This paper will present observations on the design, artistic, and human factors of creating digital music controllers. Specific projects will be presented, and a set of design principles will be supported from those examples.

In this paper, the design and construction of a new violin interface, the Hyperbow, is discussed. The motivation driving the research of this instrument was the desire to create a violin bow capable of measuring the most intricate aspects of violin technique--the subtle elements of physical gesture that immediately and directly impact the sound of the instrument while playing. In order to provide this insight into the subtleties of bow articulation, a sensing system has been integrated into a commercial carbon fiber bow to measure changes in position, acceleration, and the downward and lateral strains of the bow stick. The sensors were fashioned using an electromagnetic field sensing technique, commercial MEMS accelerometers, and foil strain gauges. The measurement techniques used in this work were found to be quite sensitive and yielded sensors that were easily controllable by a player using traditional right hand bowing technique.

The PebbleBox and the CrumbleBag are examples of a granular interaction paradigm, in which the manipulation of physical grains of arbitrary material becomes the basis for interacting with granular sound synthesis models. The sounds made by the grains as they are manipulated are analysed, and parameters such as grain rate, grain amplitude and grain density are extracted. These parameters are then used to control the granulation of arbitrary sound samples in real time. In this way, a direct link is made between the haptic sensation of interacting with grains and the control of granular sounds.

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.

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.

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.

We define a two-axis transparency framework that can be used as a predictor of the expressivity of a musical device. One axis is the player's transparency scale, while the other is the audience's transparency scale. Through consideration of both traditional instrumentation and new technology-driven interfaces, we explore the role that metaphor plays in developing expressive devices. Metaphor depends on a literature, which forms the basis for making transparent device mappings. We examine four examples of systems that use metaphor: Iamascope, Sound Sculpting, MetaMuse, and Glove-TalkII; and discuss implications on transparency and expressivity. We believe this theory provides a framework for design and evaluation of new human-machine and humanhuman interactions, including musical instruments.

A system is introduced that allows a string player to control a synthesis engine with the gestural skills he is used to. The implemented system is based on an electric viola and a synthesis engine that is directly controlled by the unanalysed audio signal of the instrument and indirectly by control parameters mapped to the synthesis engine. This method offers a highly string-specific playability, as it is sensitive to the kinds of musical articulation produced by traditional playing techniques. Nuances of sound variation applied by the player will be present in the output signal even if those nuances are beyond traditionally measurable parameters like pitch, amplitude or brightness. The relatively minimal hardware requirements make the instrument accessible with little expenditure.

Musical performance in a cultural context has always been inextricably linked to the human body, yet, the body has played only a minor role in the creation and performance of electronic music. This paper will consider aesthetic and technical issues relating to: (1) the social/cultural construction of contexts for chamber music and dance; (2) our construction of gestural “composed instruments ” and integrated sonic display devices; (3) concepts of the integration of the dancing body and the musical body; and (4) new approaches to interactive music and improvisation in a “composed context. ” Our approach prioritizes music as “activity ” in both instrument design and sonic display. We find physicality, feedback, and gesture—the reintegration of the body in electronic music—are all key to maintaining and extending musical/social traditions within a technological context. 1

In this paper we present the augmented violin developed at IRCAM. This instrument is an acoustic violin with added sensing capabilities to measure the bow acceleration in realtime. We explain first the approach we developed to characterize bowing styles. Second, we describe the realtime implementation of the bowing style recognition system. Finally we describe an electro-acoustic music composition, Bogenlied, written for the augmented violin.