Expanding the saxophone with different tone generators and a foot controller for complementary voices

Jonas Braasch

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

This paper focuses on expanding saxophone performance practice through exchangeable tone generators and a foot controller utilizing fine motor skills. The combination of both expansions extends the timbral qualities of the saxophone into new territories. The different tone generators turn the saxophone into a flute, a sarrusophone, a modern variation of the Renaissance cornett, and a free-reed instrument with each instrument class's distinct sonic characters. The foot-controller system consists of a trackball operated by the big toe of one foot with separate pedals to simulate the mouse buttons with the other foot. The system also includes a traditional MIDI bass pedal, an expression pedal, and a wide-spaced ASCII keyboard. In particular, the trackball system enables complex timbre changes and a flexible processing flow needed for freely improvised music. It can be used to control a complete personal computer. The learning curve to develop the feet's fine motor skills is comparable to learning new embouchures for the different tone generators.

Citation

Jonas Braasch. 2024. Expanding the saxophone with different tone generators and a foot controller for complementary voices. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13904907 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@article{nime2024_66,
 abstract = {This paper focuses on expanding saxophone performance practice through exchangeable tone generators and a foot controller utilizing fine motor skills. The combination of both expansions extends the timbral qualities of the saxophone into new territories. The different tone generators turn the saxophone into a flute, a sarrusophone, a modern variation of the Renaissance cornett, and a free-reed instrument with each instrument class's distinct sonic characters. The foot-controller system consists of a trackball operated by the big toe of one foot with separate pedals to simulate the mouse buttons with the other foot. The system also includes a traditional MIDI bass pedal, an expression pedal, and a wide-spaced ASCII keyboard. In particular, the trackball system enables complex timbre changes and a flexible processing flow needed for freely improvised music. It can be used to control a complete personal computer. The learning curve to develop the feet's fine motor skills is comparable to learning new embouchures for the different tone generators.},
 address = {Utrecht, Netherlands},
 articleno = {66},
 author = {Jonas Braasch},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.13904907},
 editor = {S M Astrid Bin and Courtney N. Reed},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {September},
 numpages = {4},
 pages = {452--455},
 presentation-video = {https://youtu.be/wBXe_ok-t6c?si=toRnK-_ho3HUnKSr},
 title = {Expanding the saxophone with different tone generators and a foot controller for complementary voices},
 track = {Papers},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2024/nime2024_66.pdf},
 year = {2024}
}