Accessible Sound Control and Collaboration over the World Area Network

Musical technology has yet to keep pace with new ideas about design and disability. We aim to develop a holistic musical performance program designed specifically for those with physical disabilities. My new paper details a networking solution to allow a musician to seamlessly play with a band across the world, developed in particular for those with low mobility. This functionality is implemented using the websocket npm module, with the client program placed on band members’ computers running Ableton Live, and an Amazon EC2 instance running as an echo server. The use of OSC allows flexibility over the kind of audio signal sent.

I wrote this paper for the International Symposium on Assistive Technology for Music and Art 2017. David Whalen played a fantastic solo over Herbie Hancock’s Chameleon on the Jamboxx, with Robert Smock accompanying him on the piano. I’m glad I got to join in for some drum sequencing.