Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen

The Basics of Scratching

This article deals with the popular and rarely studied art form of manipulating a vinyl record by rhythmically dragging and pushing it, commonly labelled “scratching.” With sufficient practice, a Disc Jockey (DJ) can have great control over the sound produced and treat the turntable as an expressive musical instrument. Even though a digital-based model of scratching might seem preferable to the vulnerable vinyl record, and such models are being manufactured today, the acoustical behaviour of the scratch has not been formally studied until now. To gain information of this behaviour, a DJ was asked to perform some typical scratching patterns. These common playing techniques and the corresponding sounds have been analysed. Since the focus of the article is on the basics of how the instrument works, an overview on standardized equipment and alternative equipment is also given.

VEMUS: An Integrated Platform to Support Music Tuition Tasks

In this paper, the VEMUS platform is presented, as a novel approach for music tuition that focuses on beginner and intermediate students, typically aged from 9 to 15 years. This platform is characterized by an open, highly interactive and networked multilingual music tuition framework that covers a selection of popular wind instruments. The VEMUS environment integrates innovative, pedagogically-motivated e-learning components to augment traditional music teaching in three distinct learning settings, namely self-practicing, classroom and distance learning. In the present article, the current stage of development of VEMUS is presented, and the areas where it might be of most use towards supporting the educational activities associated with music tuition are identified.

The skipproof virtual turntable for high-level control of scratching

A background on scratching and disc jockey (DJ) interfaces is presented, Skipproof application is described, performance situations where Skipproof is used are presented, and current implementation ...

Artistically directed prototyping in development and in practice

Abstract The use of technology in artistic contexts presents interesting challenges regarding the processes in which engineers, artists and performers work together. The artistic intent and goals of the participants are relevant both when shaping the development practice, and in defining and refining the role of technology in practice. In this paper we present strategies for structuring the development process, based on iterative design and participatory design. The concepts are described in theory and examples are given of how they have been successfully applied. The cases make heavy use of different types of prototyping and this practice is also discussed. The development cases all relate to a single artifact, a gestural voice processing instrument called The Throat. This artifact has been in use since it was developed, and from that experience, three cases are presented. The focus of these cases is on how artistic vision through practice can recontextualize technology, and, without rebuilding it, redefine it and give it a new role to play.

Music Puzzle: An Audio-Based Computer Game That Inspires to Train Listening Abilities

The Music Puzzle is a computer game for tablets and smartphones using sounds for the gameplay. Just like an original picture is reconstructed from pieces with jigsaw puzzle, an original sound is reconstructed from musical segments with Music Puzzle. Each segment is distorted by shifting the pitch and equalization. To finish the game, the user listens to each segment visualized as pieces on the screen, reorders them, and corrects their pitch and equalization. The game has a possibility for deaf and hard of hearing people to improve their residual hearing ability since the observation shows their concentrating the game with sounds and preference for music.

Analysis of a Genuine Scratch Performance

The art form of manipulating vinyl records done by disc jockeys (DJs) is called scratching, and has become very popular since its start in the seventies. Since then turntables are commonly used as expressive musical instruments in several musical genres. This phenomenon has had a serious impact on the instrument-making industry, as the sales of turntables and related equipment have boosted. Despite of this, the acoustics of scratching has been barely studied until now. In this paper, we illustrate the complexity of scratching by measuring the gestures of one DJ during a performance. The analysis of these measurements is important to consider in the design of a scratch model.

Active Listening and Expressive Communication for Children with Hearing Loss Using Getatable Environments for Creativity

Abstract This paper describes a system for accommodating active listening for persons with hearing aids or cochlear implants, with a special focus on children at an early stage of cognitive development and with additional physical disabilities. A system called the Soundscraper is proposed and consists of a software part in Pure data and a hardware part using an Arduino microcontroller with a combination of sensors. For both the software and hardware development it was important to always ensure that the system was flexible enough to cater for the very different conditions that are characteristic of the intended user group. The Soundscraper has been tested with 25 children with good results. An increased attention span was reported, as well as positively surprising reactions from children where the caregivers were unsure whether they could hear at all. The sound synthesis methods, the gesture sensors and the employed parameter mapping were all simple, but they provided a controllable and sufficiently complex sound environment even with limited interaction. A possible future outcome of the application is the adoption of long-time analysis of sound preferences as opposed to traditional audiological investigations.

Analysis of the acoustics and playing strategies of turntable scratching

Scratching performed by a DJ (disk jockey) is a skillful style of playingthe turntable with complex musical output. This study focuses on the description of some of the acoustical parameters and pl ...