Mapping Strategies for Musical Performance

Human beings have been making music with musical instruments for thousands of years. It is therefore perhaps surprising that many computer-based musical tasks are undertaken via interfaces which have only been developed over the last few decades (and often designed for office tasks). The richness of physical control required for performance with traditional acoustic musical instruments takes time to learn. In many computer interfaces this is often replaced by sets of choices that the user must continuously think about [Hunt, Kirk 1999]. This article begins by explaining the difference between two modes of thought analytical and holistic. It then defines an explorative mode of interaction, termed Performance Mode, which is more suitable to real-time control than the many "choice-based" approaches. An experiment is described which compares three interfaces, using different mapping strategies, for a real-time musical performance task. The interface designs are explained, and the results of the experiments given along with the qualitative comments from the test subjects. Finally the implications for Performance Mode are considered for the designers of realtime musical interfaces1.