NIME08 - Musical interface papers + other academic links

This is a link to a large .pdf with loads of interesting stuff - 8th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression .. NIME08 2008

There is also this .pdf dealing with Vibrato which is interesting to me anyway ;-) gives some parameters which could be useful.

I have some other links I may add later to other heavy stuff ;-)

Thanks Fred!  From your first link, the paper "Practical Hardware and Algorithms for Creating Haptic Musical Instruments" (page 61) has the Cellomobo, which uses a speaker in a feedback loop to make it feel like a bowed string.  I had the same idea a while back for a surface rubbed by a finger and ordered one of those tactile transducers but haven't got around to trying it out yet (my to-do list is way out of control).  As they note, the same idea works for drum surfaces.

" I had the same idea a while back for a surface rubbed by a finger and ordered one of those tactile transducers" - Dewster

This is one of the slightly depressing things about papers like this - When I see the level of sophistication of what some people are doing, and the amount of serious R+D both at an academic and practical level - well, I feel a bit like a hobbyist!

When it comes to ideas about musical interfaces, I think the chance of hitting on something completely new is approaching infinite improbability!

The other somewhat depressing aspect is that, for all this R+D, not that many new interfaces actually appear on the market -- The ones that do, and become most popular (key operated algorythmic composers / sample playback type stuff) is stuff I have no interest in.. My interest is more around interfaces like the Continuum - and yes, a few of these have appeared in recent years - but not at a price which allows people to risk the expenditure to try it out..

Fred.

"My interest is more around interfaces like the Continuum..."  - FredM

As a form of new controller intimately tied to a sound source, yes, that is what I'm mainly interested in as well.  All of these video based / power glove / soccer ball things academia comes up with leave me a bit cold.  My personal impossible goal is something easier / funner / more engaging & intuitive to play than guitar, but with the gravitas of traditional keyboard.  Tactile and percussive aspects should be at the forefront.  IMO, in any instrument there is a fine line between "not enough control" and "impossible to play well" that must be balanced.

Too bad there isn't some kind of Manhattan Project for new musical instruments and controllers, throw enough money and prestige at it and we could be living in a veritable melodic heaven.