Timbrenauts: Creative Explorations in Timbre Space
Project Reports Yuval Adler and Berk Schneider Project Reports Yuval Adler and Berk Schneider

Timbrenauts: Creative Explorations in Timbre Space

“Timbrenauts” is a cross-institutional collaborative student research-creation project. We employed experimental designs from timbre perception research to generate data models that will inform the creation of new musical compositions for an atypical instrumental duo of cello and trombone, while leveraging extended techniques rarely explored in traditional musical repertoire. In this TOR module, we discuss our motivations, data collection process, similarity judgment experiment, and the resulting data we want musicians to use as a basis for their creative output.

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Space as Timbre (SAT) Research-Creation Project Report
Project Reports, Research-Creation Pedram Diba et al Project Reports, Research-Creation Pedram Diba et al

Space as Timbre (SAT) Research-Creation Project Report

The primary objective of the Space As Timbre (SAT) project is to conduct meticulous experiments on orchestration solutions and playing techniques, to achieve timbral effects that closely approximate the perceptual characteristics of diverse acoustical spaces. To this end, SAT endeavors to illuminate the intricate interplay between the spectral content of a sound, its resynthesis through orchestration, and the resulting perception of the quality of the acoustical space where the sound seems to have been produced.

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Ulezo: Mapping Acoustic Attributes to Timbre Descriptors in Zambian Luvale Drum Tuning
Project Reports Jason Winikoff and Lena Heng Project Reports Jason Winikoff and Lena Heng

Ulezo: Mapping Acoustic Attributes to Timbre Descriptors in Zambian Luvale Drum Tuning

How do Luvale musicians tune their drums with heat and tuning paste? How does this tuning process change a drum’s timbre? How do practitioners describe these timbres? And what acoustic properties are encoded in these semantic, descriptive terms? In this collaborative and interdisciplinary module, we address these questions through the case study of a two-step tuning process among Luvale drummers in Zambia.

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A Quick Start Guide for Combining Electronic and Instrumental Orchestration
Project Reports Eliot Britton and Anthony Tan Project Reports Eliot Britton and Anthony Tan

A Quick Start Guide for Combining Electronic and Instrumental Orchestration

This module offers a streamlined resource for emerging composers seeking to introduce live electronics into their instrumental orchestration practice. Accessible and user-friendly software and hardware platforms offer a pathway for emerging or (technologically curious expert) composers to experiment with electronics in a low risk, low-cost context.

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Online Guide to Room Acoustics for Musicians
Project Reports Malte Kob Project Reports Malte Kob

Online Guide to Room Acoustics for Musicians

This project spurred the development of an internet-based guide for musicians that describes, in layperson terms, the fundamentals of acoustic features of musical instruments, stages, and performance/rehearsal rooms using visual and auditory examples. The guide also aims to explain what and how parameters can be assessed along with the audio recordings to document a musical performance.

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Dance and Timbral Exploration (DaTE)
Project Reports Athena Loredo, Bob Pritchard, and Keith Hamel Project Reports Athena Loredo, Bob Pritchard, and Keith Hamel

Dance and Timbral Exploration (DaTE)

The DaTE project investigated the use of dance tracking to control electroacoustic processing of acoustic timbres. To this end, the project involved a composer/ programmer, a dancer, a flautist, and a cellist, and used the UBC-developed Kinect Controlled Artistic Sensing System (KiCASS) to track the dancer and generate movement/position data. T

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The Timbre in Popular Song (TiPS) Corpus
Project Reports Nicole Biamonte, Lindsey Reymore, Ben Duinker, Leigh VanHandel, Nicholas Shea, Matthew Zeller, Christopher William White, Jeremy Tatar, Jade Roth, and Kelsey Lussier Project Reports Nicole Biamonte, Lindsey Reymore, Ben Duinker, Leigh VanHandel, Nicholas Shea, Matthew Zeller, Christopher William White, Jeremy Tatar, Jade Roth, and Kelsey Lussier

The Timbre in Popular Song (TiPS) Corpus

This project analyzes the understudied parameters of timbre and texture and their interactions with musical form in a new popular-music corpus, Timbre in Popular Song (TiPS). This study addresses two problems in popular-music scholarship: lack of research on timbre and texture, and underrepresentation of non-male and non-white artists in both popular music and its scholarship.

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Path of Miracles - A Multitrack Recording in 3D Audio
Project Reports Martha de Francisco Project Reports Martha de Francisco

Path of Miracles - A Multitrack Recording in 3D Audio

In late August of 2022, the rich sonority of the historical Chapelle du Grand Séminaire de Montréal presented the acoustical canvas for a multifaceted choral recording and research project. Under the baton of Andrew Gray, Montreal choir Voces Boreales performed Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles for mixed chorus (2005) and percussion, a musical pilgrimage for 17 voices, inspired by the millennial Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

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Musicians Auditory Perception (MAP) Interactive Project Report
Project Reports, Research-Creation Musicians Auditory Perception Research Team Project Reports, Research-Creation Musicians Auditory Perception Research Team

Musicians Auditory Perception (MAP) Interactive Project Report

The purpose of the Musician’s Auditory Perception (MAP) project is to collect qualitative data via sonic ethnography in order to promote and analyze, both literally and metaphorically, (a) sonic collaboration between auditory learners, (b) modes of sound information gathering, and (c) the creative expression of musicians, while disrupting common pedagogic methods that reinforce hierarchical education practices.

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Masque de Fer: Extended Drum Kit Techniques Module
Project Reports, Collaborative Student Project Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier Project Reports, Collaborative Student Project Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier

Masque de Fer: Extended Drum Kit Techniques Module

"Masque de fer" (Iron Mask) is a module for exploring extended techniques on the drum kit, created by Gabriel Couturier and Martin Daigle who were awarded the ACTOR Project’s Collaborative Student Project Grant. The recording session generated an open-access extended technique resource that includes a stereo mix, the entire recording session, and the stems in 96 kHz or in 48 kHz. This session was filmed from the first-person point of view to allow researchers and composers to step into the world of the drum kit performer. This tool will allow composers to familiarize themselves with the sound possibilities which are presented in the research.

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The many facets of musical listening: Auditory perception mechanisms and learned experiences
Project Reports, Collaborative Student Project Lena Heng & Mengqi Wang Project Reports, Collaborative Student Project Lena Heng & Mengqi Wang

The many facets of musical listening: Auditory perception mechanisms and learned experiences

Composers make use of their knowledge of different orchestration techniques in creating certain effects and sonic outcomes. These effects may be comprehended by listeners to a greater or lesser extent depending on the amount of shared understanding with the musical tradition, style of music, and other factors. In this project, we look at how the success of these effects depends on both prior knowledge and experience, and how they are perceivable by listeners. Successful orchestration is built upon the fact that regardless of the instruments used or the musical or cultural connotations of the music, they adhere to universal mechanisms of auditory perception and cognition.

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