Multi-touch Interface for Acousmatic Music Spatialization

The Multi-touch Interface for Acousmatic Music Spatialization (MIAM Spat) project deals with a new way of performing live music spatialization. Spatialization artists currently use hardware mixing consoles to produce threedimensional sound effects, within concert halls that contain up to fifty speakers [1]. The current main spatialization technique consists in associating a fader of the mixing console to a single speaker. Then, the performer plays with the output level of each speaker. They actually encounter issues with complex spatialization transitions, as ten fingers cannot simultaneously control many faders. The main idea is to introduce multi-point touch screens to replace hardware mixing consoles. The MIAM Spat software draws surfaces on a touch screen, and each surface represents a specific soundscape. A spatialization performance then becomes an interaction between these surfaces and the player’s fingers. The software described in this paper shows encouraging results, and is still evolving depending on artists’ wishes. New possibilities and representations are offered, and MIAM Spat can be easily integrated to big spatialization sound systems.