Managing Complexity with Explicit Mapping of Gestures to Sound Control with OSC
Matthew Wright, Adrian Freed, Ahm Lee, Tim Madden, Ali Momeni · University of Michigan Library Repository · 2001
Abstract We present a novel use of the OpenSound Control (OSC)protocol to represent the output of gestural controllers aswell as the input to sound synthesis processes. With thisscheme, the problem of mapping gestural input into soundsynthesis control becomes a simple translation from OSCmessages into other OSC messages. We provide examplesof this strategy and show benefits including increasedencapsulation and program clarity. 1. Introduction We desire expressive real-time control of computersound synthesis and processing from many differentgestural interfaces such as the Boie/Mathews Radio Drum(Boie, et al., 1989), the Buchla Thunder (Buchla, 2001),Wacom Tablets (Wright, et al., 1997), gaming joysticks, etc.Unlike acoustic instruments, these gestural interfaces haveno inherent mapping between the gestures they sense andthe resulting sound output. Indeed, most of the art ofdesigning a real-time-playable computer music instrumentlies in designing the mapping between sensed gestures andcontrol of the sound generating and processing.We believe that OpenSound Control (OSC) (Wright andFreed, 1997, Wright, 1998) provides many benefits to thecreators of these gesture-to-sound-control mappings. It isgeneral enough to represent both the sensed gestures fromphysical controllers and the parameter settings needed tocontrol sound synthesis, so it provides a uniform syntax andconceptual framework for this mapping. The symbolicnames for all OSC parameters make explicit what is beingcontrolled and can make programs easier to read andunderstand. An OSC interface to a gestural-sensing orsignal-processing subprogram is a powerful form ofabstraction that can expose all of the important featureswhile hiding the implementation.We will present a paradigm for using OSC for thismapping task and give a series of examples culled fromseveral years of live performance with a variety of gesturalcontrollers and performance paradigms.