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  1. Research Projects
More: Research Projects

SABRe

Sensor Augmented Bass Clarinet Research

Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST)

The Sensor Augmented Bass clarinet Research (SABRe) extends a bass clarinet with electronic sensors in order to capture the player‘s gestures. It is being developed with an instrument maker to fulfill professional quality standards and will be documented in order to allow its reproduction, thus trying to make a first entrance into the instrument market.

Augmented instruments are acoustic instruments, which have been extended by the addition of several sensors, thus allowing the performer to control external electronic devices. Inspired by instrument-like controllers such as the keyboard, in the last three decades they have been investigated and proposed some interesting results.
The Sensor Augmented Bass clarinet Research (SABRe) extends a bass clarinet with electronic sensors in order to capture the player‘s gestures (Fig. 1). It is being developed with an instrument maker to fulfill professional quality standards and will be documented in order to allow its reproduction, thus trying to make a first entrance into the instrument market.
An independant sub-task of SABRe focuses on a clarinet mouthpiece (airMEMS), which can be used simultaneously as an acoustic mouthpiece as well as a wind controller, sending information about the air pressure in the player‘s mouth. First airMEMS prototypes are currently available in combination with SABRe instruments and will be also used in standalone mode in a near future.
The Sensor Augmented Bass Clarinet Research (SABRe) project uses the already existing know-how to produce a standardized device, which can be reproduced several times, used by anybody in many possible configurations and eventually be extended to other similar instruments.

Sensors
Four sensors families are available on SABRe:

  • Thumb switches
    Three push-buttons are placed under the left hand thumb (Fig. 2) and can be used for any kind of event triggering (program changes, tape control, lighting, etc.).
  • Key sensors
    Each key has a permanent magnet which produces a magnetic field, captured by a Hall Effect sensor placed underneath (Fig. 3). Thus it is possible to collect at real-time the position of each key and calculate e.g. its pressing speed or the clarinet fingerings.
  • IMU
    The Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) measures acceleration and rotation in all three directions of space (Fig. 4) and embed also a compass. Thus it is possible to obtain dynamic (acceleration) and static (position) information about the instrument, as well as its location.
  • airMEMS
    A small industrial air pressure sensor captures the pressure in the player‘s mouth through a flexible hose (Fig. 5). This static pressure information can be used as a control parameter or for monitoring purposes.

Communication
SABRe sends collected data to a receiver on a dedicated radio channel, then through USB to a small computer program called sabreServer, where they are monitored, parsed and calibrated. From there, they can be read by any application or device understanding the OpenSoundControl protocoll.

Composers Residencies
International renown composers have been invited to a residence at ICST and commanded to write a piece for the instrument:
Katharina Rosenberger (Los Angeles, CA, USA), Hans Tutschku (Cambridge, MA, USA), Alex Buess (Basel, Switzerland), Jacopo Baboni Schilingi (Paris, France), Marko Ciciliani (Wien, Austria), Marco Stroppa (Stuttgart, Germany), Martin Schlumpf (Zurich, Switzerland)

Details

  • Research Focus
    • FSP Technologie und Musikalische Praxis
  • Project Lead
    • Matthias Müller (ICST)
    • Sébastien Schiesser (ICST)
    • Germán Toro-Pérez (ICST)
  • Team
    • Isaï Angst (ICST)
    • David Jud (ICST)
    • Jan Schacher (ICST)
  • Cooperations
    • Das Blashaus, Fachwerkstatt für Holz- und Blechblasinstrumente
    • SABRe GmbH
  • Duration

    01.05.2010 – 30.04.2012

  • Financing
    • Schweizerischer Nationalfonds SNF/DORE (01.05.2011 – 30.04.2012)
  • Research Approaches
    • Applied research
    • Artistic-scientific research
  • Keywords

    air pressure sensor, controller, clarinet, augmented instrument

  • Related Projects
    • Sensor Augmented Bass Clarinet (SABRE) (follow-up project)
  • More Links
    • Sébastien Schiesser / Jan C. Schacher: SABRe: The Augmented Bass Clarinet. In: Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), 2012.
    • Sébastien Schiesser / Jan C. Schacher: SABRe: Affordances, Realizations and Perspectives. In: Proceedings of the 2012 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), 2012.
    • sabreServer v0.96b
  • Downloads
    • SABRe_poster.pdf
    • SABRe_poster_ICMC12.pdf

Output

  • Aufsätze in Tagungsakten (Vortrag, Keynote)

    Schiesser, Sébastien & Schacher, Jan (2012): «SABRe. Affordances, Realizations and Perspectives». International Computer Music Conference Proceedings. Ljubljana: 408–411. Online unter: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3618322.

  • Aufsätze in Tagungsakten (Vortrag, Keynote)

    Schiesser, Sébastien & Schacher, Jan (2012): «SABRe: The Augmented Bass Clarinet». International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. Online unter: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1180587.

  • Video-Datei

    Gisler, Annie (2014): «SABRe. Promotionsfilm». Online unter: http://vimeo.com/102529984.

  • Ausstellungen, Konzerte, Aufführungen, Filmpräsentationen etc.

    Müller, Matthias (2016): «Dance n' Rhythm. SABRe @ Tonhalle». 04.11.2016–04.11.2016. Zürich.

  • Ausstellungen, Konzerte, Aufführungen, Filmpräsentationen etc.

    Müller, Matthias (2014): «SABRe Premierekonzert». 03.04.2014–03.04.2014. Zürich.