Since its introduction in 1997 by CNMAT researchers Matt Wright and Adrian Freed, the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol has been successfully integrated into dozens of hardware and software products, and used in thousands of performances and installations. OSC goes beyond MIDI by addressing needs specific to musical performance with new electronic instruments such as high-bandwidth connectivity, precise temporal semantics and temporal regularization, extensibility and rich type support, human readability and state-free operation. The OSC protocol itself has a simple structure making it easy to integrate into new applications, but an appreciation for the underlying design principles is necessary to leverage its full capabilities.

This talk will cover the basics of using and programming OSC with demonstrations of hardware and software implementations. We will then dive into the details and discuss best-practices for creating OSC implementations that relate to issues in musical control, with an emphasis on temporal semantics and related algorithms. The conclusion will include an overview of recent research and anticipated future developments.

Location: Songbird, 585 Howard Street Second Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105