Results for Arduino

Some interesting things I found recently:

# JAZARI (YouTube)

One human, three machines, rhythm.

# Beatseqr

Beatseqr is an arduino mega based computer interface by Steve Cooley.

It is aimed at electronic musicians and visualists. By itself, it connects to a desktop app that runs on mac or windows and can send out OSC messages to arbitrary network ports. However, combine beatseqr with a tightly integrated sequencer like Dajis Systems' Steppa (included in the price) and you have a powerful interface to create a MIDI loop which you can use to control sounds from pretty much any music software that accepts incoming midi data.

We've tested it out with Logic, Live, Reason, Quartz Composer, Max/MSP, PureData, and Processing. It works great!

# Bliptronome v2 w/ ADCs complete! – Bliptronic to Monome Conversion (YouTube)

The final working version of the Bliptronic 5000 hacked into a low cost Monome clone, with Bliptronome V2 firmware.

More info at Stray Technologies

# Pressure Controller "Hubert"

Hubert is small but powerful device to use with your modular synthesizer.

On each hand side there is one force sensing resistor turning applied pressure into a steady CV output. Each channel has three outputs: CV Out, Inverted CV Out and Gate out. Each side is capable of holding the current voltage on CV Out, whereas the inverted CV appears on Inverted CV Out. If a CV is held in the CV Out you still can use the inverted out, even switching from positive to negative voltage as often as you want without disturbing the held CV output. In addition each of the two channels fires a gate signal every time pressure is applied to the pressure pad. The CV can go from 0V to +/- 8V and can be controlled in sensitivity.

# TAPETRONIC demo video 2009 (YouTube)

# Reaktor Modular Sequencing, Pt. 2

John Fisher writes:

Well, looks like my weekend project has been working on my modular sequencing application for Reaktor.

I’ve detailed what this is all about in my previous blog. I’ve updated the sequencer and added some detailed comments on all the GUI elements to help people get up to speed with using it.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# NAMM Oddities 2010

Barry is back with the NAMM Oddities of 2010:

My NAMM experience went really quite smoothly this year. I didn't have to deal with any injuries or camera failures.

The show was a little smaller than last year, which was most apparent in my favorite haunt, Hall E. There were some open areas where there weren't any booths set up at all. That being said, there was no shortage of invention and innovation at the show. Because of that, I think the great unsung heroes of the Oddities need their own motto: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor global economic collapse stays the mad genius from the swift creation of strange musical devices."

# Use the WiiMote as a musical instrument

Winko Erades van den Berg on making music using a computer and a Wiimote:

An article that appeared on the Create Digital Music website, about making music using the WiiMote and a computer, drew my attention. Several hints were given on the how to, but as always in doing new things the information was scattered everywhere and nowhere.

After reading many articles and watching many videos I found out how to realize a working setup for myself. In this article I’ll try to explain the steps needed to create a working setup for yourself.

# Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie

Mellodrama, a documentary by Dianna Dilworth, explores the rising and falling fortunes of the Mellotron – the first musical keyboard to "sample" the sounds of other instruments – from its birth in a California garage in the 1950s, through its dominance on concert stages in the 1970s, through its almost religious cult of followers in the 2000s. From the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" to Black Sabbath to Kanye West, Mellodrama is a 50-year odyssey of musical invention, revolution, betrayal, and rediscovery.

Includes 8-page booklet with essay by Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues, Mellotron and Chamberlin production timelines, and more.

# Drum machine shootout

Plughugger has a comprehensive review of Audio Damage Tattoo, Audiorealism ADM and Sonic Charge Microtonic.

This review compares three software drum machines and how they stand against each other. Three audioguns, twenty one sonic bullets. Two swedes and one american. Drum roll, please…

While there are a whole bunch of drum synthesizers on the market and many of them are very competent – my selection ended up with Audio Damage Tattoo, Audiorealism ADM and Sonic Charge Microtonic. My primary criteria was that they should be available for both PC and Mac – and they should be able to create more than one type of overall sound. I chose not to include any of the drum machines from the polish developer D16, as each and every drum machine is locked to a specific model and besides – I don’t own licenses for any of them.
Waldorf Attack is a classic that I seriously considered to include, but decided against as it doesn’t contain a sequencer. Also, three products against each other is clear as a german sausage soup. But the Waldorf Attack is a fantastic drum synthesizer, especially for creating weird electronic percussion noises.

I love Microtonic (and the D16 drum machines), but I think it’s inevitable I’ll end up getting Tattoo at some point.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# The Virtual Piano for Songwriters, Singers, Producers and aspiring musicians

Not Only is The Virtual Piano a Virtual instrument that you can play chords and melodies on, it also shows you how to play all the chords (triads) in all twelve keys.

It's an excellent tool for you to learn to play piano, to transpose songs into any key or for writing songs.

# In-Depth Review of Percussa AudioCubes in Use with Ableton Live

Mark @ Modulate This! reviews Percussa's AudioCubes in Ableton Live:

Back in November I purchased a set of four Percussa AudioCubes. I've spent quite a bit of time working with them as a an interface to Ableton Live.

In this hands-on review I'll explain what they are, how they work, how I'm using them with Live and also offer some tips along the way.

# SIDstick – 100,000 chiptunes in your pocket!

The SIDstick is a pocket-sized chiptunes player featuring:

• Removable Storage supporting microSD cards, 1 card can hold 20,000 songs
• 20+ hour battery life
• Super Hi-Quality hardware-based playback at 31kHz sample rate, >16 bit resolution
• Completely Open, hardware and software are available under the MIT license
• Upgradable with connections on the board

# Nebulophone Kit Pre-Order

Now available to pre-order from Bleep Labs:

The Nebulophone is an Arduino based synth with a Stylophone like keyboard. It has adjustable waveforms, a light controlled analog filter, LFO, and arpeggiator that can be clocked over IR.

This is a beginner kit and does not require an Arduino programmer board.

# Multichord Hybrid Musical Instrument, a single-stringed instrument that plays multiple notes via varied tensioning rather than fretting.

From the project page:

The Multichord musical instrument is an acoustic stringed instrument with a single string, constructed from wood, a hard drive, 20-lb monofilament, and assorted electronic components. It was the culmination of a project to build an acoustic instrument capable of playing multiple notes without fretting or manual, time-consuming retuning. The Multichord achieves this by attaching a hard drive read/write head assembly between the resonant string and a tensioning spring to adjust the tension of the instrument's string. Careful adjustment was made to the tension of both the string and the spring with the hard drive head in a neutral, unpowered position to ensure a bipolar application of voltage within the safety ratings of the hard drive's coil could cause the string to cover a full musical octave. In the end, the Multichord was tuned to a C-major scale (no flats or sharps) running from A at 220Hz through (but not including) A at 440Hz.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# bassdll – An arduino piezo buzzer sound engine by Drew Crawford.

Source code available at github

# Charting the Beatles – Exploration of Beatles music through infographics.

Charting the Beatles – Authorship and Collaboration

Michael Deal writes:

These visualizations are part of an extensive study of the music of the Beatles. Many of the diagrams and charts are based on secondary sources, including but not limited to sales statistics, biographies, recording sesion notes, sheet music, and raw audio readings.

# MISA digital guitar

The MISA digital guitar is a minimalistic looking MIDI controller.

# Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 Instrument: Hands-on, Videos, Why it’s Different

Teenage Engineering OP-1, portable synthesizer and controller

Peter Kirn spent some hands-on time with the current prototype of the OP-1 and had a talk with the developers of Teenage Engineering.

# mtXcontrol

mtXcontrol by Tobias Bielohlawek is an editor written in Processing to easily create image sequences for several output devices containing multicolor LED matrix.

mtXcontrol Editor auto detects and connects to your device. Once connected, you can draw points, lines & rows in different colors, create multiple frames and manipulate them. Add, delete, move, fill, copy & paste of frames is supported. Play all frames by different speed, realtime update the device and save your work as image file. If supported (e.g. Rainbowduino), update the sequence on your device and run it standalone. One special feature is typing letters and numbers. Future versions aim to support multiple devices, different color depth and many more.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Make: Online : Open source hardware 2009

Make’s definitive guide to open source hardware projects in 2009.

Welcome to definitive guide to open source hardware projects in 2009. First up – What is open source hardware? These are projects in which the creators have decided to completely publish all the source, schematics, firmware, software, bill of materials, parts list, drawings and "board" files to recreate the hardware – they also allow any use, including commercial. Similar to open source software like Linux, but this hardware centric.

Each year we do a guide to all open source hardware and this year there are over 125 unique projects/kits in 19 categories, up from about 60 in 2008, more than doubling the projects out there! – it’s incredible! Many are familiar with Arduino (shipping over 100,000 units, estimated) but there are many other projects just as exciting and filled with amazing communities – we think we’ve captured nearly all of them in this list. Some of these projects and kits are available from MAKE others from the makers themselves or other hardware manufacturers – but since it’s open source hardware you can make any of these yourself, start a business, everything is available, that’s the point.

# fridgebuzzz electronics MK1 MIDI controller

The MK1 prototype is a user programmable midi controller featuring 32 LED pushbutton switches and 6 touch sensitive copper plate switches.

… read more

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Arduino Sine wave Generator using the DDS Method

From Lab3:

Here we describe how to generate sine waves with an Arduino board in a very accurate way . Almost no additional hardware is required. The frequency range reaches form zero to 16 KHz with a resolution of a millionth part of one Hertz ! Distortions can be kept less than one percent on frequencies up to 3 KHz. This technique is not only useful for music and sound generation another range of application is test equipment or measurement instrumentation. Also in telecommunication the DDS Method is useful for instance in frequency of phase modulation (FSK PSK).

# Schipmann Music out of business Via Matrixsynth

Dear customers!

We are finishing our business. These are the very last units of “ebbe und flut” ever!! We are thankful for all our satisfied customers. We will be there for you in support and service in that time after this sale.

Yours sincerely,
Carsten Schippmann (CEO)

Last ebbe und flut MKII units going for 999 EUR (normal price: 1498,21 EUR per unit) Tempting…

… read more