'akustisch' is a new approach to the use of a multitouch interface for the production, control and manipulation of digital sound.
During the conception of a multitouch based digital music instrument, the question arises what kind of touch interaction would be the most appropriate to control various sound parameters in an intuitive way.
Human beeings always have been fascinated by mental experiences resulting from the interaction with objects. According to this phenomenon, traditional music instruments can be understood as interfaces that are able to transfer the physical energy of its users to an acoustic level. But can the latest archievements of modern technology be used to play an instrument in this way?
Considering other projects that use multitouch technology to control music output, for example the reactable, most of them pursue a visually-based mode of interaction. In most applications the dynamic of a touch interaction is insignificant, so the traditional way to play an instrument has been replaced by a very rational control concept often based on a modular synthesizer or step sequencer paradigm.
During the research stage of the akustisch project, various modes of interaction were investigated that don't rely on a graphical user interface. The use of complex hand gestures on a multitouch surface has emerged as a practical solution.
This approach allows for all ten fingers to be used for sound manipulation, whereby an algorithm interprets their movements on the screen as a gestural input. As soon as a gesture is recognized, a specific sound output is generated during its execution.
- Flash ist Pflicht!
- First capture of the table in action. The sound engine that was used here produces a quite noisy audio result, so people with musical backgrounds often asked me if it also would be possible to play "real" music with it... :) Obviously, it seemed hard to understand for what this kind of noise generator could be used for. In this video, the tracking software isn't running that well ... although I use a commecial one!
- Flash ist Pflicht!
- This recording shows my performance in Graz (don't know who was recording). After beeing nominated for the Europrix award, I developped a new sound engine together with Robin Michel. It is now much more related to the typical elements of a techno track such as going towards a break, muting the bass drum etc. By performing a whole techno arrangement, it now seems much clearer for the audience, what this multi-touch tool could be used for. Unfortuatelly, the tracking sofware still causes errors... it just isn't fast enough ;)
The ‘akustisch’ application has been developed by Balz Rittmeyer within three months (spring/summer 2009) as a bachelor degree project at the University Of Art And Design Zurich (ZHdK) in the Interaction Design program.
The supervisors of this project were Karmen Franinovic and Daniel Hug, technical multitouch support was given by Tim Roth. As I wouldn't call myself a musician, Robin Michels support in sound design issues was fundamental, without his musical competences the sound engine wouldn't be of that quality.