Blog / Timeline

Date

Narrative: Comments to  contactamps@btinternet.com

From "Blink" to MIDI.

This is the start of an interesting project. Back in 2012 the Arduino came with a simple program loaded on board. It just blinks. There are "Libraries" associated with the Arduino ( a micro controller). This makes an LED on pin 11 blink on and off. Download a MIDI test routine, add in a 220 ohm resistor and a 5 pin DIN socket and cable and a cycle of test tones can be sent to an electronic keyboard that has 5 pin MIDI inputs (Today you can use a USB connection to an iPad etc).

I will elaborate on this in coming weeks to expand on Blink to MIDI.

This is an improved version of Draw Tone, renamed for the moment as Sound Wire. Adding in battery holder, on off switch and more variations on sounds. A better "O" ring made out of a sawn off drainpipe and squash racket grip tape. Adding in the wooden top increases the weight to counteract the pull of the draw wire displacement sesnsor (2Nm). In the foreground you can see a Sparkfun Music Instrument Sheild (MIDI synth), an Arduino Leonardo (micro-controller) and the draw wire displacement sensor.

For demonstration video: Click

I'll be experimenting with the Draw-wire displacement sensor. Potentiometer based. Think of a piece of string wrapped around the volume control know on your HiFi.

Re-visiting an XYZ accelerometer but with added Music Instrument shield. Just experimenting with a bass drum with loudness linked to velocity of movement.

A tip to independent designers for making control and patch panels quickly and cheaply. 1: Printout control panel on any drawing package onto A4, 120gm photo paper. (Leave a dot in the middle of the circles for pilot holes to be drilled).2: Laminate the photo paper. Stick to either 3ply or 2mm aluminium plate. 3: Drill pilot holes (use a bench drill if you have one). Enlarge holes as required with a bigger drill. Voila, one reasonably smart panel. Add controls, jack sockets, wiring and electronics to suite.

A great afternoon with Tom Billington of Electric Umbrella fame, figuring out how to turn plywood and coach bolt umbrellas into accessible musical instruments, figured out! With help from an ATmega32U4 microcontroller, VS1053b music synth and MPR121 proximity sensor!

Updating TopBox Mk1 to nominally Mk 2. Low learning curve to operate. Enough chords to play a wide variety of popular tunes. Aimed at supporting music therapy at home. I suggest using music therapy methodology on a daily basic could support the gaining / regaining of fine motor skills.

The big change is using an Arduino Mega rather than UNO. This gives many more usable inputs.

New sound effects unit now installed in Gwynhaff. The previous version had all the electronics and switches all in one box. A more modular, interchangeable system is now in place with the electronics and push buttons separated out.

Apr2023

Nine degrees of freedom up and running on a breadboard. Currently just using the XYZ accelerometer. It now fires out different notes via a MIDI interface. The note being dependent on orientation. The 5 pin DIN allows connection to a MIDI enable keyboard. Alternatively the Sparkfun musical instrument shield converts the MIDI signal to a audio signal on the 3.5mmm mini jack.

A very, very stimulating time this afternoon with the good folks at Northampton Music And Performing Arts Trust. Many good ideas swapped on the use open source tech to support making music more accessible and inclusive. Brain is brimming over with 
concepts. Need to sketch out new designs quickly. Feel tired and energised at the same time!

https://www.nmpat.co.uk

This is another perambulating mechanical marvel from Festive Road. First use of the generic module.

A MK III voice box. Analysing failure modes from earlier devices I now use a 5 Pin XLR cable to attach to the control box on the steering mechanism. This won't disconnect under vibration. For the line out, phono sockets are fixed to an epoxy base, so they cannot vibrate and rotate when Harminder is traveling and eventually brake the wired connexion.

Again using an Adafruit SFX.

Built around the Adafruit SFX.

Spring loaded connectors make for easy but reliable re-assignment.

Diode added to protect against reverse polarity of supply voltage.

5 pin DMX for single file triggers.

1/4in and 3.5mm for step next file triggers.

Phono output.

Sound Bytes at TNMoC during the bank holiday Bytes Festival.

Presenting contactless keyboards, floor guitar, table drums and talking whiteboard.

A diversion from my usual application of music tech. The good folks at Festive Road (MK) asked if their 50th anniversary mock up of the Lunar Lander could be wired for sound. Answer yes! Pressing the big blue button at the lower front plays various Apollo 11 sound bytes.

This should solve a request for help from around 12 months ago.

Still TBA July 2019

Swapping out the Class D amplifier module I have sourced via Amazon. They have a tendency to cut out unpredictably. Its is being replaced by a Class B amp sourced from Rapid Online. This required adding an it's own tone control. Whilst I'm at in the "Type Writer" version of the squawk box is being modified to run on batteries only. Thus switch, LED and fusing added as well.

Borrowing test kit and expertise from MK maker space, audio amp is spiking the Vin to the Arduino. Appropriate capacitors added to remove spikes.

1980's assistive music technology. Handed to me as a bit of a challenge by the good folks at Festive Road. Originally used by Macintyre some years ago. The battery was totally dead, no charger, speaker broken away from the grill, rear control panel split.

Essentially a giant "Stylaphone" crossed with a "Makey Makey" but circa 1986 style. I guess the coloured dots were used with some sort of simplified notation system.

Add in a new battery, clean up all the contacts, remount speaker, fix rear controls and it all burst into life again.

You have to hold onto an earth wire with one hand whilst touching the metal squares with the other. Polyphonic but monotonic.

The LHS board is a frequency divider, next is the master clock and the RHS panel is volume control and amplifier.

A Metal Music" sequence using a "Makey Makey " to interface to lap top. Created by Tom Billington. Touch any metal object triggers of a sound sequence.

Some collaborative work with Electric Umbrella. A truly inspiring group of people that get full engagement with their students using a mix of conventional, and assistive music technology.

Our floor and finger drums went down well, along with my "big button" chords.

Prototyping on a "breadboard". The main task is to extend the normal sustain feature in MIDI. This in turn is will support triggering chords or percussion when there is only left and right head movement available to operate "jellybean" switches. The blue circuit board is an Arduino UNO micro-controller acting as a MIDI controller. The red board is a MIDID synth based on the VSLI 1053 MIDI / MP3 codec chip. The coloured tactile buttons are there just to test out functionality of chords and or percussion generation.

A very satisfying morning. With help from our Jenn, took a car load of my prototype, assitive music technology over to MacIntyre MK this morning. Very heart warming to see how INVOLVED they got trying talking tables, polyphonic planks, floor drums and other gadgets. Some learning points:-

• The talking table needs to be narrower so that people in wheel chairs can reach across.
• The polyphonic plank (planxtone) needs to be less sensitive so that it does not interact with materials in the table underneath.
• The wide choice of actuator buttons is useful, though for this type of interact ice session only two chords or percussion is needed.
• The separate floor drums would benefit from being combined into one unit. This would facilitate people in walkers or wheel chairs using them.
• There was a request for a "mini squawkbox" for one of the students to take home. A two chorded (A and E") MIDI based guitar should do the trick.

A talking table using capacitive sensing as a proximity sensor. The processor board can also play MP3 sound files.

Some experimentation with MIDI to make it more flexible in sound generation. Being able to pan left and right would be useful. This would allow Ch1 to fire out on left channel and C2 on the right. There are a lot of cheap stereo class D amplifiers around and splitting make for easier construction.Also got neopixels up and running, but that is for another day. code snippet for Arduino / VSLI 1053B

talkMIDI(0xB0, 0x0A, 0);//0 is channel 1, balance 0 = left, 127 right, 0A pan sends Pan message
talkMIDI(0xB1, 0x0A, 127);//1 is channel 2, balance 127 =hard right, 0A sends Pan message

August 2017: Sound Bytes at TNMoC during the Bytes sessions.

The PlanxTone

Different Table Drums

This was a piece of test gear developed to test the sensitivity of capacitive based proximity sensors using different material. The detection and release setting can be altered with two different controls. Different instruments can be selected.

In operation (say) copper tape or pieces of blank pieces of printed circuit board can be place under a table, turn the table e.g. into a drum kit!

This "Electric Whiteboard" was created to assist a student join in with the song "Old McDonald Had a Farm". Touching the individual images generate the appropriate sound. The images and sound could be change by the music therapist.

The "Sound Blanket" was developed for a pupil at Macintyre’s special needs school in Buckinghamshire. The music therapists found a particular student could be helped to keep calm with several sounds. These were recorded and put onto an Adafruit SFX circuit board. This was built into a self-contained box along with a small amplifier and a 9v battery. Pressing the different buttons generated the required sounds. The device worked in practice.

The "Air-Drum-Flute-Guitar" was created to demonstrate the versatility of "Open Source" technology. Whilst spending a couple of days doing demonstrations of open-source music technology I searched online for some code to utilise an ultrasonic range finder. I'd already cracked generating guitar, flute and percussion sounds with the Electric Breadbin. Utilising a test bed, range finder and instrument codes were merged to create an air guitar etc. The technology was then shoe horned into an appropriate container.

This was the first fully operational "base station" to be developed. It is a robust device that will work in most environments. It has a self-contained amplifier and speakers. It has 1/4-inch jack sockets (plus 5 pin DIN sockets). These sockets allow for up to 8 chords to be triggered plus 4 different percussion instruments. Again, at the rear there are control for volume and changing percussion and harmonic instruments.

All the chords and percussion sound are triggered by plugging a wide range of actuators (ON / OFF) switches.

Nick named the "Electric Breadbin", this versatile instrument is still in regular use in 2014.

Instead of using a "Breadboard" for creating prototypes, it was decided to build a more reliable "Testbed" that contained ready built in microcontroller, MIDI synth, 5 pin MIDI output and a selection of sockets, switches and a potentiometer.

The "NoteDuino", a proof of concept show what involved in using open-source music technology. This includes an Arduino Uno, a MIDI synthesiser circuit board (shield), various potentiometers, sockets and push buttons.

A "Musical Prosthesis". Inspired by the 2012 Paralympics. An adapter that connects to a conventional electric keyboard. It had 4 harmonic and 2 percussion inputs. A range of instruments can be selected based on MIDI protocols. Various switches and pedals can be selected depending on the ability of the user / student.