TESTING

So here are copys of my first formal testing session. This was conducted in my studio, using the Light Speaker and Ableton Live. Here is a copy of the Questionnaire that my test subject filled out whilst completing the tasks within the DAW. Unfortunately, there are only 3 just now. though I dont expect to be graded past these three, there will be more results to come over the following weeks and these will be continually updated. If you live in Scotland and have a desire to take part in my test, please get in touch with me via email at synct.music@gmail.com

Firstly I wanted to establish if the subject understood colour theory. Unfortunately the test only has three willing participants. this is partly due to how late the system was working, but also two of my confirmed ones have now cancelled. Im saying this because all my tests have been done on people I live with. They have not spent any time in my room with the system other than this, however I have spoken about colour theory over the months, so they all said they knew because I told them about it.

Next they were asked to listen to an excerpt from the start of "Daft Punk - Get Lucky". I chose this as it has received a lot of praise from a mixdown perspective. It is also quite complex though. I wanted to show something that was quite fast and chanable in terms of its interaction with the light, in order to increase the feeling of accuracy when less complex material was played.

Next I had created a Drum Mix Buss, with stems I created using Maschine. Kickm Snare, Clap, Cl Hat, Op Hat, Crash and Tom tracks were created.

Each subject was asked to then mix them all together, whilst referencing the light. I was really pleased here. subject 1 decided with no promting to experiment with how each channel looked through the light before proceeing with the mixdown and took 15 minutes playing around and was also vocalising how much they were enjoying the system. Conversely subject 3 mixed them quite quickly, then played around with the balance, again vocalising how they were already starting to notice positive aspects of using the system. Subject three also took it apon themselves to open a synth and create a bass line, which was sidechained to the Kick, testing how well it performed there. They said after that they saw this as a valuable insight into the interaction between the two. Really positive. All three said they found the experience fun along with the comment above.

Again, all three seemed to achknowledge a deeper understanding quickly, before this question was posed.

The next question was designed to understand what sort of music was preferred through the system, specifically tempo related. I'm chuffed that 1 out of the 3 actually felt that the faster track was more appealing, I myself thought its would be 100% sqing to the 124BPM track (Track 1) however Subject 2 prefered Track 2 (175BPM).

 Unfortunately, I didn't think about the layout of this clearly enough, and the results dont really display the outcomes here.

I had three "silent" bits of audio to play them, and they had to identify two that I chose at random in each test. Subject one saw Human Voice and Bass Guitar Through the Light Speaker and answered 100% correct. Subject 2 got Bass and Drums and was 100% correct. Subject 3 got Human Voice and Drums and answered 50% correct, choosing Piano instead of Human Voice. Baring in mind how similar the spectra between these two instruments can be, I count this as a resounding success and that it is completely possible to determine, at least in the ball park, what audio is being playing without even hearing, using this system.

Although only one participant said outright they felt it integrated well, this was again a success. The two that chose a little bit of both as their option, said that if there was a comment box (my bad) that they would have put that it did cause a slight distraction, but it was in a positive manner. I then asked if they would have called it creative inspiration, to which they replied Yes. This was completely unexpected, but made me extremely happy, as with no prompting they made their own choice that they viewed as something that was creatively inspiring. 2 of the three said that they believed that colour should be used in the studio. Subject 3 expressed they would need more time.

This time, Subjects 1 and 2 said they would buy it, suggesting that subject 2 likes it as an ornamental piece at the very least, even if they are unconvinced it should be in the studio. Subject 3 commented that they would like to see a more modular implementation of the system for use in the studio, something that I totally understand and would love to look into developing further on. Subject 1 is a DIYer like myself, so they said they would rather use online tutorials and go about making it themselves, something that I also strongly encourage! In essence though, all three would spend some amount of money on a system a kin to this one.

Finally to round it all off, the point blank question is fired. All three expressed whilst clicking Yes that they were very impressed with the system and that it out performed their expectations. All three seemed genuinely more excited and talkative after finishing the test, and took the time to talk to me about what they had noticed and what they liked, suggesting that they did indeed feel more creatively inspired. Being completely honest, I thought that some people may find it slightly over bearing, but the results show otherwise.

I thought hard about this testing and wether or not it was worth it, however in retrospect I wish I had focused on the  Light Speaker alone and conducted a more thorough testing of it alone, rather than trying to compare it against another Light Speaker Colour Organ idea. As I said, I feel i was valuable up to a point, however with such positive feedback from my small test on the light speaker, I feel it could have gone much deeper into that.

With that in mind, and with the permission of my supervisor, i am going to continue to try and find willing participants to have a shot at my test during the expo, giving me a much wider breadth for testing on the general public.

Three people chosen all have a minimum of 5 years experience in the creation and mixing of audio content, as such they were ideal for an initial round of testing.