nime: new interfaces for musical expression
a course at my master's program, itp. visit the course website.

aya karpinska
e-mail: ank212 at nyu dot edu

.pdfs of idea sketches:
sandbox spiny plant+10 points of light container for sound

other journals: one(you're here) || two || three || four || five || six || seven || eight || nine || ten

|| journal one || 15. II. 03 || define the space of musical processes. carve out a set of possibilities.

my plan of action this week was to see if i could get MIDI data into Max/MSP from a flex sensor. i followed Tom Igoe's MIDI lab and, after a series of false starts and quite a bit of head scratching, i got it to work! in Max, i had a very simple patch set up that took a notein and displayed the output values. the code in my BX-24 was simply sending out MIDI note numbers based on the amount i was bending the flex sensor. hard to describe the joy of seeing the little numbers changing as i bent the sensor forward and back...
so, what's next? my project has three basic areas:

• creating the banks of sounds using CSound
• building the physical interface
• programming a good Max/MSP patch for manipulating the sounds

my plan is to make incremental steps in all three areas simultaneously, rather than devoting weeks to one, then the second, then the third. i'm currently working on a short piece for CSound, and i just did my refresher in physical computing (i hadn't touched ANY circuit boards in over a year).

The container for sound is a physical interface for the manipulation of electronic sounds. It consists of three general parts: the physical object that the performer operates; the program that runs a series of algorithms to modify and mutate electronic sounds in real time; and the bank of electronic sounds that the peformer and program have access to. Each one of these will be briefly described below.
The physical interface is a wooden box, approximately 10 inches on each side. Two or three of its sides are joined to the top of the box by a hinge, and can swing open and shut. Flex sensors are attached to the interior of the box and pick up the amount that each one of the sides is being raised or lowered. This data is sent to a microcontroller, the BX-24. The BX-24 processes the signal and translates it into MIDI control data.
The stream of changing MIDI control values is picked up by Max/MSP and is used to determine the amount by which a sound sample should be mutated. For example, if the flex sensor is stretched out straight (the box flap is completely open), it will send out a very low resistance signal, which will translate as a low MIDI control value, perhaps 5 or 6. Max/MSP will receive this number and will time-shift or stretch a sound by the maximum value allowed by the algorithm. One challenge will be to develop patches in Max/MSP that make sense to the audience. For example, modifying sounds more and more as a box flap opens more and more; or decreasing the volume of the sounds when the box flap is almost closed.
The pre-composed bank of sounds will fall into three categories: pure electronic sounds made using classic synthesis techniques; recorded voice samples; and harsher, deeper sounds that are more ambient in feel.