[Noisebridge-discuss] This Weekend Instrument-Making Workshops

[Tony Arcieri]

This sounds awesome! I've had an idea for an instrument I have some of the
parts for but have never completed.

I have some sensors (a linear position sensor and a square pressure
sensor), which I've been wanting to use to control a monosynth. The basic
idea is the linear position sensor can control pitch and the pressure
sensor can control velocity, with the intended result being a synthesizer
that can be played akin to a one-string slap bass. I'd probably mount
everything to a 1x4 or something and put a guitar strap on it.

I originally planned on trying to control a simple monosynth (Gakken
SX-150) and was hacking on that for awhile with the assistance of an EE
friend in another state who was looking at the schematics. I never got that
working properly and gave up and have since lost the Gakken while moving :(
We both learned empirically that the gate of a monosynth is on/off, in my
case by desoldering a surface mount resistor. We talked about using a
MOSFET or something to control the velocity but I never got around to
buying the parts.

I have an unassembled Arduino MIDI shield, but no Arduino. I'd love to get
some MIDI output from the sensors (preferably with some pots to adjust the
sensitivity) so I can run them into software like Reason. So I guess my
questions are:

1) Does anyone have an Arduino I can borrow, or potentially buy? Or perhaps
any other solutions for going from sensors -> MIDI
2) Is anyone who wants to go to the circuit-bending class, or perhaps one
of the people teaching it, familiar with Arduino MIDI enough to perhaps
help me out generating the sort of MIDI output I'd need to use these
sensors as an instrument
3) Does anyone have an old monosynth they'd like to try to put this sort of
sensor interface on to? I think it'd be neat to go the all analog route
too, even if the next step was Ableton Live ;)
4) Has anyone built an instrument like this before and if so, how much do
they suck?


On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 7:11 PM, johny radio <johnyradio at gmail.com> wrote:

>  Hi List!
>
> More details on this weekend's free *INSTRUMENT**-MAKING WORKSHOPS**. *No
> experience necessary.
>
> *Date: THIS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY**, Jan 12 & 13**, 10:30 am to 9 **pm,
> both days. *Breaking for lunch and dinner.
>
> PLEASE SIGNUP BY EMAILING ME! johnyradio at gmail.com
>
> *NON-ELECTRONIC**
> *The excellent Jim Stockford will be your guide, with backup from johny
> radio and the humble problem-solver-MacGyver, Lx. You must bring a rough
> idea, and materials that you want to transform into your instrument (wood,
> rubber, catgut, etc etc). Think bowed, struck, plucked, blown, hummed-into,
> shaken, stirred, etc.
>
> *CIRCUIT-BENDING**
> *This means opening up the guts of an a noise-making toy, and blindly
> altering the wiring to get wacky results :) The eclectic and handsome
> Martin gmod4life1 Deviddo will be your guide, with backup from Lx and Johny
> Radio. You must bring a somewhat functional noise-making toy or electronic
> instrument that you want to bend.
>
> If you can help by being a Guide, please email me at johnyradio at
> gmail.com. Especially need non-electronic guides.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>
>


-- 
Tony Arcieri
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