Presentation at the 132nd Audio Engineering Society Convention in Budapest. The lecture was held during the Distributed Music Workshop with Alexander Carôt, Nathan Brock, Andrea Szigetvári, David Willyard and Karl Steinberg. April 27th, 2012

1. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
NETWORKED MUSIC PERFORMANCE
132nd AES Convention - Budapest
Álvaro Barbosa
Research Center for Science and Technology of the Arts
CITAR (UCP–Porto, Portugal)
Work developed at:

2. Background on Network Collaborative Practices
10 years ago - Stanford-Mcgill 2002 (4.076 Km)

3. Background on Network Collaborative Practices
Stanford-Mcgill 2002 – Discovery Channel

4. Background on Network Collaborative Practices
Stanford-Mcgill 2002 (wath really ahapenned)

5. Background on Network Music Performance
Latency and Networked Music
In a vocal conversation it is possible to maintain it even with one-way
delays of up to 500 ms.
Holub, J., Kastner, M., Tomiska, O. 2007
In order to maintain a synchronized and smooth musical interaction
reduces drastically to the order of tens of milliseconds.
Schuett, N. 2002
Chafe C., Gurevich M, 2004
Lago, N and Kon, F. 2004
Barbosa, A., Carôt, A. 2005
Chew, E., Sawchuk, A., Tanoue, C., and Zimmermann, R. 2005
Bartlette, C., Headlam, D., Bocko, M., Velikic, G. 2006
Farner, S., Solvang, A., Sæbo, A., Svensson, U. P. 2009
Chafe, C., Cáceres, J-P., Gurevich, M., 2010

6. Background on Network Music Performance
Latency and Networked Music
For the Human ear to perceive the order of two simultaneous sounds,
they should not be displaced in time over 20ms (Hirsh, 1959)
A difficulty in discerning the order of sounds events
ê
hard to maintain a synchronous musical interaction.

7. Background on Network Music Performance
Latency and Networked Music
The ability to perform music synchronously is strongly dependent on:
• The music expressive qualities (Dynamics and Articulation)
• The music style (rhythm, melody, harmony)
• The music perceptual qualities (pitch, texture, timbre)
• The music structure/form
• The musician’s experience and practicing strategies
• Complementary feed-back modalities (visual, tactile)
• The listening conditions

8. Background on Network Music Performance
Barbosa, A. 2003. “Displaced Soundscapes: A Survey of Network Systems for Music and Sonic Art Creation”
Leonardo Music Journal 13, pp. 53-59 - MIT Press, Cambridge; doi:10.1162/096112104322750791).

9. Background on Network Music Performance
Latency and Networked Music
Basic Principles for Shared Sonic Environments
(1) Digital Control Interface (software or tangible)
(2) Local Synthesis & Transmission of Control Data
(3) Peer-To-Peer Communication
(4) Behavior Driven Interaction (Loose Coupling)
(5) Latency Adaptive Dynamics

10. Background on Network Music Performance
Latency and Networked Music
Examples Shared Sonic Environments
PUBLIC SOUND OBJECTS THE HORGIE: COLLABORATIVE
by Álvaro Barbosa ONLINE SYNTHESIZER
by Jorge Herrera

11. Background on Network Music Performance
Latency and Networked Music
Basic Principles for Remote Performance
(1) Ensemble Performance Threshold (EPT)
(2) Echo Feed-Back (Self Delay)
(3) Inverse Proportion to Tempo
(4) Reverb and Complementary Modalities
(5) Slow Attack Times

12. The Influence of Attack Times in NMP
(6) ANTIPHONY
Technique of alternate or responsive singing by a choir in two separate
sections. Each section sings alternate musical phrases
Or POLYCHORAL ANTIPHONY (AKA Venetian polychoral style)
When two or more groups of singers sing in alternation.
Origin in the late Renaissance and early Baroque
Can this Technique improve
network latency tolerance?

13. Thank You!!!!
abarbosa@porto.ucp.pt | http://www.abarbosa.org