This study sought to determine whether or not it may be possible to evoke ‘the musical effect' – the emotional response perceived by music listeners – using white noise as a sound-source and real-time digital signal processing techniques. This information was considered to be valuable as in a world driven by technological progress the potential use of new or different technologies in creating music could lead to the development of new methods of – and tools for – composition and performance. More specifically this research asked the question 'what is music?' and investigated how humans – both trained musicians and untrained people – perceive it. The elements of music were investigated for their affective strengths and new fields of research explored for insights into emotion identification in music. Thereafter the focus shifted into the realm of Digital Signal Processing. Common operations and techniques for signal manipulation were investigated and an understanding of the field as a whole was sought. The culmination of these two separate, yet related, investigations was the design and implementation of a listening experiment conducted on adult subjects. They were asked to listen to various manipulated noise-signals and answer a questionnaire with regard to their perceptions of the audio material. The data from the listening experiment suggest that certain DSP techniques can evoke ‘the musical effect’. Various musical elements were represented via digital techniques and in many cases respondents reported perceptions which suggest that some effect was felt. The techniques implemented and musical elements represented were discussed, and possible applications for these techniques, both musical and non-musical, were explored. Areas for further research were discussed and include the implementation of even more DSP techniques, and also into garnering a more specific idea of the emotion perceived by respondents in response to the experiment material.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:8524 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Warneke, Andrew Travis |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Arts |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MMus |
| Format | vii, 175 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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