Augmenting Environmental Interaction in Audio Feedback Systems

Abstract

Audio feedback is defined as a positive feedback of acoustic signals where an audio input and output form a loop, and may be utilized artistically. This article presents new context-based controls over audio feedback, leading to the generation of desired sonic behaviors by enriching the influence of existing acoustic information such as room response and ambient noise. This ecological approach to audio feedback emphasizes mutual sonic interaction between signal processing and the acoustic environment. Mappings from analyses of the received signal to signal-processing parameters are designed to emphasize this specificity as an aesthetic goal. Our feedback system presents four types of mappings: approximate analyses of room reverberation to tempo-scale characteristics, ambient noise to amplitude and two different approximations of resonances to timbre. These mappings are validated computationally and evaluated experimentally in different acoustic conditions.

Idiosyncratic Audio Feedback Networks for Music Creation

“…Approaches we can include under the term of self-organising music are described by several researchers-composers in several different names: feedback instruments (Morris 2007), audio feedback systems (Sanfilippo and Valle 2013;Kim, Wakefield and Nam 2016), feature-feedback systems (Holopainen 2012), audible ecosystemic interfaces (Di Scipio 2003), autonomous agents (Collins, 2006), performance ecosystems (Waters 2007;, self-organising works (Kollias 2008(Kollias , 2017, self-organised sound with autonomous instruments (Holopainen 2012), adaptive synthesis (Holopainen 2012), generative audio systems (Surges, Smyth and Puckette 2016), eco-compositions (Keller and Capasso 2006), site-responsive sonic art (KOLLIAS, 2021, p. 2).…”

“…More recently, new approaches in the creation of generative music systems based on feedback networks have been relying on computational methods. An important technical addition provided by computers lies in their capacity to analyze incoming data in order to provide informed algorithmic responses to environmental stimuli (DI SCIPIO, 2003ELDRIDGE, 2009;KOLLIAS, 2008;SANFILIPPO, 2018;KIM, WAKEFIELD, NAM, 2016). Some authors of these recent feedbackbased works also report influence from cybernetics and system theories and include in their theoretical framework the concept of autopoiesis, introduced in the 1980's by thinkers such as Francisco Varella and Humberto Maturana (MATURANA & VARELA, 1980), claiming an ecosystemic paradigm to define their art works (DI SCIPIO, 2003, DI SCIPIO & SANFILIPPO, 2019WATERS, 2007WATERS, , 2011.…”