What if you could manipulate sound by sound itself?
The double bass has a rich tradition as a solo and improvisational voice, yet its sonic palette remains bounded by its acoustic nature. This research explores how embedded electronics and algorithmic processing can expand that palette from within, transforming the double bass into an expressive improvisation system, while remaining rooted in the improvisational tradition.
The system analyses the bass sound in real time — pitch, volume, timbre, tempo, density, sustain — and uses this data to transform the signal according to compositional rules. The bass is the only sound source. There is no synthesis, no external input. Only the instrument, listening to itself and manipulating its own sound according to its own output.
The relationship between performer and technology is central. The software is not a tool the musician operates — it functions as a cognitive extension of the player, an extra-cognitive node that is inseparable from the instrument and the body. Instrument, software, rules and performance form a single, embodied whole. The toolset is the composition. Each performance determines its own outcome.
Update: May 2026
