The MoCap Synthesiser is a set of generic tools for making real-time motion tracking devices into musical instruments, including the SoundSaber. One feature extraction module and two sound modules are included.
The patch outputs these features with osc addresses:
- /x
- /y
- /z
- /delta_x
- /delta_y
- /delta_z
- /horizontal_velocity
- /absolute_velocity
- /horizontal_distance
- /aed_azimuth/deg
- /aed_azimuth/rad
- /aed_elevation/deg
- /aed_elevation/rad
- /aed_distance
The SoundSaber is a musical instrument based on optical marker-based motion capture technology. The controller is a rod (approximately 120 cm long) tracked as a single rigid object, and motion features are mapped to sound control parameters in a Max/MSP synthesiser.
- The sound module used in the SoundSaber
- Uses the output from fFE.3D1 as input
- See the DSP settings inside the patch to get the best sounding result
The synthesiser uses a pulse train sent through delay lines with feedback, ring modulation, amplitude control, and filtering. Performance control is driven by low-level motion features such as absolute velocity, horizontal velocity, and pointing angle.
The instrument demonstrates how a quite simple synthesiser can be quite intriguing to interact with, especially when the mappings between motion features and sound features is well designed.
For more details about the instrument design and mapping strategy, see the NIME paper in the Reference section.
- A sound module that loops a sound file
- Playback tempo is adjusted by the absolute velocity
Additional videos from the UiO SoundSaber project page:
For more information and for reference in academic contexts, please use this citation:
- Nymoen, K., Skogstad, S. A. van D., & Jensenius, A. R. (2011). SoundSaber - A Motion Capture Instrument. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2011), Oslo, Norway. Persistent link: URN:NBN:no-29584
- Version: 0.1
- Date: 31.08.2012
- Authors: Kristian Nymoen
- Developed: 2008-2012