LoopLens: Supporting Search as Creation in Loop-Based Music Composition
Sheng Long, Atsuya Kobayashi, Kei Tateno

TL;DR
LoopLens is a novel tool that visualizes search results in loop-based music composition, supporting creative exploration and assembly, especially for users with limited musical vocabulary.
Contribution
It introduces LoopLens, a visual and interactive system that enhances search as a creative process in music composition, addressing the gap in existing creativity support tools.
Findings
Experts exploit narrow loop sets using multimodal cues.
Novices rely on audio impressions and broad exploration.
Design implications for vocabulary-independent discovery.
Abstract
Creativity support tools (CSTs) typically frame search as information retrieval, yet in practices like electronic dance music production, search serves as a creative medium for collage-style composition. To address this gap, we present LoopLens, a research probe for loop-based music composition that visualizes audio search results to support creative foraging and assembling. We evaluated LoopLens in a within-subject user study with 16 participants of diverse musical domain expertise, performing both open-ended (divergent) and goal-directed (convergent) tasks. Our results reveal a clear behavioral split: participants with domain expertise leveraged multimodal cues to quickly exploit a narrow set of loops, while those without domain knowledge relied primarily on audio impressions, engaging in broad exploration often constrained by limited musical vocabulary for query formulation. This…
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Taxonomy
TopicsMusic Technology and Sound Studies · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction · Interactive and Immersive Displays
