Title:

Musical Performance Dynamics Analysis

Objective:

Musical Performance Dynamics Analysis (MPDA) entails the creation of an 
archetypal model for the dynamic variation in human-played acoustic 
instruments. Dynamics include subtle or pronounced changes in volume, timbre, 
pitch, or articulation, and are produced when the performer encounters musical 
stimuli. The project will entail the analysis of these musical stimuli and 
their effects, as well as the development of applications to allow users to 
create models of the dynamics of acoustic instruments and use them to process 
MIDI sequences.

Justification:

In electronically-rendered music, a long-standing limitation has been the 
expressiveness and believability of sequenced sampled acoustic instruments. 
Not only is it a time-consuming process to hand-enter or record the fine 
details of performance for every instrumental part - it requires an intimacy 
with the working of the instrument itself. By allowing players of instruments 
to create models of their instruments (for their own use and for the use of 
others), composers will be provided with a great resource to enhance the 
realism and expressiveness of their electronically-rendered creations.

Description:

The project will have several stages. First will be the analysis stage (and it 
will perhaps be the most substantial). Analysis must be conducted to discern 
what parameters should be used and in what format they should be related in 
when modelling acoustic response to musical stimuli. Sometime after the 
analysis is concluded, it will be necessary to create a simple way for 
instrument-players to model their own instruments - until I develop this 
application, I will model the instruments myself as best as possible. The last 
stage will entail creating the application that will employ any given model to 
process a MIDI sequence, causing the sequence to react to stimuli as the model 
entails.

Limitations:

The main limitation will be my ability to create a simple way for 
instrumentalists to create models for their instruments without compromising 
the detail of the general model. If the process is too complicated, the 
database of models will never grow large enough to provide the resource it has 
the potential to.