Stacco is a magnetic instrument that interacts with the player by attracting and repelling magnetic spheres and ferromagnetic objects. It is a playful instrument that allows the performer to control fine musical details if needed, but also to wonder freely into ferromegnetic sonic realms.

Stacco V2

Stacco V2

Stacco V1

Under the hood Stacco features four magnetometers and as many magnetic attractors, it performs embedded synthesis with Bela or connects to a laptop for more demanding tasks. We are using Stacco as the ideal controller to perform with Neural Synthesis models such as RAVE, as it allows to finely control multiple parameters with simple gestures.

Stacco V2

Stacco introduces a novel approach to music notation with neural audio synthesis, by allowing the user to draw trajectories and gestures on the top of the instrument itself. We refer to this approach as embodied sketching. This method is being used in a series of workshops with artists aiming at understanding the possible compositional practices with neural synthesis, and investigate strategies to make the model more interpretable by the user.

A score for Stacco

A score for Stacco

We used Stacco in a number of performances, including solo sets, duos with two Staccos and in wider ensembles, including electronics and acoustic instruments. Mouja is a solo performance by Nicola Privato where Stacco is used as a Ouija board, in order to explore the latent space of layered RAVE models.

Magnetologues is a duo performance featuring two Stacco, played by Giacomo Lepri and Nicola Privato. One controls neural synthesis models and an FM synthesizer, the other one moves the sound in space on an Ambisonics dome using ICST Ambisonics. The performance was recorded at ZhdK, Zurich, for

Here are the IIL outputs with Stacco.

Papers:

• Stacco:Exploring the Embodied Perception of Latent Representations in Neural Synthesis. Nicola Privato & Victor Shepardson & Giacomo Lepri & Thor Magnusson. Proc. New Interfaces for Musical Expression 2024 (NIME 2024), Utrecht, Netherlands. [pdf]

• Sketching Magnetic Interactions for Neural Synthesis. Nicola Privato, Giacomo Lepri, Thor Magnusson & Einar Torfi Einarsson. TENOR 2024, Zurich, Switzerland. [pdf]

Performances:

• S27, Nicola Privato performing in Hafnarhus info October 2023.
• Mouja, Nicola Privato performing at Fabryka Sztuki (Poland). info, October 2023.
• Mouja at TEI 2024, Nicola Privato, Thales and Stacco with Neural Synthesis, MTO School of Music, Cork, Ireland.info. 13 Feb, 2024.
• Mouja at IRCAM Forum, Nicola Privato, Thales and Stacco, Neural Synthesis and Ambisonics, IRCAM, Paris, France. info. 21 Mar 2024.
• Magnetologues, Nicola Privato and Giacomo Lepri, Stacco, Neural Synthesis and Ambisonics, TENOR 2024, ZhDK Zurich, Swizerland. info. 6 Apr 2024.
• Mouja at xCoAx 2024, Nicola Privato, Thales and Stacco, Neural Synthesis and Ambisonics, Fabrica, Treviso, France. info. 14 July 2024.

Workshops:

• Embodied Sketching for Neural Synthesis. Giacomo Lepri, Nicola Privato and Thor Magnusson, Audio Mostly 2024, (Italy) info. September, 2024.
• Embedded Sketching for Neural Synthesis. Nicola Privato and Giacomo Lepri, TENOR 2024, ZhDK (Switzerland) info. April, 2024.