Extraction, Mapping, and Evaluation of Expressive Acoustic Features for Adaptive Digital Audio Effects

This paper describes the design and implementation of a real-time adaptive digital audio effect with an emphasis on using expressive audio features that control effect param- eters. Research in adaptive digital audio effects is cov- ered along with studies about expressivity and important perceptual sound descriptors for communicating emotions. This project was aiming to exploit sounds as expressive in- dicators to create novel sound transformations. A test was conducted to see if guitar players could differentiate be- tween an adaptive and non-adaptive version of a digital au- dio effect. The participants could hear a difference, espe- cially when performing expressively. Although the adap- tive effect did not seem to enhance expressive capabilities, participants did report an increased sense of control and general awareness of the effect. Overall, the preference over the two versions varied evenly between participants.