A Flexible Approach For Synchronizing Video With Live Music

Abstract

Performances of synchronous imagery and music have existed for almost 300 years, but they have become popular only in the past 15 years. Synchronous imagery and music refers to their simultaneous presentation, but synchronization refers to an interactive correlation between the imagery and music. The article will discuss pioneering works that use synchronization by examining their strategies for correspondence. An absolute approach to synchronization uses fixed correlations between musical and visual characteristics, but a flexible approach permits the selection of music, imagery, and forms of correspondence. The paper discusses the characteristics of a computer-based system that uses a flexible approach for synchronizing video with live music. This flexible system imposes no specific rules for synchronizing video with music, and it provides a programming environment that enables the creation of a composition using various forms of correspondence. The paper is based on the author’s work since 1988 on the creation of software and performances of video synchronized with live music.