eTu{d,b}e: case studies in playing with musical agents

The eTu{d,b}e framework adapts existing improvising musical agents (MA) for performance with an augmented instrument called the eTube. This instrument has been developed with deliberate musical and technological limitations including a simple two-button controller and restricted pitch capacity. We will present case studies which outline our research-creation framework for mapping the eTube controller, developing corpora for the MAs, and testing interactive and machine listening settings which will also be demonstrated by performance examples. A general summary of the MAs will be followed by specific descriptions of the features we have utilised in our work, and finally a comparison of the MAs based on these features. Few papers discuss the process for learning to work with and adapt existing MAs and we will finish by describing challenges experienced as other users with these technologies.