Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 2868. Adviser: Sam Reese. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-125) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Exploration of the changes modern digital technology has had on the act of engaging with music in the early 21st century.

<p> This dissertation addresses the problem of the automatic discovery of structure in music from audio signals by introducing novel approaches and proposing perceptually enhanced evaluations. First, the problem of music structure analysis is reviewed from the perspectives of music information retrieval (MIR) and music perception and cognition (MPC), including a discussion of the limitations and current challenges in both disciplines. When discussing the existing methods of evaluating the outputs of algorithms that discover musical structure, a transparent open source software called mir eval, which contains implementations to these evaluations, is introduced. Then, four MIR algorithms are presented: one to compress music recordings into audible summaries, another to discover musical patterns from an audio signal, and two for the identification of the large-scale, non-overlapping segments of a musical piece. After discussing these techniques, and given the differences when perceiving the structure of music, the idea of applying more MPC-oriented approaches is considered to obtain perceptually relevant evaluations for music segmentation. A methodology to automatically obtain the most difficult tracks for machines to annotate is presented in order to include them in a design of a human study to collect multiple human annotations. To select these tracks, a novel open source framework called music structural analysis framework (MSAF) is introduced. This framework contains the most relevant music segmentation algorithms and it uses mir eval to transparently evaluate them. Moreover, MSAF makes use of the JSON annotated music specification (JAMS), a new format to contain multiple annotations for several tasks in a single file, which simplifies the dataset design and the analysis of agreement across different human references. The human study to collect additional annotations (which are stored in JAMS files) is described, where five new annotations for fifty tracks are stored. Finally, these additional annotations are analyzed, confirming the problem of having ground-truth datasets with a single annotator per track due to the high degree of disagreement among annotators for the challenging tracks. To alleviate this, these annotations are merged to produce a more robust human reference annotation. Lastly, the standard F-measure of the hit rate measure to evaluate music segmentation is analyzed when access to additional annotations is not possible, and it is shown, via multiple human studies, that precision seems more perceptually relevant than recall.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Dept. of Music Research, Schulich School of Music. Title from title page of PDF (viewed2009/09/01 ). Includes bibliographical references.

This practice-based PhD consists of a portfolio of creative work and a supporting commentary. The portfolio illustrates the design decisions relating to my digital music performance system, and focuses upon the visibility and the fluidity of digital music performance. The goal of the design is to enhance the visibility without violating the audience’s auditory imagination unnecessarily, and to enhance the fluidity without relinquishing the unique fixed nature of digital music. The performance system consists of an audio engine, control mapping engine and visual engine. The audio engine and the control mapping engine were programmed with Cycling ‘74 Max. They let the performer deconstruct and reconstruct pre-recorded audio files with her/his hands via MIDI controllers during performance. The visual engine was programmed with Derivative TouchDesigner. In various ways, it visualises and exaggerates the performer’s actions which cause sonic changes, and filters out the rest. The works are presented as videos and the supporting commentary, deals with the contexts and thinking processes which determined the current performance system. By exploring theories of electronic music performance, audiovisual, visual music, acousmatic and medium specificity, I aim to explain the reasoning behind the performance system.

My original contribution to knowledge is a portfolio of 29 compositions written for the open world videogame Apotheon that constitutes an improvement to the effectiveness and implementation of recombinant videogame music. This portfolio was developed in response to the criticisms of multiple authors such a K. Collins, W. Phillips, S. Huiberts, A. Burnt, D. Raybould, R. Stevens, and others on the negative effects of excessive use of looping in video game music. A collaboration between myself and the programmer and game designer Lee Vermeulen brought the development of a new stochastic recombinant music engine that was implemented in Apotheon. The purpose of the engine is to replace continuous linear looping with unique musical variations in key areas of the game in which players might spend large amounts of time. The music in these areas is dynamically recombined in multiple independent layers using weighted probabilities that are altered according to the development of the narrative. The portfolio was inspired by aleatoric techniques found in 18th century musical dice games, and expanded on stochastic recombinant techniques found in earlier videogame soundtracks such as Ballblazer, Times of Lore and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

No description available.

This thesis focuses on a time in the mid-1960s where practice in the studio changed from a formal arena where previously rehearsed songs were recorded, to a playground where sonic possibilities were explored and sound manipulation became normal practice. This abuse of technology and manipulation of reality became part of the creative process in the studio, providing soundscapes that resonated with the counter-cultural ethos of upsetting the established order, and were adopted by the mainstream during the 1967 ‘Summer of Love”. Following a discussion of current literature, practice as research is applied to demonstrate how interaction with historical technology reveals the performative nature of the tacit knowledge that created many of the aural effects under consideration. The research then focuses through the prism of two case studies, “Eight Miles High” recorded by The Byrds in Los Angeles in January 1966, and “Rain”, recorded by The Beatles in London in April 1966. Through re-enactment of these historical recording sessions, I recreate the closed envirnment of the 1960’s recording studio. By interacting with historical technology and following a similar structure to the original sessions, I investigate how the methodology was influenced by collaborative actions, situational awareness and the demarcation of roles. Post session video analysis reveals the flow of decision making as the sessions unfold, and how interaction with the technological constraints recreates ‘forgotten’ techniques that were deemed everyday practice at the time and were vital to the outcome of the soundscapes. The thesis combines theory and practice to develop an understanding of how the engineers interacted with technology (Polanyi, 1966), often abusing the equipment to create manipulated soundscapes (Akrich and Latour, 1992), and how the sessions responded to musicians demanding innovation and experimentation, circumventing the constraints of established networks of practice (Law and Callon, 1986) during the flow of the recording session (Ingold, 2013).

This thesis explores the historical development of the electronic organ via the survey, analysis and comparison of stylistic practices heard in historic recordings. This project establishes that the instrument went through several significant stages of development since its introduction in 1935, which have hitherto been undocumented in scholarly work. As this thesis will show, the changing design of the instrument can be aligned with an evident expansion in the stylistic lexicon of musical arrangement and performance. This aural-based micro-genre of electronic music is rediscovered via a multi-faceted survey model that triangulates the results of transcribed recordings, reconstructive performance on period instruments and practitioner survey. This addresses the typical challenge of historical instrument study: that of defining the degree to which technology shapes musical performance. Chapter One places the instrument within a cultural context via a review of literature. The reason for the instrument’s lack of appeal to musicologists is explained as the result of an image problem: the instrument is often regarded as a dated appliance of home entertainment and exists within a method of practice which aligns more closely to that of jazz than Western art music. By removing stereotypes and establishing the displaced cultural values that the instrument embodies, it is possible to see the true value of the research process. Chapter Two begins to present the findings of the survey by examining some of the earliest recordings made on the Hammond organ. The chapter illustrates how certain design flaws in an instrument that was originally Christopher Stanbury Introduction 6 intended as a low-cost replacement for a pipe organ led to an entirely different trajectory than the inventor’s initial ecclesiastical application. Chapter Three details further updates to the original Hammond design whilst correcting and expanding upon previous definitions of features that are defined in literature. The Lowrey organ is also introduced, along with an illustration of why the unique features and tonal qualities of the instrument resulted in a different approach to musical arrangement and performance. Chapter Four documents the introduction of emulative voicing, whereby instruments of the nineteen seventies and early eighties were designed to imitate the sound of other acoustic instruments. The resultant change in arrangement and performance style is illustrated and compared to the results of previous chapters. Chapter Five details instruments made by the Yamaha Corporation that feature digital synthesis technologies. The vast distance between these instruments and previous models, both in terms of technological profile and resultant performance practice, is illustrated and discussed. Chapter Six provides a summary of the survey findings and reexamines the evident changes in the instrument and performance practice. The nature of the relationship between organist and instrument is discussed, along with a return to some of the literature reviewed in Chapter One. Discrepancies between the conclusions of some authors and those of this thesis are outlined and discussed.

This thesis project consists of developing a hand-held, one-thumb input device small enough to be placed on gestural controllers and providing performers with a simple way to select between multiple options with few movements of a thumb. / Most commercial input devices for the thumb make the assumption that buttons are the de facto standard. However, buttons are not always the best solution especially where space is very limited. This project explores a new approach to input design by analyzing the thumb's movements and designing a suitable input device that can track them. The design progression from the first to the last prototype is presented in great detail. / The final prototype is compared to other existing one-thumb input devices used in gestural controllers and mobile computing. The shortcomings of each one-thumb input method is described with the final prototype presented as a possible solution in each case.