The aim was to investigate how female patients with vocal nodules use their voices when trying to make themselves heard over background noise. Ten patients with bilateral vocal fold nodules and 23 female controls were recorded reading a text in four conditions, one without noise and three with noise from cafes/pubs, played over loudspeakers at 69, 77 and 85 dBA. The noise was separated from the voice signal using a high-resolution channel estimation technique. Both patients and controls increased voice sound pressure level (SPL), fundamental frequency (F0), subglottal pressure (Ps) and their subjective ratings of strain significantly as a main effect of the increased background noise. The patients used significantly higher Ps in all four conditions. Despite this they did not differ significantly from the controls in voice SPL, F0 or perceived strain. It was concluded that speaking in background noise is a risk factor for vocal loading. Vocal loading tests in clinical settings are important and further development of assessment methods is needed.

The motion of the bow gives a natural visualization of a string performance. Watching the player's bowing may augment the communicative power of the music, but all relevant bow control parameters are not easy to capture by a spectator. The string player controls volume of sound and tone quality continuously by coordination of three basic bowing parameters (bow velocity, bow‐bridge distance, and bow force), which set the main conditions for the bow‐string interaction. At a more detailed level of description, the tilting of the bow, which among other things controls the effective width of the bow hair, enters into the model. On a longer time scale, pre‐planned coordination schemes ('bowing gestures'), including the basic bowing parameters and the angles between the path of the bow and the strings, builds the performance. Systems for recording bowing parameters will be reviewed and results from old and current studies on bowing gestures presented. The player's choice and coordination of bowing parameters are constrained both in attacks and 'steady‐state' according to bow‐string interaction models. Recent verifications of these control spaces will be examined. Strategies for starting notes and examples of how players do in practice will be presented and compared with listeners' preferences.

The study of the acoustics of bowed instruments has for several reasons focused on the violin. A substantial amount of knowledge has been accumulated over the last century (see Hutchins 1975, 1976; Hutchins and Benade 1997). The violin is discussed in Chap. 13, while the cello is discussed in Chap. 14. The bow is discussed in Chap. 16.

Objectives. Significant changes in body tissues occur during pregnancy; however, literature concerning the effects of pregnancy on the voice is sparse, especially concerning the professional classically trained voice. Hypotheses. Hormonal variations and associated bodily changes during pregnancy affect phonatory conditions, such as vocal fold motility and glottal adduction. Design. Longitudinal case study with a semiprofessional classically trained singer. Methods. Audio, electrolaryngograph, oral pressure, and air flow signals were recorded once a week during the last 12 weeks of pregnancy, 48 hours after birth and during the following consecutive 11 weeks. Vocal tasks included diminuendo sequences of the syllable /pae/sung at various pitches, and performing a Lied. Phonation threshold pressures (PTPs) and collision threshold pressures (CTPs), normalized amplitude quotient (NAQ), alpha ratio, and the dominance of the voice source fundamental were determined. Concentrations of sex female steroid hormones were measured on three occasions. A listening test of timbral brightness and vocal fatigue was carried out. Results. Results demonstrated significantly elevated concentrations of estrogen and progesterone during pregnancy, which were considerably reduced after birth. During pregnancy, CTPs and PTPs were high; and NAQ, alpha ratio, and dominance of the voice source fundamental suggested elevated glottal adduction. In addition, a perceptible decrease of vocal brightness was noted. Conclusions. The elevated CTPs and PTPs during pregnancy suggest reduced vocal fold motility and increased glottal adduction. These changes are compatible with expected effects of elevated concentrations of estrogen and progesterone on tissue viscosity and water retention.

During recent years, games with a purpose (GWAPs) have become increasingly popular for studying human behaviour [1–4]. However, no standardised method for web-based game experiments has been proposed so far. We present here our approach comprising an extended version of the CaSimIR social game framework [5] for data collection, mini-games for tempo and rhythm tapping, and an initial analysis of the data collected so far. The game presented here is part of the Spot The Odd Song Out game, which is freely available for use on Facebook and on the Web 1 .We present the GWAP method in some detail and a preliminary analysis of data collected. We relate the tapping data to perceptual ratings obtained in previous work. The results suggest that the tapped tempo data collected in a GWAP can be used to predict perceived speed. I toned down the above statement as I understand from the results section that our data are not as good as When averagingthe rhythmic performances of a group of 10 players in the second experiment, the tapping frequency shows a pattern that corresponds to the time signature of the music played. Our experience shows that more effort in design and during runtime is required than in a traditional experiment. Our experiment is still running and available on line.

Our recent work within the research projectSIMULEKT (Simulating Intonational Varieties of Swedish) involves a pilot perceptiontest, used for detecting tendencies in humanclustering of Swedish dialects. 30 Swedishlisteners were asked to identify the geographical origin of 72 Swedish native speakers by clicking on a map of Sweden. Resultsindicate for example that listeners from thesouth of Sweden are generally better at recognizing some major Swedish dialects thanlisteners from the central part of Sweden.

The subglottal pressure (P_s) and voice source characteristics of five professional baritone singers were analyzed. Glottal adduction was estimated with amplitude quotient (AQ), defined as the ratio between peak-to-peak pulse amplitude and the negative peak of the differentiated flow glottogram, and with normalized amplitude quotient (NAQ), defined as AQ divided by fundamental period length. Previous studies show that NAQ and its variation with P_s represent an effective parameter in the analysis of voice source characteristics. Therefore, the present study aims at increasing our knowledge of these two parameters further by finding out how they vary with pitch and P_s in operatic baritone singers, singing at high and low pitch. Ten equally spaced P_s values were selected from three takes of the syllable [pae], repeated with a continuously decreasing vocal loudness and initiated at maximum vocal loudness. The vowel sounds following the selected P_s peaks were inverse filtered. Data on peak-to-peak pulse amplitude, maximum flow declination rate, AQ and NAQ will be presented.

Musical theatre singing requires the use of twovocal registers in the female voice. The voice source and subglottal pressure Pscharacteristics of these registers are analysed by inverse filtering. The relationship between Psand closed quotient Qclosed, peak-to-peak pulse amplitude Up-t-p, maximum flow declination rate MFDR and the normalised amplitude quotient NAQ were examined. Pswastypically slightly higher in chest than in head register . For typical tokens MFDR and Qclosed were significantly greater while NAQ and Up-t-p were significantly lower in chest than in head.

A system for real-time feedback of expressive music performance is presented.The feedback is provided by using a graphical interface where acoustic cues arepresented in an intuitive fashion. The graphical interface presents on the computerscreen a three-dimensional object with continuously changing shape, size,position, and colour. Some of the acoustic cues were associated with the shape ofthe object, others with its position. For instance, articulation was associated withshape, staccato corresponded to an angular shape and legato to a rounded shape.The emotional expression resulting from the combination of cues was mapped interms of the colour of the object (e.g., sadness/blue). To determine which colourswere most suitable for respective emotion, a test was run. Subjects rated how welleach of 8 colours corresponds to each of 12 music performances expressingdifferent emotions.

The SMC Sound and Music Computing group at KTH (formerly the Music Acoustics group) is part of the Department of Speech Music and Hearing, School of Computer Science and Communication. In this short report we present the current status of the group mainly focusing on its research.

A realtime model for the synthesis of crumpling sounds ispresented. By capturing the statistics of short sonic transients which give rise to crackling noise, it allows for a consistent description of a broad spectrum of audible physical processes which emerge in several everyday interaction contexts.The model drives a nonlinear impactor that sonifies every transient, and it can be parameterized depending on the physical attributes of the crumpling material. Three different scenarios are described, respectively simulating the foot interaction with aggregate ground materials, augmenting a dining scenario, and affecting the emotional content of a footstep sequence. Taken altogether, they emphasize the potential generalizability of the model to situations in which a precise control of auditory feedback can significantly increase the enactivity and ecological validity of an interface.

Many studies on the synthesis of emotional expression in music performance have focused on the effect of individual performance variables on perceived emotional quality by making a systematical variation of variables. However, most of the studies have used a predetermined small number of levels for each variable, and the selection of these levels has often been done arbitrarily. The main aim of this research work is to improve upon existing methodologies by taking a synthesis approach. In a production experiment, 20 performers were asked to manipulate values of 7 musical variables simultaneously (tempo, sound level, articulation, phrasing, register, timbre, and attack speed) for communicating 5 different emotional expressions (neutral, happy, scary, peaceful, sad) for each of 4 scores. The scores were compositions communicating four different emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, calmness). Emotional expressions and music scores were presented in combination and in random order for each performer for a total of 5 x 4 stimuli. The experiment allowed for a systematic investigation of the interaction between emotion of each score and intended expressed emotions by performers. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), repeated measures, with factors emotion and score was conducted on the participants' values separately for each of the seven musical factors. There are two main results. The first one is that musical variables were manipulated in the same direction as reported in previous research on emotional expressive music performance. The second one is the identification for each of the five emotions the mean values and ranges of the five musical variables tempo, sound level, articulation, register, and instrument. These values resulted to be independent from the particular score and its emotion. The results presented in this study therefore allow for both the design and control of emotionally expressive computerized musical stimuli that are more ecologically valid than stimuli without performance variations.

In this chapter, we review and summarize different methods for the evaluation of CSEMPs. The main categories of evaluation methods are (1) comparisons with measurements from real performances, (2) listening experiments, and (3) production experiments. Listening experiments can be of different types. For example, in some experiments, subjects may be asked to rate a particular expressive characteristic (such as the emotion conveyed or the overall expression) or to rate the effect of a particular acoustic cue. In production experiments, subjects actively manipulate system parameters to achieve a target performance. Measures for estimating the difference between performances are discussed in relation to the objectives of the model and the objectives of the evaluation. There will be also a section with a presentation and discussion of the Rencon (Performance Rendering Contest). Rencon is a contest for comparing the expressive musical performances of the same score generated by different CSEMPs. Practical examples from previous works are presented, commented on, and analysed.

The Max Mathews radio baton (RB) has been produced in about 40 pieces until today. It has usually been applied as an orchestra conducting system, as interactive music composition controller using typical percussionist gestures, and as a controller for sound synthesis models. In the framework of the Sounding Object EU founded project, the RB has found new applications scenarios. Three applications were based on this controller. This was achieved by changing the gesture controls. Instead of the default batons, a new radio sender that fits the fingertips was developed. This new radio sender allows musicians’ interaction based on hand gestures and it can also fit different devices. A Pd model of DJ scratching techniques (submitted to SMAC03) was controlled with the RB and the fingertip radio sender. This controller allows DJs a direct control of sampled sounds maintaining hand gestures similar to those used on vinyl. The sound model of a bodhran (submitted to SMAC03) was controlled with a traditional playing approach. The RB was controlled with a traditional bodhran double beater with one fingertip radio sender at each end. This allowed detection of the beater position on the RB surface, the surfaced corresponding to the membrane in the sound model. In a third application the fingertip controller was used to move a virtual ball rolling along the elastic surface of a box placed over the surface of the RB. The DJ console and the virtual bodhran were played in concerts.

Introduction

These are the proceedings of the ISon 2010 meeting, which is the 3rd international Interactive Sonification Workshop. The first ISon workshop was held in Bielefeld (Germany) in 2004, and a second one was held in York (UK) in 2007.These meetings:

• focus on the link between auditory displays and human‐computer interaction
• bring together experts in sonification to exchange ideas and work‐in‐progress
• strengthen networking in sonification research

High quality work is assured by a peer‐reviewing process, and the successful papers were presented at the conference and are published here.

ISon 2010 was supported by COST IC0601 Action on Sonic Interaction Design (SID) (http://www.cost‐sid.org/).

About Interactive Sonification

Sonification & Auditory Displays are increasingly becoming an established technology for exploring data, monitoring complex processes, or assisting exploration and navigation of data spaces. Sonification addresses the auditory sense by transforming data into sound, allowing the human user to get valuable information from data by using their natural listening skills.

The main differences of sound displays over visual displays are that sound can:

• Represent frequency responses in an instant (as timbral characteristics)
• Represent changes over time, naturally
• Allow microstructure to be perceived
• Rapidly portray large amounts of data
• Alert listener to events outside the current visual focus
• Holistically bring together many channels of information

Auditory displays typically evolve over time since sound is inherently a temporal phenomenon. Interaction thus becomes an integral part of the process in order to select, manipulate, excite or control the display, and this has implications for the interface between humans and computers. In recent years it has become clear that there is an important need for research to address the interaction with auditory displays more explicitly. Interactive Sonification is the specialized research topic concerned with the use of sound to portray data, but where there is a human being at the heart of an interactive control loop. Specifically it deals with:

• interfaces between humans and auditory displays
• mapping strategies and models for creating coherency between action and reaction (e.g. acoustic feedback, but also combined with haptic or visual feedback)
• perceptual aspects of the display (how to relate actions and sound, e.g. cross‐modal effects, importance of synchronisation)
• applications of Interactive Sonification
• evaluation of performance, usability and multi‐modal interactive systems including auditory feedback

Although ISon shines a spotlight on the particular situations where there is real‐time interaction with sonification systems, the usual community for exploring all aspects of auditory display is ICAD (http://www.icad.org/).

Contents

These proceedings contain the conference versions of all contributions to the 3rd International interactive Sonification Workshop. Where papers have audio or audiovisual examples, these are listed in the paper and will help to illustrate the multimedia content more clearly.

We very much hope that the proceedings provide an inspiration for your work and extend your perspective on the new emerging research field of interactive sonification.

Roberto Bresin, Thomas Hermann, Andy Hunt, ISon 2010 Organisers

We developed a robotic system that can behave in an emotional way. A 3-wheeled simple robot with limited degrees of freedom was designed. Our goal was to make the robot displaying emotions in music performance by performing expressive movements. These movements have been compiled and programmed based on literature about emotion in music, musicians’ movements in expressive performances, and object shapes that convey different emotional intentions. The emotions happiness, anger, and sadness have been implemented in this way. General results from behavioral experiments show that emotional intentions can be synthesized, displayed and communicated by an artificial creature, also in constrained circumstances.

This article presents a survey of the research work carried out within the framework of the European Union-IST project MEGA (Multisensory Expressive Gesture Applications, November 2000-October 2003; www. megaproject.org). First, the article introduces a layered conceptual framework for analysis and synthesis of expressive gesture. Such a framework represents the main methodological foundation upon which the MEGA project built its own research. A brief overview of the achievements of research in expressive gesture analysis and synthesis is then provided: these are the outcomes of some experiments that were carried out in order to investigate specific aspects of expressive gestural communication. The work resulted in the design and development of a collection of software libraries integrated in the MEGA System Environment (MEGASE) based on the EyesWeb open platform (www. eyesweb.org).

This paper surveys a collection of sample applications for networked user-centric context-aware embodied music listening. The applications have been designed and developed in the framework of the EU-ICT Project SAME (www.sameproject.eu) and have been presented at Agora Festival (IRCAM, Paris, France) in June 2009. All of them address in different ways the concept of embodied, active listening to music, i.e., enabling listeners to interactively operate in real-time on the music content by means of their movements and gestures as captured by mobile devices. In the occasion of the Agora Festival the applications have also been evaluated by both expert and non-expert users

In this paper we describe a system which allows users to use their full-body for controlling in real-time the generation of an expressive audio-visual feedback. The system extracts expressive motion features from the user’s full-body movements and gestures. The values of these motion features are mapped both onto acoustic parameters for the real-time expressive rendering ofa piece of music, and onto real-time generated visual feedback projected on a screen in front of the user.

In this paper we describe a system allowing users to express themselves through their full-body movement and gesture and to control in real-time the generation of an audio-visual feedback. The systems analyses in real-time the user’s full-body movement and gesture, extracts expressive motion features and maps the values of the expressive motion features onto real-time control of acoustic parameters for rendering a music performance. At the same time, a visual feedback generated in real-time is projected on a screen in front of the users with their coloured silhouette, depending on the emotion their movement communicates. Human movement analysis and visual feedback generation were done with the EyesWeb software platform and the music performance rendering with pDM. Evaluation tests were done with human participants to test the usability of the interface and the effectiveness of the design.

We experience and understand the world, including music, through body movement–when we hear something, we are able to make sense of it by relating it to our body movements, or form an image in our minds of body movements. Musical Gestures is a collection of essays that explore the relationship between sound and movement. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to the fundamental issues of this subject, drawing on ideas, theories and methods from disciplines such as musicology, music perception, human movement science, cognitive psychology, and computer science.

To explore to what extent emotional intentions can be conveyed through musicians’ movements, video recordings were made of amarimba player performing the same piece with the intentions Happy, Sad, Angry and Fearful. 20 subjects were presented video clips, without sound, and asked to rate both the perceived emotional content as well as the movement qualities. The video clips were presented in different conditions, showing the player to different extent. The observers’ ratings forthe intended emotions confirmed that the intentions Happiness, Sadness and Anger were well communicated, while Fear was not. Identification of the intended emotion was only slightly influenced by the viewing condition. The movement ratings indicated that there were cues that the observers used to distinguish between intentions, similar to cues found for audio signals in music performance.

Cochlear implant technology was initially designed to promote reception ofspeech sounds; however, music enjoyment remains a challenge. Music is aninfluential ingredient in our well-being, playing an important role in ourcognitive, physical and social development. For many cochlear implantrecipients it is not feasible to communicate how sounds are perceived, andconsequently the benefits of music listening may be reduced. Non-speechsounds may also be important to persons with multiple functional deficitsthat relay on information additional to verbatim for participating incommunication. Deaf-born children with multiple functional deficitsconstitute a special vulnerable group as lack of reaction to sound oftenis discouraging to caregivers. Individually adapted tools and methods forsound awareness may promote exploration and appreciation of theinformation mediated by the implant.Two current works involving habilitation through sound production andmusic will be discussed. First, the results from a pilot study aiming atfinding musical toys that can be adapted to help children explore theirhearing with engaging sounds and expressive interfaces will be presented.The findings indicate that children with multiple functional deficits canbe more inclined to use the auditory channel for communication and playthan the caregivers would anticipate.Second, the results of a recent questionnaire study, which compared themusic exposure and appreciation of preschool cochlear implant recipientswith their normally hearing peers will be presented. The data from thisstudy indicate that preschool children with cochlear implants spendroughly the same amount of time interacting with musical instruments athome and watching television programmes and DVDs which include music.However, the data indicate that these children receive less exposure torecorded music without visual stimuli and show less sophisticatedresponses to music. The provision and supported use of habilitationmaterials which encourage interaction with music might therefore bebeneficial.

Many aspects of sonification represent potential benefits for the practice of sports. Taking advantage of the characteristics of auditory perception, interactive sonification offers promising opportunities for enhancing the training of athletes. The efficient learning and memorizing abilities pertaining to the sense of hearing, together with the strong coupling between auditory and sensorimotor systems, make the use of sound a natural field of investigation in quest of efficiency optimization in individual sports at a high level. This study presents an application of sonification to elite rowing, introducing and evaluating four sonification models.The rapid development of mobile technology capable of efficiently handling numerical information offers new possibilities for interactive auditory display. Thus, these models have been developed under the specific constraints of a mobile platform, from data acquisition to the generation of a meaningful sound feedback. In order to evaluate the models, two listening experiments have then been carried out with elite rowers. Results show a good ability of the participants to efficiently extract basic characteristics of the sonified data, even in a non-interactive context. Qualitative assessment of the models highlights the need for a balance between function and aesthetics in interactive sonification design. Consequently, particular attention on usability is required for future displays to become widespread.

Sound and motion are intrinsically related, by their physical nature and through the link between auditory perception and motor control. If sound provides information about the characteristics of a movement, a movement can also be influenced or triggered by a sound pattern. This thesis investigates how this link can be reinforced by means of interactive sonification. Sonification, the use of sound to communicate, perceptualize and interpret data, can be used in many different contexts. It is particularly well suited for time-related tasks such as monitoring and synchronization, and is therefore an ideal candidate to support the design of applications related to physical training. Our objectives are to develop and investigate computational models for the sonification of motion data with a particular focus on expressive movement and gesture, and for the sonification of elite athletes movements.  We chose to develop our applications on a mobile platform in order to make use of advanced interaction modes using an easily accessible technology. In addition, networking capabilities of modern smartphones potentially allow for adding a social dimension to our sonification applications by extending them to several collaborating users. The sport of rowing was chosen to illustrate the assistance that an interactive sonification system can provide to elite athletes. Bringing into play complex interactions between various kinematic and kinetic quantities, studies on rowing kinematics provide guidelines to optimize rowing efficiency, e.g. by minimizing velocity fluctuations around average velocity. However, rowers can only rely on sparse cues to get information relative to boat velocity, such as the sound made by the water splashing on the hull. We believe that an interactive augmented feedback communicating the dynamic evolution of some kinematic quantities could represent a promising way of enhancing the training of elite rowers. Since only limited space is available on a rowing boat, the use of mobile phones appears appropriate for handling streams of incoming data from various sensors and generating an auditory feedback simultaneously. The development of sonification models for rowing and their design evaluation in offline conditions are presented in Paper I. In Paper II, three different models for sonifying the synchronization of the movements of two users holding a mobile phone are explored. Sonification of expressive gestures by means of expressive music performance is tackled in Paper III. In Paper IV, we introduce a database of mobile applications related to sound and music computing. An overview of the field of sonification is presented in Paper V, along with a systematic review of mapping strategies for sonifying physical quantities. Physical and auditory dimensions were both classified into generic conceptual dimensions, and proportion of use was analyzed in order to identify the most popular mappings. Finally, Paper VI summarizes experiments conducted with the Swedish national rowing team in order to assess sonification models in an interactive context.

The field of sonification has progressed greatly over the past twenty years and currently constitutes an established area of research. This article aims at exploiting and organizing the knowledge accumulated in previous experimental studies to build a foundation for future sonification works. A systematic review of these studies may reveal trends in sonification design, and therefore support the development of design guidelines. To this end, we have reviewed and analyzed 179 scientific publications related to sonification of physical quantities. Using a bottom-up approach, we set up a list of conceptual dimensions belonging to both physical and auditory domains. Mappings used in the reviewed works were identified, forming a database of 495 entries. Frequency of use was analyzed among these conceptual dimensions as well as higher-level categories. Results confirm two hypotheses formulated in a preliminary study: pitch is by far the most used auditory dimension in sonification applications, and spatial auditory dimensions are almost exclusively used to sonify kinematic quantities. To detect successful as well as unsuccessful sonification strategies, assessment of mapping efficiency conducted in the reviewed works was considered. Results show that a proper evaluation of sonification mappings is performed only in a marginal proportion of publications. Additional aspects of the publication database were investigated: historical distribution of sonification works is presented, projects are classified according to their primary function, and the sonic material used in the auditory display is discussed. Finally, a mapping-based approach for characterizing sonification is proposed.

In recent years, many solutions based on interactive sonification have been introduced for enhancing sport training. Few of them have been assessed in terms of efficiency or design. In a previous study, we performed a quantitative evaluation of four models for the sonification of elite rowing in a non-interactive context. For the present article, we conducted on-water experiments to investigate the effects of some of these models on two kinematic quantities: stroke rate value and fluctuations in boat velocity. To this end, elite rowers interacted with discrete and continuous auditory displays in two experiments. A method for computing an average rowing cycle is introduced, together with a measure of velocity fluctuations. Participants answered to questionnaires and interviews to assess the degree of acceptance of the different models and to reveal common trends and individual preferences. No significant effect of sonification could be determined in either of the two experiments. The measure of velocity fluctuations was found to depend linearly on stroke rate. Participants provided feedback about their aesthetic preferences and functional needs during interviews, allowing us to improve the models for future experiments to be conducted over longer periods.

We introduce a meta-study of previous sonification designs taking physical quantities as input data. The aim is to build a solid foundation for future sonification works so that auditory display researchers would be able to take benefit from former studies, avoiding to start from scratch when beginning new sonification projects. This work is at an early stage and the objective of this paper is rather to introduce the methodology than to come to definitive conclusions. After a historical introduction, we explain how to collect a large amount of articles and extract useful information about mapping strategies. Then, we present the physical quantities grouped according to conceptual dimensions, as well as the sound parameters used in sonification designs and we summarize the current state of the study by listing the couplings extracted from the article database. A total of 54 articles have been examined for the present article. Finally, a preliminary analysis of the results is performed.

Sonification is a widening field of research with many possibilitiesfor practical applications in various scientific domains. The rapiddevelopment of mobile technology capable of efficiently handlingnumerical information offers new opportunities for interactive auditorydisplay. In this scope, the SONEA project (SONification ofElite Athletes) aims at improving performances of Olympic-levelathletes by enhancing their training techniques, taking advantageof both the strong coupling between auditory and sensorimotorsystems, and the efficient learning and memorizing abilities pertainingthe sense of hearing. An application to rowing is presentedin this article. Rough estimates of the position and mean velocityof the craft are given by a GPS receiver embedded in a smartphonetaken onboard. An external accelerometer provides boatacceleration data with higher temporal resolution. The developmentof preliminary methods for sonifying the collected data hasbeen carried out under the specific constraints of a mobile deviceplatform. The sonification is either performed by the phone as areal-time feedback or by a computer using data files as input foran a posteriori analysis of the training. In addition, environmentalsounds recorded during training can be synchronized with thesonification to perceive the coherence of the sequence of soundsthroughout the rowing cycle. First results show that sonificationusing a parameter-mapping method over

This paper introduces a database of sound-based applications running on the Android mobile platform. The longterm objective is to provide a state-of-the-art of mobile applications dealing with sound and music interaction. After exposing the method used to build up and maintain the database using a non-hierarchical structure based on tags, we present a classification according to various categories of applications, and we conduct a preliminary analysis of the repartition of these categories reflecting the current state of the database.

Introduction: The question of formant tuning in male professional voices has been a matter of discussion for many years. Material and Methods: In this study four very successful Western classically trained tenors of different repertoire were analysed. They sang a scale on the vowel conditions /a,e,i,o,u/ from the pitch C4 (250 Hz) to A4 (440 Hz) in their stage voice avoiding a register shift to falsetto. Formant frequencies were calculated from inverse filtering of the audio signal and from two-dimensional MRI data. Results: Both estimations showed only for vowel conditions with low first formant (F1) a tuning F1 adjusted to the first harmonic. For other vowel conditions, however, no clear systematic formant tuning was observed. Conclusion: For most vowel conditions the data are not able to support the hypothesis of a systematic formant tuning for professional classically trained tenors.

Vocal fold oscillation patterns in vocal register transitions are still unclarified. The vocal fold oscillations and the open quotient were analyzed with high-speed digital imaging (HSDI) and electroglottography (EGG) in 18 male untrained subjects singing a glissando from modal to the falsetto register. Results reveal that the open quotient changed with register in both HSDI. and EGG. The in-class correlations for different HSDI and EGG determinations of the open quotient were high. However, we found only weak interclass correlations between both methods. In ID subjects, irregularities of vocal fold vibration occurred during the register transition. Our results confirm previous observations that falsetto register is associated with a higher open quotient compared with modal register. These data suggest furthermore that irregularities typically observed in audio and electroglottographic signals during register transitions are caused by irregularities in vocal fold vibration.

Human voice production at very high fundamental frequencies is not yet understood in detail. It was hypothesized that these frequencies are produced by turbulences, vocal tract/vocal fold interactions, or vocal fold oscillations without closure. Hitherto it has been impossible to visually analyze the vocal mechanism due to technical limitations. Latest high-speed technology, which captures 20 000 frames/s, using transnasal endoscopy was applied. Up to 1568Hz human vocal folds do exhibit oscillations with complete closure. Therefore, the recent results suggest that human voice production at very high F0s up to 1568Hz is not caused by turbulence, but rather by airflow modulation from vocal fold oscillations. (C) 2013 Acoustical Society of America

Changes of vocal tract shape accompanying changes of vocal register and pitch in singing have remained an unclear field. Dynamic real-time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was applied to two professional classical singers (a tenor and a baritone) in this pilot study. The singers sang ascending scales from B3 to G#4 on the vowel /a/, keeping the modal register throughout or shifting to falsetto register for the highest pitches. The results show that these singers made few and minor modifications of vocal tract shape when they changed from modal to falsetto and some clear modifications when they kept the register. In this case the baritone increased his tongue dorsum height, widened his jaw opening, and decreased his jaw protrusion, while the tenor merely lifted his uvula. The method used seems promising and should be applied to a greater number of singer subjects in the future.

This paper deals with the question of how the developmentof new musical artifacts can benet from deeply engagingwith contemporary musical practice. With the novel ideasproduced by the NIME community manifested in musicalinstruments in continuous use, new research questions canbe answered and new sources of knowledge can be explored.This can also be very helpful in evaluation, as it is possi-ble to evaluate the qualities of an instrument in a speciedcontext, rather than evaluating a prototyped instrument onthe basis of its unrealised potential. The information fromsuch evaluation can then be fed back into the developmentprocess, allowing researchers to probe musical practice itselfwith their designs.

The use of technology in artistic contexts presents interestingchallenges regarding the processes in which engineers, artists andperformers work together. The artistic intent and goals of the participantsare relevant both when shaping the development practice, and in definingand refining the role of technology in practice. In this paper wepresent strategies for structuring the development process, basedon iterative design and participatory design. The concepts are describedin theory and examples are given of how they have been successfullyapplied. The cases make heavy use of different types of prototypingand this practice is also discussed. The development cases all relateto a single artifact, a gestural voice processing instrument calledThe Throat. This artifact has been in use since it was developed,and from that experience, three cases are presented. The focus ofthese cases is on how artistic vision through practice can recontextualizetechnology, and, without rebuilding it, redefine it and give it anew role to play.

Developing new technology for artistic practice requires other methods than classical problem solving. Some of the challenges involved in the development of new musical instruments have affinities to the realm of wicked problems. Wicked problems are hard to define and have many different solutions that are good or bad (not true or false). The body of possible solutions to a wicked problem can be called a design space and exploring that space must be the objective of a design process.In this paper we present effective methods of iterative design and participatory design that we have used in a project developed in collaboration between the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and the University College of Opera, both in Stockholm. The methods are outlined, and examples are given of how they have been applied in specific situations.The focus lies on prototyping and evaluation with user participation. By creating and acting out scenarios with the user, and thus asking the questions through a prototype and receiving the answers through practice and exploration, we removed the bottleneck represented by language and allowed communication beyond verbalizing. Doing this, even so-called tacit knowledge could be activated and brought into the development process.

We present a novel rhythm tracking architecture that learns how to track tempo and beats through layered learning. A basic assumption of the system is that humans understand rhythm by letting salient periodicities in the music act as a framework, upon which the rhythmical structure is interpreted. Therefore, the system estimates the cepstroid (the most salient periodicity of the music), and uses a neural network that is invariant with regards to the cepstroid length. The input of the network consists mainly of features that capture onset characteristics along time, such as spectral differences. The invariant proper-ties of the network are achieved by subsampling the input vectors with a hop size derived from a musically relevant subdivision of the computed cepstroid of each song. The output is filtered to detect relevant periodicities and then used in conjunction with two additional networks, which estimates the speed and tempo of the music, to predict the final beat positions. We show that the architecture has a high performance on music with public annotations. 

Human  composers  have  used  formal  rules  for  centuries  to  compose music, and an algorithmic composer – composing without the aid of human intervention – can be seen as an extension of this technique. An algorithmic  composer  of  popular  music  (a  computer  program)  has been  created  with  the  aim  to  get  a  better  understanding  of  how  the composition process can be formalized and at the same time to get a better  understanding  of  popular  music  in  general.  With  the  aid  of statistical  findings  a  theoretical  framework  for  relevant  methods  are presented.  The concept of Global Joint Accent Structure is introduced, as a way of understanding how melody and rhythm interact to help the listener   form   expectations  about   future   events. Methods  of  the program   are   presented   with   references   to   supporting   statistical findings. The  algorithmic  composer  creates a  rhythmic  foundation (drums), a chord progression, a phrase structure and at last the melody. The main focus has been the composition of the melody. The melodic generation  is  based  on  ten  different  musical  aspects  which  are described. The resulting output was evaluated in a formal listening test where 14  computer  compositions  were  compared  with  21  human compositions. Results indicate a slightly lower score for the computer compositions but the differences were statistically insignificant.

One of the major parameters in music is the overall speed of a musical performance. Speed is often associated with tempo, but other factors such as note density (onsets per second) seem to be important as well. In this study, a computational model of speed in music audio has been developed using a custom set of rhythmic features. The original audio is first separated into a harmonic part and a percussive part and onsets are extracted separately from the different layers. The characteristics of each onset are determined based on frequency content as well as perceptual salience using a clustering approach. Using these separated onsets a set of eight features including a tempo estimation are defined which are specifically designed for modelling perceived speed. In a previous study 20 listeners rated the speed of 100 ringtones consisting mainly of popular songs, which had been converted from MIDI to audio. The ratings were used in linear regression and PLS regression in order to evaluate the validity of the model as well as to find appropriate features. The computed audio features were able to explain about 90 % of the variability in listener ratings.

One of the major parameters in music is the overall speed of a musical performance. In this study, a computational model of speed in music audio has been developed using a custom set of rhythmic features. Speed is often associ-ated with tempo, but as shown in this study, factors such as note density (onsets per second) and spectral flux are important as well. The original audio was first separated into a harmonic part and a percussive part and the fea-tures were extracted separately from the different layers. In previous studies, listeners had rated the speed of 136 songs, and the ratings were used in a regression to evalu-ate the validity of the model as well as to find appropriate features. The final models, consisting of 5 or 8 features, were able to explain about 90% of the variation in the training set, with little or no degradation for the test set.