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Creating new interfaces for musical expression: introduction to NIME (Copyright restrictions prevent ACM from providing the full text for this article)

Published:15 December 2010Publication History

ABSTRACT

Due to advances in digital audio technologies, computers now play a role in most music production and performance. Digital technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for creation and manipulation of sound, but the flexibilty of these new technologies implies an often confusing array of choices for musical composers and performers. Some artists are using computers directly to create music and generate an explosion of new musical forms. However, most would agree that the computer is not a musical instrument, in the same sense as traditional instruments, and it is natural to wonder "how to play the computer" using interface technology appropriate for human brains and bodies.

A decade ago, the presenters of this course organized the first workshop on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), to attempt to answer this question by exploring connections with the better-established field of human-computer interaction. The course summarizes what has been learned at the NIME conferences. It begins with an overview of the theory and practice of new musical interface design and asks: What makes a good musical interface? Are any useful design principles or guidelines available? Then it reviews topics such as mapping from human action to musical output and control intimacy, and presents practical information about the tools for creating musical interfaces, including an overview of sensors and microcontrollers, audio synthesis techniques, and communication protocols such as Open Sound Control (and MIDI). The remainder of the course consists of several specific case studies of the major broad themes of the NIME conference, including augmented and sensor-based instruments, mobile and networked music, and NIME pedagogy.

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          • Published in

            cover image ACM Conferences
            SA '10: ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA 2010 Courses
            December 2010
            1481 pages
            ISBN:9781450305273
            DOI:10.1145/1900520

            Copyright © 2010 ACM

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            Association for Computing Machinery

            New York, NY, United States

            Publication History

            • Published: 15 December 2010

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