Noise/music and representation systems

Nort, Doug Van

doi:10.1017/s1355771806001452

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Whole genres of music are defined to a large extent by the nature of the distortion of the sounds (e.g., Djent, Drone-Doom, Noise, Glitch) (Berger and Fales 2010; Van Nort 2006). The literature so far usually notes distortion simply as an effect, adding (mostly odd) harmonics to a given signal.…”

Section: Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling Perception Thresholds for Changing Timbres in Continuous Sounds

2019

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Perceptual dimensions underlying timbre and sound-source identification have received considerable scientific attention. While these scholarly insights help us in understanding the nature of sound within a multidimensional timbral space, they carry little meaning for the majority of musicians. To help address this, we conducted two experiments to establish listeners’ perceptual thresholds (PT) for changes in sound using a staircase-procedure. Unlike most timbre perception research, these changes were sonic manipulations that are common in synthesisers, audio processors and instruments familiar to musicians and producers, and occurred within continuous sounds (rather than between discrete pairs of sounds). In experiment 1, two sounds (variants of a sawtooth oscillation) both with the same fundamental frequency (F1: 80 Hz, 240 Hz or 600 Hz) were played with no intervening gap. In each trial, the two sounds’ partials differed in amplitudes or frequencies to produce a timbre change. The sonic manipulations were varied in size to detect thresholds for the perceived timbre change – listeners were instructed to indicate whether or not they perceived a change within the sound. In experiment 2, we modified stimulus presentation to introduce the factor of transition time (TT). Rather than occurring instantaneously (as in experiment 1), the timbre manipulations were introduced gradually over the course of a 100 ms or a 1000 ms TT. Results revealed that PTs were significantly affected by the manipulations in experiment 1, and additionally by TT in experiment 2. Importantly, the data revealed an interaction between the F1 and the timbre manipulations, such that there were differential effects of timbre changes on the perceptual system depending on pitch height. Musicians (n=11) showed significantly smaller PTs compared to non-musicians (n=10). However, PTs for musicians and non-musicians were highly correlated (r=.83) across different sonic manipulations, indicating similar perceptual patterns in both. We hope that by establishing PTs for commonly used timbre manipulations, we can provide musicians with a general perceptual unit, for each manipulation, that can guide music composition and assessment.

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Section: Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling Perception Thresholds for Changing Timbres in Continuous Sounds

2019

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“…Whole genres of music are defined to a large extent by the nature of the distortion of the sounds (e.g., Djent, Drone-Doom, Noise, Glitch) [21,22]. The literature so far usually notes distortion simply as an effect, adding (mostly odd) harmonics to a given signal.…”

Section: Distortionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timbre Preferences in the Context of Mixing Music

2019

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Mixing music is a highly complex task. This is exacerbated by the fact that timbre perception is still poorly understood. As a result, few studies have been able to pinpoint listeners’ preferences in terms of timbre. In order to investigate timbre preference in a music production context, we let participants mix multiple individual parts of musical pieces (bassline, harmony, and arpeggio parts, all sounded with a synthesizer) by adjusting four specific timbral attributes of the synthesizer (lowpass, sawtooth/square wave oscillation blend, distortion, and inharmonicity). After participants mixed all parts of a musical piece, they were asked to rate multiple mixes of the same musical piece. Listeners showed preferences for their own mixes over random, fixed sawtooth, or expert mixes. However, participants were unable to identify their own mixes. Despite not being able to accurately identify their own mixes, participants consistently preferred the mix they thought to be their own, regardless of whether or not this mix was indeed their own. Correlations and cluster analysis of the participants’ mixing settings show most participants behaving independently in their mixing approaches and one moderate sized cluster of participants who are actually rather similar. In reference to the starting-settings, participants applied the biggest changes to the sound with the inharmonicity manipulation (measured in the perceptual distance) despite often mentioning that they do not find this manipulation particularly useful. The results show that listeners have a consistent, yet individual timbre preference and are able to reliably evoke changes in timbre towards their own preferences.

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“…Like Russolo, Cage viewed technology as a means for extending the timbral repertoire of music to include noise-sounds. Yet whereas Russolo shoehorned noise into a familiar musical model, going so far as to propose ordered scales of noises (Russolo 1986: 67–80), Cage foresaw the exigencies of novel technologies dictating heretofore unimagined theories and contingent methods for composing: ‘The present methods of writing music, principally those which employ harmony and its reference to particular steps in the field of sound, will be inadequate for the composer, who will be faced with the entire field of sound’ (Cage 1961: 4; see also Van Nort 2006: 174). Absent these concomitant developments, Cage felt the opportunities afforded by new interfaces remained unrealised: ‘When Theremin provided an instrument with genuinely new possibilities, Thereministes did their utmost to make the instrument sound like some old instrument, giving it a sickeningly sweet vibrato, and performing on it, with difficulty, masterpieces of the past’ (Cage 1961: 4).…”

Section: Cage Electronics and Indeterminacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Interacting with Cage: Realising classic electronic works with contemporary technologies

Gurevich

2015

Org. Sound

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At a time when tape music, which obviated the need for performers by eliminating interpretation after composition, was becoming the dominant paradigm for electronic music, John Cage, motivated by his inchoate aesthetic of indeterminacy, radically reimagined electronic music that ‘treats machines as things to perform with’. In the 1950s and 1960s, Cage employed electronic technologies in place of musical instruments in concert music, but also reframed the creation of tape music by following a score to be a performative act. Although Cage idealised a liberal approach to performance practice and maintained a modernist, utilitarian attitude towards technological progress, his actions and scores reflect allegiance to the ‘work concept’ (Goehr 1992). Twenty-first-century performers of Cage’s electronic music are challenged to address the seemingly paradoxical imperatives of technological progressivism and creative interpretation with fidelity to a work embodied in a score. This article discusses efforts to reconcile these forces in contemporary realisations using the interactive technologies of three of Cage’s classic electronic works. The development of interactive performance interfaces in response to musical requirements of a score is presented as an important but overlooked model for the development of new interfaces for musical expression.

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Noise/music and representation systems

Cited by 10 publications

References 9 publications

Controlling Perception Thresholds for Changing Timbres in Continuous Sounds

Controlling Perception Thresholds for Changing Timbres in Continuous Sounds

Timbre Preferences in the Context of Mixing Music

Interacting with Cage: Realising classic electronic works with contemporary technologies

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