Paul Adams

PrifArc56:/

After four rewrites the software is now in the beta stage. Most of the bugs are now gone but some heavy testing will need to take place to weed out any remaining problems.

A demonstration of the software can be found on the video page.

This is the current description as it stands:

PrifArc56 is a realtime audiovisual compositional environment which allows you to manipulate audio within the visual domain, much in the same way as a image editing application. Audio is captured into a virtual canvas where it can be subject to a number of visual based effect processes.

The software allows the performer to select frequency orientated selections of the editing environment and place them on one of four output channels, with the position of the brush on the canvas determining the both the visual and audio position across a two dimensional plane. The region selected produces immediate audiovisual feedback; each gestural movement of the brush therefore has a perceptible outcome that can be observed by both the performer and the audience

Rotation Process with texture output to the left

Editing Envrionment

There is still some functionality I want to add to the software in the near future, this will include:

Short Term

Algorithmic brush (brush regions with a diverse range of playback possibilities)
Larger Canvas (Currently canvas size is restricted)
Motion based parameters (Process controls to alter according to resistance)
Drag save files onto canvas (drag stored capture files straight into the software)
Output channel muxing (mix four channels into one visual output)

Long Term

3 based editing window (sounds shifted in 3d rendered space)
Wavelet based audio engine?
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This version will still encompass the virtual brush used in the previous version “Prifarc” however the brush will now act as a palette knife cutting out slices of the captured sound and placing them onto a secondary processing palette where visual effects can be applied and removed, thus removing the destructive effects approach of the last version. Coupled with this new approach the slices cut from the palette can be send to a database and then retrieved using various algorithmic methods. This version will also see an end to one of the main issues the plagued the previous ones which is the merging of visual layers which made it difficult for the audience to determine what the performer was actually controlling.

This is the first revision of my performance software which is a protoype for the aims of my Masters research. Prif/Arc is inspired by Golan Levins concept of the painterly interface. In short the performer paints the sound thus creating both an audio and visual output based on the performer action. The Prif/Arc software allow the user to record sound in realtime and with a virtual paintbrush to edit the sound and paint on various effects. The canvas is projected to an audience who can observe the audio/visual piece as it is created by the Artist.