Fluid samplers: sampling music keyboards having fluidly continuous action and sound, without being electrophones

ABSTRACT

Present-day sampling music keyboards are electronic instruments that fall under the last (5th) category of the Hornbostel Sachs musical instrument classification scheme. Conversely, we first propose an entirely acoustic/mechanical mellotron-like sampling keyboard instrument that neither uses nor involves electricity in any way. Instrument voice/voicing is changed by replacing mechanical storage media similar to Edison phonograph cylinders, gramophone disks, or vinyl records that were commonly used from 1870 to 1980. We next propose a fluid version of our instrument in which hydraulic (water) action is used to fluidly index into the mechanically stored samples, again, without the use of electrical components. Finally, we present a computerized version of our instrument in which digital signal processing is used to obtain fluidly continuous control of musical sampling from a hydraulic keyboard in which each key is a water jet. The final result gives rise to new musically expressive capabilities for continuously flowing manipulation of music samples. Moreover, we propose versions of the computerized instrument that derive the initial sound source from the water itself, such that the instrument is not an electrophone.

REFERENCES

• 1: F. W. Galpin. A Textbook of European Musical Instruments, their origin, history, and character. Williams and Norgate, London, 1937.
• 2: Ryan E. Janzen , Steve Mann, Arrays of water jets as user interfaces: detection and estimation of flow by listening to turbulence signatures using hydrophones, Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Multimedia, September 25-29, 2007, Augsburg, Germany [doi>10.1145/1291233.1291357]
• 3: M. J. Kartomi. On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments. Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology (CSE). University of Chicago Press, 1990.
• 4: Steve Mann, "fl Huge UId streams": fountains that are keyboards with nozzle spray as keys that give rich tactile feedback and are more expressive and more fun than plastic keys, Proceedings of the 13th annual ACM international conference on Multimedia, November 06-11, 2005, Hilton, Singapore [doi>10.1145/1101149.1101176]
• 5: C. Sachs. The History of Musical Instruments. Norton, New York, 1940.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

Additional Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.5 ARTS AND HUMANITIES

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors, Performance

Keywords:
fluid sampling, fluid user-interfaces, hydraulophones, interactive art, tangible user interfaces, water-based immersive multimedia