Intuitive Music Interfaces

Twenty-five people attended the September meeting of the San Francisco Section, held at Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco.

Farhan Mohamad described KEYed, a musical interface he and his colleagues are developing at University of British Columbia’s Human Communication Technologies Laboratory. Mr. Mohamad is a graduate student at UBC’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in Vancouver, Canada.

The usual set-up for music composition consists of a musical keyboard, a computer keyboard, a mouse, and a video display.

Music composers often complain of fatigue and frustration, caused by prolonged use of conventional musical interfaces. The counter-intuitive jump between computer keyboards for editing, and musical keyboards for composition, is a major source of difficulty.

Lack of intuitive feedback, while editing, is another problem. An easily misinterpreted image on a computer screen is the only indication of editing options.

KEYed is an ergonomic approach to music interfaces. A musical keyboard is used for both editing and composition. A momentary-contact footswitch changes the keyboard between modes.

While in editing mode, musical notes correspond to various editing options, further expanded by the use of a touch pad near the keyboard. Sounds produced by the computer provide feedback indicating which option is selected.

Preliminary testing with several music composers shows KEYed represents a considerable step forward in music interfaces. The interface is natural, and easy to use. Initial learning time is brief, usually around 15 minutes. Composers describe KEYed as “Intimate.”

A lively discussion followed Farhan Mohamad’s talk. The question was raised whether sliders, often found on musical keyboards, can be programmed to work like faders on an audio mixer. Another question concerned whether keyboard mapping, in editing mode, can be user-configurable. The answer to both questions was a resounding “Yes.”

Paul Howard