Modeling synchronization in human musical rhythms using Impulse Pattern Formulation (IPF)
This addresses the problem of distorted natural synchronization in musical ensembles for musicians and music technology, but it is incremental as it applies an existing method to a new context.
The paper tackled modeling how musicians synchronize to external rhythms using the Impulse Pattern Formulation (IPF), an analytical approach from musical instrument research, and found that the model can analyze personal rhythmic signatures or replace drum machines with more musical solutions.
When musicians perform in an ensemble, synchronizing to a mutual pace is the foundation of their musical interaction. Clock generators, e.g., metronomes, or drum machines, might assist such synchronization, but these means, in general, will also distort this natural, self-organized, inter-human synchronization process. In this work, the synchronization of musicians to an external rhythm is modeled using the Impulse Pattern Formulation (IPF), an analytical modeling approach for synergetic systems motivated by research on musical instruments. Nonlinear coupling of system components is described as the interaction of individually propagating and exponentially damped impulse trains. The derived model is systematically examined by analyzing its behavior when coupled to numerical designed and carefully controlled rhythmical beat sequences. The results are evaluated by comparison in the light of other publications on tapping. Finally, the IPF model can be applied to analyze the personal rhythmical signature of specific musicians or to replace drum machines and click tracks with more musical and creative solutions.