+++ This event takes place in the Wozniak Lounge, 430-8 Soda Hall +++
Free and open to the public.

Amar Chaudhary: Exploiting Parallelism in Real-Time Music and Audio Applications

Open Sound World (OSW) is a scalable, extensible programming environment that allows musicians, sound designers and researchers to process sound in response to expressive real-time control.  This talk will provide an overview of OSW, past development and future directions, and then focus on the parallel processing architecture.  Early in the development of OSW in late 1999 and early 2000, we made a conscious decision to support parallel processing as affordable multiprocessor systems were coming on the market.    We implemented a simple scalable dynamic system in which workers take on tasks called "activation expressions" on a first-come first serve basis, which facilities for ordering and prioritization to deal with real-time constraints and synchronicity of audio streams.  In this presentation, we will review a simple musical example and demonstrate performance benefits and limitations of scaling to small multi-core systems.  The talk will conclude with a discussion of how current research directions in parallel computing can be applied to this system to solve past challenges and scale to much larger systems.

Amar Chaudhary is a longtime composer and performer specializing in contemporary and electronic music, and a developer of advanced software for creativity.  He received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001. While at Berkeley, Amar was a researcher at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) and developed advanced software for music composition and performance, including Open Sound Edit, an advanced 3D graphical editor for sound representations and Open Sound World, a programming environment for real-time music and audio applications. He has published several research papers related to these and other projects. Amar studied composition first with Ruth Schonthal at the Westchester Conservatory of Music in New York from 1983 to 1991, and then at Yale University from 1991 to 1995. He had his music performed internationally and has received several honors for his musical work, including a 1992 premier of his clarinet quartet Conversational Impromptu at Weill Recital Hall in New York and the 1990 NGCSA Young Composers Award for Earth Songs. He remains actively involved in local electronic and experimental music in the San Francisco Bay Area, and performs regularly. His recent music involves experimentation with new sounds and sound-synthesis/processing techniques and new modes of musically expressive performance. He is also interested in the use of folk instruments and toy instruments in electro-acoustic music, and incorporating jazz, dance music and other idiomatic styles.  He currently composes and performs in the group Reconnaissance Fly and in other ensembles, and is a member of the Outsound Presents Board of Directors. Additionally, Amar is a jazz keyboardist and performs regularly with various groups around San Francisco. In addition to his musical work, Amar is an avid photographer and maintains a deep interest in modern and contemporary art in several media as a creator, consumer and supporter. Website:  http://www.amarchaudhary.com