Robert H JackQueen Mary, University of London | QMUL · School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science
Robert H Jack
PhD, Queen Mary University of London, MA (Hons) in Applied Mathematics and Music, University of Glasgow. MMus Composition, Goldsmiths College, University of London.
About
15
Publications
9,230
Reads
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206
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Robert Jack completed a PhD in new musical instrument design in the Augmented Instruments Laboratory, part of the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London. He is one of the founders of Bela (bela.io) where he now works.
Additional affiliations
September 2017 - present
Position
- Technician
Description
- Research into additive manufacturing with state-of-the-art 3D printers, printing circuits and with inkjet technologies, and e-textiles including flexible circuits and conductive materials.
Education
September 2013 - September 2018
September 2010 - September 2012
September 2006 - September 2010
Publications
Publications (15)
The nature of digital musical instruments (DMIs), often bespoke artefacts devised by single or small groups of technologists, requires thought about how they are shared and archived so that others can replicate or adapt designs. The ability for replication contributes to an instrument’s longevity and creates opportunities for both DMI designers and...
In the field of human computer interaction (HCI) the limitations of prototypes as the primary artefact used in research have been noted. Prototypes often remain open in their design , are partially-finished, and have a focus on a specific aspect of interaction. Previous authors have proposed 're-search products' as a specific category of artefact d...
![Figure 3.1: Model of a haptic interface adapted from Hayward et al. [135].](profile/Robert-Jack/publication/334250671/figure/fig3/AS:777238974828548@1562319620865/Model-of-a-haptic-interface-adapted-from-Hayward-et-al-135_Q320.jpg)
The sense of touch plays a fundamental role in musical performance: alongside hearing, it is the primary sensory modality used when interacting with musical instruments. Learning to play a musical instrument is one of the most developed haptic cultural practices, and within acoustic musical practice at large, the importance of touch and its close r...
ASYNCHRONY BETWEEN TACTILE AND AUDITORY feedback (action-sound latency) when playing a musical instrument is widely recognized as disruptive to musical performance. In this paper we present a study that assesses the effects of delayed auditory feedback on the timing accuracy and judgments of instrument quality for two groups of participants: profes...
The design of traditional musical instruments is a process of incremental refinement over many centuries of innovation. As a result, the shape and form of instruments are well established and recognised across cultures. Conversely, digital musical instruments (DMIs), being unconstrained by requirements of efficient acoustic sound production and er-...
An oft-cited aspiration of digital musical instrument (DMI) design is to create instruments, in the words of Wessel and Wright, with a 'low entry fee and no ceiling on virtuosity'. This is a difficult task to achieve: many new instruments are aimed at either the expert or amateur musician, with few instruments catering for both. There is often a ba...
This paper presents an observational study of the interaction of professional percussionists with a simplified hand percussion instrument. We reflect on how the sound-producing gestural language of the percussionists developed over the course of an hour session, focusing on the elements of their gestural vocabulary that remained in place at the end...
This half-day workshop will explore the craft of digital musical instrument design. Craft practice is central to the working process of both acoustic and digital instrument builders. Unlike the higher-level NIME design frameworks and tax-onomies that appear in the literature, craft knowledge is often personal, subjective, and occasionally difficult...
![Figure 2. The ceramic tile percussion instrument built for study 2 [11].](profile/Robert-Jack/publication/315468223/figure/fig1/AS:654420605952000@1533037439186/The-ceramic-tile-percussion-instrument-built-for-study-2-11_Q320.jpg)
Expression in musical practice is inextricably tied to the touch of the performer. In digital musical instruments (DMIs) the relationship of touch to sound is indirect: the nuances and fine detail of performer control can be flattened and limited during the translation of physical gesture to physical sound. The locus of this research is in the cont...
When designing digital musical instruments the importance of low and consistent action-to-sound latency is widely accepted. This paper investigates the effects of latency (0- 20ms) on instrument quality evaluation and performer inter- action. We present findings from an experiment conducted with musicians who performed on an percussive digital musi...
The importance of low and consistent latency in interactive music systems is well-established. So how do commonly-used tools for creating digital musical instruments and other tangible interfaces perform in terms of latency from user action to sound output? This paper examines several common configurations where a microcontroller (e.g. Arduino) or...
Bela is an embedded platform for ultra-low latency audio and sensor processing. We present here the hardware and software features of Bela with particular focus on its integration with Pure Data. Sensor inputs on Bela are sampled at audio rate, which opens to the possibility of doing signal processing using Pure Data's audio-rate objects.
We present a study investigating the impact of dynamic tactile feedback on performer navigation of a continuous pitch space on a digital musical instrument. Ten musicians performed a series of blind pitch selection and melodic tasks on a self- contained digital musical instrument with audio-frequency tactile feedback that was generated in response...
Projects
Projects (2)
The goal of this project is to gather papers that use Bela or describe the platform.
Expression in musical performance is deeply connected to the touch of the performer and the nuances of their control. Alongside hearing the haptic sense is the primary modality through which we engage with musical instruments. In fact learning a musical instrument can be understood as one of the most developed haptic cultural practices where years of practical and theoretical training reinforce sensorimotor pathways allowing us to perform complex music. This research project is focused on the sensorimotor and affective mechanisms of touch and how they relate to the design of digital musical instruments.
