Perspectives on gesture-sound relationships informed from acoustic instrument studies

We present an experimental study on articulation in bowed strings, that provides important elements for a discussion about sound synthesis control. The study focuses on bow acceleration profiles and transient noises, measured for different players for the bowing techniques detaché and martelé. We found that maximum profiles of these profiles are not synchronous, and temporal shifts are dependant on the bowing techniques. These results allow us to bring out important mechanisms in sound and gesture articulation. In particular, the results reveal potential shortcoming of mapping strategies using simple frame by frame procedures of the data stream. We propose instead to consider input control data as time functions, and consider gesture coarticulation processes.