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David Howard of York & new methods of making music

Discover how Technology is Revolutionising the way we
Make Music
  Professor David Howard PN: 01/06  Issue Date: 17
January 2006
Find out just how different the future will be with
Professor David Howard, a leading music technology
engineer, at 7pm on Wednesday 18 January 2006, De Vere
Hotel, West Swindon.
The way we can play music and create sound effects for
performances in the future will be very different from
today.
Everyone will also be able to play an instrument
regardless of their physical or musical ability. For
example:
Instead of just singing, future 'X Factor' competitors
could control all of the musical sound for their
performances including the guitar, drums and backing
singers.
Actors will be able to control sound effects
themselves as they perform on stage ? anything from
walking across creaking floorboards to giving a
realistic sounding punch to a fellow actor!
Wheelchair users could play a piece of music by having
their chair's movement tracked by a sound beam.
Dancers will be able to create music while they move
on stage to synchronise with their own movements.
Professor David Howard was recently appointed by the
Swindon-based Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC) as a Senior Media Fellow.
Part of this role is to bring science, engineering and
technology to a wider audience. Professor Howard's
research work is also partly funded by EPSRC. He is
the Head of the Media Engineering Research Group at
the University of York.
This event 'Making music with technology' is the
annual lecture of the Swindon branch of the
Institution of Electrical Engineers.   
Notes for Editors
The lecture will include a demonstration of how the
human body can control sound using technology.
Of course, synthesised sounds on a keyboard are
nothing new. Keyboards can recreate the sound of
violins or a choir for instance, but a keyboard player
cannot modify the sound once it has started. A
violinist or singer can shape each note to provide
musical expression; the keyboard synthesised versions
are rarely mistaken as being natural.
Imagine if you could control the intensity and level
of those sounds in the same way that a conductor uses
his baton to direct an orchestra? Well that's exactly
how this new technology works with the human body
acting as the sound control. So, for example, one hand
gesture could play and control a saxophone sound, the
other a guitar and the feet could act as the drums and
percussion. The possibilities for the future are
endless

David Howard is a Professor in the Department of
Electronic Engineering at the University of York. He
leads the media engineering research group, whose work
focuses on television image processing, making
computer and video games more realistic, specialised
audio production equipment, and voice production.
Visit the group at http://www.elec.york.ac.uk/ME/


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