The Readymade Synth: Prepared Synthesis with Everyday Objects

Antoni Rayzhekov, and Martin Murer

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

John Cage's prepared piano reimagined instruments as spaces where everyday objects reshape timbre and articulation. We extend this ethos digitally through introducing Prepared Synthesis, a method that treats the geometry of arbitrary, everyday objects as direct input for spectral sound generation. We present The Readymade Synth, an integrated instrument implementing this approach: A keyboard controls pitch and timing while a computer-vision-based system transforms objects placed on a sensing surface into live preparations. The objects' contours are decomposed into elliptic Fourier descriptors that define additive oscillator spectra. The objects' areas define the respective amplitude envelopes and object position controls stereo panning and mix balance. Any object becomes timbral material, and multiple objects blend spectral contributions. We formalise these as perceptually motivated feature-to-sound mappings and investigate the approach through a performance-oriented implementation. The Readymade Synth and a series of compositional explorations with a professional musician demonstrate how unmodified objects can function as repeatable yet flexible timbral material, producing coherent musical outcomes.

Citation

Antoni Rayzhekov, and Martin Murer. 2026. The Readymade Synth: Prepared Synthesis with Everyday Objects. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20784125 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{nime2026_34,
 abstract = {John Cage's prepared piano reimagined instruments as spaces where everyday objects reshape timbre and articulation. We extend this ethos digitally through introducing Prepared Synthesis, a method that treats the geometry of arbitrary, everyday objects as direct input for spectral sound generation. We present The Readymade Synth, an integrated instrument implementing this approach: A keyboard controls pitch and timing while a computer-vision-based system transforms objects placed on a sensing surface into live preparations. The objects' contours are decomposed into elliptic Fourier descriptors that define additive oscillator spectra. The objects' areas define the respective amplitude envelopes and object position controls stereo panning and mix balance. Any object becomes timbral material, and multiple objects blend spectral contributions. We formalise these as perceptually motivated feature-to-sound mappings and investigate the approach through a performance-oriented implementation. The Readymade Synth and a series of compositional explorations with a professional musician demonstrate how unmodified objects can function as repeatable yet flexible timbral material, producing coherent musical outcomes.},
 address = {London, United Kingdom},
 articleno = {34},
 author = {Antoni Rayzhekov and Martin Murer},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20784125},
 editor = {Benedict Gaster and João Tragtenberg and Anna Xambó and Tom Mitchell},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 note = {},
 numpages = {9},
 pages = {286--294},
 presentation-video = {https://youtu.be/XpnZ3pLPx-0},
 title = {The Readymade Synth: Prepared Synthesis with Everyday Objects},
 track = {Paper},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2026/nime2026_34.pdf},
 year = {2026}
}