This paper first introduces two previous software-based music instruments designed by the author, and analyses the crucial importance of the visual feedback introduced by their interfaces. A quick taxonomy and analysis of the visual components in current trends of interactive music software is then proposed, before introducing the reacTable*, a new project that is currently under development. The reacTable* is a collaborative music instrument, aimed both at novices and advanced musicians, which employs computer vision and tangible interfaces technologies, and pushes further the visual feedback interface ideas and techniques aforementioned.

We explore a variety of design criteria applicable to the creation of collaborative interfaces for musical experience. The main factor common to the design of most collaborative interfaces for novices is that musical control is highly restricted, which makes it possible to easily learn and participate in the collective experience. Balancing this tradeoff is a key concern for designers, as this happens at the expense of providing an upward path to virtuosity with the interface. We attempt to identify design considerations exemplifiedbyasamplingofrecent collaborative devices primarily oriented toward novice interplay. It is our intention to provide a non-technical overview of design issues inherent in configuring multiplayer experiences, particularly for entry-level players.

This paper begins with some of the topics and questions about music improvisation using computers, the author has posed himself during more than a decade experience as a performer, composer, software designer and educator. After a quick review of several of his previous interactive music systems, some of those issues are then confronted in FMOL, a program initially designed as a tool for on-line collaborative composition that has been used by hundreds of on-line composers, and which is also being employed by the author in free-form audiovisual improvisation concerts . 1

This paper provides a review of gestural control of sound synthesis in the context of the design and evaluation of digital musical instruments. It discusses research in various areas related to this field and equally focuses on four main topics: analysis of music performers’ gestures, gestural capture technologies, real-time sound synthesis methods, and strategies for mapping gesture variables to sound synthesis input parameters. Finally, this approach is illustrated by presenting an application of this research to the control of digital audio effects.

this paper we present a novel domain for user modeling and intelligent agents -- agents as specific users' improvisational music companions (IMCs). We also introduce Band-OUT-of-a-Box (BoB), an agent designed to trade live, customized solos with a specific improvising musician/user

In this paper, we examine the use of spatial layouts of musical material for live performance control. Emphasis is given to software tools that provide for the simple and intuitive geometric organization of sound material, sound processing parameters, and higher-level musical structures.

Digital musical instruments do not depend on physical constraints faced by their acoustic counterparts, such as characteristics of tubes, membranes, strings, etc. This fact permits a huge diversity of possibilities regarding sound production, but on the other hand strategies to design and perform these new instruments need to be devised in order to provide the same level of control subtlety available in acoustic instruments. In this paper I review various topics related to gestural control of music using digital musical instruments and identify possible trends in this domain.

Abstract not found

HyperPuja is a novel controller that closely mimicks the behavior of a Tibetan Singing Bowl rubbed with a "puja" stick. Our design hides the electronics from the performer to maintain the original look and feel of the instrument and the performance. This is achieved by using wireless technology to keep the stick un-tethered as well as burying the electronics inside the the coreofthestick. Themeasured parameters closelyresemble the input parameters of a related physical synthesis model allowing for convenient mapping of sensor parameters to synthesis input. The new controller allows for flexible choice of sound synthesis while fully maintaining the characteristics of the physical interaction of the original instrument.

When envisaging new digital instruments, designers do not have to limit themselves to their sonic capabilities (which can be absolutely any), not even to their algorithmic power; they must be also especially careful about the instruments' conceptual capabilities, to the ways instruments impose or suggest to their players new ways of thinking, new ways of establishing relations, new ways of interacting, new ways of organizing time and textures; new ways, in short, of playing new musics. This article explores the dynamic relation that builds between the player and the instrument, introducing concepts such as efficiency, apprenticeship and learning curve It aims at constructing a framework in which the possibilities and the diversity of music instruments as well as the possibilities and the expressive freedom of human music performers could start being evaluated.