Architectural Acoustics: Integration of Synthesis Techniques and ‘‘Acoustical’’ Music

The real time use of signal processing for brass instrument performance ~specifically the trombone! provides an opportunity, as well as challenges, to create a type of hyper-instrument quite unlike most conceptions of the term. These include the expansion of the available sound palette, the problem of real time parameter control, microphone techniques, and repertoire considerations. The various types of processing used includes reverb, pitch change, delays—short time and longer looping types, distortions, and combinations of the above. One of the notions that must be accepted is that, unlike instruments whose sound is produced electronically, the processed signal, unless significantly long-delay-based processing is used, is always layered onto an acoustic output. By creatively managing the acoustic instrument and the electronic equipment, a vast array of musical resources become available to the performer enabling him/her to enhance existing performance environments, as well as find and develop new ones.