Reflexive loopers for solo musical improvisation

Abstract

Loop pedals are real-time samplers that playback audio played previously by a musician. Such pedals are routinely used for music practice or outdoor "busking". However, loop pedals always playback the same material, which can make performances monotonous and boring both to the musician and the audience, preventing their widespread uptake in professional concerts. In response, we propose a new approach to loop pedals that addresses this issue, which is based on an analytical multi-modal representation of the audio input. Instead of simply playing back prerecorded audio, our system enables real-time generation of an audio accompaniment reacting to what is currently being performed by the musician. By combining different modes of performance -e.g. bass line, chords, solo -from the musician and system automatically, solo musicians can perform duets or trios with themselves, without engendering the so-called canned (boringly repetitive and unresponsive) music effect of loop pedals. We describe the technology, based on supervised classification and concatenative synthesis, and then illustrate our approach on solo performances of jazz standards by guitar. We claim this approach opens up new avenues for concert performance.

Deep Models for Ensemble Touch-Screen Improvisation

“…In the data set, each performer's actions are represented by one of nine touch gestures (including "nothing"); these are stored as integers in the interval [0,8]. We define a simple encoding N n 9 → N 9 n to represent multiple performers as one positive integer as follows.…”

“…. , д n , where the д i are integers in [0,8], the states can be encoded as: д 1 9 0 + д 2 9 1 + д 3 9 2 + . .…”

“…Many improvised styles (e.g., jazz), have ensemble interactions based on well-defined rules. Machine learning systems such as the Reflexive Looper [8] and MySong [10] take advantage of these rules to create appropriate accompaniments. In the present research, the improvised performances were "free", that is, performers were allowed to perform in any way they wished within the constraints of the touch-screen instruments.…”

Computers and Creativity

“…However, we are now seeing new kinds of human-machine creative collaboration, such as where human artists improvise or jam with machines [4,41] even research projects that aim to devise independent 4 creative artists [33,14,15]. This provokes a shift in attribution of creative agency towards the computer, whose role is less like a conventional tool and much more like a creative assistant or partner and perhaps one day, an independent artist.…”

“…Indeed all of these qualities are present in another system developed at Sony Computer Science Laboratories, called "Reflexive Loopers". Solo performers are able to build interactive performances with musical copies of themselves [41]. (see http:…”