Synchronous Data Flow Modeling for DMIs

This paper proposes a graph-theoretic model that supports the design and analysis of data flow within digital musical instruments (DMIs). The state of the art in DMI design does not provide standards for the scheduling of computations within a DMI’s data flow. Without a theoretical framework, analysis of different scheduling protocols and their impact on the DMI’s performance is extremely difficult. As a result, the mapping between the DMI’s sensory inputs and sonic outputs is classically treated as a black box. DMI builders are forced to design and schedule the flow of data through this black box on their own. Improper design of the data flow can produce undesirable results, ranging from overflowing buffers that cause system crashes to misaligned sensory data that result in strange or disordered sonic events. In this paper, we attempt to remedy this problem by providing a framework for the design and analysis of the DMI data flow closely modeled after a framework for digital signal processing. We also propose the use of a scheduling algorithm built upon that framework, and prove that it guarantees desirable properties for the resulting DMI.