Expressivere und intuitivere elektronische Musikinstrumente durch die Integration von Machine-Listening-Konzepten

Due to their wide range of sonic possibilities electronic instruments have become indispensable in contemporary music creation, be it in studio production or live performance. A vast scope of possibilities regarding sonic and structural formation is available, especially through the integration of recorded sound material. This requires strategies to enable players to comprehend and purposefully control the sound generating processes, above all in live situations. Hence, a compromise between the possibilities a player can manage and those artisticly necessary is inevitable, and it must be oriented on the domain of application – in the case of a music instrument a specific musical, respectively sonic or stylistic environment. Especially in experimental contexts and in instrumental-electroacoustic improvisation where the range of expression can be very wide or quickly changing, intuition-driven or anticipatory approaches are vital to keep at it – the more direct the access to an instrument’s functionality has been designed, the more reactive and expressive a player can engage in the musical action. On the other hand some characteristic physical or also virtual resistance of the instrument is of great importance for the acting musician: as an interface for contact and friction that makes possible the buildup of gestural energy in the first place.

This research project investigates the question whether and how a simpler and more intuitive control and greater expressivity can be reached by dynamically adapting the electronic instrument to stylistics of the player and the musical context.

In a first step a systematization of focal points of the research question will be undertaken by performing adequate case studies pertaining to the analysis of own artistic techniques as well as the study and interview of other musicians.

As a second step an implementation of the intended functionality in consideration of the existing literature will be developed. For the analysis of the instrumental repertoire as well as the musical environment one can make use of a set of established methods of machine listening. The correlation of sonic processes of the played electronic instrument, respectively of its repertory to those within the musical environment can be carried out on the basis of the spectromorphology, a framework describing listening experience by the interaction between sonic structure elements and the way they develop, change and interact in time. By integrating methods of artificial intelligence (expert systems) and taking into account individual creative strategies tools for context-sensitive decision assistance can be generated.

In a third step the verification of the aspired functionality in practical musical applications within projects involving diverse instrumental-electronic constellations will be undertaken.