gestural synthesis

Video: YouTube: Drancing accelerometer music with Wiimotes: 3D variable frequency oscillators + amplitude variation + triggered "air drum" samples

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Demonstrates combined oscillator frequency variation, amplitude variation, and triggered Drum sample ("Drumming by Dancing") modes along with Drancel RGB monitor visuals projected onto the "Drancer" performer.

For this demonstration two hand-held WiiTM Remotes on a MacBook Pro were used. (The original Drancing accelerometer suit (since 1997) used 5 triaxial accelerometers in a "body star" pattern").

Terminology: A Drancer is an "acceleration avatar" of the Drancing accelerometer music and visuals system

Because Dr Darren's Drancing accelerometer music and visuals synthesis system employs specifically acceleration, it has a special kind of "acceleration avatar" called a Drancer, where typically one Drancing performer (also known as a Drancer) typically wears 5 triaxial accelerometers in a "body star" pattern (reminiscent of Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man), which map to 3D Drancel RGB virtual synthesis atoms in the Drancer's acceleration avatar.

However, unlike many motion capture animation systems (such as those used in big budget films), where the emphasis is on spatial location, the Drancing system focuses "organically" on acceleration signals. So although the Drancer avatar can be represented in a physical space to remind us of the body star configuration, the mapped positions and perturbations (driven by conditioned accelerometer signals) of each virtual Drancel RGB in synthesised Drancing visuals are not intended to precisely reflect spatial positions.

So why does Drancing embrace acceleration alone in this way ? Because acceleration - unlike velocity or position - does not need a reference system, and this means that the Drancing system is in principle (and by design) able to be used anywhere, over a very large region, while riding your bike, or exercising, or dancing, or jogging, anywhere, anytime, even underwater or in space, without the need for a reference system.

Video: Drancing suit 2002: variable frequency + variable amplitude mode

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The (X,Y,Z) channels of five 3D accelerometers vary the amplitudes and the frequencies of 5 x 3 = 15 pure sinusoidal oscillators.

One can hear "beat" frequencies generated by similar frequencies corresponding to different accelerometer channels, such as when the arms are raised to similar levels, which effect can be exploited for musical nuance and for movement therapy to measure symmetry of posture.

_UML2 signal processing models

This content or the technology discussed here is HISTORICAL or ARCHIVAL

I present here, as adapted Unified Modeling Language™ (UML™) structure diagrams, a simplified model of the hardware, data acquisition, and JSyn audio synthesis circuits of an earlier version of DranceWare for Drancing.

DranceWare JSyn real-time audio synthesis (2002+)

PureData/GEM

$dr$ of Webel is a Pure Data (PD) enthusiast. A PureData-based audio synthesis version of the DranceWare software for The Drancing accelerometer music "air instrument" uses GEM to synthesis rich visuals in real-time from accelerometer signals (such as WiiTM Remote signals), synchronised with the accelerometer music. The PLAY music project "sound circles" animated logo is synthesised using PureData/GEM, as described in this mini-tutorial

Danish Institute of Electroacoustic Music (DIEM)

Type of organisation
Research Institute
Where
Arhus, Denmark
Activities
03/1998

In 1998 I was kindly invited to DIEM in Arhus in Denmark by then director Wayne Siegel to discuss the Drancing accelerometer music air instrument and to learn about DIEM's bending sensor air instrument.

Synthesis zone

A Webel zone dedicated to synthesis technologies. A good place to start is this fun tutorial with step-by-step PureData patches and videos of synthesised sound and visuals:

Gallery: Pure Data example: The PLAY logo animation: synchronised video and audio synthesis

DranceWare: software for Drancing

The DranceWare synthesis and control software has gone through an evolution since 1996 through MIDI triggering and modulation driven by low-level C code, to C++ in 1999, then to Java in 2001, then to full real-time synthesis in 2002 using JSyn audio synthesis and Java3D/Swing visuals, and since 2008 there is a PureData/GEM patch-based version (similar to MAX/MSP). All Drancing software and systems development is strongly model-driven using UML™ and SysML.

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