers by Vincent Goudard
arXiv (Cornell University), Sep 26, 2019
This article questions the notion of ephemerality of digital musical instruments (DMI). Longevity... more This article questions the notion of ephemerality of digital musical instruments (DMI). Longevity is generally regarded as a valuable quality that good design criteria should help to achieve. However, the nature of the tools, of the performance conditions and of the music itself may lead to think of ephemerality as an intrinsic modality of the existence of DMIs. In particular, the conditions of contemporary musical production suggest that contextual adaptations of instrumental devices beyond the monolithic unity of classical instruments should be considered. The first two parts of this article analyse various reasons to reassess the issue of longevity and ephemerality. The last two sections attempt to propose an articulation of these two aspects to inform both the design of the DMI and their learning.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Jun 3, 2019
This article questions the notion of ephemerality of digital musical instruments (DMI). Longevity... more This article questions the notion of ephemerality of digital musical instruments (DMI). Longevity is generally regarded as a valuable quality that good design criteria should help to achieve. However, the nature of the tools, of the performance conditions and of the music itself may lead to think of ephemerality as an intrinsic modality of the existence of DMIs. In particular, the conditions of contemporary musical production suggest that contextual adaptations of instrumental devices beyond the monolithic unity of classical instruments should be considered. The first two parts of this article analyse various reasons to reassess the issue of longevity and ephemerality. The last two sections attempt to propose an articulation of these two aspects to inform both the design of the DMI and their learning.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Jun 7, 2022
Designing a complete in-car audio experience requires solutions for rapid prototyping in a comple... more Designing a complete in-car audio experience requires solutions for rapid prototyping in a complex audio configuration, bringing together different areas of expertise ranging from sound-design and composition, down to hardware protection, with every conceivable layer of audioengineering in-between, up to A-B comparisons setups for end-users perception evaluation in real demonstration vehicules. The AIM-package started as a request from the ºActive Sound Experienceº team at Volvo Cars Company 1 to meet such goals. To this end, it was decided to develop a framework on top of Max 2 so that dedicated audio processing modules could be easily created, with the ability to store presets for various configurations, and to take advantage of Max's modular design to distribute the complexity of audio engineering among the various expert teams involved in the project.
Representation and control in the interactive design of digital musical instruments
Les instruments de musique numériques se présentent comme des objets complexes, qui se situent à ... more Les instruments de musique numériques se présentent comme des objets complexes, qui se situent à la fois dans une continuité historique avec l'histoire de la lutherie tout en étant marqués par une rupture forte provoquée par le numérique et ses conséquences en terme de possibilités sonores, de relations entre le geste et le son, de situations d'écoute, de re-configurabilité des instruments, etc. Ce travail de doctorat propose une analyse des caractéristiques émanant de l'intégration du numérique dans les instruments de musique, en s'appuyant notamment sur une réflexion musicologique, sur des développements logiciels et matériels et sur une pratique musicale, ainsi que sur des échanges avec d'autres musiciens, luthiers, compositeurs et chercheurs.Digital musical instruments appear as complex objects, being positioned in a continuum with the history of lutherie as well as marked with a strong disruption provoked by the digital technology and its consequences in ter...
We present a software for the sonification of neuronal activity acquired by calcium imaging of ne... more We present a software for the sonification of neuronal activity acquired by calcium imaging of neurons in the brain of zebrafish larvae. The objective was to facilitate the observation of the temporal and spatial patterns of activity as well as the synchronous phenomena between different neurons. The parameter mapping approach was used. The method we present relies on manually drawn regions of interest (ROI), whereby, the average fluorescent values of the ROIs are computed to drive FM synthesis parameters. The ROIs represent neurons and each ROI is associated with a FM synthesizer producing sound signal. An interface was developed to allow one to tune the parameters of the sonification and manage the data sets. This paper presents the different mapping that were tested, their implementation in the software, and the interface that was developed.
This article presents "John", an open-source software designed to help collective free ... more This article presents "John", an open-source software designed to help collective free improvisation. It provides generated screen-scores running on distributed, reactive web-browsers. The musicians can then concurrently edit the scores in their own browser. John is used by ONE, a septet playing improvised electro-acoustic music with digital musical instruments (DMI). One of the original features of John is that its design takes care of leaving the musician's attention as free as possible. Firstly, a quick review of the context of screen-based scores will help situate this research in the history of contemporary music notation. Then I will trace back how improvisation sessions led to John's particular "notational perspective". A brief description of the software will precede a discussion about the various aspects guiding its design.
Proceedings of the SMC Conferences, Sep 14, 2014
This paper addresses the issue of controlling monodic pitch in digital musical instruments (DMIs)... more This paper addresses the issue of controlling monodic pitch in digital musical instruments (DMIs), with a focus on instruments for which the pitch needs to be played with accuracy. Indeed, in many cultures, music is based on discrete sets of ordered notes called scales, so the need to control pitch has a predominant role in acoustical instruments as well as in most of the DMIs. But the freedom of parameter mapping allowed by computers, as well as the wide range of interfaces, opens a large variety of strategies to control pitch in the DMIs. Without pretending to be exhaustive, our paper aims to draw up a general overview of this subject. It includes: 1) a review of interfaces to produce discrete and/or continuous pitch 2) a review of DMI maker strategies to help the performer for controlling easily and accurately the pitch 3) some developments from the authors concerning interfaces and mapping strategies for continuous pitch control 4) some comparisons with acoustical instruments. At last, a Max/MSP patch-publically available-is provided to support the discussion by allowing the reader to test some of the pitch control strategies reviewed in this paper.
Proceedings of the SMC Conferences, Jul 6, 2011
Mapping is one of the most important aspects of software instruments design. We call "mapping" th... more Mapping is one of the most important aspects of software instruments design. We call "mapping" the relation defined between the parameters from hardware interaction devices, and those of the process to be controlled. For software instruments, this relation between the user's gestures and synthesis engine parameters has a decisive role in resulting ergonomics, playability and expressive possibilities of the system. The authors propose an approach based on a modular software design inspired by a multidisciplinary study of musical instruments and their playing. In this paper, the concept of "Dynamic Intermediate Models" (DIM) is introduced as the centre of the proposed architecture. In such a scheme, DIM modules are inserted between the gestural interfaces and the audio-graphic synthesis and rendering engines. The concept of DIM is presented and explored as an extension of usual mapping functions, leading to an improvement of the interaction between the musician and his/her instrument. Then, design and programming guidelines are presented, together with some concrete examples of DIMs that have been created and tested. Finally, the authors propose some directions to evaluate such DIMs in the architecture.
This article questions the notion of ephemerality of digital musical instruments (DMI). Longevity... more This article questions the notion of ephemerality of digital musical instruments (DMI). Longevity is generally regarded as a valuable quality that good design criteria should help to achieve. However, the nature of the tools, of the performance conditions and of the music itself may lead to think of ephemerality as an intrinsic modality of the existence of DMIs. In particular, the conditions of contemporary musical production suggest that contextual adaptations of instrumental devices beyond the monolithic unity of classical instruments should be considered. The first two parts of this article analyse various reasons to reassess the issue of longevity and ephemerality. The last two sections attempt to propose an articulation of these two aspects to inform both the design of the DMI and their learning.
Meta-Instrument 3: a look over 17 years of practice Serge de Laubier
The Meta-Instrument (M-I) is a new instrument for computer music. Since 1989, three backward comp... more The Meta-Instrument (M-I) is a new instrument for computer music. Since 1989, three backward compatible prototypes were designed involving custom developments in electronics, mechanics, computer science and music. This paper presents the third generation of M-I, and a few ideas that emerged from the past 17 years of playing it.
Dans de nombreuses cultures, la musique se construit sur des echelles de hauteurs qui jouent un r... more Dans de nombreuses cultures, la musique se construit sur des echelles de hauteurs qui jouent un role predominant dans la lutherie. Mais la liberte de mapping (1) que permettent les ordinateurs, ainsi que la diversite des interfaces, donne lieu a une grande variete de strategies pour le controle de la hauteur dans les instruments numeriques. Sans pretendre etre exhaustif, cet article tente de donner une vue d'ensemble, en proposant : 1) une revue des interfaces pour produire des hauteurs discretes et/ou continues ; 2) une revue des strategies de lutherie numerique proposant a l'instrumentiste un controle facilite et precis de la hauteur ; 3) des algorithmes developpes par les auteurs concernant le controle continu de la hauteur ; 4) quelques comparaisons avec les instruments acoustiques. Enfin, un patch Max est disponible publiquement pour etayer cet article et permettre au lecteur de tester des strategies de mapping presentees dans cet article.
Cet article decrit les objectifs du programme ORJO. Il interroge plusieurs usages nouveaux comme ... more Cet article decrit les objectifs du programme ORJO. Il interroge plusieurs usages nouveaux comme la pratique en orchestre d'instruments virtuels, l'echange et la transmission de partitions interactives pour ces orchestres, l'apport du relief pour la musique visuelle. Il evoque aussi les developpements d'instruments virtuels comme les instruments de synthese vocale du LIMSI et les instruments par modeles physiques, modeles topologiques et modeles statistiques de l'equipe Lutheries acoustique musique (LAM).
The design of digital musical instruments , freed from the physical constraints of acoustics, is ... more The design of digital musical instruments , freed from the physical constraints of acoustics, is essentially driven by issues in ergonomics and representation related to the musical context. Moreover, the programmability of virtual instruments allows dynamic reconfigurations of mapping relationships between gestural interfaces and synthesis. In this respect, graphical interfaces stand on the edge between representation and control. Recently enhanced by the advent of multitouch, they allow all kind of tangible interactions. Their customization (behaviour, shape, colour, etc.) plays a crucial role, whether for the virtuosity of professional musicians, for the accessibility of people with disabilities or for particular contexts such as collective interaction on the same touch-screen. I will first raise a few aspects of visual ergonom-ics that inspired this research then present recent developments of dynamic, polyphonic and customizable touch-screen interfaces, based on the concept of ...
PORTO 2018 Ergonomics of Touch-screen Interfaces The MP . TUI Library for Max
Sorbonne Université, Collegium Musicæ, Paris, France Abstract The design of digital musical instr... more Sorbonne Université, Collegium Musicæ, Paris, France Abstract The design of digital musical instruments, freed from the physical constraints of acoustics, is essentially driven by issues in ergonomics and representation related to the musical context. Moreover, the programmability of virtual instruments allows dynamic reconfigurations of mapping relationships between gestural interfaces and synthesis. In this respect, graphical interfaces stand on the edge between representation and control. Recently enhanced by the advent of multitouch, they allow all kind of tangible interactions. Their customization (behaviour, shape, colour, etc.) plays a crucial role, whether for the virtuosity of professional musicians, for the accessibility of people with disabilities or for particular contexts such as collective interaction on the same touch-screen. I will first raise a few aspects of visual ergonomics that inspired this research then present recent developments of dynamic, polyphonic and cu...
XSPIF : ‘a (X)cross Standard PlugIn Framework’ is a development environment which offers the poss... more XSPIF : ‘a (X)cross Standard PlugIn Framework’ is a development environment which offers the possibility of designing audio-plugins within an XML context, with a total abstraction from platform or standard. The XML files are parsed via python scripts, and one can get the C/C++ sources files in various plugin standards. This document is aimed at providing information for people who would like to improve XSPIF abilities and performances. Before reading this document, you should first take a look at other available documentation (especially XSPIF’s User Guide [GM03a]). Hence we could describe the Python code, but that would not be of much interest since it is pretty easy to understand, and almost exclusively consists in writing lines in a file. What we will describe here is rather the choices that have been made for the XSPIF environnement implementation for cross-platform and crossstandard purpose, as well as the specificities of each standard for the translation of the meta-plugin.
Nous presentons le systeme MP, un protocole et un ensemble d'outils facilitant la connexion m... more Nous presentons le systeme MP, un protocole et un ensemble d'outils facilitant la connexion modulaire de processus polyphoniques. Le but de cette librairie est d'ameliorer la modularite en conservant les blocs individuels de traitement polyphonique independants du mapping general qui a lieu dans le design de l'interaction d'un instrument de musique numerique. Le protocole MP est fonde sur un paradigme a trois etats permettant la modulation expressive de tout parametre. Une strategie originale est proposee pour le groupement hierarchique d'evenements en specifiant quels evenements invites seront autorises a modifier les parametres d'une voix de polyphonie affectee a cet evenement. Une revue prealable des principaux protocoles qui ont inspire ces developpements permettra d'en expliciter les enjeux. Quelques exemples seront donnes pour expliciter les possibilites offertes par cette strategie. Les developpements presentes ici sont implementes dans le logiciel...
Représentation et contrôle dans le design interactif des instruments de musique numériques. (Representation and control in the interactive design of digital musical instruments)
RÉSUMÉ La Méta-Mallette est un dispositif de musique par ordinateur collective. Elle est utilisée... more RÉSUMÉ La Méta-Mallette est un dispositif de musique par ordinateur collective. Elle est utilisée dans des contextes différents, de l'animation ludique à la pédagogie, du spectacle de rue à l'audition en salle. Elle permet de découvrir, à travers plusieurs instruments virtuels, différentes techniques de synthèse et de transformations sonores qui ont marqué l'histoire de la MAO, ainsi que des «compositions interactives» signées par des compositeurs / musiciens.
Le découplage entre le geste de l'instrumentiste et le son produit par son instrument dans les mu... more Le découplage entre le geste de l'instrumentiste et le son produit par son instrument dans les musiques électroniques a entrainé une reconsidération totale de la notion d'instrument [5] et de nouvelles pratiques pour la facture d'instruments numériques [1]. Pour concevoir des instruments numériques riches, le facteur est souvent amené à réaliser des connexions complexes et des réglages très fins, afin de retrouver à la fois un son vivant et une synesthésie entre le geste et le résultat acoustique qui permet in fine de pouvoir anticiper ou "chanter" ce que l'on joue. Il est possible d'obtenir un couplage riche et intuitif en procédant empiriquement au câblage et aux courbes de transfert entre toutes les variables d'entrée et de sortie, mais cette opération fastidieuse se fait souvent au détriment de la modularité informatique, qui permettrait de changer d'interface ou de synthèse en un simple clic. Les auteurs, qui ont déjà présenté le concept de "Modèles Intermédiaires Dynamiques" (MID) pour répondre à ce problème, présentent dans cet article leurs derniers développements concernant le contrôle de macro-formes par des processus génératifs. L'utilisation d'un automate cellulaire connu sous le nom de "Jeu de la Vie" est plus particulièrement présentée ici.
Real-time audio plugin architectures
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Papers by Vincent Goudard