The MATRIX is a new musical instrument that gives users a 3-dimensional tactile interface to control music using their hands. It can be used as either a stand alone instrument or in conjunction with a traditional musical keyboard or microphone. The MATRIX generates musical output by mapping a performer's expressive gestures to a variety of sonic parameters. It acts as an input device that directly manipulates the parameters of a synthesis engine (eg. additive, granular, wave-terrain...), or an effect alogrithm (eg. delay, reverb, filter-banks...) in response to the changing shape of the interactive surface. In this way, the MATRIX provides a very intuitive method of manipulating sound with an amount of control that has never before been implemented in real-time.

One mapping uses the individual rods of the MATRIX to directly control the digital waveform of a sound, thereby "sonically sculpting" the timbre of the sound. An example of this technique is shown below in the excerpt from one of my compositions titled Dactylonomy. It is a duet for MIDI keyboard and MATRIX, and utilizes a custom synthesis technique that is actually a cross between Wave-terrain and Scanned synthesis (see "New Musical Mappings for the MATRIX" for more information). The video shows the last 1:30 of the piece, which premiered August 17th, 2002 at the Woodstockhausen Electronic Music Festival in Santa Cruz, California.