Department of Music and Arts Technology

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/1805/3660

Browse

Browsing Department of Music and Arts Technology by Title

Now showing 1 - 10 of 42
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A Perceptual Evaluation of Music Real-Time Communication Applications
    (IEEE, 2023-04-28) Goot, Dana Kemack; Chaubey, Harshit; Hsu, Timothy Y.; Deal , William Scott; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Music Real-time Communication applications (M-RTC) enable music making (musiking) for musicians simultaneously across geographic distance. When used for musiking, M-RTC such as Zoom and JackTrip, require satisfactorily received acoustical perception of the transmitted music to the end user; however, degradation of audio can be a deterrent to using M-RTC for the musician. Specific to the audio quality of M-RTC, we evaluate the quality of the audio, or the Quality of Experience (QoE), of five network music conferencing applications through quantitative perceptual analysis to determine if the results are commensurate with data analysis. The ITU-R BS.1534-3 MUlti Stimulus test with Hidden Reference and Anchor (MUSHRA) analysis is used to evaluate the perceived audio quality of the transmitted audio files in our study and to detect differences between the transmitted audio files and the hidden reference file. A comparison of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and total harmonic distortion (THD) analysis to the MUSHRA analysis shows that the objective metrics may indicate that SNR and THD are factors in perceptual evaluation and may play a role in perceived audio quality; however, the SNR and THD scores do not directly correspond to the MUSHRA analysis and do not adequately represent the preferences of the individual listener. Since the benefits of improved M-RTC continue to be face-to-face communication, face-to-face musiking, reduction in travel costs, and depletion of travel time, further testing with statistical analysis of a larger sample size can provide the additional statistical power necessary to make conclusions to that end.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Advancing Expert Human-Computer Interaction Through Music
    (Michigan Publishing, 2012-09) Smith, Benjamin D.; Garnett, Guy E.
    One of the most important challenges for computing over the next decade is discovering ways to augment and extend human control over ever more powerful, complex, and numerous devices and software systems. New high-dimensional input devices and control systems provide these affordances, but require extensive practice and learning on the part of the user. This paper describes a system created to leverage existing human expertise with a complex, highly dimensional interface, in the form of a trained violinist and violin. A machine listening model is employed to provide the musician and user with direct control over a complex simulation running on a high-performance computing system.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    ArraYnger: New Interface for Interactive 360° Spatialization
    (2017) Andersen, Neal; Smith, Benjamin D.; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Interactive real-time spatialization of audio over large immersive speaker arrays poses significant interface and control challenges for live performers. Fluidly moving and mixing numerous sound objects over unique speaker configurations requires specifically designed software interfaces and systems. Currently available software solutions either impose configuration limitations, require extreme degrees of expertise, or extensive configuration time to use. A new system design, focusing on simplicity, ease of use, and live interactive spatialization is described. Automation of array calibration and tuning is included to facilitate rapid deployment and configuration. Comparisons with other solutions show favorability in terms of complexity, depth of control, and required features.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Automatic Piano Fingering Estimation Using Recurrent Neural Networks
    (2021-11) Guan, Hongzhao; Yan, Zhao; Hsu, Timothy; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Deciding piano fingerings is an essential skill for all piano players regardless of their expertise. Traditionally, pianists and piano educators first need to analyze musical scores, then they manually label the fingerings on the scores; however, this process is time-consuming and inefficient. This paper proposes a novel automatic piano fingerings estimating method by utilizing Bidirectional Long Short-term Memory (BI-LSTM) networks — a special type of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs). This is one of the first studies to explore the possibilities of applying deep learning to estimate piano fingerings. Together with the new method, a novel input representation is designed to capture the relations between surrounding notes. Furthermore, in addition to directly comparing the estimations with the ground-truth, this paper proposes a novel evaluation metric to assess the playability of the estimated fingerings. The results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method that generates playable and accurate estimated fingerings.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Bass Guitar Anatomy Game
    (Merlot, 2004-01) Janke, Thomas
    The Bass Parts Anatomy game is a simple interactive drag and drop interface that helps students to correctly indentify the various components of an electric bass guitar.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Big Tent: A Portable Immersive Intermedia Environment
    (2016) Smith, Benjamin D.; Cox, Robin; Department of Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Big Tent, a large scale portable environment for 360 degree immersive video and audio artistic presentation and research, is described and initial experiences are reported. Unlike other fully-surround environments of considerable size, Big Tent may be easily transported and setup in any space with adequate foot print, allowing immersive, interactive content to be brought to non-typical audiences and environments. Construction and implementation of Big Tent focused on maximizing portability by minimizing setup and tear down time, crew requirements, maintenance costs, and transport costs. A variety of different performance and installation events are discussed, exploring the possibilities Big Tent presents to contemporary multi-media artistic creation.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Blurred lines: Practical and theoretical implications of a DAW-based pedagogy
    (Intellect, 2020-08-01) Walzer, Daniel; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Digital audio workstations (DAWs) occupy a prominent space in the creative arts. Songwriters, composers, producers, and audio engineers use a combination of software and virtual instruments to record and make music. Educators increasingly find DAWs useful for teaching concepts in signal flow, acoustics and sound synthesis, and to model analogue processes. As the creative industries shift to primarily software-based platforms, the identities, roles, and responsibilities of the participants intersect and blur. Similarly, networked technologies change the space and place of creative activity. Now, the ‘studio’ exists virtually anywhere. For educators working with students, these changing paradigms present a series of challenges. This article explores the DAW’s possibilities across three areas: space and place, theory and identity, and pedagogy. The article advocates for a less technocratic model of teaching and learning with DAWs in favour of an approach that cultivates a balance of aesthetic awareness and creativity.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Break it then build again: An arts based duoethnographic pilot reconstructing music therapy and dance/movement therapy histories
    (Elsevier, 2021-04) Thomas, Natasha; Blanc, Valerie; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    This arts-based duoethnographic project explores the phenomenon of a collaborative arts-based experience between a Dance/Movement Therapist and a Music Therapist. From a simultaneously personal and collaborative framework (duo ethnography), the researchers will explore the question of, “What emerges when a BC-DMT & MT-BC utilize their respective modalities in active creative collaboration to deconstruct the histories they have been taught?” Utilizing a critical lens rooted in healing justice and influenced by decolonial theory, the researchers name and begin to deconstruct the complicated histories of both clinical fields, attempting to embody and amplify the healing practices of movement and music that came long before the “founders” of dance/movement or music therapy as clinical fields. The researchers then engaged in an active arts-based collaboration, including individual reflective writing and collaborative dialogic reflection on insights gleaned from the literature gathering and integrative arts-based process. The researchers each speak from their own positionality. Possible implications of this project could be to encourage arts therapists to think critically about how they cross utilize artforms, and ways to more ethically and effectively engage with their own communities in culturally sustaining and co-creative ways.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Can Online Concerts Be Socially Engaging and Satisfying? Results and Implications from Two Global Virtual Music Events
    (Association for Technology in Music Instruction, 2023-09-22) Meng, Chuiyuan
    Online and hybrid music events are the future. These new formats offer unprecedented audience reach with substantially reduced financial and labor requirement. Not only are they increasingly feasible with the advancement of affordable personal computing and communication technologies, but also they are ever-more needed because of the increased awareness of carbon footprint and the social distancing due to the global pandemic. But the challenge is also clear: Concertgoing is a highly social activity, and replicating the social experience and satisfaction through computer-mediated communication has been difficult. In 2021, a new virtual conference and concert platform named Deck 10 was designed and developed specifically to address the various social and user experience barriers for web-based music events. A 2022 study was conducted to analyze two Deck 10-powered global online music events (involving 512 users from 38 countries) to evaluate the effectiveness, technology acceptance, online social presence and overall user satisfaction. The results indicate that online music events can deliver a socially engaging and satisfying audience experience. This presentation will go over the case studies, the technical aspects, and discuss key elements that contributed to online social presence and user satisfaction. The session will also discuss implications of the online and hybrid music event formats.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Community-Based Referential Music Making with Limited-Resource Adolescents: A Pilot Study
    (Oxford, 2020) Thomas, Natasha; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Black/African American adolescents from limited-resource communities face challenges and circumstances that are unique to their racialization and socioeconomic status; this merits community-engaged resources, such as community music therapy, that are equally unique in creating culturally responsive opportunities for limited-resource adolescents to engage socially with peers and experience meaningful success in a safe, supportive environment. The purpose of this study was to pilot and explore the feasibility of and behavioral processes in a community-based referential music-making intervention for limited-resource adolescents labeled as “at-risk.” The methods consisted of a concurrent nested (embedded) mixed methods design based on the principles of participatory actions research (PAR), during which qualitative data were collected during 8 focus group style music-making sessions. Quantitative data assessing self-efficacy were collected prior to first and following the 8th music-making session. The validity of quantitative results was challenged by the lowered reading level of participants and a high amount of mis-labeled (and thus unusable) data. Qualitative data suggest 3 themes, including creating community, artistic prioritization, and pride. All results were impacted by issues, such as inconsistent attendance and malfunctioning recording equipment. Nevertheless, participants expressed a collective desire to share their work with their community group. Discussion points are raised including how participants in this community music therapy-based approach were able to create and direct their own stories. The implementation of community music therapy approaches seems a valuable way to bring authentic representations of limited-resource adolescent participants into clinical practice.