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

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}
}