Amplifying musical nuance
Miller Puckette · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1990
A technique for computer music accompaniment of human instrument players is described, which emphasizes the use of control and sound information from the player to affect the computer's response. The intensities, microtuning, or timbre of certain notes can become parameters in sound synthesis, or the sounds themselves can be transformed by the computer. Alternatively, the player can play the computer as a keyboard instrument, with the computer supplying hidden parameters to the notes. The computer must follow the player's progress through the score, carrying out its various tasks in the desired places. Allowance must sometimes be made for notes coming in a nonpredetermined order. A multiprocessor currently under development at IRCAM for realizing these algorithms is described, as well as an example from a recent piece of music using them.