Charles Doomany: Final Project Concept- Experimental Musical Instrument
Inspiration:
“Musical instruments come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and forms. Most have a long history, sometimes thousands of years, and their basic structure derives in part from the accidental discoveries of early musicians, in part from the properties of the physics of vibrating strings, columns of air, membranes, and reeds. Very little attention has been paid to the ergonomics of the instruments. As a result, they often require awkward body positions, such as the contortion of the left hand required to play the violin and related stringed instruments, and sometimes exert great strain: look at the bulging cheeks of brass players, or the calluses on fingers tips of string players.
I am convinced that if the instruments were introduced today and forced to undergo ergonomic review for health and safety, they would fail.
The piano, for example, is relatively straightforward to understand, but incredibly difficult to master. The learning time is measured in years. Note that there are two parts to learning an instrument. One is the physical mastering of the mechanics itself: how to hold the hands, posture, and breathing. Many instruments require demanding physical exertion or special blowing techniques. Some require different rhythms in each hand simultaneously, and some require use of both hands and feet simultaneously (harp, piano, organ, percussion).”
– Don Norman, Living With Complexity
Design Goal:
Create an experimental digital instrument – the design of the instrument will not be constrained by the acoustic properties of its physical form or by traditional design paradigms, but will be centered on providing an ergonomic and intuitive interface for musical expression.
Hardware/Software:
• Arduino + Processing + MIDI
Interaction:
• Possibly incorporate gesture recognition/ haptic feedback/ parallel screen-based feedback with physical interaction
• Synesthetic associations for notation and aiding performance; utilize multiple modalities
[?]
Are there any projects that you have seen that address a similar goal?
Here are today’s comment:
I have to say that, while some aspects of the quote are true, I disagree with the need to move away from the physical form and that this move is somehow needed. As of yet, there have been no real, definitive digital instruments in the same mode as say the violin or the guitar. It can be said this is due to the nebulous and personal nature of electronic/digital instrument making.
GA Tech: http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/03/what-makes-a-truly-new-instrument-human-gestures-power-winners-of-guthman-competition/ Read the comments section to get an idea into the debate …
Tenori-On http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SGwDhKTrwU
Kinect Theremin: http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/11/virtual-theremin-made-with-kinect-real-thereminists-will-make-it-useful/
Reactable: http://www.reactable.com/
Definitely check out http://createdigitalmusic.com/ as well
Also here’s my thesis (focused on digital instrumentation): http://danomatika.com/media/projects/s2007/thesis/dwilcox_thesis_arttech_07.pdf
Check out my projects from last semester:
http://mtifall10.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/infrared-proximity-midi-theremin-controller/
http://mtifall10.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/final-project-synthdriver/
I can help with some of this stuff if you need advice.
Can’t find the exact link, but I remember seeing decent hacks using the wiimote + arduino to make air guitars. A bit more literal than what I think you’re shooting for, but guitars seem to be well-recepted. < Rockband controllers http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/03/rock-band-3-mustang-guitar-as-expressive-midi-controller-frets-strings-and-accelerometer/ … although not that much interesting music has been made from them (yet)
See the literature of the NIME (New Interfsaces for Musical Expression) conference, which is all online: http://www.nime.org/pastnimes.html
http://www.educ.dab.uts.edu.au/nime/PROCEEDINGS/
And see all of the results from Gideon D’Archangelo’s NIME class at the NYU ITP.
Also the computer music journal (CMJ)
And the ICMC (International Computer Music Conference)
I think the Media Lab has done a lot of work with new instruments. Even like 10 years ago they had a setup for people to control recorded audo by gesturing like a conductor to change things like volume and speed.
http://opera.media.mit.edu/
What about taking an existing classical instrument and remaking it instead of making something new.
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/05/17/secrets-of-eric-singers-music-robots/
He is automating EXISTING INSTRUMENTS…sorry CAPS
I think your on to something with the synesthesia thing. Maybe you could pick a particular one and work with that for inspiration as a way of narrowing scope?
I agree with some of the comments, the goal should be focused quickly,
Be aware of parallel processing limitations on the arduino. Should be OK if you are doing MIDI since it’s so fast. There is a great set of MaxMSP < -> Arduino patches that I used for a final project that could be fun to play around with.
think theramin maybe? you could probably work on the interactions then/interesting form rather than debugging the sound.