Week 12 Forum - Instrument Improvisation Part 2
Our final Forum finished with a bang! Much like my Max Patches. We tried an improvisation session again and it did sound relatively better than last week. I thought my piano playing was good towards the end. The only problem is that I didn't build a piano. Maybe next year. . .
I did manage to get some new tones from my instrument. These varying sounds came from moving the alligator clips in my hand. I have a movie of this below. I also found out that if I switch the amplifier to ON instead of OD, the ON/OFF switch works on my instrument. I outlined this problem in the Week 10 post as the third problem. I have no idea why this would happen but it does.
To see an extensive write up on my finished instrument including pictures, movies and notes please visit my Week 10 Forum Post.
AUDIO
Improvisation Snip [1.7MB] 1'14
Entire Improvisation Session [28.6MB] 1:08'05
Yes, I did bounce the entire recording and encode it to mp3. The quality isn't actually that bad.
VIDEO
[44.5MB]
3'00
The improvisation bonanza!
[3.8MB]
0'15
Me demonstrating some new sounds I discovered.
[5.8MB]
0'23
Improvisation at its best!
[1] Steven Whittington. "Music Technology Forum: Semester 2 - Week 12 - Instrument Improvisation". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 25th October 2007.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Week 11 Forum - Instrument Improvisation Part 1
This week we had an improvisation session with the instruments we created. To be perfectly honest I don't think we came up with any nice sounds. Steven had us try a few variations. At one stage we had to perform as soft as possible. For me this just meant turning down the amp. . . ?
Still an interesting session even if there didn't seem to be much progress.
AUDIO
Class improvisation session [7.8MB]
This was recorded off my phone so the quality is very bad. But, will a high quality recording of this collection of noise sound any better?
To see an extensive write up on my finished instrument including pictures, movies and notes please visit my Week 10 Forum Post.
[1] Steven Whittington. "Music Technology Forum: Semester 2 - Week 11 - Instrument Improvisation". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 18th October 2007.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Week 10 Forum - Instrument Presentation
Today in Forum we had to present our instrument. I was happy that my instrument worked and made sound. During my lunch I was having problems with my instrument and I wasn't getting any sound. I worked it out to be one of the switches had gone bust.
Overall I am not that happy with my instrument since there are a lot of features that originally worked but stopped working at the final stages. This is because when I contained all the circuitry in the box it was squashed together and there were problems. The features that originally worked but then stopped were:
1) The switch in the middle of the instrument (i.e. the blue LED) is meant to change the timbre when switched ON and OFF. At the moment there is no changed when this switch is activated. This is VERY annoying because I spent quite a bit of time building this into the circuit. The switch is turning a capacity ON or OFF within the signal.
2) Originally all the LEDs switched ON or OFF depending on their ON or OFF state. This is VERY FRUSTRATING since this feature took the longest and added the aesthetic values of a real, commercial device. The blue switch in the middle originally would have a state of ON or OFF and the LED is only meant to light up when the switch is activated (i.e. turned to ON). The yellow LED originally only lit up when the switch was set to ON also.
The LED that does work is the ON/OFF switch on the bottom corner of the device. However this only works when a battery is in use. I have built a 9V power adapter into my instrument which when in use does not activate the ON/OFF LED switch.
3) Getting back to what I was saying earlier: The switch that went bust was the first switch. If you look at some of the pictures further down the page, you can see that I have attached two alligator clips to the terminals. If I hold them in my hands the sound works. The switch is meant to turn OFF the sound from the oscillator. If I hold the alligator clips in my hand and make some sound, I can still turn OFF the sound by switching to OFF. But, this feature is now pointless since if I drop the alligator clips the sound stops anyway.
These three fundamental problems with my instrument have caused a lot of frustration in showing my instrument. This is because these features, which I spent hours on and thought would add that little edge to my creation, now don't work. Not happy!
I just hope I get a good mark because I think I spent about 40 hours on this assignment!
In a nutshell my instrument is made up of three parts:
1) A Squarewave Oscillator
2) A Victorian Synth
3) A Piezo Mic
The Squarewave Oscillator is built on the breadboard. Within the circuit is an integrated ON/OFF switch, variable resistor and timbral switch. Whether these features work or not is not the point as they're still there and I spent the time to make them.
The ON/OFF switch works by joining the ground and power wires together on the OFF and separating them on the ON switch. The variable resistor is controlled using a potentiometer and two photo-resistors all in series. The timbral switch, as you already know, is changing the timbre by switching a capacitor ON or OFF.
The Victorian Synth has an ON/OFF switch. This switch does work, it's just the LED that is constantly on (whereas originally it would only light up on the ON position). There is a button that click the speaker. Pressing the button joins the terminals of the speakers and hence makes the sound.
The integrated Piezo was originally going to be inside the box but I was unable to put the Piezo in the circuit in a useful way. Instead I have used it to enhance the Victorian Synth and create other effects such as feedback.
I originally wanted everything to be contained in the box. I didn't think ahead because everything fit inside the box in the early stages. I forgot that once I put the switches and buttons on the top there is going to be less room. This meant that the speaker had to be on the outside. This isn't so bad since it allows me to create sounds by placing the Piezo right over the speaker.
My original idea was to have an integrated circuit bent toy. I found this idea too difficult to implement and eventually gave up after breaking four toys.
Originally I was going to have some foil with rice inside on top of the Victorian Synth speaker. I canned this idea when I realized I wouldn't be able to contain the speaker inside the box.
As you can see there are two amplifiers. One is for the instrument output and the other is for the piezo. Ideally I would like to have a small mixer and control the outputs that way.
Don't hold your breath. . .
Sound
Improvising on my instrument [1.6MB]
Video
[22.6MB]
[1] Steven Whittington, Seb Tomzac, David Harris. "Music Technology Forum: Semester 2 - Week 10 - Instrument Presentation". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 11th October 2007.
Week 9 Forum - Bent Leather Band
My instrument was meant to be finished by todays Forum class. I am still finishing my instrument off. The drilling is taking a lot longer than I thought it would.
To see an extensive write up on my finished instrument including pictures, movies and notes please visit my Week 10 Forum Post.
Luckily today we had some guest musicians: The Bent Leather Band, so it didn't matter that I hadn't finished my instrument.
This band is made up of two people who make their own instruments and perform the live. I was impressed at the complexity and amount of work they spend on their instruments.
This isn't something I would consider since it doesn't interest me. Still, I respect their work and encourage them to continue.
[1]
[1][1] Bent Leather Band, 'Instruments'. http://home.mira.net/~favilla/ (Accessed 4th October 2007)
[2] Christian Haines. "Music Technology Forum: Semester 2 - Week 9 - Bent Leather Band". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 4th October 2007.
