Loïc Kessous
The Voicer is a singing voice synthesizer instrument, real-time controlled with a digitizing graphic tablet (the kind of tablet used for writing recognition by computers) and a joystick. Pitch and articulation of vowel are driven in a very expressive way giving musical possibilities never reach before with voice synthesizer.
Transitory States is a Max/MSP patch incorporating graphics tablet and conventional USB controller for realtime manipulation of sound (improvisation) and dissassembled acousmatic sounds (pre-composed materials).
Short demonstration video.
Jon Cambeul: designer, builder, programmer
The “Wacom Rock Guitar” a.k.a (Speech Guitar) is a USB powered pseudo rock guitar. It is a device that is made from an extensively modified 1999 Wacom intuos graphics tablet combined with an appropriated hand held game console that becomes a wearable interface for the control of an application suite made with Cycling 74’s graphical programming environment Max/MSP. The applications take control of the Apple MacInTalk 3 speech synthesiser making it sing, chant, and drone multiple layers of improvisational synthesised emotionally expressed speech vis-à-vis an aggressive STK Electric Guitar Synthesis.
The Speech Guitar: Improvisational Mobile Street Performance at Trampoline Nottingham UK
Bill Hsu: principal design
John Butcher: research contributions, evaluations
Bill Hsu’s Unnamed instrument consists of 2 components:
1) Real-time audio input drives analysis/resynthesis modules
2) Wacom tablet controls synthesis algorithms
Bill writes —
“Timbral and gestural characteristics are extracted from real-time audio input from a single instrument (usually saxophone). A virtual ensemble of improvising agents references these characteristics in their performance. A user may also control the agents at various levels, such as selecting high-level behavioral tendencies, or fine-grain shaping of timbrally rich gestures.”