Musical applications of real-time corpus-based concatenative synthesis

Abstract

Corpus-based concatenative synthesis (CBCS) builds on a large database of segmented and descriptor-analysed sounds that are selected and played according to proximity to a target position in the descriptor space. This can be seen as a content-based extension to granular synthesis providing direct access to specific sound characteristics in real-time. The aim of the article is to show how CBCS supports-or actually inspires-new musical ideas by exploring the corpus interactively or via a written target score. We will show this with 4 musical examples of pieces that explore the concepts made possible by CBCS of live corpus recording, navigation in 3D in a metaphor of a score, interaction and corpus cross-synthesis, and harmonic selection tighly integrated with an orchestra score.