About This Issue
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About This Issue A map can be viewed as a projection Feller and Margaret Cahill, respec- George Tzanetakis from CMJ.James of the points in one space onto the tively. Mr. Feller analyzes a disc by Harley has been a major asset to the points of another space that does not computer music composer Matthew Journal for the better part of two necessarily have the same number Burtner, and Louis Bigo reviews a decades, serving at various times as of dimensions. Mapping is a general conference at McGill University on reviews editor, products editor, and concept in mathematics. In computer mathematics and computation in CD or DVD producer. In addition to music, the term is most often used in music. The concluding product an- his excellent editing and production the specific context of digital musical nouncements report on a wide variety work, he wrote many insightful instruments, typically to refer to the of audio equipment and controllers, reviews himself. He also guest-edited correspondence between the parame- as well as a more unusual item: con- a special issue of CMJ in memory ter values of a controller and those of ductive paint with which one can of Iannis Xenakis (which included asoundsynthesizer.Wearepleased draw circuits, repair electronics, and his own article surveying Xenakis’s to present here a special issue on so on. electronic music) and served as a mapping in computer music, guest- The past year has seen some curator for the CMJ CD. He passed edited by two authorities in the field: changes in the Journal’s editorial staff. the Products of Interest torch to Marcelo Wanderley and Joseph Mal- With this issue, Keeril Makan turns Margaret Cahill years ago, and the loch, who are both affiliated with the over the reins as managing editor to Reviews torch to Ross Feller more Centre for Interdisciplinary Research Peter Castine, who will also continue recently, while continuing to produce in Music Media and Technology in his previous role as manuscripts the DVD and edit the DVD program (CIRMMT) at McGill University in editor. Keeril Makan has served notes. His work as producer and Montreal, Canada. After issuing a call over ten years as managing editor, editor of the CMJ DVD was taken for manuscripts and managing the skillfully discharging his duties in over in early 2014 by Doug Van Nort. peer review of the submitted papers, overseeing the editors’ delivery of George Tzanetakis, a well-known they selected five significant repre- manuscripts and in communicating authority on music information re- sentatives of the current state of the with authors and editors about change trieval, has stepped down as editor field. Please read their Editors’ Notes requests. During the same decade he in charge of manuscript peer review, for an overview of their thinking and has also established a successful after over eleven years in this posi- a summary of each of the articles they career for himself as a composer and tion. His technical expertise has been chose. We are indebted to the guest as a professor at the Massachusetts invaluable in assessing the suitability editors for their contribution. Institute of Technology, leaving him of submitted manuscripts before peer The Reviews and Products of less time for the Journal. review and after authors’ subsequent Interest sections in this issue were Other recent staff changes include revisions. His broad knowledge of assembled and edited as usual by Ross the retirement of James Harley and computer music has also stood him in doi:10.1162/COMJ e 00251 Front cover.Thethemeofmapping Back cover.Threefiguresfrom is illustrated by three figures from the the article by Robert Tubb and Simon issue’s first article. That article of- Dixon. Top left: A line segment is fers an in-depth theoretical analysis mapped to a continuous path along of mapping in computer music (re- the edges of a cube, defining a se- flected in part by the top two figures) quence of three-dimensional binary and also describes some concrete in- coordinates illustrated by the pattern stantiations (see the bottom figure, for of black or white squares immedi- example). ately to the right. Bottom left: Simi- lar sequences of coordinates from the corners of a five-dimensional hyper- cube. Right: The user interface of the authors’ Sonic Zoom software, which uses the principles behind the left-hand figures to map a two- dimensional control space to a ten- dimensional sonic parameter space. About This Issue 1 good stead in identifying prospective Van Nort. We are sincerely grateful and we are confident that the roles peer reviewers. The responsibilities of to Keeril Makan, James Harley, and they filled remain in good hands. managing peer review now rest on the George Tzanetakis for their dedica- shoulders of Lonce Wyse and Doug tion to the Journal for all these years, —Douglas Keislar 2 Computer Music Journal Editors’ Notes When we use digital tools for making authors’ framework Library of Maps manner, the sensor data generated by music, the properties and parame- (LoM) for performing interpolation of the biomusician exhibits complex in- ters of both sound synthesizers and parameters between two spaces. terrelationships due to the dynamics human interfaces have an abstract In “A Zoomable Mapping of a Mu- of the underlying human body. representation. One consequence of sical Parameter Space Using Hilbert Although the insights and discus- the digital nature of these signals Curves,” Tubb and Dixon concentrate sion of these authors is of course and states is that gesture and ac- on the design of interfaces for easily invaluable, many of the software tion are completely separable from navigating large parameter spaces tools discussed are also publicly sound production, and the system during the ideation or inspiration available for experimentation and use designer must artificially associate phase of musical creation. This fo- by readers. Specifically, the high-level them with sound production in a cus leads them to prioritize ease of tools ISO Flock (Schacher, Bisig, and process commonly called mapping. use and access to the entire output Kocher) and Sonic Zoom (Tubb) are The importance of mapping in parameter space over repeatability available both in application form digital musical instruments has been of control: Users of their system can and as source code, and Caramiaux studied since the 1990s, when several mark and return to points of inter- et al.’s gesture variation follower li- works discussed the role of mapping est in a ten-dimensional parameter brary is also freely downloadable for and many related concepts. Roughly space using only two dimensions of use in C projects. ++ since the mid 2000s, several tools input. Finally, while discussion of map- have been offered that facilitate the Caramiaux, Franc¸oise, Schnell, ping concepts and approaches is some- implementation of mappings, drasti- and Bevilacqua address the use of times necessarily quite technical, in cally reducing the necessary technical machine-learning techniques for the these contributions the discussion knowledge and allowing a large com- semi-automatic creation of mappings is firmly grounded in musical prac- munity to easily implement their between performer gesture and ex- tice. The mathematical formulation ideas. This fact, coupled with the isting sonic material. Their article, presented by Van Nort, Wanderley, availability of inexpensive sensors “Mapping through Listening,” advo- and Depalle is used to describe— and hardware and the emergence of cates a careful consideration of the from a performer’s perspective—the astrongdo-it-yourselfcommunity, perceptual salience of the features of mapping approaches they have used made the time seem right to dis- both musical material and physical for controlling live granulation ef- cuss the main directions for research gestures, grounded in a review and fects using a Wacom tablet. Schacher on mapping in digital musical in- unification of taxonomies by Scha- and co-workers discuss the use of struments. This special issue brings effer, Gaver, Huron, and others. An their tools and approaches for de- together contributions showing the appendix describes technical details signing interactive installations and variety of research on mapping and of the work. artistic work for human dancers and exposing new applications of the field In “The Map and the Flock: Emer- simulated agents; and artistic and per- to musical practice. gence in Mapping with Swarm Algo- formance concerns are the primary The first article, “Mapping Con- rithms,” Schacher, Bisig, and Kocher focus of the contribution from Lyon, trol Structures to Sound Synthesis: take a different approach, using sim- Knapp, and Ouzounian, even while it Functional and Topological Perspec- ulations of agent-based flocking and discusses the treatment of particular tives,” by Van Nort, Wanderley, and other dynamic systems to provide sensors. Depalle, addresses mapping from two added interest and complexity to the We hope that readers will find this perspectives: as parameter mapping control of media output for their material to be interesting and infor- (e.g., associating one type of sensor work. mative. The “mapping problem” and parameter to one type of synthesis Lastly, the contribution by Lyon, its various approaches and solutions parameter) or as continuous naviga- Knapp, and Ouzounian discusses are equally applicable to the design of tion between parameter spaces, and their approach to mapping between any digital system intended for “free” it proposes a unified approach that the members of a trio ensemble; interaction—interaction in which takes both perspectives into account. their concept of “digital musical the precise use cases cannot be well It furthermore shows example control instrument” includes sonic mate- defined in advance. As computers structures that are applications of the rial contributed by the violinist, a and real-time sensor data become “biomusician” wearing various sen- ubiquitous (try counting the sensors sors, and a laptop performer.