Results for Arduino

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.

# satrap activ portable analog synthesizer (YouTube)

Flo Kaufmann shows his “satrap activ” portable analog synthesizer made out of a vacuum cleaner.

It contains 2 cmos based VCO’s , a Moog ladder filter, a 555 based ADSR, a cmos based 8 step sequencer, a PIC based vc to midi interface and a PIC based auto trigger unit. There are 4 tunable knobs on top, mostly to play base lines, and 2 conductable wires, which act as voltage dividers to generate variable tones. the wires do not vibrate. so it is not a cord instrument. satrap activ can also control other synthesizers either by midi or cv/gate interface.

# Percussa Audio Cubes: Lights & Tangible Interface with Ableton Live and Alchemy

Mark Mosher writes about his Audio Cubes:

I recently added Percussa AudioCubes to my studio and performance rig.

While I’m planning a longer post offering an overview of how AudioCubes work, this is a quick post to mention two applications of AudioCube technology I’ve been experimenting with.

# Larry Cotton’s MIDI Marimba

Larry Cotton’s 3-octave “player marimba” was featured in MAKE, Volume 4. Larry added two MD24 MIDI Decoders and the marimba can now be controlled by any MIDI sequencer or keyboard.

# An Orchestra of Linux Laptops, and How to Make Your Own Laptop Instrument

Peter Kirn @ Create Digital Music:

For a generation of musicians of nearly every genre, the laptop has become an instrument. It’s easy to take for granted, but the rise of the computer for music has been remarkable. Less than twenty years ago, real-time digital synthesis and audio processing was the domain of expensive, specialized workstations. Now, $700 per seat can buy you a full-blown musical rig, with the computer hardware, gestural input courtesy the Nintendo Wii controller, and even a DIY speaker made from IKEA salad bowls. The next challenge is to make this setup as flexible and reliable as possible. Enter Linux.

# Marblephone

g000ze @ Let's Make Robots writes:

Inspired by Animusic's bodacious films, I was wondering whether a music robot in a much more simple way would be possible to make. Here is what my little boys and I created.

Still unfinished, but already working. Thank you Animusic for activating my imagination building the music machine that I am calling Marblephone.

PongThatBeat! (Vimeo)

PingPong sequencer made with max/msp and processing.

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…

# 5 Years of CDM NYC Party: Beats + Baile + Open Bar + Laptops + Twitter Twister

Time flies when you’re having fun. Congratulations to Peter Kirn and CDM.

Pete writes:

Link love, chip love, software love, music love – Create Digital Music is celebrating five years, and it’s time to spread some of the love back to you here in New York City.

Wednesday night, we’ll be celebrating five years made possible by our incredible readers with a big party at Love Nightclub in Manhattan.

# little-scale Novation Launchpad – Sebastian uses Max/MSP to create a linear sequencer, ripple sequencer and waveform editor for the Novation Launchpad.

Today I made a simple ripple-based sequencer for the Novation Launchpad. The idea is simple. By pressing a grid button, a yellow, square ripple is created that emanates from the point that was touched. By holding down a modifier button and pressing a grid button, static, red points are created. Each red point represents a musical note. Whenever a given yellow ripple intersects (touches) a red point, the sequencer plays a note.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Even retro record covers can be used to create something amazing

There are those who will throw away their old record covers but there are those that will use them to create some mind blowing artistic stuff.

One of them is definitely Christian Marclay, a New York visual artist, DJ and composer who used record covers of Michael Jackson , Doors, Donna Summer, David Bowie and many others for this piece of art. The relationship of sound, vision, music, art and performance is the focus of his work.

More on Christian Marclay

# Two Garbage Cans and a Microphone

Rock the party with this DIY sound system.

Peter Kirn writes:

Say you’re an up-and-coming crew with a turntable and some mics. You’ve got a gig this Friday at the middle school gym (the janitor has been bribed appropriately) and the boys on the corner have been passing out your flyers to all the lovely ladies. Everything’s set, except you heard that Kool Herc is coming to battle. Herc and his mighty sound system schooled you last go-round, so you know you need something fresh to rock the bodies proper. Your DIY solution? The 55-gallon drum sound system.

# The Octapult (YouTube)

The "Octapult" is a kinetic sculpture designed and built on commission by Bradley N. Litwin of Philadelphia, PA. With 8 synchronized catapults, 160 plastic balls per minute are launched, caught, and recirculated. Made mostly of wood, the work is ~36 inches in diameter. On permanent display in the lobby of Lower Merion Elementary School, Merion Station, PA. Also a performing jazz musician, more of Litwin's work may be seen and heard at www.bradlitwin.com.

# Yaktronix: Electronically Modified Didgeridoo

Kyle Evans modified a didgeridoo to experiment in the combination of the organic sound qualities of a didgeridoo with the advanced signal processing capabilities of modern computer programming and sound synthesis.
He writes:

This custom built didgeridoo features externally mounted modules that allow the performer to process and manipulate the sound of the instrument in real time. All control data is transmitted wirelessly via blue tooth and is controlling several audio processes created in a custom-built software environment.

# DIY Arduino-based MIDI controller

Cyrille Arndt’s DIY, standalone Arduino-based, MIDI control surface work-in-progress.

Current features:

• Heartbeat
• On-the-fly generated labels from csv files.
• Limiters (with capability of inversing the range).
• Every function of the faders and pads is customisable from the desktop software.
• Different states for the pads (currently on/off or moment).
• In the desktop software: Selecting the MIDI port (for example for routing over another software).
• MIDI channel.
• 6 presets (more possible).
• RGB pads can be controlled from software like Live to be switched on/off or blinking.
• Presets also concern the pads.
• Auto-switch to generated labels if the software is running.
• New! The buttons above the faders can have different functions : Notes (triggering clip for example), quick change of the function of the fader, preset switching.
• New! Presets also concern the limiters.
• New! The bottom buttons can change the preset or the bank (useful in Ableton Live).
• New! USB port for adding USB connectivity: allows to program it easily and use USB instead of MIDI in cases where it’s necessary.

# Bleep Labs » Thingamagoop 2 is here!

New in Thingamagoop 2:

• Analog VCO controlled by analog or digital signal from Arduino. (A separate Arduino board is not required)
• Sample and hold, Arpeggios, noise, and bit crush effects with open source code so you can program your own sounds!
• All the analog sounds of the original Thingamagoop.
• Controllable LEDacle – Ramp and random waveforms with rate control.
• New modulators – Square wave amplitude modulator and triangle wave pulse width modulator.
• Tough, stomp box type body with silk screened graphics in 3 different styles.
• Easy to access battery – No more screws!
• Much fuller and louder speaker.
• CV in and out.
• Arduino Programmer jack. Easily hook an Ardunio board up to the Thingamagoop 2.
• Kit now comes with a pre-drilled enclosure.
• Still assembled in Austin, Texas by Dr. Bleep and friends.

# Voice2LED Project

Josh made a LED sign which displays voicemails from his Google Voice account.

I made the LED sign following instructions from this tutorial on Nerdkits.com. The hardware is some LED’s, a nerdkit, a piece of cardboard and a bit of wire that I got from some Cat 5 cable laying around. I cut out the cardboard and printed a grid to help me lay out the LED’s. I think mine were 1 cm apart. The soldering took forever and it was the first real time I did any soldering so it looks kinda crappy. Oh well. It works. The sign itself is powered by a 9 volt battery and receives data from my laptop through the serial port via a USB adapter. All that stuff was included in the Nerdkit when I bought it. The microcontroller is running code from the tutorial I mentioned earlier. One of these days I’m going to make an enclosure for this thing.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Arduino Piano Squealer Synth

Marc Nostromo developed the Arduino Piano Squealer Synth for the Arduino Pocket Piano, an arduino shield produced by Critters and Guitari.

The engine implements a small monosynth with a few waveforms, a HP/BP/LP continuous resonant filter, decay and a few little own tricks that generate a LOT of aliases, making a great dirty digital synth. Since the Pocket Piano has only 3 potentiometers available for control (the 4th one being hardwired to the volume), I use a “page” system to implement series of 3 parameters to fiddle with. To switch “page”, use the rightmost note of the A.P (NOT the one under the led, the one left to to it). To help you know which page you are at, you can use the led: it will flash a number of time equivalent to the current page you are at.

The source code of the Arduino Piano Squealer synth is available under GPL License V3.

# Digital Mixtape

Digital Mixtape

Justin Cole writes:

My new design uses a small mp3 player that I disassembled and placed inside a cassette tape adapter for an ipod. This allows for mp3's to be played back through a tapedeck. This has all of the ease and technology of an mp3 player with the retro coolness of a mix tape.

# Lackluster: Portal EP

A lovely free album available to download in high quality mp3 and lossless FLAC formats. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License

The Portal EP was supposed to come out on another label in 2008, but the label went bankrupt and closed up shop. In email conversations with Lackluster, I offered to master the EP and do a net release on Cornwarning. So, 4 years after its original intended release, it is finally here.

Covering a variety of tempos and styles, from the beatless epic "Eons" to the mutant techno of "Lubiszewski Beats", "Portal" covers a lot of musical territory. What unifies the work is Lackluster's musicality. For me each track here is deep in emotion, despite their lack of lyric or explicit program.

# How to build an Air Guitar with Arduino, aka the AIRduino Guitar

The idea here is to build a wearable virtual guitar that is to be controlled with two hands much like playing Air Guitar. It has been created and prototyped during a two weeks project at ChalmersUniversity (Sweden) for a Physical Computing class.

The aim is to get the feeling of playing a real guitar. The AIRduino Guitar is made of one glove and one stick. The glove is used to set the tone and the stick to trigger the sound.

# Is this the ultimate male playroom?

For many men, their house is their castle. For one Canterbury man, his play room is a submarine complete with working periscope.

Wayne Eyre has turned part of his Spencerville property into a wrecked submarine featuring "plutonium-leaking" torpedoes, at a cost of $100,000.

In the rusting interior of the submarine, which appears to have beached on a deserted island, Eyre has all the creature comforts reclining chairs, a three-metre big-screen TV and a top-notch surround-sound system.

# Qeve: Free Live Visual – VJ Software, Built in Pd

From Create Digital Motion:

Qeve is a promising-looking, open-source visual performance tool built in visual patching environment Pure Data (Pd). It was built primarily on Ubuntu Linux but should also run with some adjustment on Mac. (Pd itself runs on Windows, but some of the visual dependencies are not available on that platform. I’d still recommend Linux.)

# Eric Beam Nebula Programs

Eric Beam has recently posted some programs for Acustica Audio’s Nebula: Tube 1500 “instant analog” & MCI Heritage EQ “I like it dirty”

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Robot playing Rockband on the iPhone

Joe Bowers combines light sensors, servos and Arduino to build a robot that plays Rock Band on his iPhone.

He writes:

Rock Band has been released on the iPhone, and even though its a lot of fun, I would rather have something play it for me. Preferably a robot!

# Mark Mosher: REBOOT

Mark Mosher of the excellent Modulate This! blog has released REBOOT, a new album featuring some great electronic music.

Mark Mosher is an electronic music artist from Louisville Colorado just outside of Boulder. He is a BMI recording artist and composes and produces electronic music and sound completely in the digital realm using state-of-the-art virtual synthesizers and instruments within Ableton Live.

Two years in the making, REBOOT is an album containing 7 richly layered electronica songs that blend contemporary synthesizer sounds with classical music motifs. The end result is dark electronica for those who love synth "ear candy" with a “dirty” industrial edge.

While the songs on REBOOT stand alone as singles, the collection is an album in the true sense of the word. They share a common palette and when played in sequence conjure an epic and dynamic story for the listener.

Prior to the release of the album, the first three tracks were released as singles. "Midnight" and "Stealth" went to #1 and "They Walk Among Us" went to #2 on the Soundclick.com electronica charts.

REBOOT is available to download at Bandcamp. The album is currently being offered using the “pay what you will” model. Although the suggested pricing is $6 for the 7 song album + digital booklet and $1 for singles, users can name their own price including specifying 0$ for free downloads. There are future plans to make the album available on iTunes and Amazon’s MP3 store.

# Filter control via light blob tracking in Processing (YouTube)

Filter control via light blob tracking in Processing This video shows how I can set and control a filter's parameters via MIDI mapping, creating a control surface via a webcam and a torch. I realized a little Processing sketch that tracks the light blob I shot in front of webcam, normalizes X and Y coordinates to MIDI acceptable values, and then sends them to a filter effect in Ableton Live. I also realized the little control panel that allows to correctly make the MIDI mapping and set some blob detection's params. My toolkit: Processing MIDI

Are old digital drum machines better than your Ableton Live?

# Getting Outside “The Box” – Hybrid Recording And Mixing

Jon @ Audio Geek Zine writes:

Plugins are great, they’re very close to the real hardware counterparts, sometimes better. I don’t want to debate that. This article is all about options for getting electrons flowing through gear to get better mixes.

There are very few (if any) professional mixing engineers that work 100% ITB (in the box), at some point you’ll need to get outside.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Kasabian Football Hero – DIY Larger-Than-Life, Soccer Ball-Controlled Guitar Hero Game.

Football Hero is played by a team of insanely gifted young freestyle footballers, all kitted out in Umbro Football gear. This game is programmed with the Kasabian track Underdog. The freestyle footballers are: Paul Wood, Paul Klein, Darryl Stewart, Tom Pett, Lewis Foster & Harry Adcroft – you may have already seen "Woody" and "Kleiny" displaying their skills during 2009's Britain's Got Talent series…

# IDMf007 – Continuum

Martin Herron wrote in to let us know about Continuum, a new release on the IDMf netlabel.

Continuum, the newest installment in the IDMf library, is an electronic music album to behold. Beginning with the hard-hitters and slowing down to a softer touch, this compilation showcases the diversity of genres displayed on the IDMf netlabel, including breakcore, dubstep, house, breaks, ambient, and IDM.

The tracks are arranged as they would be in a double CD package: Side A includes eight tracks jam-packed with energy that smoothly segue into a lighter mix of glorious beats on Side B. IDMf is proud to introduce a few new artists along with some of “golden oldies” who have appeared on previous compilations, bringing you the most well-rounded and genre-stomping release from IDMf yet!

The album is free to download from the IDMf website (320kbps mp3).