This article introduces a series of workshop activities carried out with expert musicians to imagine new musical instruments through design fiction. At the workshop, participants crafted nonfunctional prototypes of instruments they would want to use in their own performance practice. Through analysis of the workshop activities, a set of design specifications was developed that can be applied to the design of new digital musical instruments intended for use in real-world artistic practice. In addition to generating tangible elements for instrument design, the theories and models utilized, drawn from human–computer interaction and human-centered design, are offered as a possible model for merging the generation of creative ideas with functional design outputs in a variety of applications within and beyond music and the arts.

This article contributes a holistic conceptual framework for the notion of “mapping” that extends the classical view of mapping as parameter association. In presenting this holistic approach to mapping techniques, we apply the framework to existing works from the literature as well as to new implementations that consider this approach in their construction. As any mapping control structure for a given digital instrument is determined by the musical context in which it is used, we present musical examples that relate the relatively abstract realm of mapping design to the physically and perceptually grounded notions of control and sonic gesture. Making this connection allows mapping to be more clearly seen as a linkage between a physical action and a sonic result. In this sense, the purpose of this work is to translate the discussion on mapping so that it links an abstract and formalized approach—intended for representation and conceptualization—with a viewpoint that considers mapping in its role as a perceived correspondence between physical materials (i.e., those that act on controllers and transducers) and sonic events. This correspondence is, at its heart, driven by our cognitive and embodied understanding of the acoustic world.

This article presents alternative ways to produce efficient custom force or pressure sensors using cellulose paper filled with carbon-black pigments. We have produced several prototypes of force sensors to observe and compare their response with applied forces with those of commercial sensors, as well as those of other conductive materials. Advantages of custom sensors are presented through the description of various examples of music controllers using several kinds of paper touch sensors with a large variety of size and shape. Our goal is to provide digital musical instrument designers with new strategies to circumvent the limited offering of commercial sensors, and to propose ways to exploit these concepts through a dedicated Web site.

This article discusses the augmentation of acoustic musical instruments, with a focus on trumpet augmentation. Augmented instruments are acoustic instruments onto which sensors have been mounted in order to provide extra sonic control variables. Trumpets make ideal candidates for augmentation because they have spare physical space on which to mount electronics and spare performer “bandwidth” with which to interact with the augmentations. In this article, underlying concepts of augmented instrument design are discussed along with a review and discussion of twelve existing augmented trumpets and five projects related to mouthpiece augmentation. Common aspects to many of these examples are identified, such as the prevalence of idiosyncratic designs, the use of buttons placed at or near the left-hand playing position, and the focus on measuring or mimicking trumpet valves. Three existing approaches to valve sensing are compared, and a novel method for sensing valve position, based on linear variable differential transformers, is introduced. Based on the review and comparison, we created an example augmented trumpet that tests the feasibility of a modular design paradigm. The results of this review of the state-of-the-art and our own research suggests future directions towards a better understanding of augmented trumpet design.