Workshop on Current Research Directions in Computer Music

Music Sound Modeling Panel

This panel focuses on current research directions of sound modeling. Topics that will be discussed include:

· Signal vs. source vs. perceptual models:
Which are the best models for sound synthesis, understanding, coding?
These models are often developed in different scientific communities. Are models, developed for one specific application, useful in other domains?
Can sound processing models (digital audio effects) also be useful as sound models?
The transfer of sound is resource consuming and data compression procedures (perceptual coding) have been developed. Will there be other compression techniques based on heavily reduced parameter sets such as the ones developed in sound modeling applications?

· Timbre modeling and understanding:
Timbre can be interpreted as sound quality or as sound (source) identity.
Are there general models for timbre representation?
How is a timbre space organized for synthetic sounds?
Which are the most relevant parameters for quality evaluation and for identity recognition?
Do synthetic sounds possess an identity?

· Sound design:
How to find the right input parameters for a particular synthesis models? Can we model sound articulations?
Can we separate sound design from performance issues?
How important is the idea of sound identity when designing a synthetic sound?
How can we map, in real time environments, gesture to sound models?
Can soft computing methods be useful in sound design?

· Model evaluation:
Are there objective criteria for assessing the effectiveness of a sound model?
How perceptual issues can be exploited for evaluation?
Can a subjective measure of distance be formalized?
How to include sensitive, emotional aspects in the evaluation?
Can usability tests be applied to sound design?

· Members:
The members of the Music Sound Modeling panel will be:

Mark Sandler (Queen Mary University, Great Britain)
Xavier Serra (Pompeu Fabra University, Spain)
Jan Tro (NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
Richard Kronland-Martinet (CNRS - LMA, France)

chair:
Giovanni De Poli (DEI-University of Padova, Italy)