Results for Percussa

Some interesting things I found recently:

# The World’s Biggest Drum Machine

If you ever wonder what we do at night here at the PHQ, here it the answer: We build large, silly drum controllers and haul them across town.

# Incredible vintage lucite organ for sale

Wersi Electronics Delta Digital DX500

From Boing Boing:

Over at ye olde Submitterator, Pea Hix points us to this magnificent c.1970 lucite Wersi Digital DX500 organ and speakers for sale.

“The Delta Digital DX500 organ comes replete with all manuals, control panel templates, music stand, amplified speakers, lucite dollies, pedal board, adjustable bench and chromed keys. And it works beautifully!!!” Just $85,000 at 1stdibs.com.

# Percussa AudioCube Production and Performance Notes for “I Hear Your Signals”

Mark writes:

For my original music album “I Hear Your Signals” (download the album free) I use Percussa Audiocubes as performance controllers. In this post I’ll give you all the geeky details about how the controllers were applied in the project.

I used 4 AudioCubes plus Percussa’s free MIDIbridge app on Windows to configure and route AudioCube signals to Ableton Live. I use the same MIDIbridge patch for every song which allows for consistent and predictable data mapping from the cubes to Ableton Live.

In general, I play a lot of the notes on you hear on the album via keyboards, Theremin and Tenori-On live. I tend to use the cubes as controllers, for scene launching, and for real-time modulation of effects and synth parameters and only use them for triggering notes from time to time.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Shamantis – J. BIEBZ – U SMILE 800% SLOWER

I’m pretty sure you’ve already heard (about) this, but I just wanted to stress the fact that it’s the excellent Paul Stretch that makes stuff sound cool.

# SoundPrism – Colorful, Playable iPad App – and Organizing Tones and Harmony Visually

Peter Kirn talks with Sebastian Dittmann, CEO of developer Audanika, developer of SoundPrism, the app they describe as something they are not entirely sure of what it is. From audanika.com: "We think it might be a musical instrument but we're learning new stuff playing with it every day… which sometimes goes beyond the scale of that."

Peter Kirn writes:

Using an array of rectangles arranged in a harmonically useful way, and color coding for pitch, SoundPrism is a glimpse of a more graphical future for music software design. (Nor is this necessarily limited to the iPad in the long term – in addition to Windows 7, Ubuntu 10.10 is getting official multitouch support, which I think both validates Apple’s work and suggests we’ll see more platforms for this kind of interface.)

And, bonus, it all demonstrates why arranging pitch by the Circle of Thirds can be ideal. I got a chance to talk to the developers of SoundPrism about the thinking behind the software.

More info on SoundPrism: Audanika

# Celebrating Leon Theremin’s Birthday with Video, Notes, Links, and a Soundcloud Set

Mark at Modulate This! writes:

Leon Theremin (born Lev Sergeyevich Terme) was born on this day, August 15th, 1896. To help celebrate I’m going to do a bit of a stream of consciousness post and will offer some links on Leon and his wonderful instrument and some notes on my use of it.

Hang in there till the end of the post as I’ve created a Soundcloud set called “Theremin Action” which is a collection of all the songs from REBOOT and I Hear Your Signals that use that Theremin sound or Theremin as a Controller.

Mark controls virtual synths in Ableton Live using the Theremin and Percussa AudioCubes

Some interesting things I found recently:

# 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:

# 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:

# 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.

Percussa has released Modulor, an application developed specifically for the Percussa AudioCubes hardware.

It lets you record, loop, process and assemble musical information, to quickly develop musical ideas.

The software works with your existing MIDI keyboard and controllers, professional audio interface (CoreAudio or ASIO) and software virtual instruments (VSTs or AudioUnits).

Loops in the software can be easily put together by putting their physical representation together (AudioCubes). Powerful MIDI effects are available to process the recorded or live MIDI information.

Interacting with software instruments using your hands is easy using the onboard sensors of AudioCubes. Colours can be used on AudioCubes to colour-code looping recordings or MIDI effects.

When you’re done, save your work in bank files or export the result to a MIDI file, ready to be used in your DAW or other software, where more tracks can be added and you can start working on a mix.

Modulor is available for Windows PC and Mac OSX, free of cost.

More information: Percussa / Modulor