Master of Science / Department of Computer Science / William H. Hsu / We present gestural music instruments and interfaces that aid musicians and audio engineers to express themselves efficiently. While we have mastered building a wide variety of physical instruments, the quest for virtual instruments and sound synthesis is on the rise. Virtual instruments are essentially software that enable musicians to interact with a sound module in the computer. Since the invention of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), devices and interfaces to interact with sound modules like keyboards, drum machines, joysticks, mixing and mastering systems have been flooding the music industry. Research in the past decade gone one step further in interacting through simple musical gestures to create, shape and arrange music in real time. Machine learning is a powerful tool that can be smartly used to teach simple gestures to the interface. The ability to teach innovative gestures and shape the way a sound module behaves unleashes the untapped creativity of an artist. Timed music and multimedia programs such as Max/MSP/Jitter along with machine learning techniques open gateways to embodied musical experiences without physical touch. This master's report presents my research, observations and how this interdisciplinary field of research could be used to study wider neuroscience problems like embodied music cognition and human-computer interactions.

In this project, I focus on women's relationships with technology in the context of contemporary music culture. In choosing this focus, I intend to elucidate the interplay between social constructs of gender, power and technology as they enacted in a particular arena of artistic and economic activity. The nature of this interplay is informed by prevailing regimes of truth which have emerged through historical processes and which surface in diverse social contexts, of which this is but one. My intention here is to identify such regimes and to situate women's discourses within them. In this undertaking, I draw on a body of theory which lies at the conjunction of contemporary feminist critique and the later work of Michel Foucault on power and the 'technologies of the self' to explore a model of power which promises cogent strategies in the feminist project of reworking notions of gender and social agency. The inquiry enlists the perspectives of women students in a university school of contemporary music through a guided interview process. The technologies referred to include musical instruments both of traditional and twentieth century design, as well as a range of sophisticated systems of equipment used for recording and amplifying, for composing and arranging music. Through analysis of the interview data and through readings from social science and musicology, I identify a dominant discourse, or regime of truth, which privileges men and marginalizes women in the realm of techno-musical activity. Alongside this prevailing regime are women's discourses which both comply with and dissent from its assumptions. In examining these discourses, I seek insights into the processes by which women collude in their own exclusion from a male-colonized terrain, but also exercise power to insist on entry. The alignment of technology and masculinity in contemporary music creates serious training and employment disadvantages for women in many facets of the industry. I contend that this anomaly demands attention in the interests of socio-economic justice, in the interests of the industry itself through full utilization of human resources and market potential, and in the interests of women's desires to expand their creative options and employment opportunities.

In this project, I focus on women's relationships with technology in the context of contemporary music culture. In choosing this focus, I intend to elucidate the interplay between social constructs of gender, power and technology as they enacted in a particular arena of artistic and economic activity. The nature of this interplay is informed by prevailing regimes of truth which have emerged through historical processes and which surface in diverse social contexts, of which this is but one. My intention here is to identify such regimes and to situate women's discourses within them. In this undertaking, I draw on a body of theory which lies at the conjunction of contemporary feminist critique and the later work of Michel Foucault on power and the 'technologies of the self' to explore a model of power which promises cogent strategies in the feminist project of reworking notions of gender and social agency. The inquiry enlists the perspectives of women students in a university school of contemporary music through a guided interview process. The technologies referred to include musical instruments both of traditional and twentieth century design, as well as a range of sophisticated systems of equipment used for recording and amplifying, for composing and arranging music. Through analysis of the interview data and through readings from social science and musicology, I identify a dominant discourse, or regime of truth, which privileges men and marginalizes women in the realm of techno-musical activity. Alongside this prevailing regime are women's discourses which both comply with and dissent from its assumptions. In examining these discourses, I seek insights into the processes by which women collude in their own exclusion from a male-colonized terrain, but also exercise power to insist on entry. The alignment of technology and masculinity in contemporary music creates serious training and employment disadvantages for women in many facets of the industry. I contend that this anomaly demands attention in the interests of socio-economic justice, in the interests of the industry itself through full utilization of human resources and market potential, and in the interests of women's desires to expand their creative options and employment opportunities.

In this study, the understanding about multimodal perception from previous studies has been used to create a perceptually demanding visual search task inside a game. Also, a subtle multimodal cue was created to be in-directly informative about the visual search target’s location by attracting subjects’ attention. 20 subjects were divided equally among the experiments two conditions, one where the subjects had no access to the multimodal information and one where the subjects did have access to the multimodal information. The multimodal information conveyed to the subjects in this experiment was temporal synchrony between a visual light pulsating and a sound being modulated using level and low-pass filtering. Results showed that the subjects that were given the multimodal information improved more on the search task than the group without multimodal information, but the subjects in the multimodal group also perceived the pace of the task as higher. However, it is unclear exactly how the multimodal cue helped the subjects since the playing subjects did not seem to change their search movement pattern to favor the location of the search target, as was expected. Further, the difficulties and considerations of testing in a game environment is discussed and it is concluded that the gamer population is a very varied group which has big impacts on methodology of in-game experiments. To identify sub-groups, further research could study why different players use different search behaviors.

Loudspeakers are used professionally and for leisure as a device which presents audio information to a listener. Loudspeakers “color” this information in different ways because of different properties, which they inherit from the decisions made in the design process. This study investigated the audibility of phase distortion in loudspeaker systems in ecologically valid environments using different types of program material and levels of group-delay. 13 subjects participated in a listening test, each performing 48 trials across various conditions. Results revealed significant differences in the ability to differentiate between reference and impaired signals based on program material and impairment level. Notably, participants demonstrated better discrimination for simple transient sounds compared to a mixed music recording. These results suggest that phase distortion may be less audible in mixed music reproduction than in click-like sounds. However, findings indicate a lower audible threshold for phase distortion compared to existing literature for click-like stimuli. Overall, while phase distortion may not always be audible, consideration for it can be relevant for achieving high audio quality in loudspeaker systems. These findings hopefully contribute to the understanding of phase distortion's perceptual effects and its implications for audio engineering and consumer electronics design.

This study investigates the impact of time alignment on perceived attributes for drumkit recording techniques within the context of popular music. While previous research has compared time alignment in drum recording, little attention has been paid to the differences it may cause in perceived recording qualities. To address this gap, various overhead microphone configurations were recorded alongside kick and snare microphones to create stimuli for listening tests. These recordings were then processed with and without time alignment, and attributes such as clarity and punch were evaluated by participants using a modified MUSHRA interface. The results consistently favored non-time-aligned techniques in terms of perceived clarity and punch, with statistically significant differences observed in most cases. Preferences between engineers and musicians did not significantly differ. Participants provided both quantitative and qualitative feedback, including preferences for certain techniques and evaluations of clarity, punch, balance, size, and width. Least preferred samples exhibited characteristics such as roominess, phase issues, processed sound, dryness, harshness, muddiness, and undefined qualities. Critiques of the XY configurations included mentions of uneven stereo imaging and unnatural phase correlation, suggesting potential improvements in mic placement.

This research aims to develop a low-frequency response control methodology capable of delivering a consistent spectral and temporal response over a wide listening area. Low-frequency room acoustics are naturally plagued by room-modes, a result of standing waves at frequencies with wavelengths that are integer multiples of one or more room dimension. The standing wave pattern is different for each modal frequency, causing a complicated sound field exhibiting a highly position-dependent frequency response. Enhanced systems are investigated with multiple degrees of freedom (independently-controllable sound radiating sources) to provide adequate low-frequency response control. The proposed solution, termed a chameleon subwoofer array or CSA, adopts the most advantageous aspects of existing room-mode correction methodologies while emphasizing efficiency and practicality. Multiple degrees of freedom are ideally achieved by employing what is designated a hybrid subwoofer, which provides four orthogonal degrees of freedom configured within a modest-sized enclosure. The CSA software algorithm integrates both objective and subjective measures to address listener preferences including the possibility of individual real-time control. CSAs and existing techniques are evaluated within a novel acoustical modeling system (FDTD simulation toolbox) developed to meet the requirements of this research. Extensive virtual development of CSAs has led to experimentation using a prototype hybrid subwoofer. The resulting performance is in line with the simulations, whereby variance across a wide listening area is reduced by over 50% with only four degrees of freedom. A supplemental novel correction algorithm addresses correction issues at select narrow frequency bands. These frequencies are filtered from the signal and replaced using virtual bass to maintain all aural information, a psychoacoustical effect giving the impression of low-frequency. Virtual bass is synthesized using an original hybrid approach combining two mainstream synthesis procedures while suppressing each method‟s inherent weaknesses. This algorithm is demonstrated to improve CSA output efficiency while maintaining acceptable subjective performance.

The interactive and non-linear aspects of video games bring forth the problem of repetition.In game sound, dialogue is particularly susceptible to repetition because of our hearing’ssensitivity to human speech. The most common way to avoid repetition in game dialogue isto record multiple takes of every phrase as to have several naturally varied samples, whereasthis study explores the possibility to create these natural variations by manipulation of pitchand/or time of one recorded phrase using a readily available software. A listening test wasconducted where 23 subjects rated the variation, naturalness and artifacts of a recordedspoken phrase where three altered versions manipulated by altering the pitch, timing and bothpitch and timing where compared to the original recording, examining which manipulationtype yielded the most variation while also considering the naturalness and artifacts. Arepeated measures factorial ANOVA and pairwise comparisons showed a significantdifference between all manipulation types regarding the three dependent variables. Theresults show that the pitch manipulated sample had the best compromise between perceivedvariation, naturalness and artifacts, and would therefore be the recommended method forcreating variation of recorded dialogue.

<p>Examensarbetet har finansierats av Interactive Institute Piteå med medel från strukturfondsprojektet LJUDIT. Arbetet har utförts på och handletts av Interactive Institute Piteå.</p> / LJUDIT

This study explored the possible impact to a game’s responsiveness and to players’ preferences by using a physically inspired model (real-time pitch and amplitude modulation) as a means of efficiently achieving responsive variation for melee weapon sound effects in a game using the in-engine audio features. A play test was created were 24 participants (12 with audio engineering backgrounds, 12 without), all with prior gaming experience, played through a game level where they would audition a non-variational implementation of a sword’s sound effects and a variational implementation with the same sound samples being modulated in real-time. The participants did not know what they were auditioning, and in a form filled out after the play test they assessed the differences in the level parts’ responsiveness and their preference. From this form no significant benefit or drawback was found to the game’s responsiveness, and no significance was found to the participants’ preference toward either sound effect implementation. The study’s conclusions are that these physically inspired models could be used as a mean of implementation for melee weapon sound effects if the sounds used or the game setting would suit this approach, or if this would be the artistic wish of the game developers.