A semantically motivated gestural interface for the control of a dynamic range compressor

This paper presents a simplified 2D gesture based approach to modifying dynamics within a musical signal. Despite the growth in gesture-controlled audio seen over recent years, it has primarily been limited to the upper workflow/navigation level. This has been compounded by the Skeuomorphic design approaches of graphical user interfaces (GUI). This design approach, although representative of the original piece of audio equipment, often lowers workflow and hinders the simultaneous control of parameters. Following a large scale gesture elicitation exercise utilizing a common 2D touch pad and analysis of semantic audio control parameters, a set of reduced multi-modal parameters are proposed which offers both workflow efficiency and a much simplified method of control for dynamic range compression.