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The problems associated with the notion of the computer as musical instrument and the prospects for their solution are examined. The goals and requirements for computer-based musical instruments are discussed, along with a variety of metaphors for musical control. Some of the technology that has been developed for implementing these instruments is also mentioned. Computer musicians prefer to interact with specialized gestural interfaces rather than a typical computer workstation when performing live because of the lower latency, higher precision, higher data rates, and broader range of physical gestures than the keyboard/mouse-type interface. Illustrations, tables, and references are included.

Davies talks about voices. He cites a representation of the voice of God: Peter Ablinger's Deus cantando (God, Singing) for computer-controlled piano and screened text. Ablinger's installation stages a speech act. A player piano or Vorsetzer built by engineer Winfried Ritsch is placed over the keys of a modern upright or grand piano. This installed, a computer program activates the eighty-eight electromagnetic \"fingers\" (Hubmagneten) of the machine, its virtuosic digital automations coordinated so as to perform the spectral sounds of a recorded human voice \"vocoded into a detailed stream of MIDI data.\"

The widespread availability of high-performance, affordable personal computers has brought a new wealth of possiblities regarding real-time control of musical parameters. Two main trends are revealed in the input devices used for musical expression: the tendency to design controllers to best fit some already developed motor control ability, or an attempt to deliberately avoid any relationship or gestural vocabularies associated with existing instruments, therefore allowing the use of different movements and postures not traditionally used in music performance. An evaluation of input devices for musical expression is offered, approached by drawing parallels to existing research in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Existing work on the evaluation of input devices in HCI is reviewed, and possible applications of this knowledge to the development of new interfaces for musical expression are discussed. Photographs, graphs, illustrations, and references are included.

An attempt at an integrated conception for performing live computer music, called F@ust Music On-Line (FMOL), is described. FMOL is a simple mouse-controlled instrument that has been used on the Internet by hundreds of musicians since its creation in the late 1990s. The instrument was created with the complementary goals of introducing the practice of experimental electronic music to newcomers while trying to remain attractive to more advanced electronic musicians. The functionality of and continuing advancements made to FMOL and other computer interfaces are discussed in detail. Illustrations, tables, graphs, and references are included.

Objectives: To assess the processing of spectrotemporal sound patterns in multiple sclerosis by using auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) to complex harmonic tones. Methods: 22 patients with definite multiple sclerosis but mild disability and no auditory complaints were compared with 15 normal controls. Short latency AEPs were recorded using standard methods. Long latency AEPs were recorded to synthesised musical instrument tones, at onset every two seconds, at abrupt frequency changes every two seconds, and at the end of a two second period of 16/s frequency changes. The subjects were inattentive but awake, reading irrelevant material. Results: Short latency AEPs were abnormal in only 4 of 22 patients, whereas long latency AEPs were abnormal to one or more stimuli in 17 of 22. No significant latency prolongation was seen in response to onset and infrequent frequency changes (P1, N1, P2) but the potentials at the end of 16/s frequency modulations, particularly the P2 peaking approximately 200 ms after the next expected change, were significantly delayed. Conclusion: The delayed responses appear to be a mild disorder in the processing of change in temporal sound patterns. The delay may be conceived of as extra time taken to compare the incoming sound with the contents of a temporally ordered sensory memory store (the long auditory store or echoic memory), which generates a response when the next expected frequency change fails to occur. The defect cannot be ascribed to lesions of the afferent pathways and so may be due to disseminated brain lesions visible or invisible on magnetic resonance imaging.

Digidesign has completed a major upgrade of its flagship audio software, Pro Tools. Version 6.0 operates within the Mac OS X environment. Among the new features is support for Apple's CoreMIDI services.

Groven.Max is a real-time program for mapping a performance on a standard keyboard instrument to a nonstandard dynamic tuning system. It was originally conceived for use with acoustic MIDI pianos, but it is applicable to any tunable instrument that accepts MIDI input. Written as a patch in the MIDI programming environment Max, the adaptive tuning logic is modeled after a system developed by Norwegian composer Eivind Groven as part of a series of just intonation keyboard instruments begun in the 1930s. The present version of Groven.Max accepts input via MIDI keyboards or a MIDI file. This input is analyzed and rerouted to three separate instruments (real or virtual) tuned to produce a 36-tone scale. In performance, one can either select fixed, 12-note scales from among the 36 available tones, or use the adaptive tuning feature for dynamically selecting just intervals while modulating keys.

Kathleen Riley investigated piano student views of the educational helpfulness of using the Disklavier piano and MIDI sequencing software to analyze and imitate differences in timing and dynamics in performances. She details her findings.

The current Windows version of jMax, version 3.0.2, is available for download. Begun in 1996, jMax is essentially Max/MSP wrapped in a Java graphic user interface adhering strongly to the same patching paradigm that exemplifies the modular analog synthesizer metaphor.