UC San Diego

The Thesis describes an approach to generating continuous control data for shaping parameter motion of a synthesizer via a gestalt theory of structural time and of melodic expectation. The set of motions arises from analysis of implicative contents acquired from a musical performer’s alteration of a linear potentiometer. The results prove musically relevant, allowing a performer to generate a set of motions from a single slider, each motion operating on different a structural timescale, and allowing a sense of non-linear motion with overall direction to appear in the resultant sound quality.