Audio
The interviewed users were happy with the choice of
rhythm sounds that were present in the application
(100% greater than or equal to rating 4 and 52%
with rating 5). When asked if they would like to
experiment sounds that were not only rhythmic, the
result was unanimous, 100% said yes.
Beyond sounds that could be controlled by the
user questions were made regarding the base track.
The assumption at first was that it would help the
composition process for someone that was not very
experienced in an application of this type. This
assumption was confirmed by the answers given
with 78% saying that the beat sound always present
was a plus because it gives some sort of foundation
to work upon. 18% of the answers were in the
opposite way and a user suggested that this should
be something that the user could turn on and off at
will. It is worth mentioning that from the negative
responses (only four), two were given by experts.
This is important because experts tend to be more
creative when using the application and do not need
this artificial “crutch”. The next question was about
the beat speed, specifically BPM speed (it was set to
90 BPM, i.e., beats per minute). For this answer the
scale was: 1 – speed much slower, 2 – speed slower,
3 – ideal speed, 4 – faster speed, 5 – much faster
speed. So the assumption here was that the results
would be expected closer to the number 3 instead of
5. This assumption was confirmed with 75% of users
giving rating 3 to this question. The remaining gave
an answer that was not in the questionnaire, they
answered the speed should be adjustable. Two of
these answers were given by experts.
Finally, the last feature tested was the recording
process. With 78% of the users giving a rating of 4
or higher this was the least successful aspect of this
section. Despite some initial confusion by the users
they were able to understand how all worked and did
not find it to complex. In a general way the audio
response was positive.
Interaction
The main purpose of these questions about
interaction was to know users’ opinion about playing
sounds with their hands and the activities assigned
with each hand.
About the 3D position of the user’s hands,
specifically the number of action zones and
precision, it was asked whether 4 zones is the ideal
number of zones or if another number is more
appropriate. 61% of users said that 4 zones were
ideal, 13% chose 3 and 26% said that 5 or even 6
zones was preferable.
84% of users gave rating 4 or higher when asked
if it was easy to identify the zone in which their
hands were. There was an answer with rating 1 but it
was mainly due to the poor hardware of the
computer in which the test was performed.
About the choice of colours of the plans (green
and grey), 79% of users gave a rating 4 or 5.
Concerning the colours of the virtual hands (red and
blue) 86% of users gave rating 5.
Concerning the use of the right hand to control
the volume of the sound, as it does presently, or if it
should control another parameter, for example, a
sound effect like a distortion or something similar,
70% of users said that another parameter was
probably best.
Regarding switching the activities of each hand,
the answers to this question were analysed having in
mind the dominant hand of the user. Only 3 left-
handed participants were found and any findings
based on this universe of people are fragile.
Nonetheless, when all users are considered, 22% of
them would rather switch hand activities. However
if only right-handed people are considered this
percentage increases to 25%. Left-handed people
unanimously consider that the ideal is not switching
hands’ activities. This means that 34% of the
participants prefer to use the dominant hand to
compose music. However, it is worth mentioning
that most users said that it did not matter which hand
was assigned for each type of activity.
Visualization
The goal of the set of questions about visualization
was to know if the visualizations that were chosen
are adequate and if they were easily linked to the
corresponding sounds.
In the question about the clear matching of sound
with visualization, 70% of users gave a rating of 4
(easy) while the remaining 30% gave the maximum
rating of 5 (very easy).
Next it was asked how easy it was to identify the
visualization of the base track. 65% of users gave a
rating of 5. There were also ratings 1 and 3, but in
the case of the rating 1, the study was conducted in a
computer with poor performance. Some users did
not realise that the pulsating light at the end of the
scene matched the base track beat sound.
Regardless of track visualizations, users were
asked if the scene as a whole was enjoyable from a
graphical standpoint. 65% gave a rating of 4 and
31% gave 5.
Regarding the use of parallelepipeds (blocks) for
the visualization of normal tracks, 43% gave a rating
of 3 and 48% gave 4. It was also asked if they had
any alternative in mind for the visualizations. Most
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