[sdiy] Control Interfaces

[jbv]

> Do we want to create something that is unique and one-of-a-kind, a novelty?
> Or something new that hoardes will embrace, a new artform? Something all our
> own, or something to share? Or maybe just a fun DIY project...
>
> If we try to concoct a way of touching the electronic sound directly,
> through a physical process, will we not end up with an electrified acoustic
> instrument that already exists?
>

Why should we stick to "tactile" controls approach ?
Yes I know that most musicians have acoustic instruments
practice beside their work with synths, and also that centuries
of instruments design has focused to physical relationships
with strings, tubes, drums...
But OTOH, almost since the begining, electronic sound
generation has been an obvious attempt to disconnect causes
from results : when you inject a portion of noise into a VCO to
emulate the sound of a flute, or when you add resonance to
a triangle osc to emulate a trumpet, there's very few "logical"
or "physical" (or whatever) relationship between the mean
and the result.

Back to the 3D interface I was discussing earlier :
the system could include existing sound synthesis techniques
(such as physical modeling) but for other purposes that strict
acoustic sounds emulation. I remember in the early 80's, the
first time I heard about phys. model. at IRCAM, the guy who
was working on that wanted to emulate instruments that
couldn't physically exist (like a 3 km long flute), or play
instruments in ways that physics wouldn't allow (like blowing
into a violin string, or playing a trumpet with a bow)...

Why not imagine to provide the end user with tools to
build such "impossible" instruments (and visualize them on the
screen in 3D), attach some physical properties to each part,
and then play with them ?
A data glove seems to be the best way to interact with an
instrument that can't physically exist... It seems to me that
with a data glove you still can bow a trumpet...

Another idea : earlier today I suggested the possibility to
manipulate the spectrum of a sound like clay. Why not add
the possibility to attach some properties to the 3D object that
represent this spectrum (like the density of water or stone or...)
and make it react to / being modified by environmental influences,
and then resynthesize the result ?

JB