Mazzola, Guerino / Noll, Thomas / Lluis-Puebla, Emilio: Perspectives in Mathematical and Computational Music Theory

Distributed RUBATO: Foundation and Multimedia Rendering

Stefan Göller

University of Zurich

Computer Science Department

MultiMedia Laboratory

goeller@ifi.unizh.ch

Gérard Milmeister

University of Zurich

Computer Science Department

MultiMedia Laboratory

milmei@ifi.unizh.ch

Abstract

The denotator data model provides the foundation of the new implementation, called Distributed RUBATO, of the RUBATO system. Two aspects are especially important: distribution of the components, Rubettes, that use denotators as a common communication system, and the mapping of denotators into multimedia space, foremost 3D visualization.

1 Introduction

One single concept turns up at every corner of the implementation and use of the Distributed RUBATO system: denotators. From the lowest to the highest level the architecture involves these data structures as the main communicational and computational engine. The first sections are devoted to how Distributed RUBATO is driven, then we turn to a higher level on top of this architecture and discuss how denotators are presented to the Distributed RUBATO user.

2 Traditional vs. Distributed Rubato

Traditional RUBATO $®$ is based on a single-user, single-platform concept (see the RUBATO homepage Mazzola and Collaborators, 2003). Different components, called $® Rubettes$ , are software modules that act as plug-ins and can be linked to the main program by the user. This means that data reside on local media such as a harddisk or CD-ROM, and musical output is directed to a locally connected MIDI device. Moreover computational tasks are executed on the main workstation even in the case of large numerical computations. Thus the workstation, in addition to