For my graduation project for the Media Technology MSc programme I researched relationships between digital sound synthesis and physical interfaces through the development of 3 novel musical interfaces.

The interfaces presented at the Science meets Art Exposition at Leiden University, organized by Organized by Young Academy Leiden (YAL), and Jonge Universiteit Leiden (JUL), June 2024. Photos by Wilke Geurds.

In acoustic musical instruments, there is an inherent connection between sound production and control: the instrument is both the sound source and a means to control the qualities of the sound. In digital musical instruments, there is a clear separation between sound production: the sound synthesis, and control: the physical interface, such as a MIDI-keyboard or MIDI-controller. We have to explicitly design relationships between the sound synthesis and the controller. For my graduation research I ask the following question:

What happens when we blur the separation between the physical interface and digital sound synthesis ?

For this research I have developed three physical interfaces in which the separation between sound production and control is blurred in various ways, while keeping the sound sound synthesis the same. Specifically, the interfaces vary in their ability of control and actual sound production, and in their similarity to the sound synthesis. For the sound synthesis I use a plucked string algorithm. For each interface, I performed different mapping experiments in which I test different relations between the output of the interface and the input of the synthesis model. The general approach for each interface is to regard it as both a sound source and a controller. This means that the sound, or data from the sensors is used both as input into the sound synthesis and as a means to control the synthesis parameters via signal analysis.

You can read the entire graduation thesis here.

Video demonstration of the "Bar-String" interface, showing some mapping experiments. The interface consists of a wooden bar that is played with mallets, captured by two contact microphones.

Video demonstration of the "Rope-String" interface. The interface consists of a tight rope that can be plucked and pulled, which is captured by two motion sensors.

Video demonstration showing the mapping experiments with the "String-String" interface. It consists of a long string which can be plucked and pulled, which is captured by coil pickups and Hall effect sensors.