auralsonology documentation mac auralsonology documentation mac.pdf

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1 THE AURAL SONOLOGY PLUG-IN© version1.0 for lʼAcousmographe 3.7® About The Aural Sonology Project is a novel approach to the analysis of sonic and structural aspects of music-as-heard. It has been the aim of the Aural Sonology project to develop a conceptual structure of analysis and theory that is not uniquely reserved for a particular compositional style or expression, but addresses music appreciation in Western art music on a general basis. A central concern for the project is the development of aural consciousness through a systematic application of different ways of listening. Audio-visual technology facilitates the making and the presentation of the aural sonology analyses. The implementation of the analytical system on the Acousmographe (developed by INA/GRM) opens a new chapter for the use of the methods. The approach is particularly useful for dealing with music for which no score is available (e.g. electroacoustic music) or (instrumental) music in which there is no simple one-to-one correspondence between score and the aural phenomenon. The analytical tools are partly oriented towards spectromorphological analysis, partly towards analysis of form-building features. The spectromorphological analysis is based on the sound-object, which is constituted by the listening intention to hear the sound simple as a sound (ʻreductive listeningʼ). The description and categorisation of sound-objects were initiated by P. Schaeffer and his team at GRM, and published in ʻTraité des objets musicauxʼ (1966). The Aural Sonology Project has revised his ideas and translated these ideas into a conceptual structure with corresponding graphic signs. Sound-objects are grouped into categories and described more closely. These signs are incorporated in the Aural Sonology Plug-In of the Acousmographe. Analyses relevant for musical form-building are: Time-fields (the temporal segmentation of the musical discourse) Layers (the synchronous segmentation of the musical discourse) Dynamic form (time directions and energetic shape) Thematic form (recurrence, variation, and contrast) Form-building transformations (simple and complex gestalts, transformations between them (e.g. proliferation/collection, fission/fusion; liquidation/crystallization). The choice of an adequate graphic sign does not happen automatically, but must be chosen by a user that knows the definition of the signs. They will be found on the web-site www.auralsonology.com which is under construction. A book documenting the full project (Lasse Thoresen with the assistance of Andreas Hedman: Emergent Musical Forms: Aural Explorations) is forthcoming in the publication series Studies in Music of The University of Western Ontario. Lasse Thoresen (2013)

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    THE AURAL SONOLOGY PLUG-IN version1.0

    for lAcousmographe 3.7

    About The Aural Sonology Project is a novel approach to the analysis of sonic and structural aspects of music-as-heard. It has been the aim of the Aural Sonology project to develop a conceptual structure of analysis and theory that is not uniquely reserved for a particular compositional style or expression, but addresses music appreciation in Western art music on a general basis. A central concern for the project is the development of aural consciousness through a systematic application of different ways of listening. Audio-visual technology facilitates the making and the presentation of the aural sonology analyses. The implementation of the analytical system on the Acousmographe (developed by INA/GRM) opens a new chapter for the use of the methods.

    The approach is particularly useful for dealing with music for which no score is available (e.g. electroacoustic music) or (instrumental) music in which there is no simple one-to-one correspondence between score and the aural phenomenon. The analytical tools are partly oriented towards spectromorphological analysis, partly towards analysis of form-building features. The spectromorphological analysis is based on the sound-object, which is constituted by the listening intention to hear the sound simple as a sound (reductive listening). The description and categorisation of sound-objects were initiated by P. Schaeffer and his team at GRM, and published in Trait des objets musicaux (1966). The Aural Sonology Project has revised his ideas and translated these ideas into a conceptual structure with corresponding graphic signs. Sound-objects are grouped into categories and described more closely. These signs are incorporated in the Aural Sonology Plug-In of the Acousmographe. Analyses relevant for musical form-building are:

    Time-fields (the temporal segmentation of the musical discourse) Layers (the synchronous segmentation of the musical discourse) Dynamic form (time directions and energetic shape) Thematic form (recurrence, variation, and contrast) Form-building transformations (simple and complex gestalts, transformations

    between them (e.g. proliferation/collection, fission/fusion; liquidation/crystallization).

    The choice of an adequate graphic sign does not happen automatically, but must be chosen by a user that knows the definition of the signs. They will be found on the web-site www.auralsonology.com which is under construction. A book documenting the full project (Lasse Thoresen with the assistance of Andreas Hedman: Emergent Musical Forms: Aural Explorations) is forthcoming in the publication series Studies in Music of The University of Western Ontario.

    Lasse Thoresen (2013)

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    Installation IMPORTANT: The Acousmographe version 3.7 or higher must already be installed before continuing with the Aural Sonology installation. The Aural_Sonology_Installer_Mac will install the Aural Sonology plug-in, documentation, templates, and libraries containing all the symbols needed to make an analysis into the Acousmographe folder. This folder is normally found in the Application folder. The computer must be rebooted after installation. The libraries, containing predefined symbols for notation, will be loaded automatically when you start the Acousmographe. They will turn up in the Libraries window (press F5 to open or close this window) and can be displayed by selecting them in the menu at the top of this window. The installation process will also put the font Sonova UC, essential for the display of Aural Sonology signs, into the Library/Fonts folder. Dont confuse this Library folder (French: le dossier Bibliothque)1 with the one installed by the Acousmographe, they are two separate things. Keyboard Layouts, enabling the symbols to be entered with the computer keyboard, are installed into Library/Keyboard Layouts. However, you might need to activate them manually. On Mac OS X 10.5: Open System Preferences/International and select the Input Menu tab. On Mac OS X 10.6 and later: Open System Preferences/Language & Text and select the Input Sources tab. Activating Keyboard Layouts: Check the four input methods beginning with the name Sonova (and any other you want to appear in the Finders menu-bar). Also make sure that the option Show Input menu in menu bar is checked. 1 If, for some reason, you need to access the library folder use the Go menu in the Finder. Select Go to folder and enter ~/library. Since Mac OS X 10.7 Apple has chosen to hide this folder.

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    Getting Started Start the Acousmographe and chose Open from the File menu. Open one of the Templates found in the Acousmogrape folder. They are: Template Name Description 1 Spectromorph.aks A single panel document with some spectromorphological symbols. 2 SpectroMorph+1.aks A spectrogram panel and a zoomed out overview panel. 3 SpectroMorph+2.aks Spectrogram, Time-fields & Dynamic Form, and overview. 4 SpectroMorph+3.aks Spectrogram, Layers, Time-fields & Dynamic Form, and overview. 5 SpectromorphPrint.aks As no. 1, but with a white background. 6 SpectromorphRed+1.aks Spectrogram with red background and a panel for further analyses. After opening a template the program will ask you to locate a sound file to analyse. For this exercise you can chose Cancel. The benefit of opening a template (instead of creating a New Acousmography) is, among other things, that the background is already set to a bright colour (symbols from the library are in black), and that the spectrogram will be set to use a logarithmic display (i.e. an octave is always the same amount of pixels), instead of an equal frequency display (where the same amount of pixels is used to describe 0-10,000 Hz as 10,000-20,000Hz). Now, select a library from the menu at the top of the Libraries window.

    Select two symbols (press shift while clicking to extend the selection). Then drag them into the Acousmographe window.

    Select one of the symbols (you have to click outside the symbols first to deselect them, then click again on the symbol to select). Drag it on top of the other symbol. As

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    you drag the symbol, guides (red lines) will appear to help you align the two symbols perfectly. Grouping symbols: Step 1. Select both of the symbols (again, first click outside the symbols, then click and drag the mouse so that the selection covers both the symbols. Step 2. Click the Group button. This image shows the result; a complete spectromorphological symbol. It can now be dragged and placed in time and pitch as a unit. By dragging the small white circles along the objects blue border, the symbol can be extended in duration. Notice that the prolongation line extends and contracts. If the box surrounding the symbol gets to small, the line will automatically disappear and the symbol will shrink to fit inside.

    Step 2

    Step 1

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    Setting up the Acousmographe The first time you open a Template or create a new document, you will be asked to select a sound file, but you can also do it later by choosing Document Properties

    In this dialog you can also change the background colour if you prefer. Setting it to white colour is the best option if you want to print the analysis to paper (there is in fact a template setup for printing, located in the Acousmographe folder).

    Uncheck Synchronized Panels if you want to work with multiple view panels with different zoom factors.

    Please, refer to the Acousmographe Documentation for explanations of the other options2. 2 The manual is in French, but you can try running it through a good online translation service.

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    Spectromorphological Notation The following example, will describe fairly typical steps in making a spectromorphological description of a sound object. Opening a sound file to listen to is of course the first step, but being an example we can skip this step in this tutorial. From the SpectromorphologyLib we first select the appropriate category for the sound we want to classify, as it is described in the Typology (see Thoresen 2007b for details about how sounds are classified). NOTE: If the Library window seems to have disappeared press F5 to display it. Or, press the Library button: The SpectromorphologyLib divides the Typology into 6 sections (the symbols in the other sections in the library belong to what we call Morphology): Sections Description Balanced Sound Objects Sounds with a high spectral fusion, perceived as a single sound. Gliding Sound Objects Sounds changing in pitch or mass (e.g. glissando). Composite Sound Objects Groups of sounds, fusing to a unit (e.g. a cell, an ostinato). Accumulated Sound Objects Internally made up of many sound-objects, but perceived as a unit. Stratified Sound Objects Distinct partials are heard with some independence. Vacillating Sound Objects Several partials in the sound acting extremely independent. Each of these 6 sections contains symbols for Pitched, Dystonic (uncertain pitch) and Complex (noise) sound objects, and their counterparts the simpler components (open symbols): sine tones, unvoiced sounds, and noise-bands. Having determined the type and mass of the sound object to be rendered (in this example we have chosen a complex iterated sound found in the Balanced Sound Objects section), we proceed by adding further details. From the library we take a sharp onset from the Onsets section (scroll down in the library to see more symbols). The first 6 symbols are the ones to use for balanced and gliding sound objects. The 6 symbols below are larger, made to fit with the Composite, Accumulated, Stratified, and Vacillating sound objects, as seen below.3

    3 This principle applies throughout the morphology sections, the first set of symbols are intended for the smaller types, if symbols seem to be duplicated the next ones are intended to fit with the larger symbols.

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    We will also add signs for the granularity of the sound (in this case slow and coarse), and a sign for the pulse category of the iteration (regular ripple time). Having chosen all the properties we want to capture in the analysis, it is now time to assemble the symbols. Drag the symbols so that they are completely aligned on top of each other.

    Select all the symbols again and press the Group Button: (or press G). When the objects have been grouped, you can now extend the symbol. The different objects contained in the group will then realign automatically to make a nice uncluttered representation. Before extension After extension

    If you decide to add more details after having grouped and extended the symbol, try to adjust the bounding box (the blue rectangle) of the added symbol to be exactly the same size as the one you are adding to. If they are not, and especially if their left sides dont align, you will experience that they start to drift apart when extending the symbol or zooming in or out. Exception to this rule is of course the ending modes; they should be attached after the symbol has been extended. Editing Symbols The Aural Sonology symbols can be edited directly by using the keyboard. To do this you must first have activated the Keyboard Layouts (see the installation section). Double clicking an Aural Sonology symbol takes you into the Edit Mode. At the same time the Libraries window changes to display information about the object.

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    Edit mode is a special state which blocks all access to the normal functions of the Acousmographe, like menus for example. In this mode only keyboard shortcuts (A:Select All, X:Cut, C:Copy, V:Paste), arrow keys, and mouse actions can be used to interact with the editing area. While in edit mode it is currently not possible to use the undo function, however, after exiting edit mode (by pressing the Return or esc key) the undo function will work again. The plug-in automatically changes the Keyboard Layout to the relevant analysis type. You can see that this is happening by watching the flag symbol in the right corner of the menu bar. Your keyboard now no longer inputs the characters seen on your keyboards keys, but instead characters (or more correctly, glyphs) from the Private Use range in the Unicode standard. This is where the Aural Sonology symbols are located in the Sonova Font. The layout of the symbols on the keyboard, for each of the four Sonova keyboard layouts, can be seen in the document Sonova UC KeyMaps Mac.pdf. This document is located in the Acousmographe/documents folder, which in turn can be found by looking in the Applications folder. The Character Viewer (or Character Palette on Mac OS 10.5) NOTE: Skip this section if your operating system is Mac OS X 10.7 or 10.8. Most of the symbols in the Sonova font can be entered by using the keyboard as described above, but there are some that needs to be accessed using a different method. On previous systems Apple offered a way to see all characters contained in a specified font, but since system 10.7 there is no way to indicate what specific font to view. There are third party solutions that will do this, e.g. PopChar, but they cost money. Apart from accessing special characters, the Character Viewer will display all the symbols as they are ordered in the font, giving an alternative way of finding a particular symbol. The Character Viewer is activated in the System Preferences Language & Text under Input sources (on Mac OS X 10.5, these are called International settings and Input Menu). Compare the process with the one described for Keyboard Layouts in the Installation section above.

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    Open the Character Viewer by using the flag menu. To access Unicode characters, the View should be set to Code Tables. Scroll down to the Private Use Area and it should look like this: If what you see differs from the image on the right, try the following. Click on the square right next to E000, then select the Font Variation arrow and click on Sonova UC Regular.

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    The desired symbol can now be selected by double clicking and it should be entered into your document (if you are in Edit Mode of course). The Inspector The Aural Sonology plug-in has a few parameters that can be edited with the Inspector. To display the Inspector press function key F3. Or, press the Inspector button: The Keyboards menu controls which Key Layout will be active when entering Edit Mode. Selecting current disables the automatic Keyboard Layout switch, keeping your selected language as input method. Font Size, will change the size of the symbols. But be aware that the bounding box they are contained in also influences their size. Prolongation can be set to sustained (a solid line) or iterated (a dashed line). It can be removed altogether from the symbol by choosing none. To make a glissando set the End menu to up or down. Changing the prolongation lines Beginning is only used in conjunction with the Formal Function symbols.4

    4 That said the lines might in fact be used without any symbol present. They can then be used creatively e.g. to build complicated pitch contours.

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    References Trait des objets musicaux. Paris. ditions du Seuil (2nd edition, 1977). Schaeffer, P. 1966. Paris. ditions du Seuil (2nd edition, 1977).

    Thoresen, L. 1985 Un model danalyse auditive. Analyse Musicale 1: 4459.

    Thoresen, L. 1987 An Auditive Analysis of Schuberts Piano Sonata Op. 42. Semiotica, 66(13): 21137.

    Thoresen, L. 1988 Auditive Analysis of Musical Structures. A summary of analytical terms, graphical signs and definitions. Proceedings from ICEM Conference on Electroacoustic Music Stockholm, Sweden, 25 27 September 1985.

    Thoresen, L. 2007a Form-building Transformations. Journal of Music and Meaning n. 4, spring 2007 http://www.musicandmeaning.net/issues/showArticle.php?artID=4.3

    Thoresen, L. 2007b Spectromorphological Analysis of Sound Objects: An adaptation of Pierre Schaeffers Typomorphology. Organised Sound, 12(2): 129-141. Cambridge University Press.

    Thoresen, L. 2009 Sound-objects, Values, and Characters in ke Parmeruds Les Objets Obscurs. With the assistance of Andreas Hedman. Organised Sound, 14(3) ): 31020. Cambridge University Press.

    Thoresen, L. 2010 Form-building gestalts and metaphorical meaning. With the assistance of Andreas Hedman. Organised Sound, 15(2): 8295. Cambridge University Press.

    Credits Concept and Coordination Andreas Hedman Senior Applications Developer Adrien Lefvre Additional Programming Lydie Gustafson. Documentation Andreas Hedman Supervision Lasse Thoresen, Daniel Teruggi The development of the Aural Sonology plug-in has been sponsored by ina/GRM, Lindemans Legat and the Norwegian Academy of Music. The Acousmographe is a registered trademark of L'Institut National de l'Audiovisuel. Aural Sonology is a registered trademark of Lasse Thoresen. Aural Sonology plug-in 2013 Andreas Hedman, Lasse Thoresen. Sonova UC 2012 Karl Andreas Hedman/SpectroMusic.com.