Gesture-tactile Controlled Physical Modelling Music Synthesis

Despite enjoying the resulting freedom from physical constraints that can result from the incorporation of computer technology in electronic musical instruments as musicians are enabled to push back the creative boundaries within which they work, musicians are still searching for virtual instruments that come closer to their physical counterparts in terms of their playing experience. This paper describes a physical modelling music synthesis system known that enables ‘virtual instruments’ to be controlled in real-time via a force-feedback joystick and a force-feedback mouse. These serve to provide the user with gestural controllers incorporating tactile feedback. Virtual instruments are set up via a graphical user interface in a manner that is highly intuitive, since users design these virtual instruments by interacting directly with their physical shape and structure in terms of the physical properties of basic objects such as strings, membranes and solids which can be interconnected to form complex structures. Acoustic excitation can be applied at any point mass via virtual bowing, plucking, striking, or from an external sound source. Virtual microphones can be placed at any point masses to deliver the acoustic output. The organic nature of the resulting acoustic output is illustrated.