ï~~2. EXTERNALIZATION IN EXISTING
GRAPHICAL MUSIC PROGRAMS
2.1. The UPIC system
The UPIC 1system was developed at first as a hardware
device that included a drawing table linked to a 64-oscillator
synthesizer. The original idea was formed in the early sixties by lannis Xenakis who composed instrumental music
using an architect table to assign pitches and dynamics to
the instruments (see e.g. the original sketch for Metastaseis 2 ). Foreseeing the importance of computers in the development of music, Xenakis pioneered the use of graphical interfaces for music composition by introducing freehand drawing to control sonic events with the UPIC in
1976. The UPIC system allowed control of the pitch and
dynamics of a synthesized waveform. On the main drawing board, time is represented on the horizontal axis, while
the vertical axis controls pitch. An intensity envelop can
be drawn separately for each line of the board. A waveform can also be defined separately for each line drawn
on the main board. The notes are thus drawn on the main
board and their envelopes and timbre can be defined individually, enabling people - in Xenakis' own words - to
create something alike a full orchestra. Another feature
allows users to change the time scale of the drawn score
e.g. it could be rendered in 2 seconds or 1 minute.
From a compositional point of view, the UPIC system present many disadvantages. First, the result is constrained to the timbres that one could define with only 64
oscillators. Although all audible timbres could virtually
be synthesized without a limit of oscillators, their drawing
represents an obstacle, as complex timbres are very difficult to draw by hand. Second, the UPIC system developed
apart from the other music programs that are used nowadays to realize a piece (e.g. Protools, Logic or Cubase),
thus the structure of a drawing can not be easily linked
to such programs. Third, the straightforward mapping between the drawings and the sonic result prevents multiple interpretations by the system and therefore constrains
the drawing to the manner in which the mapping is done.
These constraints, as a whole, prevent the UPIC system
from being a complete composition tool. Rather, it is used
as a sound design tool to create original timbres. We now
turn to a more recent program called lanniX, whose development was inspired by the UPIC system.
2.2. IanniX
lanniX is a program developed by the La Kitchen company, whose development started in 2001 with Adrien Lefevre.
The initial concerns of this program were to address the
question of time, represented in most computer programs
on the horizontal axis with a fixed, linear progression.
Vaggione [18] argued that the representation of time in
computer programs should follow the various time scales
1 UPIC stands for Unit6 Polyagogique Informatique du CeMaMu
2 Xenakis produced the electroacoustic piece Legende d'Er with the
UPIC
I
Figure 1. Interface of lanniX, version 0.650b
at which the composer operates; Dahan [5] argued that
horizontal representation of time - which prevail in most
sequencers - constrain the construction of parallel dynamic
events that could evolve at their own speed rate. To address this problem, lanniX allows people to control multidimensional abstract objects that can be parameterized to
run concurrently with various behaviors. An example of
these objects is illustrated in the figure 1. Although inspired by the UPIC, lanniX does not offer a manipulable
graphic interface and is restricted to the use of circles and
lines.
The concurrent time lines enable the construction of
parallel sound objects but fails to represent the whole structure, or supporting its elaboration. As we shall see in
the case of Metasynth and OpenMusic, a virtual montage
room seem to be required to represent the structure. On
the other hand, lanniX can communicate with other programs such as Max/MSP through the Open Sound Protocol (OSC). Coupled with other programs, lanniX can
support sound design rather than composition.
2.3. Metasynth, AudioSculpt and Sonos
The primary concern of the program Metasynth is sound
synthesis. Its interface allows a range of graphical manipulations (including the use of images) to control a frequency additive synthesis. In contrast with the UPIC, Metasynth offers instantaneous audio feedback of the sketch
drawn. The graphical functionalities of the program enables people to create original sounds, but these are constrained by the additive synthesis method used to sonify
the images. The time is represented on the horizontal
axis, while the vertical axis represent the pitch. The vertical axis is scalable, supporting the representation of linear, logarithmic or harmonic scales. But in the end, the
user draws more or less a spectrogram which limits the
originality of the sounds created, a disadvantage shared
with the UPIC system. To balance this, Metasynth offers a montage room which enables people to manipulate
recorded sounds in a timeline using the same paradigm
