Traditional uses of virtual audio environments tend to focus on perceptually accurate acoustic representations. Though spatialization of sound sources is important, it is necessary to leverage control of the sonic representation when considering musical applications. The proposed framework allows for the creation of perceptually immersive scenes that function as musical instruments. Loudspeakers and microphones are modeled within the scene along with the listener/performer, creating a navigable 3D sonic space where sound sources and sinks process audio accordingtouser-defined spatial mappings.

Low latency processing is usually a goal in real-time audio applications; however, it is not clear how little latency is to be considered low enough. We discuss currently available experimental data on human perception and argue that somewhat high latencies (around 20--30ms) are probably perfectly acceptable for typical musical applications. We also argue that it should be possible to accept various levels of latency on a system if we can be aware of the effects of this latency on the users of the system; therefore, we still need more experimental data on latency perception to be able to better assess the effects of latency on musical applications. Such an experiment is suggested.

New digital musical instruments designed for professional and trained musicians can be quite complex and challenging, offering as a counterpart a great amount of creative freedom and control possibilities to their players. On the other hand, instruments designed for amateur musicians or for audiences in interactive sound installations, tend to be quite simple, often trying to bring the illusion of control and interaction to their users, while still producing 'satisfactory' outputs. Logically, these two classes of instruments are often mutually exclusive. But wouldn't it be possible to design instruments that can appeal to both sectors? In this paper we will show , with two projects developed in our research group, how visual feedback can highly increase the intuitiveness of an interactive music system, making complex principles understandable.

This paper describes work in progress for the development of a gestural controller interface for contemporary vocal performance and electronic processing. The paper includes a preliminary investigation of the gestures and movements of vocalists who use microphones and microphone stands. This repertoire of gestures formsthe foundation of a well-practiced `language' and social code for communication between performersand audiences andservesasabasisfor alternate controller design principles. A prototype design, based on a modified microphone stand, is presented along with a discussion of possible controller mapping strategies and identification of directions for future research.

This paper presents the approaches and expectations of a recently launched course at New York University (NYU) in the design and development of musical controllers. The framework for the course, which is also entitled "New Interfaces for Musical Expression," is largely based on the proceedings of the first NIME workshop held in Seattle, WA in April 2001.

Although MIDI is often used for computer-based interactive music applications, its real-time performance is difficult to generally quantify because of its dependence on the characteristics of the given application and the system on which it is running. We extend existing proposals for MIDI performance benchmarking so that they are useful in more realistic interactive scenarios, including those with high MIDI traffic and heavy CPU load. Our work has resulted in a cross-platform freely-available testing suite that requires minimal effort to use. We use this suite to survey the interactive performance of several commonly-used computer/MIDI setups, and extend the typical data analysis with an in-depth discussion of the benefits and downsides of various performance metrics. 1

This paper describes the adaptation of an existing model of human information processing for the categorization of digital musical instruments in terms of performance context and behavior. It further presents a visualization intended to aid the analysis of existing DMIs and the design of new devices. Three new interfaces constructed by the authors are examined within this framework to illustrate its utility. 1.

Although MIDI is often used for computer-based interactive music applications, its real-time performance is rarely quantified, despite concerns about whether it is capable of adequate performance in realistic settings. We extend existing proposals for MIDI performance benchmarking so they are useful in realistic interactive scenarios, including those with heavy MIDI tra#c and CPU load. We have produced a cross-platform freely-available testing suite that is easy to use, and have used it to survey the interactive performance of several commonly-used computer/MIDI setups. We describe the suite, summarize the results of our performance survey, and detail the benefits of this testing methodology.

We describe the design, implementation, and evaluation with musical applications of force sensitive multi-touch arrays of touchpads. Each of the touchpads supports a three dimensional representation of musical material: two spatial dimensions plus a force measurement we typically use to control dynamics. We have developed two pad systems, one with 24 pads and a second with 2 arrays of 16 pads each. We emphasize the treatment of gestures as sub-sampled audio signals. This tight coupling of gesture with audio provides for a high degree of control intimacy. Our experiments with the pad arrays demonstrate that we can efficiently deal with large numbers of audio encoded gesture channels – 72 for the 24 pad array and 96 for the two 16 pad arrays.

In an effort to find a better suited interface for musical performance, a novel approach has been discovered and developed. At the heart of this approach is the concept of physical interaction with sound in space, where sound processing occurs at various 3-D locations and sending sound signals from one area to another is based on physical models of sound propagation. The control is based on a gestural vocabulary that is familiar to users, involving natural spatial interaction such as translating, rotating, and pointing in 3-D. This research presents a framework to deal with realtime control of 3-D audio, and describes how to construct audio scenes to accomplish various musical tasks. The generality and effectiveness of this approach has enabled us to reimplement several conventional applications, with the benefit of a substantially more powerful interface, and has further led to the conceptualization of several novel applications. 1.