User's Guide _ Preface _ Introduction _ Using the CD
Contents
1. Commercial usage prohibited Authorization for professional use must be granted by Ircam telephone 33 1 44 78 49 59 For students activity leaders and teachers in the music sector Ircam offers educational workshops thematizing ideas explored in this CD ROM as well as other topics in music and new technologies For more information please call 33 01 44 78 48 17 or 01 44 78 48 23 MANUAL This manual may not be copied in part or in whole without the prior written permission of Ircam This manual was authored by Jean Lochard under the supervision of Marie H l ne Serra Graphic Design for the Manual Jean Fran ois Rey Printing and modeling Desgrandchamps IN Tanana AANA ditions hyptique net All rights reserved2. image of the amplitude envelope for the sound Xylophone Amplitude envelope for the sound Xylophone What do you see You can count eight similar succeeding events Each element is characteristic of a percussive sound They appear at regular intervals on screen This means that the events in the sequence follow one another in a regular rhythm When we want to find the sound corresponding to this image we need to look in the sound pool for a sequence of eight successive percussive sounds evenly spaced There is only one the sound Xylophone By analyzing this example we can bring out two elementary ideas contained in the amplitude envelope the idea of the sound event and the idea of rhythm The shape of each event on the graph allows us to refine the analysis Percussive and Non Percussive Envelopes A percussive sound is one whose attack is very short A non percussive sound on the other hand is characterized by its gradual attack By observing the shape of the amplitude envelope it s possible to identify the category a sound belongs to Typical envelope for a percussive sound The example above illustrates the case of a percussive non sustained sound It s the sound of a xylophone key tapped by a mallet The energy transmitted to the key by the mallet dissipates rapidly hence the rapid decline of the amplitude envelope Typical envelope for a non percussive sound Here we have the case of a su
3. of the fundamental and harmonic frequencies constitute one of the essential aspects of a sound s timbre In this example the three clarinet notes emitted are lower and lower The three notes are shown on the sonogram We see clearly that the fundamental and the harmonics are reduced proportionally Sonogram of a slide whistle The slide whistle is a rudimentary instrument made up of a whistle and a small tube stopped up at one end By pushing or pulling on a lever connected to the stopper the length of the tube changes This modifies the sound pitch Listen to the first sound of Level 1 of the exercise You hear the sound of a whistle whose pitch diminishes over time the tube length was increased Sonogram of the sound slide whistle 1 What can we notice on the sonogram of the slide whistle The image is made up of a series of lines characteristic of instrumental notes the fundamental and its harmonics Over time these lines come closer together in effect the progressive decline of the fundamental causes the progressive diminution of the interval separating the harmonics This sonogram clearly demonstrates the transition from a high note to a low note Sonogram of percussion instruments Here is the sonogram of a percussive sequence Sonogram of the sound drum As a general rule percussion instruments do not produce harmonic sounds that is sounds made up of a fundamental frequency and its multiples If we
4. order The screen is divided into three levels which work identically Each level has two colored squares which represent the initial sound and the final sound in the sound morphing These icons frame the five empty spaces to position the remaining sounds Sounds already selected can be heard by pushing a button The sound pool containing the transformation steps for each of the levels is on screen right Performing the Exercise The user aligns the transformation stages in the right order so as to reconstruct a continuous movement from the first sound to the last sound Educator s Tips Using AudioSculpt Ircam create other multiple step sound morphs from the sounds the students have chosen More generally you can also address the theme of sound transformation use AudioSculpt with the students to make other sound transformations such as inverted sounds transpositions filters Musical Theme Morphing Objective to reconstruct the movement from one musical theme to another Screen Display With the computer transitions were effected between various musical themes from works by well known composers The number of steps for each transition varies with the level of difficulty Level 1 screen The screen is divided into three levels which work identically Each level contains two icons for playing the initial theme and the final theme These icons frame five empty spaces where the user will put each of the re
5. raises or lowers the volume Levels of difficulty the level of difficulty for the exercise that s open is displayed in a small box on the right side of the screen Quitting the exercise click on the button Retour au menu to go back to Exercises and choose another activity Answer key when you have completed an exercise a robot will appear at the bottom of the screen Click on it to see the right answers Misplaced elements will be shown in the correct places the robot disappears and you can try the exercise again Some of the exercises Sound Morphing Musical Theme Morphing and Music Puzzle have three levels matched with three colors blue orange and pink In these cases each layer has its own correcting robot which is color coded Once back at Exercises check the small diodes over the doors A red LED means that you finished this level of the exercise with no errors If the LED is green this means that when you quit the exercise there were still some mistakes remaining Classifying Sounds Objective to classify sounds by families according to their timbres and their origins Screen Display Level 1 display To the right of the screen is the sound pool The same sounds of various natures are used in Levels 1 and 2 For Level 3 there are only instrumental sounds The left side of the screen displays the empty spaces reserved for the diverse families to be recognized This side varies with the
6. the next The sum of all these reflections constitutes the reverberation which depends on the hall s volume and on the materials used in covering the walls To describe hall acoustics we often speak of the Time of Reverberation TR This is the length between the emission of a brief sound in the hall and its quasi complete extinction Simulating an acoustic space Computers are now powerful enough to simulate artifical acoustic spaces very realistically They are capable of reproducing a sound s multiple reflections against the walls by using delay lines In practice in order to use Spat to reproduce the acoustics of a hall or other space the computer must first have a recording of the hall s impulse response The recording is analyzed by a program which furnishes the principal parameters for simulating the reverberation pre reception length of the early reflections time of reverberation Then the simulation is refined by ear by comparing the artificial reverberation with the original impulse response and modifying the Spat s internal parameters Time of Reverberation TR of the environments of this exercise Environment TR in seconds Bathroom 1 445 Living room 0 550 Concert hall 2 187 Church 4 365 A bathroom whose wall are tiled reverberates more than a living room despite its smaller size Locating a Sound Source Objective to locate the origin of a sound source Screen Display At screen ri
7. 10 LISTENING GAMES User s Guide _ Preface _ Introduction _ Using the CD ROM Starting the Program Various Elements of the CD ROM Useful Techniques for the Exercises User Interface in the Exercises _ The Games Classifying Sounds Graphic Representations of Sound Identifying Sound Events Sound Morphing Musical Theme Morphing Music Puzzle Acoustic Spaces Locating a Sound Source Sound Sources in Motion Synchronizing Sound and Image _ Installing the 10 Listening Games CD ROM Macintosh PE _ Credits lt 0 Listening Games This CD ROM consists of educational games created and developed within the context of Ircam s workshops They were essayed at length with both children and adolescents in order to achieve a balance between play and study and to develop informed mechanisms for listening memorizing and recognizing While the pedagogical tools are fairly standard quizzes puzzles classifications etc the originality of the approach lies particularly in the quality and relevance of the musical material offered borrowed variously from art music popular music and sound effects Thanks to tools developed at Ircam in music research you will find gradual progressions paradoxes and precision spatialization The games have three levels the most challenging of which can be fairly subtle _ musiques tangibles 10 Listening Games is the second CD ROM in the musiques tangibles collection which consolidates h
8. cise name in the list displayed on screen Credits screen click on the Credits tab to consult the list of people who contributed to making this CD ROM Quitting click on the tab Quitter to quit the application Useful Techniques for the Exercises Playing a sound double click on these icons A double click is produced by pressing the mouse button twice in rapid succession The speed of the double click is a parameter you can set in MacOS control panel mouse and in Windows configuration panel mouse Just click on the sound to stop it from playing Moving a sound often the sound icons must be moved around the workspace for which you use the drag and drop technique To bring or drag the icon representing the sound to its desired place click on the image you want to move and hold down the mouse button while moving the mouse Release the mouse button only when the icon is where you want it placed this is the drop User Interface in the Exercises All of the exercises have the same interface displayed at the bottom of the screen Opening the user s guide from an exercise click on the button Guide d utilisation at the bottom right of the screen to open help for the exercise underway Volume control during any exercise you can regulate the sound level Move the mouse so that the cursor is on the bottom left of the screen A fader will appear under the cursor Moving it up or down
9. ed by Jean Lochard Ircam Ambiances naturelles realized by Jean Lochard Ircam Level 2 Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major K 448 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 1791 MIDI transcription Baby C realized by Jean Lochard Ircam Promenade realized by Jean Lochard Ircam Level3 Fantasy for Piano in F Minor for four hands D 940 Franz Peter Schubert 1797 1828 MIDI transcription Senza Virtuelle realized by Jean Lochard Ircam En voiture realized by Cyrille Brissot Ircam Educator s Tips Since the musical fragments of this exercise are interchangeable it s possible to reconstruct a piece different from the original This game raises questions about the concepts of the musical phrase and the structure of a piece It s easy to create a music puzzle with a MIDI sequencer Load a MIDI file a piece of music the computer can read into the program Using the appropriate tool often a pair of scissors cut the piece into several fragments Then have the students use these fragments in reconstructing the original piece or in building other melodies Acoustic Spaces Objective to recognize various computer simulated acoustic spaces Screen for Level 2 da Crunne Mint In this exercise we used a program called Spat Ircam made for simulating different specific acoustic spaces First we chose sounds recorded in neutral acoustics that is without reverberation and then we simu
10. ence member e The listener then perceives the sound waves coming from the reflections against the walls Impulse Response To identify the features of a concert hall the response to an impulse signal is studied This consists of sending a very short signal often a pistol shot from the stage and recording the received signal at various specific points in the hall Graphic representation of an impulse response Chart gt Intensity Time 1 Direct sound 2 Early reflections 3 Multiple reflections against the walls When t 0 a short sound is transmitted from the stage Direct sound is received at time t1 a function of the sound s speed in the hall and of the distance separating the sound source from the listener Thereafter a series of signals reaches the audience member starting at time t2 these are the early reflections They correspond to the radiants with only one reflection against the walls Their length t2 t1 the time between direct sound reception and reception of early reflections is the principal parameter allowing the listener to grasp the size of a space Effectively the more voluminous the hall the greater the length The third part of the signal received starting from time t3 is more confused It s made up of radiants having undergone several successive reflections against the walls These late reflections are received in such short lapses of time that the ear is no longer able to distinguish one from
11. ght you will find a pool of sounds spatialized with Spat Ircam which allows you to control the position of sounds in a simulated acoustic space We have selected four different localizations This way a listener with headphones can hear a sound source placed to the left to the right in front or behind These four localizations are represented onscreen They are arranged around a head as seen from above Performing the Exercise First determine where the sounds in the pool are situated then put them in the right places with respect to the head Careful For this exercise you must use headphones Make sure that you re wearing the headphones correctly L over the left ear R over the right ear Educator s Tips Blindfold one student at a time who will identify the location of a sound source and then track its movements as precisely as possible refer to the following exercise Have the other students produce the sounds Sound Sources in Motion Objective to identify the movements of two sound sources mixed into a single sequence Screen Display Using Spat Ircam to control sound movement in a simulated acoustic space various sound sequences were processed Each has two sounds in motion and can be classified in six categories combining elementary directions in front behind left right all with the listener as reference point Careful This exercise can be performed with a pair of speakers but perceiving t
12. he movement of the sound sources is easier with headphones be sure to place the earpiece L over the left ear R over the right Performing the Exercise The idea is to classify the sequences by the sounds movements as represented by the following icons Front Back Movements the two sounds move apart toward the rear the two sounds cross the two sounds draw closer together toward the front Right Left Movements both sounds move toward the left the two sounds cross both sounds move toward the right Movements starred with an asterisk are not found in Level 1 of the exercise The sequences to be sorted are arranged screen right Synchronizing Sound and Image Objective to find adequate synchronization between an image and a sound Screen Display This exercise offers five episodes of Charles Perrault s Little Red Ridina Hand lancaly intarnrotod Wa craatad fhroa enind sequences variously synchronizing image and sound for each episode All of these sequences are positioned on the right side of the screen Double click on a given sequence to play it framed center screen Performing the Exercise 8 There is only one correct solution for synchronizing each episode of the story with its corresponding sound sequence This is the sequence that must be brought into the frame located to the left of the screen At the end of the exercise a button lights up Double click on this button to see the w
13. hole story Educator s Tips There are programs on the market that make it easy to create short animations combining images with sound easily Prepare a brief video sequence and a sound palette ahead of time Ask the students to develop diverse sound illustrations by playing with sound image sychronizations Installing the CD ROM Macintosh Installation Minimum system requirements Mac PowerPC 200 MHz System 8 1 14 screen thousands of colors 8x CD ROM drive or faster 32 Mbytes RAM 8 Mbytes free QuickTime 3 or higher Installing the CD ROM Turn on your computer and insert the CD ROM into the drive Double click on the 10 jeux d coute icon that appears on the desktop A window will open with various files Lisez moi Read me this has last minute information read this before proceeding any further D marrage Getting started this launches the application Careful The 10 Listening Games CD ROM requires prior installation of QuickTime 3 or higher on your computer If you do not have QuickTime delivered with Mac OS 8 5 you can use the installer provided on the CD ROM Or you can download the latest version for free from the Apple site at the following address http www apple com fr quicktime With QuickTime your system can read digital sounds and videos PC Installation Minimum system requirements Pentium PC 200 MHz Windows 95 or higher 14 screen thousands of c
14. ifferent stages of their work For Whom Is This CD ROM Intended This CD ROM for both learning and play is for children 8 years old and up It is designed to be used in two ways individually with the help of the internal guide or in a group accompanied by a teacher or a presenter What s on this CD ROM The CD ROM presents 10 exercises organized as follows Identifying sounds 3 exercises Classifying Sounds classify sounds by timbre 3 levels Graphic Representation of sound match sounds with images frequency spectrum and amplitude envelopes 3 levels Identifying Sound Events match the sounds to the appropriate descriptive terms 3 levels Organizing sounds 3 exercises Sound Morphing reconstruct a gradual transition between two timbres 3 levels Musical Theme Morphing reconstruct a gradual transition between two musical themes 3 levels Music Puzzle rebuild a music sequence from its fragments 3 levels Placing sounds in space 3 exercises Acoustic Spaces classify sounds by their reverberations 3 levels Locating a Sound Source classify sounds spatially right left in front behind 3 levels Sound Sources in Motion classify sounds by their movements from left to right from in front to behind etc 3 levels Relating sound and image 1 exercise Synchronizing Sound and Image match a visual animation with a sound sequence 1 level How was this CD ROM produced This CD ROM was prod
15. k you get a percussive sound However if you rub it with brushes the resulting sound is non percussive Nonetheless the cymbal is a member of the percussion family Educator s Tips Encourage the students to invent other possible categories of sound classification e g pleasant unpleasant long short sustained non sustained refer to the exercise Graphic Representations of Sound under the heading Going Further Graphic Representations of Sound Objective to match a sound with two forms of graphic representation the amplitude envelope and the sonogram Screen Display Level 1 screen On the left side of the screen is the pool of 10 sounds from various sources including a baby s cry a mosquito s flight xylophone notes Using the program AudioSculpt Ircam we ve produced two graphic representations for each They are located in two columns on the right of the screen Inthe first left hand column each image represents an amplitude envelope which can be related to the volume of the sound the ear perceives The horizontal axis indicates time the vertical axis shows volume In the second right hand column each image represents a sonogram with a sonogram the frequency content of a sound can be visualized The horizontal axis shows time and the vertical axis reflects the frequency scale The amplitude of each frequency is represented by color intensity the deeper the color the greater the amp
16. lated their propagation in several different acoustic spaces bathroom living room concert hall church The numberof acoustic spaces increases with the level of difficulty On screen each acoustic space is symbolized by a streetlight their numbers vary from three to five depending on the level of difficulty Distribution of acoustic spaces by difficulty level Environment Neutral Bathroom Living Room Concert Hall Church Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 By double clicking on a streetlight you can listen to the base sound as a point of reference in order to get to know each auditory space The first streetlight corresponds to a neutral sound stripped of reverberation the remainder of the streetlights go from the smallest room to the largest Careful This does not mean the least reverberating to the most reverberating Reverberation varies a lot depending on the material used to cover the walls of the acoustic space see Going further On the right side of the screen is the sound pool divided into four levels Each one has a sound processed to reflect the acoustic spaces found in that level of difficulty Performing the Exercise You must listen to each sound identify the acoustic space in which it s diffused and then place it under the correct streetlight Educator s Tips Using a tape recorder and microphone go with the students to record diverse sounds percussion voice in various place
17. level of difficulty Performing the Exercise The point is to classify the sounds from the pool in the appropriate families Level 1 Level 2 3 Natural sounds Percussive sounds Human sounds Strings Instrumental sounds Woodwinds Synthesized sounds Percussion Natural Sounds Human Sounds Strings Non percussive sounds Instrumental Sounds Woodwinds Synthesized Sounds Percussion In Level 1 the user must distinguish between percussive and non percussive sounds A percussive sound is principally characterized by a short attack Conversely a non percussive sound has a slower attack In Level 2 the classification is further refined In addition to the two categories described previously the user must determine whether the sound is natural that is sounds from nature human a human product instrumental produced by an acoustic musical instrument such as the violin or clarinet or synthesized produced by an electronic musical instrument or on a computer In Level 3 instrumental sounds must be ascribed to their respective families strings woodwinds and percussion while maintaining the distinction between percussive and non percussive sounds Careful Percussive sound does not necessarily mean the sound is produced by a percussion instrument In effect any musical instrument generally has several possible playing modes Let s take the cymbal as our example If you hit this instrument with a drumstic
18. litude the lighter the color the weaker the amplitude Correspondingly color at the bottom of the graph means that the sound contains low frequencies Color at the top of the graph means that the sound has high frequencies Performing the Exercise In this exercise the appropriate images are lined up with the corresponding sounds by using the mouse A good working technique is to enlarge each image and examine it while listening carefully to each sound from the sound pool Educator s Tips Ask the students to listen to the sounds then draw them Encourage them to represent each parameter pitch amplitude length separately then to find a way to represent the timbre for example using colors Going Further In what follows we will use examples taken from the exercise to clarify the concepts of the amplitude envelope and the sonogram Sound distribution by level of difficulty Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Slide whistle 1 Sneeze Spoons Slide whistle 2 Bells Harp Xylophone Nightingale Techno drums Xylophone casseroles Xylophone Vibraphone Baby s cry Explosion Washing machine Drums Yodel Electronic Noise 1 3 Clarinet notes Violin chords Clarinet normal Bird Mosquito Clarinet fluttertone Child s laugh Woman s voice Electronic noise 2 Jew s harp Clarinet glissando River The amplitude envelope An amplitude envelope represents sound volume over time On the first level of the exercise enlarge this
19. maining sounds Sounds already in place can be heard by selecting the button located above the spaces The sound pool containing the various stages of the transition is found on screen right Performing the Exercise Listen carefully to each sound from the pool and position it so as to obtain a progressive transformation from one musical theme to the other The final theme to the right remains the same inside any given level On the first level there are five steps to get from one theme to the other On the more advanced levels the transition is achieved in six and seven steps respectively Sequences The chart below shows the distribution of musical excerpts by composer in the corresponding levels of difficulty Level Initial Theme Final Theme Bach Level 1 Boulez Beethoven Baboni Schilingi Baboni Schilingi Level 2 Beethoven Chopin Bach Boulez Level 3 Chopin Bach Baboni Schilingi The titles of the works selected by composer MIDI transcriptions are as follows Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 1750 Sonata in E Minor for violin and piano BWV 1023 Level 1 Invention for Two Voices no 4 in D Minor BWV 775 Level 2 Prelude in B flat Major BWV 560 Level 3 Ludwig von Beethoven 1770 1827 Sonata no 17 in D Minor op 31 no 2 transposed in A Minor Frederic Chopin 1810 1849 Etude no 1 in C Major op 10 Pierre Boulez 1925 Structures pour deux piano deuxi me livre Jaco
20. nstalling the CD ROM Installing the CD ROM Using the CD ROM Starting the program If Quicktime 3 or higher is already installed on your computer you can start the application by double clicking on the file d marrage for Macs or the start exe file for PCs The page Exercises appears after a brief introduction Various Elements of the CD ROM Tabs found at the bottom of the screen control access to various aspects of the CD ROM Exercises Screen if you have just opened the application this screen is already active If you are in another part of the CD ROM click on the menu tab Exercices at the bottom of the screen The screen displays a series of doors each door corresponding to an exercise As the mouse is positioned over each of the doors the name of the exercise and its icon are displayed at the top of the screen To open an exercise click on one of the doors The level of difficulty appears in the upper right To change the level of difficulty click on the desired level 1 2 or 3 on the left side of the screen To open the Mode d emploi which describes the underlying working principles of the exercises click on the blue door on the left of the screen Guide d utilisation User s Guide to go to this feature of the CD ROM click on the tab Guide d utilisation found in the menu on the bottom of the screen Thereafter to access an exercise specific user s guide click on the exer
21. olors 8x CD ROM drive or faster 32 Mbytes RAM QuickTime 3 or higher 16 bit sound card SoundBlaster compatible CD ROM installation After opening Windows 95 98 insert the CD ROM 10 Listening Games into the drive Open the workstation Click on the CD ROM icon A new window will open with these files Lisez moi Read me this has last minute information read this before proceeding any further D marrage Getting started this launches the application Careful The 10 Listening Games CD ROM requires prior installation of QuickTime 3 or higher on your computer If you do not have QuickTime you should copy the installation program from the CD ROM onto your hard drive then launch it Or you can download the latest version for free from the Apple site at the following address http www apple com fr quicktime QuickTime lets your system read digital sounds and videos 10 LISTENING GAMES Ateliers Ircam CD ROM Project Director Marie H l ne Serra Conception Realization Jacopo Baboni Schilingi J F Rey Assistant for Production and Manual Jean Lochard Computer Development Jean No l Lafargue Graphic Design Jean Francois Rey Contributors Cyrille Brissot Thierry Coduys Eric Daubresse Catherine Marchand R gis Msallam Olivier Pasquet Emmanuel Perrier Olivier Warusfel Production Support Nathalie Beaufranc Laurent Gaveau Publication Coordinator Olivier Koechlin Hyptique
22. po Baboni Schilingi 1971 Musique du Roi Beau Educator s Tips Starting with two well known melodies ask the students to write or to play on an instrument a hybrid melody created by combining them Music Puzzle Objective to reconstruct a sequence from its fragments This is a kind of musical puzzle Level 1 screen Screen Display The screen is divided into three levels all functioning the same way The left side of the screen shows a button which allows for the whole sequence to be played The sequence is divided into seven fragments arranged to the right of the screen As the user classifies them the sounds will be placed in the middle of the screen This button plays the elements already in position the sequence is read from left to right Performing the Exercise The idea is to reconstruct the original sequence by positioning the fragments in the right order in the seven empty spaces in the middle of the screen The higher the level of difficulty the longer the excertps and the more irregular the crosscuts Sequences For each of the three levels of difficulty we have chosen three different types of sequences first an excerpt from a classical piano piece in MIDI transcription then an extract from a pop music piece and finally a sequence made up of sound effects Level 1 Goldberg Variations BWV 988 Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 1750 MIDI transcription Fast and Easy realiz
23. s the entryway the classroom the courtyard Have the students listen carefully in each of these places their eyes shut so as to photograph the sonic environment Once back in the classroom try to identify each of the places you visited by listening to the sounds recorded in various environments and perhaps also by comparing them to sounds already played in the classroom for reference Going Further To produce the sounds for this exercise we used the Spat program Ircam which among other features makes it possible to simulate very realistically the environment of a room whose characteristics the user selects In the following paragraphs you will find fuller explanations of propagating sounds in a given space An overview of sound propagation The origin of a sound is a physical phenomenon A sound source such as a violin or a speaker creates a local disturbance in atmospheric pressure This disturbance gradually spreads in the air giving rise to a sound wave Picture a stone thrown in the water for a useful image of the way a sound wave is propagated The ear perceives the acoustic wave and sends data to the brain allowing us to identify the nature of the sound wave The speed of a sound wave depends on the temperature the pressure and the density of the surroundings in which it is diffused In the air the speed is between 320 and 340 meters per second Sound trajectory between its source and the listener When a
24. side of the screen is a list of names in alphabetical order You cannot see all the names on screen at the same time To access the whole list position the mouse near the arrows and the list contents will scroll Performing the Exercise The user plays a sequence and then picks the corresponding name from the list of sound events Careful There are more names than there are sounds to identify in the sound sequence If you re unsure or if you ve made a mistake you can put the names back in the list to the right The order of the names from left to right does not matter Only the order from top to bottom counts when answers are checked Educator s Tips Record a soundtrack in the street or elsewhere then ask the students to identify each of the noises found on the recording e g a passing car pedestrians children screaming This exercise is readily adaptable for work with an entire class and one computer workstation For example while they listen to the tape the students can use a sheet of paper with 12 boxes to fill in Sound Morphing Objective to take the stages of the transformation from one sound to another and put them in the correct order Screen Display A starting sound and an ending sound are placed on each line We produced five stages in the transformation from one to the other using AudioSculpt Ircam taken together this creates a sound morphing The idea is to arrange these steps in the right
25. sound source emits a sound it is propagated in all directions in the space This is called radiating A listener only receives a fraction of the energy the source puts out that portion which radiates in his or her direction Reflection on a surface When a sound wave strikes a surface the angle of its reflection is equal to its angle of incidence just like light on a mirror A sound wave striking a wall the incident angle 1 and the angle of reflection 2 are equal The wave suffers an energy loss which varies according to the material the wall is made of The material is called reflective if the wave undergoes a small energy loss It is absorbent if there s a marked energy loss In this case the reflected wave is practically nonexistent Sound diffusion in a room There are numerous phenomena of sound wave propagation and reflection in any given room Let s take the example of a theater and examine the sound s trajectory between a musician playing onstage and a listener seated in the hall gt direct sound gt early reflections gt example of multiple reflections Sound s trajectory in a theater the direct sound some early reflections and a radiant undergoing multiple reflections are pictured The musician plays an instrument e The listener first perceives the direct sound coming from the instrument The direct sound is the one which takes the shortest path between the musician and the audi
26. stained sound It s the graphic representation of the sound three clarinet notes The musician s breath in the clarinet compensates for the loss of energy sustaining the sound over time The result is a longer amplitude envelope Sonograms Remember the data visible on a sonogram the horizontal axis represents time the vertical axis shows frequencies from 20 Hertz to 20 000 Hertz the amplitude each frequency over time is symbolized by a color scale running from lightest to darkest The absence of color at a given moment means that there is no frequency present in the sound at that instant The sonogram also conveys information already found in the amplitude envelope i e the number of sound events and the rhythm Sonogram of a harmonic instrumental sound Let s look at the sonogram for a sequence of clarinet notes Sonogram of the sound 3 clarinet notes The graph shows a series of horizontal and parallel lines This type of sonogram is termed harmonic It is made up of what s called a fundamental frequency and other frequencies called harmonic The fundamental frequency corresponds to the lowest frequency It gives the sound s pitch The harmonics are multiples of this frequency hence the regular placement of horizontal lines on the sonogram The amplitude of each harmonic differs from one instrument to the next allowing the ear to distinguish the sound of a violin from a clarinet The amplitude
27. strike the head of a snare drum with a drumstick your hand will also do we get what s called a noisy sound This type of sound is made up of a large number of frequencies very close to one another such that the ear can no longer distinguish an exact pitch in the sound This is why the sonogram of the drum sequence does not show evenly spaced lines Each of the percussive sounds in the sequence produces a sort of frequency cluster with a massive vertical front reflecting the brevity of the attack Identifying Sound Events Objective to name the events in a sound sequence Screen Display Each sequence is made up of 12 sound events produced by mixing one two or three sounds depending on the level of difficulty screen for Level 2 The icon for playing a sequence is found on the left side of the screen Above this button are 12 small lights which go on in succession as the sequence unfolds They serve to localize the arrival of the 12 events Here the sequence is positioned on the seventh event It s also possible to start playing a sequence from the numbered event of your choice by double clicking on the appropriate purple block to the left of the lights Depending on the level of difficulty one two or three vertical lines extend from the lights These lines are for placing the names Here we re in Level 3 Event 9 comprises two sounds Event 10 consists of three sounds Event 11 has only one sound On the right
28. uced by Ircam s Pedagogy Department Ircam Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique musique combines scientific research labs with music creation studios The ensuing continual dialogue between researchers and designers constitutes the originality and the richness of the Institute One of the most fertile areas of this interaction is the development of composition software Sound synthesis computer assisted composition and musician computer interactivity are three domains in which Ircam has made significant contributions since its founding The mission of the Pedagogy Department is to train composers researchers technicians teachers students and schoolchildren in computer music relying mainly on the music creation programs developed at Ircam These programs have enabled us to design the 10 exercises which make up this CD ROM They have been tested and improved in numerous youth education workshops User s Guide The guide provides information on several levels First e a description of the general mechanics for handling the CD ROM Using the CD ROM For each exercise e a statement of the goal of the exercise Objective and how to proceed together with explanations of the underlying ideas Performing the Exercise e suggestions for learning enhancement through a related activity Educator s Tips For some of the exercises a didactic supplement for technical subjects Going Further And also e help for i
29. yptique net s titles in the musical domain bringing the most varied fields of contemporary music creation to a wider public both amateur and professional _ hyptique net hyptique net s intention is to promote interactive creation Interactivity is a new form of expression The aesthetic arising from it while inscribed in our artistic tradition asks new questions and acts decisively on the evolution not to say mutation of the surrounding cultural discourse Our goal is to reveal this change and to display its logic Pierre Lavoie Introduction 10 Listening Games is the result of several years of educational experience with Ircam s youth workshops A musical theory of sounds it s geared to training the ear for a more refined and nuanced perception of auditory phenomena The user learns listening recognition memorization and the manipulation of specific characteristics of acoustic and electronic sounds Timbre auditory space morphing and fragmentation are the subjects of the exercises rather than the objects of traditional solfege such as pitch and rhythm The CD ROM has 10 exercises most of which have three levels of difficulty Classifying and combining are the two underlying pedagogical principles Thus for every exercise the user explores a particular sound quality progressively refining it through a process of listening and evaluation With the automatic correction feature users can assess their progress at d
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