Als Sounddesigner und Musikschaffender ist es wichtig Werkzeuge zu haben, mit welchen Ideen möglichst einfach und schnell zu realisieren sind. Synthesizer sind oft komplexe Geräte, die einen Laien schnell überfordern können und lange Lernkurven haben. Selbst für erfahrene Nutzer sind viele Synthesizer oft nicht sehr intuitiv zu bedienen bzw. müssen aufwendig, teilweise durch langes Probieren, konfiguriert werden, um einen gewünschten Sound zu erzielen.
Vor kurzem ist allerdings der kostenlose Software-Synthesizer Vital veröffentlicht worden, der einen starken Fokus auf intuitive Benutzung legt und somit auch einsteigerfreundlich ist. Er ist jedoch auch hinsichtlich seiner Features sehr vielseitig einsetzbar ist und deckt ein breites Spektrum an Synthesemöglichkeiten ab. Die äußerst einfache Bedienung wird vor allem durch das gute User Interface ermöglicht. Obwohl dieser Synthesizer sehr viele verschiedene Funktionen hat, die auch in die Tiefe gehen, ist das Interface relativ simpel und logisch gestaltet. Hierzu muss man sagen, dass Vital stark vom Synthesizer Serum inspiriert wurde, der sich in den letzten 10 Jahren als einer der populärsten Synthesizern in der Produktion von elektronischer Musik etabliert hat. Beim ersten Öffnen des Plugins fällt ganz besonders auf, dass alle Elemente dieses Synthesizers grafisch so dargestellt werden, dass man sie leicht versteht. Sowohl die Wellenformen der Oszillatoren, als auch die Verläufe der Envelopes und LFOs bis hin zu der Form der Filterkurven werden alle auf einem Bildschirm visualisiert.
Komplexer Patch grafisch anprechend und logisch dargestellt
Die Oszillatoren bieten unterschiedliche Wellenformen: Von der einfachen Sinusschwingung bis zu komplexen Wavetables, die man selbst erstellen oder importieren kann. Sogar eine Text-To-Speech Funktion gibt es, die ein Wort oder einen Satz in verschiedenen Sprachen als Wavetable speichert und abspielt. Die Oszillatoren kann man zusätzlich noch untereinander mit verschiedenen Algorithmen modulieren. Für den modernen Klang elektronischer Musik gibt es die Unison-Funktion, mit welcher man bis zu 16 Stimmen eines Oszillators erzeugen kann, die einen breiten Stereoeffekt ermöglichen. Es gibt zusätzlich noch einen Sampler, in welchen man eigene Samples laden und wie die anderen Oszillatoren mit Envelopes, LFOs, Filtern und Effekten bearbeiten kann. Alternativ kann man den Sampler auch als Whitenoise-Generator verwenden.
Die Envelopes und LFO’s erlauben komplexe Verläufe, die man selber mit der Maus einzeichnen kann. Damit lassen sich Sounds sehr detailliert einstellen. Diese Envelopes und LFO’s lassen sich auf fast jeden Parameter des Synthesizers legen. An dieser Stelle muss erwähnt werden, dass das Routing über Drag & Drop realisierbar ist, was diesen Synthesizer besonders einfach und schnell in der Bedienung macht. Es gibt auch eine klassische Routing-Matrix, mit welcher man noch ein wenig mehr Optionen hat, aber die grundlegenden Funktionen, lassen sich per Drag & Drop der LFO’s und Envelopes auf die Parameter bewerkstelligen. Möchte man komplexe Effekte, bestehend aus der Veränderung mehrerer Parameter, auf einen MIDI-Controller mappen, gibt es dafür mehrere Makro-Drehregler. Beispielsweise, kann man darauf einen Wavetable durchlaufen, diesen mit einem zweiten Oszillator modulieren, den Filter-Cutoff und zugleich den Sustain des Envelopes verändern.
Ich persönlich nutze oft auch die Random-Generatoren, die mehrere Modi wie z.B. Sample & Hold bieten und mit welchen man andere Parameter modulieren kann.
Die Filter reichen von simplen Hochpass- und Tiefpassfiltern bis hin zu Kammfiltern und speziellen Filtern, die unterschiedliche Vokale simulieren. Man kann zusätzlich zwischen “sauberen” digitalen Filtern und analogen Filtern, die Sättigungseffekte und andere Imperfektionen aufweisen, wählen.
Zur weiteren Klangverarbeitung bietet Vital eine Reihe an Effekten, wie Delay, Reverb, Distortion, Equalizer, Upward- und Downward-Kompressor (auch in Multiband-Ausführung) Chorus, Phaser, Flanger und einen zusätzlichen Filter. Auch diese lassen sich mithilfe der Envelopes und LFO’s modulieren.
Effects-Tab in Vital
Im Advanced-Tab kann man Vital noch hinsichtlich Klangqualität und Performance konfigurieren. Es gibt unter anderem Optionen für Oversampling, Qualität der Wavetables, Unison-Verhalten und Stimmung des Synthesizers.
Wieso ich Vital verwende?
Ideen tauchen oft als spontane Einfälle oder Geistesblitze auf, die ich schnell realisieren möchte und auch muss, bevor ich sie wieder vergesse. Da Vital schnelles und detailliertes Arbeiten erlaubt und ein breites Spektrum an Möglichkeiten abdeckt, ist dieser Synthesizer inzwischen in meine erste Wahl, wenn ich einen Klang synthetisch erzeugen möchte. Wenn ich Sounds hingegen durch Experimentieren und Limitieren meiner Möglichkeiten erzielen möchte, greife ich trotzdem noch gerne zu anderen Synthesizern (oft Emulationen analoger Geräte). Es ist dennoch erstaunlich, dass ein solcher Synthesizer, wie Vital, der teilweise kommerzielle Produkte hinsichtlich Features, Usability und Design überbietet, kostenlos zur Verfügung gestellt wird. Es gibt auch eine kostenpflichtige Plus- und Pro-Version, die vor allem mehr Wavetables und vorgefertigte Presets beinhalten, aber in der kostenlosen Version sind bereits alle Features enthalten.
My last blogposts, to a big part, were about product attachment and symbolic meaning. Symbolic meaning turned out to be an important factor when it comes to designing meaningful and joyful design experiences, which can lead to product attachment and therefore prolonged product life cycles. In my first phase of experimentation I want to step away from theoretical research. The goal is to see if this theoretical knowledge reflects in “real cases” and to recognize further characteristics and/or differences in perception and classification of joyful design.
Goal: Find characteristics and/or differences in perception of a joyful object.
In the first phase I want to hand out a questionnaire in a face-to-face interview, to a selected group of people. The questionnaire treats questions around perception of joy and emotions.
In the second phase the selected group of people will be asked to choose an object that is of most importance for them and one object that made them especially happy. In addition they will be asked why they choose the objects and which story and emotions they evoke.
Jakob Nielsen already defined the components of usability in his book Usability Engineering back in 1993. His “model of the attributes of system acceptability” already defined the following 5 quality components that are still in use:
Whitney Quesenbery also described five similar qualities that a product needs to be usable in 2001. Although his criteria may look different at the first glance, they describe basically the same things. His 5 e’s are:
Effectiveness
Efficiency (Efficiency)
Engagement (Satisfaction)
Error Tolerance (Errors)
Ease of Learning (Learnability)
Learnability and Ease of Learning
Good learnability helps the users accomplish their tasks without the need to learn how to use the system first. The easier it is to fulfill the tasks, the better the learnability of the system. The ease of learning can also be divided into the following five components.
Familiarity Familiarity is about the way the users expect things to happen while they are using the system.
Consistency Consistency basically describes that elements that look the same should also do the same. An example of internal consistency would be an “Ok” or “Next” button. They should always have the same label, look the same and also work the same throughout the whole system.
Generalizability Generalizability is strongly connected to consistency and sometimes even called external consistency. It mainly refers to established conventions beyond our own system. A good example of that would be the logo on a website. People expect it to be on the top of your website and that it is linked to the homepage when you click on it because that’s what they learned from the other websites they are using on a daily basis.
Predictability Predictability is about building a system that works the way the users expect it to. But since there are a lot of different user levels out there it is much harder to achieve than it sounds like. Because of these different user levels, it is also common to test a system with the “most stupid user possible”. An example for predictability would be that users on a Mac expect to personalize a program by clicking on the name of it in the top left corner and going to preferences.
Simplicity Simplicity is all about simplifying the system and only displaying necessary elements. A good example of that is the Safari Browser. If you open it the first time it looks super basic and does not have a lot of functions for experts, but if you are an expert you already know that you can enable additional features in the preferences that allow you to use it for the development process. Android phones for example also have a similar feature. If you tap on the build number in the settings seven times you will get the additional android developer functions.
These and similar components are often also mentioned as part of one of the 5 principles for good website usability. There they are part of the “clarity” of a website.
The learnability of a system is also important when releasing new features or functionality so that users familiar with the system don’t become frustrated with it after an update. This frustration happens a lot when social media companies like Facebook or Instagram are releasing new features. Regular users are often complaining about new functions or layout because they are already used to the old one, even when the new one is much better and easier to learn.
To achieve good ease of learning it is important to match the system to the existing mental models of a user.
Mental Models
A mental model represents a person’s thought process for how something works and helps people to understand life and make better decisions. Although mental models need to be learned through previous experiences, assumptions, and observations, we are unconsciously working with a broad base of different mental models throughout our day.
In combination with usability, mental models are often described as a simple representation of something in the real world. For example, we all know that we need to push a button if we want something to happen and these physical buttons are also translated to the digital buttons we are using on a daily basis. The form of an unknown object should already trigger the appropriate action in the user.
A car also consists of a lot of different mental models. Users expect an ignition or start button to start the car, they also expect to turn the steering wheel for changing the direction to left and right and to find a gas and brake pedal at the same position most cars have. Because of all these mental models, you can use basically every car after learning how to use one.
Memorability is also strongly connected to the learnability of a system. It describes how easy it is to reestablish proficiency after a longer period of not using the system. Memorability is especially important for systems that are not being used on a daily basis. A good example of a system that would need good memorability in Austria is “FinanzOnline” because most users just use it once a year when they do their income tax. Although they have completely redesigned it earlier this year, there is still room for improvement.
Efficiency
Efficiency is about how quickly a user can perform their tasks once they know the system and learned how to use it. It is not only about the speed, it is also about the number of steps they need to accomplish their tasks. The ultimate goal of optimizing the efficiency of a system is to reduce the number of clicks.
For achieving this goal, it is important to use clearly labeled buttons, navigations with meaningful titles and also adapt the system to the users’ main interaction method. Elements designed for fingers on the smartphone or tablet should feel and look differently than elements that are mainly used with a keyboard and mouse. Another possibility to improve the efficiency is to integrate meaningful shortcuts like “cmd + a”, “cmd + c” and “cmd + v” on Mac or “strg + a”, “strg + c” and “strg + v” on Windows.
Effectiveness
Effectiveness and efficiency are commonly used interchangeably and it is not easy to separate them, but they are not the same. While efficiency is about how quickly a task can be accomplished, effectiveness is about how well the work is done.
An important point to improve effectiveness is about assisting the user to complete their goal with a high degree of accuracy. A good example would be to tell the users during the sign-up process which criteria the password has to fulfill and which criteria are already fulfilled while typing it in. This does not only reduce data entry errors but also prevents the user from getting frustrated.
Another point to optimize effectiveness would be to offer multiple ways to get to the same page because it makes it more likely that the user gets there. But you also have to pay attention to not offer too many ways because that would decrease the efficiency again.
This component is primarily about preventing errors from happening. It is also about minimizing the number of errors users make, how severe they are, and how easily they can recover from them. Creating a system without any errors would be the ultimate goal, but especially for digital products, it is nearly impossible to achieve because there are a lot of factors beyond the control of the designer, as the ecosystem.
According to Whitney Quesenbery, the system has to restrict the user from opportunities to do the wrong thing. Good examples for that would be disabled buttons, distinct labels, clear language, and meaningful instructions.
Another important part of errors is how to recover from them. Good systems offer the users support to get back to the right path if something went wrong. For example on a Mac, you can go back after deleting a file with “cmd + z” and recover the file without using the bin.
Error messages are also a key factor in helping the user to recover from them. They should consist of a description of the error with additional information on how to fix it like “The upload was not possible because the file is too big. You can upload files with a maximum file size of 100 MBs.”. If the system created the error, there should also be a way to report it to the developers. This reporting function is a free way to get hints from real users about what is not working and the users also get the feeling that their opinion is valuable and that something changes based on their feedback.
This quality is about the satisfaction of the user while and after using the system and how pleasant and engaging the experience is. Aesthetics play an important role in this component. But it’s not just about looking nice, it should also look proper and avoid them from using systems from competitors.
To achieve this goal it is important that the system is intuitive and works like the users think it works. It is also important to know that a system may satisfy just a small number of users so it is important to measure the satisfaction with real users and not the developers of the system. Although it is nearly impossible to satisfy all users all the time, the goal should be to satisfy most users most of the time. Therefore it is also crucial to know the target audience, their technical proficiency, and how they are interacting with the system.
Another way to come to this goal a bit closer is that developers, designers, and usability professionals have to work hand in hand. There is still a lot of software out there, especially open-source software, that is just done by programmers and is neither usable nor aesthetically pleasing at all.
Wer sich schon einmal die Signalketten bekannter Mixing oder Mastering-Ingenieure angesehen hat, dem wird schnell auffallen, dass häufig (oder fast überwiegend) analoge Kompressoren, die aus den 50er – 80er Jahren stammen, zu sehen dins. Viele moderne Geräte sind von diesen (aus Sicht der Tontechniker) “legendären” Kompressoren inspiriert und basieren auf den grundlegenden, technischen Prinzipien, die damals entwickelt wurden. Es gibt heutzutage auch viele virtuelle Emulationen dieser Geräte in Form von Plugins, die es in gewisser Form jedem ermöglichen die Kompressionscharakteristiken dieser Geräte zu nutzen ohne Unsummen (im vierstelligen Bereich!) für diese ausgeben zu müssen.
Grundsätzlich handelt es sich bei diesen Kompressoren um analoge Technik, die auf elektrotechnischen Schaltungen basiert. Von diesen Kompressoren gibt es vier Typen, die sich hinsichtlich ihrer Bauart und ihres Kompressionsprinzips unterscheiden. Dadurch unterscheidet sich natürlich auch die Klangcharakteristik der verschiedenen Typen.
VCA-Kompressoren (Voltage Controlled Amplifier)
VCA-Kompressoren sind die am meisten verbreiteten Arten von Kompressoren. Sie sind häufig in Mischpulten verbaut. Bei dieser Technik wird die Spannung mithilfe eines Transistors, der in einem integrierten Schaltkreis verbaut ist, direkt bearbeitet und erlaubt somit eine große Kontrolle der Kompressionsparameter Attack, Release, ThresholdRatio und in manchen Fällen Knee. Der Klang eines solchen Kompressors ist tendenziell neutral und somit vielseitig einsetzbar. Das ist bei Mischpulten, in welchen VCA-Kompressoren verbaut sind und die das Grundgerüst einer Mischung bilden, auch erwünscht.
Bekannte Geräte
SSL G Bus Kompressor, API 2500 Bus Kompressor, DBX 160A
SSL Bus Kompressor
API 2500 Bus Kompressor
FET-Kompressoren (Field Effect Transistor)
Bei FET-Kompressoren wird das Signal über eine spezielle Transistorschaltung komprimiert. FET-Kompressoren wurden als Alternative zu den langsamen Röhren- oder Opto-Kompressoren entwickelt und sind deshalb besonders, weil sie extrem schnelle Attack-Zeiten erreichen können. Im Gegensatz zu VCA-Kompressoren haben FET-Kompressoren einen starken, eigenen Klangcharakter, der das Signal in einer gewissen Form klanglich färbt. Durch eben die schnelle Reaktionsfähigkeit und der besonderen Färbung des Kompressors wird dieser oft bei Drums und Gitarren in Rock Songs genutzt, um einen aggressiveren Sound zu erzeugen.
Bekannte Geräte:
UREI/Universal Audio 1176, Drawmer 1978
Drei Versionen des 1176LN von Universal Audio
Opto-Kompressoren
Bei Opto- bzw optischen Kompressoren leuchtet im inneren des Gehäuses eine Lampe. Das Leuchten der Lampe ist je nach Pegel des Eingangssignals, unterschiedlich stark. Mithilfe eines Fototransistors wird die Lichtstärke registriert, was wiederum den Widerstand, der dem Audiosignal entgegengesetzt wird, reguliert. Daraus ergibt sich, dass ein starkes Signal stärker komprimiert wird als ein schwaches. Besonders ist bei Opto-Kompressoren, dass diese bauartbeding träge sind und somit längere Attack- und Release-Zeiten aufweisen. Zusätzlich dazu ist das Attack- und Release-Verhalten nicht linear und vom Pegel des Eingangssignals abhängig. Klanglich könnte man diese Art von Kompression durch diese Eigenheiten als “smooth” bezeichnen. Das macht diese Kompressoren hervorragand für die allgemeine Dynamikausbalancierung eines Signals Für die Kompression von Transienten eignet sich ein solcher Kompressor weniger.
Bekannte Geräte:
Teletronix LA-2A, Universal Audio LA-3A
Teletronix LA-2AUniversal Audio LA-3A
Variable-Mu-Kompressoren (Röhrenkompressoren)
Variable-Mu-Kompressoren waren die ersten Typen von Kompressoren in der Welt der Audiotechnik. Sie sind bauartbedingt ebenso träge, wie Opto-Kompressoren, und eignen sich somit zur allgemeinen Abrundung eines Signals. Wie der Name schon sagt, wird die Kompression mithilfe von Röhrentechnik realisiert. Klänge, die mit diesem Kompressor komprimiert werden, werden oft als wärmer und dicker wahrgenommen, weshalb sie häufig für die Veredelung von Klängen benutzt werden. Bekannte Geräte:
Der “haptic table top puck” ist eine art Computermaus, mit der es möglich digitalen Benutzeroberflächen in die physikalische Welt zu bringen.
Haptic Tabletop Puck – Youtube
Ein User Interface muss nicht gezwungenermaßen nur zweidimensional sein. Das Gerät ist eine zusätzliche Peripherie, mit welcher es möglich ist die Beschaffenheit sowie die Reibung von Oberflächen mittels einem taktilen Feedback zu imitieren.
Haptic Tabletop Puck
Das Signal mittels eines Kolbens an einen Finger weitergegeben. Der Kolben fungiert nicht nur als Aktor, auch eingaben durch Drücken des Kolbens können bestimmte Aktionen triggern.
Aufbau Haptic Tabletop Puck
Um eine Oberflächenreibung zu simulieren ist der Puck mit einer zusätzlichen Bremse ausgestattet, die mittels Servo dosiert wird.
Many people with prosopagnosia (another term is face blindness) use compensatory strategies that help them circumvent their difficulties. There are a few strategies to choose from. But they always have two sides to them. A total of 75 people – people with prosopagnosia, friends or acquaintances and the family of those with the condition – were surveyed through questionnaires and interviews. The following list is intended to show both the positive and negative sides of these methods and what consequences are often involved:
Reliance The method of relying on others is used but is not that popular. It can help if the other person helps to identify people or starts with a conversation during social events. Downside is that it takes a lot of effort, it needs to be discreet and the other person could not always be there to help.
Visual association Only a few people with prosopagnosia stated that they use the strategy to develop memorable links between a persons qualities and character using objects, locations, etc. This requires regular contact and some degree of familiarity with the other person. And some people with DP struggle a lot with visual imagery.
Facial cues to identify This strategy has the most votes and is used the most. Memorising facial features as unusual eyebrows, blemishes or other distinctive features like skin tone can help to identify people. Usually this is done by caricaturing the physical attributes of the face. Downside is that it needs regular contact to maintain the associations and it can be exhausting because it is super effortful, those features must be studied and it can be inappropriate if somebody stars at your mouth during speech for too long.
Identify others through conversation This method is not as often used as distinguishing facial cues. This could be asking to introduce themselves, repeating the name to remember it, introducing first and hoping they would do the same, connecting the topic of the conversation with people they could know, small talk, taking attention to read the other persons reaction and listen to the voice. This strategy could sometimes work but they have to listen more at first to buy the time they need for these cues. This methods has a lot of downsides to it. It can be mentally very exhausting and it is not said that this will reveal who the other person is. Sometimes it can be super inappropriate. People also said that if often seems like they don’t really want to talk and are unwilling to engage in the conversation.
Other cues to identify Other cues than facial ones could be the voice, gait, manners, hairstyle, smell, jewellery, clothes, body shape or posture, character, height, tattoos, ethnicity, gender, glasses, handwriting or bags. Problem is that they can’t trust on this method because everything can suddenly change and some information may not always be shown.
Recognition aids This strategy describes how extra help can lead to identifying persons. This could be through memorising detailed notes on behaviour or appearance, studying photographs, using social media, writing names down during a meeting for example or using name tags. This method can be unreliable as well because people often chance their appearance. The name tag method can work but it is often inappropriate or could be difficult to read.
Avoidance This is a strategy that is not that unusual for people with prosopagnosia. By avoiding uncomfortable situations, using humour to hide difficult or embarrassing moments, avoiding names or being the first person to arrive somewhere some situations can be prevented. But, as all the other strategies as well, this may be inappropriate or undoable. What is worse with this is that it can have serious psychological consequences or can be considered as extremely rude and can lead to hatred or mobbing in the worst case.
Strategies
The following list describes tips and strategies to learn how to deal with prosopagnosia. This list has been compiled by people with this condition and it explicitly states that not all items will fit everyone, but each individual should find his or her own opinion and help. This list is intended to be a guide. (This list was not modified by me in any way)
Social strategies
Avoid referring to people by name or saying anything specific until you are sure you have identified them correctly.
At gatherings where there are some people you know, treat everyone in a friendly way. Smile and say hello to people in passing and this will prevent people thinking you are ignoring them.
When entering into conversation with people you can often work out their identity from what they say.
Look for signs of recognition in people’s body language.
Try to avoid meeting too many people at once.
Ask others to use people’s names when addressing them in your company.
When looking for someone in a group, ask someone you are sure is not the person you’re looking for, such as a person of the opposite sex.
Ask people to introduce themselves every time they see you with their names and how you know each other.
Be careful when visitors come to the door and don’t let people in until you are certain who they are. Other situations may also require caution.
Try to take an interest in people and remember personal details from previous conversations. This can make up for an initial lack of recognition and ensures people don’t think you just aren’t paying attention. This is very difficult if you have memory problems as well, in which case keeping notes on people can help.
Go to parties, meetings or other gatherings with a friend or colleague. Ask the other person to help you identify people before you talk to them.
Get people to wear name tags if appropriate.
Observational strategies
Look at the rings on people’s fingers. A lot of people wear their rings all the time so it can be a reliable way of identifying people in some circumstances, especially if the rings are distinctive.
Look for other jewellery (such as necklaces and bracelets) and distinctive shoes.
Hairstyles are one way of identifying people. This can work well when people have distinctive haircuts, but is less effective for conventional styles. Men are particularly difficult to tell apart by this method.
Walking gaits are very individual, so some people can learn to recognise them effectively.
With practise, people can be easily identifiable by the unique aspects of their accent, speech patterns and turns of phrase.
Look out for distinctive mannerisms, nervous ticks, etc.
Look at body shape and height.
Regular acquaintances can be recognised by their car, bags, or pushchair, etc.
Memory strategies
Invent a mnemonic for remembering someone’s distinctive features, e.g., Dave’s dimples; Pam’s perm. You could even invent ways of remembering people by really mentally exaggerating particular features in the style of a caricature.
Make diagrams and notes of where people are sitting in meetings.
At meetings or parties write down what clothes people are wearing.
Keep a notebook and make notes of people’s identifiable characteristics and features.
Preparation strategies
School teachers can create a seating plan for their classes so they know exactly where everybody is.
You could ask if you can take pictures of people you know so you can study them. Alternatively, facebook and twitter profiles can be very useful. You could add people as friends on facebook and study their profile pictures.
Some photography programmes and computer applications have face recognition technology which can suggest other pictures a person appears in. This can actually help to train you to notice things about a person’s face.
Navigation strategies
Smartphone applications, such as Google Maps, can be invaluable for avoiding getting lost.
Purchase a satellite navigation aid for car journeys.
Learn how to read maps effectively for occasions when Google Maps and satellite navigation aids aren’t available.
Watching movies
Watch TV shows and movies with a friend who can help you identify characters. This also enhances the viewing experience by making it more of a social activity.
Watch films with small casts of characters or one distinctive central character.
The survey also addressed whether disclosure could be of help. In some cases this could be the case, but most would only disclose their condition to people with whom they are in frequent contact. Especially in the workplace, few would disclose their condition because they fear for their personal career security. One point everyone agreed on is that it should be made much more publicly known to the general population as well as to relevant medical professionals in particular, that the condition exists and what consequences it carries with it. Due to the lack of awareness or knowledge of the population, affected people are often portrayed as rude or lazy which can have retroactive negative consequences for the affected people.
All the people involved in this survey were aware of the consequences of this condition. Because there is little information and there are only a few competent and specialized professionals who are trained enough in this field, those affected often get very late, never or a false diagnosis such as autism. Some stated that it would have been much more helpful in dealing with the disorder if they had received a diagnosis earlier. Because of their situation, many were and are not able to understand what is going on with them. By raising awareness and education around said condition, many would have a sense of relief. One other thing that would also help is to create a risk analysis that would record any effective and helpful compensatory strategies. In the end, they often use different methods or strategies depending on the situation they are in and if they have additional help from other people or technology or not.
Sources
Coping Strategies for Developmental Prosopagnosia, Armanda Adams, Peter Hills, Rachel Bennetts, Sarah Bate (06.2019), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333616235_Coping_strategies_for_developmental_prosopagnosia
Prosopagnosia: face blindness after brain injury, o.A. (2013), https://www.headway.org.uk/media/2816/prosopagnosia-face-blindness-after-brain-injury-factsheet.pdf
Mittlerweile kennen die meisten von uns TikTok. TikTok ist eine App aus China die 2016 erschienen ist. Angelehnt an die Vorgänger-Apps wie musical.ly und Vine ist es ebenfalls eine App in der man kurze Videos mit Lippensynchronisation posten kann. Während des Corona Lockdowns ist die App sozusagen explodiert und hat sehr viel Aufmerksamkeit erregt. Vor allem die junge Generation ist vorwiegend auf dieser Plattform vertreten und, dass neue und unbekannte Profile von TikTok gepusht werden, ist für die Nutzer attraktiv und das Erfolgsrezept der App.
Diese App hat Druck auf Instagram ausgeübt und zwang die App und deren Entwickler zu neuen Mitteln. Im August 2020 erschienen somit Reels auf Instagram, die durch ihre Benutzung und Art sehr extrem an die Videos auf TikTok angelehnt sind. Teilweise werden sogar Videos von TikTok auf Instagram gepostet und umgekehrt. Obwohl TikTok bei der jungen Generation immer populärer als Instagram ist, ist vor allem bei den über 18 jährigen Instagram wieder bzw noch immer im Trend.
Instagram ist dafür bekannt neue Features ihrer App sehr zu pushen. Das bedeutet für die Benutzer der App, dass das Erstellen der Reels ihnen erhebliche Vorteile bringt z.b. dass sie auf der Explore Page angezeigt werden und schnell neue Follower und Aufrufe durch das Erstellen von Reels erhalten.
Der größte Unterschied zwischen TikTok und Instagram ist wohl die Ästhetik. Instagram ist immer noch ein sehr auf Ästhetik basierende App und man sollte vor allem bei der Kreation seiner Reels immer auf das Aussehen, die Ästhetik und die Einbindung von Emotionen achten. Die Einbindung von Emotionen erfolgt vor allem durch das Verwenden der richtigen Musik und der richtigen Stimmung (Licht).
Die Erstellung
Das ist der inderwies ist relativ einfach. Entweder man dreht die Videos direkt in der App oder man ladet Videomaterial schon extern übers Handy hoch. Musik kann zusätzlich über Instagram hinzugefügt werden, ebenso kann die Geschwindigkeit des Videos und weitere Sachen bearbeitet werden. Z.b. kann Text ziemlich framegenau auf das Video platziert werden.
American cinematographer Steve Yedlin, who is mostly famous for his camera work on films like “Looper”, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and “Knives Out” also has quiet astonishing results on film emulation on his website.
In his so called Display Preparation Demo he compares 35mm film to the Arri Alexa (film emulated) while also explaining his thoughts on the, according to him “false”, yet dominant narrative that the selection of the camera type or film stock type has a major leverage point on defining the photographic look and that the audiences perceptual experience of the final image is significantly defined by the camera format itself in ways that can’t be controlled otherwise. Yedlin sees this assumption as problematic and not supported by the evidence and later on continues to say to not think of a camera as a lookmaker but merely as a data collection device that records uninterpreted data about the light coming into the lens and that the aesthetics of the photographic look are created later on downstream in the processing pipeline. By comparing the 35mm film with the (matched) Arri Alexa footage he tries to further prove his point:
35mm film and digital side by side (mirrored), which one is which?
Steve Yedlin doesn’t argue that there are still small differences between both images that purely derive from the very different post process pipeline those clips come from. His argument is that those differences are too minor to change the perceptual experience of the viewer and don’t actually add to the tone and feel of what’s seen. Yedlin is contrasting the opinions of many cinematographers just as Hoyte Van Hoytema, who openly declared his love for the large IMAX format time and time again.
In a follow up document to the Display Preparation Demo, Yedlin writes, “As artists, to put all of our faith in the illusory simplicity of bundled systems instead of understanding the analytic components that are the undeniable building blocks of the process is to give up our control and authorship.” He believes that in order to correctly transform digital data to look like like real film more research and development has to be done. Yedlin is talking about the idea of a mathematical complex and precise transformation of a cameras data that takes all the different attributes and how they interfere with each other into consideration for a correct emulation in any circumstance. Unfortunately the industry is not quite there yet but Steve Yedlin is convinced that this is possible today and hopes to inspire other filmmakers to join in on the journey of film emulation as he believes anybody can become an author, not only be a shopper.
What Makes A Look?
In Yedlins Document he divides all attributes that form or effect a picture into either spatial & temporal attributes or Intrapixel. Some attributes also live in between those, like film’s gate weave or film grain. Spatial attributes have to do with how areas within the frame do relate to one another, like for example resolution, sharpness or some more idiosyncratic aspects like film halation. Yedlin explains it as a “characteristic phenomenon in film acquisition responsible for several visual attributes, most recognizably a reddish wrapping of light at high contrast edges.”
Temporal attributes are always dependent of motion and time, such as motion blur, exposure time, frame rate and sweep speed of a rolling shutter. Intrapixel are the most complex and according to Yedlin also the perceptually most important one’s. It includes information about the contrast, density, color idiosyncrasies and so forth. He explains it as attributes that don’t arise from areas of the frame affecting one another. “Each area responds to external stimuli (or to a transformation) in the same way as each other area in the frame”.
This categorization of attributes is key for Yedlin’s approach to film emulation but not detailed enough to actually give information on all the attributes, let alone their importance they have in a scene. This is still something, that Yedlin himself points out, “We must push for more rigorous and meaningful evaluation of camera systems.”
Conclusion
Watching and reading through Steve Yedlin’s research and opinions on the topic left me both inspired and a bit frustrated. According to him, film emulation is not living up to it’s true potential in the current state, yet seeing the digital footage he emulated next to the 35mm footage showed me that when knowing the various attributes and how to manipulate them, it is at least possible to get indistinguishable results.
Die Nicht-linearität von Videospielen verlangt ein Soundsystem, das adaptiv ist und auf verschiedene Gegebenheiten reagieren kann. Zusätzlich wird bei verschiedenen Klängen eines Typs Variation erwartet, um ein glaubwürdigeres und nicht repetitives Hörerlebnis zu bieten. Die Middleware-Software Wwise bietet für eine Ansammlung an zusammenhängender Sounds sogenannte Container, die unterschiedliche Möglichkeiten bieten und an unterschiedliche Bedingungen geknüpft sind. Man kann Container zusätzlich ineinander verschachteln und quasi einen Container in einen anderen einfügen, womit man ein breites Spektrum an Verwendungsmöglichkeiten erhält[1]
Random Container
In diesem Container werden Soundfiles gesammelt, die in einer zufälligen Reihenfolge abgespielt werden. Diese Container finden Verwendung für Sounds wie Schritte, Schüsse usw. Random Container bieten außerdem weitere Funktionen, wie die Gewichtung von Sounds, also quasi welche Sounds priorisiert und somit häufiger abgespielt werden als andere. Man kann die Sounds noch zusätzlich hinsichtlich ihrer Tonhöhe randomisieren, um noch mehr Variation zu ermöglichen. Ein weiteres praktisches Feature ist das Verhalten der Reihenfolge, nachdem ein Sound abgespielt wurde (Play Type). Dabei kann man bestimmen, wie viele andere Sounds abgerufen werden müssen, damit das selbe Soundfile wieder abgespielt werden darf.
Random Container mit mehreren Soundfiles
Sequence Container
Hier werden Soundfiles in einer bestimmten Reihenfolge (Playlist) gespeichert und abgespielt. Das kann Sinn machen bei einem Dialog, der in einer bestimmten Reihenfolge abgespielt werden soll, oder auch bei komplexeren Sounds, die aus mehreren Segmenten zusammengesetzt werden, wie das Schießen einer Waffe. Dieses würde sich z.B. aus folgenden Sounds zusammensetzen: Betätigen des Abzugs -> Schussexplosion -> Abprallen der Patronenhülsen am Boden -> Nachladen [2]
Sequence Playlist gefüllt mit Soundfiles aus Random Containern
Switch Container
Ein Switch Container ist an Bedingungen geknüpft und ermöglicht das Abspielen passender Sounds an unterschiedliche Gegebenheiten. Hierzu werden sogenannte Switches verwendet, die im Spiel getriggert werden und an Wwise weitergeben, welcher Soundtyp abgespielt werden soll. Klassischerweise werden in Switch Containern z.B. Schritte in verschiedene Untergrundbeschaffenheiten eingeteilt. Switches stellen in diesem Fall das Material des Bodens dar [3]
Switch Container bei welchem Fußschritte in unterschiedliche Bodentypen eingeteilt werdenSwitches mit verschiedenen Materialen
Blend Container
Bei diesem Containertypen können Sounds graduell von einem Sound zum anderen mittels eines Crossfades übergeblendet werden. Das macht Sinn für Klänge, die unterschiedliche Intensitätsstufen benötigen, wie z.B. unterschiedliche Windstärken, Motorengeräusche, die abhängig sind von der Drehzahl oder die Arrangementfülle eines Musikstücks. Dazu wird mittels RTPCs (Real Time Parameter Control), also Parametern, die im Spiel graduell getriggert werden, bestimmt, welche jeweilige Intensitätsstufe abgespielt wird. Eine Intensitätsstufe wird jeweils durch ein Soundfile repräsentiert.
In the following image you can see the main pure data patch that is running on the bela board and over which most of the parameters you can interact with are modulated. The actual granular synthesis is taking place in different subpatches. Now let’s look at the different parameters you can interact with directly on the Kalimba with the sensors.
Pure Data Patch
On the top left corner Pure Data is receiving signals from the touch sensor, which are values between 0 and 1. These values are remapped to fit the needed parameters that we want to modulate. The x-axes of the square touch panel which is from left to right controls the grain number. If your finger touches the panel on the left side, no grain is produced, and you just hear the dry audio signal of the kalimba. The more you slide your finger to the right, the mor grains will appear. On the y-axes you control the speed range of each grain which also means the pitch of course. On the bottom of the panel the grains sound kind of similar and are in a closer pitch range. When you slide your finger upwards much higher and lower grains will appear.
The accelerometer controls the dry/wet signal of the grains and the dry audio signal. When the kalimba is held straight you can hear both the dry signal and the grains equally loud. If you tilt the kalimba to the right, the dry signal fades out and the grains get louder. The exact opposite happens, if the kalimba is tilted to the left side.
In the patch there is a function called Octave Lock which is activated by the small push button. It allows the grains to alter the pitch only in octaves. This is very helpful when you want to play exact harmonies, because otherwise the pitch of the grains is too random.
I also added a reverb object in pure data called the rev3~. The amount of this reverb is controlled via the potentiometer on the right side. The reverb is applied both to the dry signal and the grains. The second potentiometer is controlling the overall volume. It is placed on top because you don’t need the volume knob to be controlled while playing.
Further Steps
The next steps would be to figure out the exact position of the sensors. Some problems appear now for example when you play the kalimba with your thumbs you also strike the touch panel sometimes, which needs to be fixed. Of course, in the final product all the electronics including the bela board will be placed inside of the kalimba and will hopefully look not as chaotic as right now!
