Problems and prospects for intimate and satisfying sensor-based control of computer sound

"Problems and prospects for intimate and satisfying sensor-based control of computer sound" - Matthew Wright

This paper presents several challenging areas of DMI design. I quite like this paper because throughout the descriptions of problems are complemented by some of Wright's personal believes and principals when it comes to designing instruments and many of his sentiments I agree with. A lot of his statements also backup what other author's that have inspired me have said.

Wright makes an early point as to why it may be advisable to compare our new DMIs to traditional acoustic instruments and even why we may attempt to emulate aspects of their design:

" Systems along the lines of Figure 1 naturally invite comparison with traditional acoustic
instruments. Of course the point of the comparison is not to
attempt to decide whether acoustic or electronic instruments
are “better”; each have their strengths and weaknesses. My
point is that the finest acoustic instruments set standards for
nuance, intimate fine control, dynamic range, temporal
responsiveness, and the possibility for a performer to develop
virtuosity, and that electronic instruments have definitely not
surpassed acoustic instruments in all of these areas. The
challenge to meet or come near these standards with our
electronic instruments is a powerful force driving
development, and this development will naturally include
some solutions that can be generalized to non-musical uses of
sensors. "

Importantly though, he does not claim that acoustic instrument designs should be the be-all and end-all of DMIs:

" I believe that the emulation of
acoustic instruments is an interesting goal only to the extent
that it increases our general knowledge of sensor-based
instruments or results in hybrid instruments that combine the
strengths of electronic sound production with the features of
acoustic instruments. "

Else where in the paper Wright gives some frankly intimidating figures regarding latency and jitter and makes some interesting points about economy of motion and gesture transparency. Finally he concludes by stating:

" Complex real time sensor-based electronic music systems have
a staggering range of possible ways to fail, and it is depressing
how much time the performers of these instruments spend
troubleshooting them. "

It is interesting to see how many authors make points about instrument reliability and how performers should spend as much time playing and as little time repairing as possible, with some DMI creators going to extra lengths to make sure repairing their DMIs is as simple as changing a guitar string and requires no specialist knowledge. This all goes to show the amount of things one must consider if one is trying to design a DMI which could truely be called a musical instrument.