Using an Infrared Distance Sensor as MIDI Controller from little-scale:
This is a simple example of using an infrared distance sensor as a MIDI controller. The hardware setup is simple – analog out to analog input on the Teensy, ground to ground and 5V to 5V.
IR distance sensor includes cable (10cm-80cm) – GP2Y0A21YK0F – This SHARP distance sensor bounces IR off objects to determine how far away they are. It returns an analog voltage that can be used to determine how close the nearest object is. Comes with 12″ long 3-JST interface wire. These sensors are good for short-range detection. For over 1 m distance, we suggest using sonar sensors. (read more)
You can now turn your favourite music downloads into playable records made from materials you have lying around the house.
Amanda Ghassaei, 24, from San Francisco has created the world’s first laser-cut wooden records using songs from Radiohead and Joy Division.
And the software engineer has made the instructions available to download, making it possible to create your own at home.
Ghassaei previously used 3D printers to print records from her MP3 downloads.
She wanted to find a way for people without 3D printers to make their own records, and has designed a way of making records out of paper, acrylic and wood.
Ghassaei created a digital waveform file from the MP3 and converted into a PDF. Needles on a record player pick up vibrations based on the shape of the record’s surface. The waveform was then cut into the wood using lasers to create the ‘shape’ of the song.
The idea of “ISOTOPES” is to generate a dematerialised space. The catalyst of the project have been post Fukushima’s atmosphere. This tragedy that collided within our memories and childhood has led us to think about the brittleness of reality. This point of no return reflects the brutality of this evolving world that surrounds us, replacing any individual’s existence into fiction.
“Isotopes” is an open space which can also be perceived as a prison. At first, the slow and hypnotizing moving lights attracts the visitor into the heart of it. Then, the rhythm and the intensity become continually more aggressive until it generates immaterial barriers: it’s easy to get in but neigh impossible to get out. This echoes the way humans approach nuclear power. First seduced, then addicted by its comfortable energy, humans have become trapped in an unstable situation. The rhythm of the lights and the sounds bring back the connection between the Japanese and their awareness of radioactive omnipresence. Sometimes you can forget it, like the glow of a night light, but sometimes the conscience gains the upper hand, and fear comes back with loss of ground reference. Through the metamorphoses of its appearance, this installation leaves the visitor between what once existed and what didn’t, drawing them into the spectrum of their own volatile emotions.
Sound Camera SeeSV-S205 shows the squeak and rattle noise of a dashboard. The dashboard is on a low noise shaker to simulate rough road condition. Random and single frequency vibration were induced. SeeSV-S205 is a real-time handheld sound camera which implements FPGA-based high speed beamforming technology. SeeSV-S205 is developed for Buzz, Squeak and Rattle (BSR) noise source detection as well as Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) source visualization. It displays transient noise effectively due to its high image per second update rate. The unique design of SeeSV-S205 makes measuring sound easy.
‘the music box’, a monumental sculptural piece commissioned by the cleveland institute of art and developed in partnership with ohio CAT, sees the american artist dismantling a 22, 000 lb steamroller in which he refabricates more than 80% of the machine–though still maintaining its identifiable physical qualities–transforming it into a fully functioning musical box, and at a fraction of its original weight.
Visuals created and animated by Hine Mizushima. This video includes Hive Mind, Decision Makers (with Jed Parish), Nouns, There (with Robin Goldwasser), Insect Hospital and Tick–all from the new They Might Be Giants album ‘Nanobots’
PixiVisor is software for desktop (Mac, Windows, Linux) and mobile (iOS, Android) that transforms images to sound and back again. Producing sound from images is an idea in a variety of tools. But PixiVisor is unique in that it goes the other way, too: sound can be turned back into the originally imagery as a video. In the demo video here from developer Alexander Zolotov, a simple audio mixer can mix together multiple video sources (in beautiful low fidelity), and add effects. A DIY 4-pole plug connects the signal to the mobile gadget – iOS, in this case.
PixiVisor is a revolutionary tool for audio-visual experiments. Simple and fun, cross-platform application with unlimited potential for creativity!
It consists of two parts: Transmitter and Receiver.
Transmitter converts the video (static 64×64 image or 10FPS animation) to sound, pixel by pixel (progressive scan). This lets you listen to the sound of your image. But the main function of the Transmitter is to transmit the signal to the receiving devices.
Receiver converts the sound (from microphone or Line-in input) back to video. You can set the color palette for this video, and record it to animated GIF file.
Well, he sent us an update with more behind-the-scenes details, including how he uses our LED Illuminated Pushbuttons in his work:
I just posted my tech talk video that describes how the controller works with the drum machines.
And I did a blog post about some of the problems I encountered while building the controller, gave your awesome square LED arcade buttons a shout, and posted my Arduino code.
Here are more details from his site about the Meganome:
The Meganome is inspired by the monome controller and powered by an Arduino Mega. Like other grid controllers like the Launchpad and Push, it has performance modes for triggering drums, playings synths, and launching clips and effects. I like the feel of arcade buttons and look of exotic hardwoods, so mass-market products just weren’t right for me.
LED Illuminated Pushbutton – 30mm Square – A button is a button, and a switch is a switch, but this LED illuminated arcade buttons is in a class of its own. It’s similar in size to an arcade button (and will fit in holes drilled for ‘standard’ 30mm buttons) but has a built in LED that can be controlled separately from the switch action – either to indicate or just to look good. (read more)
MusicInk makes drawings turning into real music, this magical process is due to a mashup of various eterogenous technologies: Conductive Ink by Bare Conductive, MPR121 controller, Arduino (Duemilanove board), LiPo shield (removed on a second time), Bluetooth shield by Seedstudio, Android platform, Pure Data for Android (libido), Pure Data patch.
Our project was developed with the help of our friend Manh Luong Bui and has been a very hard work.
We started our project studying the possibilities to create new and cheap musical instruments, then we discovered studies about conductive ink and we decided to create something different with these two technologies.
Russell Haswell (UK) and Yasunao Tone (Japan) have a rich history in exploring the extremes of sound and technology, where they intertwine and where the potential lies for deviation from the function intrinsic to their design. Both artists have undertaken years of rigorous exploration of sonic phenomena via the production of music tools. The constant shift in synthesis and production over the decades has only provoked further challenges resulting in an excited means of exploration and consistently new and challenging results.
Here is a 1920s-vintage Hugo Popper ‘Happy Jazzband’ Orchestrion Welt-Piano Konzertist, made in Leipzig, Germany. They were created by adding a ‘jazz band percussion effect’ top cabinet to a Welt coin piano model. The instrument plays music from 88 note or 88 hole rolls, of an identical size to Arburo rolls, and in addition to the piano, has percussion and trap effects such as muted cymbal, snare drum, triangle and wood block.
What makes these Popper Orchestrions outstanding is the attention to detail of ensuring the percussion effects are expressive – that is for example, rather than a simple pneumatic beating a drum, the beater has its distance from the drum altered continuously according to holes in the roll, by means of a separate expression pneumatic. The resulting music is therefore very much less mechanical than in many orchestrions.
Here this Popper Orchestrion plays a tune called ‘Am Rüdesheimer Schloss steht eine Linde’ (Blues von Erich Ziegler) – the title translating to ‘At Rüdesheimer Castle stands a Linden tree’.
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