Student Grant Updates: Masque de Fer

Project Updates
Written By Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier

Project Blog | Project Updates | Gabriel Couturier and Martin Daigle | April 12, 2022

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Masque de Fer

Gabriel Couturier and Martin Daigle have been hard at work on the project for which they were awarded the Collaborative Student Project Grant! "Masque de fer" (Iron Mask) is in the final stages of composition. The research phase was fully recorded, generating an open-access extended technique resource that includes a stereo mix, the entire recording session, and the stems in 96 kHz or in 48 kHz. This recording session was filmed from the first-person point of view to allow researchers and composers to step into the world of the drum kit performer. This tool will allow composers to familiarize themselves with the sound possibilities which are presented in the research.

The piece was premiered on March 17th in Örebro, Sweden; Couturier and Daigle also presented virtually on the project on March 30 during the ACTOR-CIRMMT Symposium on Orchestration Research.

 
 

Gabriel Couturier et Martin Daigle ont travaillé d'arrache-pied sur le projet pour lequel ils ont reçu la bourse de projet collaboratif pour étudiants ! « Masque de fer » en est aux dernières étapes de la composition. La phase de recherche a été entièrement enregistrée, générant une ressource technique étendue en libre accès qui comprend un mixage stéréo, l'ensemble de la session d'enregistrement et les stems en 96 kHz ou en 48 kHz. Cette session d'enregistrement a été filmée du point de vue de la première personne pour permettre aux chercheurs et aux compositeurs d'entrer dans le monde de l'interprète de la batterie. Cet outil permettra aux compositeurs de se familiariser avec les possibilités sonores qui sont présentées dans la recherche.

La pièce a été créée le 17 mars à Örebro, en Suède ; Couturier et Daigle ont également fait une présentation virtuelle du projet le 30 mars lors du Symposium ACTOR-CIRMMT sur la recherche en orchestration.

Youtube Playlist

 
 

Collaborative Student Project Grants: Project Updates

Collaborative Student Project Grants

Featured
Timbral, Textural, and Rhythmic Stratification in Footwork Percussion
Jeremy Tatar & Victor Burton
Timbral, Textural, and Rhythmic Stratification in Footwork Percussion
Jeremy Tatar & Victor Burton

Footwork is a style of electronic dance music that emerged in Chicago in the late 1990s. Originally produced as the accompaniment for a distinctive mode of dance—also called footwork or footworking—Footwork is a highly kinetic genre that thrives in a liminal space of perception.

Jeremy Tatar & Victor Burton
Real-time Timbral Analysis for Musical and Visual Augmentation
Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier
Real-time Timbral Analysis for Musical and Visual Augmentation
Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier

Our project seeks to explore the capabilities of cutting-edge machine learning (ML) techniques for real-time sound analysis in the context of a new composition. Led by Martin Daigle, Pauline Patie, and Emmanuel Lacopo, the project features software such as Rodrigo Constanzo’s SP-Tools to provide real-time instrumental augmentation for the percussion and guitars. Furthermore, it will be used to control real-time interactive visual projections

Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier
Ulezo: Mapping Acoustic Properties to Timbre Descriptors in Zambian Luvale Drum Tuning
Jason Winikoff & Lena Heng
Ulezo: Mapping Acoustic Properties to Timbre Descriptors in Zambian Luvale Drum Tuning
Jason Winikoff & Lena Heng

Amongst Luvale communities in Zambia, drummers tune their instruments by applying ulezo (tuning paste) and heat. In addition to adjusting pitch, this two-step process dramatically impacts timbre. The purposes of this project are to (1) explore the timbral effects of tuning by analyzing audio descriptors generated in the Timbre Toolbox and (2) map these acoustic descriptors onto Luvale timbre descriptors. A data set of individual notes was obtained from field recordings of multiple dance troupes at various stages of the tuning process.

Jason Winikoff & Lena Heng
Timbrenauts: Creative explorations in timbre space
Yuval Adler & Berk Schneider
Timbrenauts: Creative explorations in timbre space
Yuval Adler & Berk Schneider

In this research-creation project we wish to use experimental designs from timbre perception research to generate data models that will inform the creation of new compositions for an atypical instrumental duo. We wish to test whether research methodologies can be adopted for use in perceptually informed orchestration/composition practice.

Yuval Adler & Berk Schneider
Speech as Timbre Models for Orchestration - a Comparative Study Between Cantonese and Québécois French
Darren Xu & Louis-Michel Tougas
Speech as Timbre Models for Orchestration - a Comparative Study Between Cantonese and Québécois French
Darren Xu & Louis-Michel Tougas

This idea arose from the participants seed idea presented during the CORE Ensemble Project 2021-2022. While one was interested in timbral imitation and emergent timbre, the other used the inflections of Cantonese language to derive musical material. The proposed project aims at combining these two ideas into one, using a more science-supported approach this time.

Darren Xu & Louis-Michel Tougas
Sounding the interaction of cultures: Orchestration techniques and perceptual effects
Lena Heng & Mengqi Wang
Sounding the interaction of cultures: Orchestration techniques and perceptual effects
Lena Heng & Mengqi Wang

Compositions for a solo Chinese instrument with the Western orchestra require the composer to consider ways in which orchestration techniques might function in different ways so as to either bring out the solo instrument or to have it blend with the orchestra.

Lena Heng & Mengqi Wang
An investigation of choral blending through soundfield capture, acoustic evaluation, and perceptual analysis methods
Ying-Ying Zhang & Jithin Thilakan
An investigation of choral blending through soundfield capture, acoustic evaluation, and perceptual analysis methods
Ying-Ying Zhang & Jithin Thilakan

By exploring the relationship between spatial distance and choral blend, this project aims to be the initial step in creating a body of research within ACTOR to evaluate choral blend from the perspectives of both singers and listeners.The results of these studies could be compared in order to understand similarities and differences between two types of sectional performers.

Ying-Ying Zhang & Jithin Thilakan
Masque de Fer
Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier
Masque de Fer
Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier

Our research-creation project aims to integrate acoustic drums and various electronics in a semi-structured unconventional composition process. The bottom-up approach will allow both parties to be curious and create a novel piece featuring new timbres and new orchestration applications for the drum kit with electronics. The tools used for this research creation are standard drum kit, microphones, percussion sampling pads, and computer with Max MSP.

Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier
Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier
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Recording of an album for guitar and electronics