Audio Chopper

Concept:

Using a photocell, resistance can be applied and removed from an audio signal as a light source is switched off and on. The photocell mutes the audio signal when no light is being received. When light is received the resistance from the photocell is removed and the audio signal is no longer muted. By switching the light source on and off in defined intervals the audio signal is formed into rhythms and patterns.

In the circuit diagram below, the audio signal is constant and remains muted until the light source is switched on.

Circuit Diagram:

5V Logic Out: An interface, ie: Arduino or Highly Liquid's MD24, sends 5V out to power LED1 & LED2 on.
LED1: Indicator for when light source is on.
LED2: Coupled with photocell, is on when LED1 is on.
Photocell: Coupled with LED2, when LED2 is off resistance mutes audio signal.
Opto-coupler: Photocell & LED combined acting similar to a switch.
10K Resistor: Pull down resistor which facilitates muting of audio signal.
Audio Input: Source audio signal
Audio Output: Audio signal when LED2 is on, otherwise mute when LED2 is off.

Using Highly Liquid's MD24 (triggers 5V Logic Out using midi messages, ie: notes) & a midi sequencer (ie: MPC 500); a midi note, which corresponds to one the MD24's output pins, can be sent. When this defined midi note is received by the MD24 its corresponding output pin powers LED1 & LED2, which causes the photocell to remove its resistance on the circuit allowing the audio signal to be sent to the audio output. This connection is only made for the duration or pattern of this specific midi note.

Highly Liquid's MD24 Logic Output:
Highly Liquid's MD24

Slow Shutter Speed

Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four
Part five

Wireframe space

Still from 0:11

Piezo Disk Percussion

Wooden box housing with book, piezo disk, 50k potentiometer, and 1/4" jack output. The piezo disk is place within a book and is wired as a contact mic with the potentiometer used to control volume.

Wooden box closed:

Open:

Open with Potentiometer:

Piezo disk within book:

Video:

Clyde Drumming Mechanism

Drumming Mechanism made from a power door lock actuator, Meccano, springs, and drum stick.

Video Controlled by Midi

Short video clips controlled using midi from a MPC 500 which provides the drum samples; all other audio is from video clips. A single video clip is triggered when its defined midi note is received.

Video:

Felix's Machines

Felix's Machines by artist Felix Thorn & filmed by Tom Swindell.

Film:
felixsmachines.com

VPT - Video Projection Tool by HC Giljes

Test of video software used for projecting on different planes. The software is used to distort individual video clips to the desired plane to be projected on.

Three video clips on two walls and ceiling:
Video:


VPT v4.0 by HC Giljes

Highly Liquid: MD24 Midi Decoder

Interface similar to Arduino, but controlled using MIDI notes, programs, etc. The MD24 has 24-5V digital out pins that are triggered by MIDI messages, ie: a note. When a midi note is played the corresponding digital out pin is activated for that note's length. This interface doesn't require a computer to translate MIDI messages, which makes it simpler to control motor, solenoids, etc, than Arduino and a MAX/MSP patch.


Highly Liquid: MIDI Decoder MD24

Clyde Drumbot Test 2

Quick test using multiple lever systems activated by pull type solenoids. Midi data is recorded in Garageband and sent via a MAX/MSP patch (by Ali Momeni) to Arduino which triggers each of the solenoids. The basswood levers hit a small bass drum, a tom, and a tin can case.

Crude Clyde:


In action:

Solenoid with 12" lever

Solenoid with 12" lever. Solenoid pulls lever downward causing mallet to strike drum surface.

Wireframe Perspective:

Perspective:

Sideview:

Frontview:

Clyde Drumbot Test

Quick test using a simple lever system activated by a pull type solenoid. Midi data is recorded in Garageband and sent via a MAX/MSP patch (by Ali Momeni) to Arduino which triggers the solenoid. The basswood lever hits a small bass drum.

Arduino + MIDI - Ali Momeni

An easy way to control Arduino's digital outs with MIDI by using a MAX/MSP patch. When a MIDI note is triggered it activates the corresponding Arduino digital out. The intent is to use MIDI and Arduino to control various motors, leds, etc. MIDI allows for the recording of sequences (with audio software and/or hardware) which can be composed and replayed as desired.

Demonstration video by Ali Momeni:


MIDI to Arduino - Ali Momeni
Arduino.cc

Photosounder

'Photosounder is a one-of-a-kind image-sound editing program. It is unique in that it opens images and sounds indiscriminately, treats and processes them as images, and synthesizes them as sounds.' ~Photosounder.com

Original Audio file as Image played through Photosounder.


Video:



Altered Image file with Photoshop ripple filter re-imported into Photosounder.


Video:


Photosounder.com

Accordion Automation by Carl Drohomereski

Arduino controlled accordion.



More Info:
Carl Drohomereski

RedTed8 - Light Controlled Audio Chopper

~"RedTed8" - Light controlled sound chopper.
~"RedTed8", Moogerfooger ring modulator, and Arduino.

"RedTed8" is eight LEDs controlled and sequenced (on/off) by Arduino. Each LED is coupled with a photocell; when a LED is active the photocell receives light reducing its electrical resistance allowing the audio to pass through. A flashing LED and photocell cause the audio signal to be cut on and off at a given rate.

Audio sample using a Yamaha Portasound PS-3.
RedTed Number One.mp3

Atari Punk Console with two 555s

~Atari Punk Console with two 555s, Simon Pribec.
~Stepped Tone Generator - AKA Atari Punk Console, Rob the Fiddler


~Atari Punk Console, maomakmaa

Arduino Controller

Schematic drawing of eight Arduino controlled relay circuits. Each relay will act as a 'on/off' switch and is triggered by one of Arduino's digital pins. The circuits will use pin/socket connection points so that various different devices can be connected and triggered. A 'relay switch' could simply turn something on/off or act as a switch within a circuit or device altering the way it functions. Anywhere there is a switch or could be a switch a relay is placed so that Arduino is in control.

Code will be used to create delay sequences and patterns determining when each device is turned on/off or altered. Other inputs, ie: potentiometers, switches, photocells, and piezo disks, etc., could act as variables which alter the delay time frame within the sequences and patterns.

Parts:
Arduino
5V relay x 8
Pin/socket connectors
Wire
Breadboard
Potentiometers, photocells, switches, etc. (if required)

FM3 - Buddha Machine II

~FM3 - Buddha Machine II

Generative looping sound device.

Approx. $30 CAD from Juno Records - Buddha Machine II

Info + Loop Samples:
FM3 - Buddha Machine II

Light Sequencer Proto

All four optical theremin circuits, LEDs, and Arduino.



Playing with the rate control.

Samples:
Fourtimebeats.mp3
Fourtimes.mp3

Light Sequencer Code

Light Sequencer Testing

Mess of wires First test - using arduino, one optical theremin circuit, and one LED. Potentiometers are used to control the rate of the flashing light, the tone, the pitch, and volume.



Sample:
Lightbeats.mp3

Arduino Light Sequencer Part III

Potential layout for control interface.
Time: each potentiometer controls a delay variable for the flashing LED. Brightness: each potentiometer controls the brightness level of the corresponding LED. LED: 4 LEDs used to display the brightness and timing of the corresponding internal LED. Switch: used to trigger 1 of 4 code loops or other definable code presets. Volume: each potentiometer controls the volume level for the corresponding optical theremin circuit. Tone: each potentiometer increases or decreases the pitch relative to the light input of the optical theremin circuit. Volume: one potentiometer to control the overall volume of the mixed audio output. On/off: switch to turn off power to optical theremin circuits, etc. Audio output: (4) 1/4" mono jack one for each of the optical theremin circuits. Output: (1) 1/4" mono jack for mixed audio output. Other input/output: USB for powering and altering Arduino code, reset button for Arduino, power jack?, and etc?.

Simple mixer circuit for mixing audio output from each optical theremin circuit.
ePanorama.net: Simple two line output combiner

Ujino + the Rotators

The Rotators - The Savage's Plastic Ikebana


The Rotators f. FRG - Plywood City


Ujino Muneteru - Japanese sound/sculpture/performance artist

"Tokyo based Muneteru produces work informed by the urban experience, domesticity fused with club and dance music, the interpretation of musical histories, technological capabilities and the sophisticated transformation of domestic and popular ready-made objects into hybrid musical instruments.

Muneteru's practice is concerned with adaptations of language - musical, written and spoken, and the common connection established through a 'lost in translation' experience of dance culture. Controlling the performance from a platform of turntables, switch panels and instruments made from found recycled articles including a blender, hair-dryer, electric drill, food processor and bicycle, Muneteru's sounds trigger responses from the vehicle, which flashes in time with the variable beats.

As artist-in-residence at the Wooloomooloo Gunnery, Muneteru will spend several weeks scouring the op-shops and side streets of Sydney in search of the 'hard waste' that will be transformed into his musical instruments. Like a traffic inspired techno score, the presentation of Ujino and the Rotators is a captivating delivery of contemporary performance, and a reminder that performance art has mutated into the 21st century with sophistication and vigor." ~the-rotators.com

~Rotatorhead, Ujino Muneteru, 2005.

~Platform for the Rotators (Trinity), Ujino Muneteru, 2004.

Ujino Muneteru | The Rotators

Arduino Light Sequencer Part II

Crude wiring setup: Test #1 using four LEDs and one optical theremin circuit. Timing and length of tone determined by Arduino code.
Sample of code: varying the numbers in the 'delay' command determines the length of each tone.

Sound clip:
Test #1

Arduino Light Sequencer Project

Use Arduino + code to control the rate and sequence at which four LEDs flash. Two switches are used to trigger two or more sets of sequences. Each LED will be coupled with the photocell of a simple optical theremin circuit. Each optical theremin circuit will transfer sound output to a channel on the mixer via 1/4" mono jack.

The intent is to create a simple sound sequencer that can be arranged using code + Arduino; which will form a foundation for further experimentation.

Sample code + tutorials:
Arduino Tutorial - Knight Rider
Arduino Tutorial - Pushbutton

References:
Arduino
RS Optical Theremin Circuit

Parts:
Arduino
RS Optical Theremin Circuit x 4
Wire
Breadbroad
On/off switch x 2
LED x 4
220 Resistor x 4
1K Resistor x 2
1/4" mono jack male x 4

The Art of Noises - Luigi Russolo

~Photo of Russolo, Ugo Piatti and their “noise intoners” (intonarumori), Milan circa 1920.

"Conclusions

Futurist musicians must continually enlarge and enrich the field of sounds. This corresponds to a need in our sensibility. We note, in fact, in the composers of genius, a tendency towards the most complicated dissonances. As these move further and further away from pure sound, they almost achieve noise-sound. This need and this tendency cannot be satisfied except by the adding and the substitution of noises for sounds.

Futurist musicians must substitute for the limited variety of tones posessed by orchestral instruments today the infinite variety of tones of noises, reproduced with appropriate mechanisms.

The musician’s sensibility, liberated from facile and traditional Rhythm, must find in noises the means of extension and renewal, given that every noise offers the union of the most diverse rhythms apart from the predominant one.

Since every noise contains a predominant general tone in its irregular vibrations it will be easy to obtain in the construction of instruments which imitate them a sufficiently extended variety of tones, semitones, and quarter-tones. This variety of tones will not remove the characteristic tone from each noise, but will amplify only its texture or extension.

The practical difficulties in constructing these instruments are not serious. Once the mechanical principle which produces the noise has been found, its tone can be changed by following the same general laws of acoustics. If the instrument is to have a rotating movement, for instance, we will increase or decrease the speed, whereas if it is to not have rotating movement the noise-producing parts will vary in size and tautness.

The new orchestra will achieve the most complex and novel aural emotions not by incorporating a succession of life-imitating noises but by manipulating fantastic juxtapositions of these varied tones and rhythms. Therefore an instrument will have to offer the possibility of tone changes and varying degrees of amplification.

The variety of noises is infinite. If today, when we have perhaps a thousand different machines, we can distinguish a thousand different noises, tomorrow, as new machines multiply, we will be able to distinguish ten, twenty, or thirty thousand different noises, not merely in a simply imitative way, but to combine them according to our imagination.

We therefore invite young musicians of talent to conduct a sustained observation of all noises, in order to understand the various rhythms of which they are composed, their principal and secondary tones. By comparing the various tones of noises with those of sounds, they will be convinced of the extent to which the former exceed the latter. This will afford not only an understanding, but also a taste and passion for noises. After being conquered by Futurist eyes our multiplied sensibilities will at last hear with Futurist ears. In this way the motors and machines of our industrial cities will one day be consciously attuned, so that every factory will be transformed into an intoxicating orchestra of noises." ~Luigi Russolo - The Art of Noises

The Art of Noises - Luigi Russolo
Futurism: Manifestos and Other Resources - unknown.nu/futurism
Luigi Russolo on 'Musica Futurista' - Amazon.ca

P22 Music Text Composition Generator

"The P22 Music Composition Font was proposed in 1997 to the John Cage Trust as an accompaniment to the John Cage text font based on the handwriting of the composer. The idea was basic and simple-every letter of the alphabet was assigned to a note on a scale. This would allow for any text to be converted into musical notation." ~ P22.com/musicfont

P22 Music Text Composition Generator
mayorBee! midi sample

Tiction from Tink Thank

tiction - early prototype 1 from Hans Kuder on Vimeo.

Tiction is a flexible, nodal music sequencer.

"It’s pretty simple: Each node represents an event, and a connection from one node to the next triggers the next event after a certain number of tics. Nodes send MIDI note messages and/or MIDI controller change messages when triggered. Connecting nodes in a circuit lets you start a repeating pattern when one of the nodes is triggered.

A node can change its pitch and controller values based on its position on the screen. When a node is triggered, it performs some physical action: either repelling or attracting other nearby nodes, or nudging itself in a random direction. The physical interaction between nodes allows you to construct complex, rhythmic melodies and effects without having to draw filter envelopes or touch a traditional sequencer"
~Tink Thank

Tiction - Tink Thank

Pauline Oliveros @ Open Space

Pauline Oliveros - Photo by Pietr Kers

"As a musician, I am interested in the sensual nature of sound, its power of synchronization, coordination, release and change. Hearing represents the primary sense organ - hearing happens involuntarily. Listening is a voluntary process that through training and experience produces culture. All cultures develop through ways of listening.
Deep Listening® is listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what you are doing. Such intense listening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, or one's own thoughts as well as musical sounds. Deep Listening represents a heightened state of awareness and connects to all that there is. As a composer I make my music through Deep Listening." ~Pauline Oliveros

Open Space: Pauline Oliveros
PaulineOliveros.us
Deeplistening.org

Sooper Looper - Live Looping Sampler

"SooperLooper is a live looping sampler capable of immediate loop recording, overdubbing, multiplying, reversing and more. It allows for multiple simultaneous multi-channel loops limited only by your computer's available memory."

SooperLooper

"Jack (the Jack Audio Connection Kit) is a low-latency audio server, written originally for the GNU/Linux operating system, and now with Mac OS X support. It can connect any number of different applications to a single hardware audio device; it also allows applications to send and receive audio to and from each other."

Jackosx.com

A quick sample created using Sooper Looper + a guitar:
Loop1

Hank + Lily - Xanadu

"...we can build a better life... modern world... age old strife...a better life..."

Final Fantasy! - Owen Pallett

Amazing! Looping violin, looping keyboards, looping!
Directed by Stephanie Comilang and Jamie Shannon

finalfantasy
finalfantasy: myspace

Photo ("urban irony") by Life in a Lens from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

And a story...

"No hope for the village, no hope for the village
There's a merchant in our midst and with a barrel fist
He's coloured every surface, he's slapped up a portrait
And yes, it is his own! He's gonna take your home!
Have you seen our visitor? Look! Over the treetops!
Newly conjured erections are making him a killing
And Richmond St. is illing, so the graduates are willing
To buy in to the pillage, now there is no hope for the village

Prisoners, be silent, be silent and be sharp

When he was a young man, he conjured up a firemare
And burnt off both his eyebrows and half a head of hair
And then as an apprentice, he took a Drowish mistress
Who bestowed upon his youthfulness a sense of Champagne Chic
Oh seduction, his seduction to the world of construction
Now his mind will start to wander when he's not at his computer
Now his massive genitals refuse to co-operate
And no amount of therapy can hope to save his marriage

Prisoners, be silent, be silent and be sharp
Can you hear them talking? Listen through the wall:

Nothing to do, nothing to do
Living rent-free is boring me
Got no use for my PE Degree
Got no use for my pedigree

I feed you every morning and ask so little
Hedi Slimane
But you belittle all the work that I do
And Agnes B
When you take that walk without permission
I'm not content
I'm not defensive, I'm just saying this cause I love you
I'm not content
You know I hate it when your friends are in the pool
Donna Karan
Old money stinks, send those faggots back to Forest Hill
And Kara Saun
Contentment? What contentment? I am bald and impotent
I'm not content
Is that what it's about? Oh honey, honey, shut your mouth
I'm not content"
~FInal Fantasy - Owen Pallett = 'This lamb sells condos'

Caleb Coppock's Graphite Sequencer (2006)

Interesting project using discs with graphite to create patterns, pulses, beats, and tones.

For Video + Audio see
Caleb Coppock: Graphite Sequencer (2006)

Institute: Programme

PROGRAMME - Movement is a defining aspect of Point Douglas; the train bisects the area, water defines its three sides, and the Disraeli bridge creates further disconnection form the rest of downtown. At another level, good and materials are collected, stored, and moved from place to place, while subtle changes are caused by weather and climate. The institute stems from an interest in how movement is continually redefining the site, surrounding areas in Point Douglas, and Winnipeg as a greater whole.

The institute will observe various forms of movement occurring throughout Point Douglas representing them through drawing and architecture. The primary intent is that the institute will act as long term recording device, layering data onto a surface. This data is received and recorded from movements in the surrounding areas and is amplified by light and sound-creating mechanisms. The light is projected through drawing surface and onto the upper portions of the spherical space. This portion contains light sensors which respond as the surface shifts and rotates, causing a variety of tones to be produced. The rhythm of this sound depends upon the movement and the contrast of light and shadow; caused by the markings left of the surface. The changes in the data effects the sound being produced; theoretically a single composition is never heard twice. The institute continues to create sound, project light, and record constantly until their is nothing left to record or it is not needed.

SCANNING THE SKY - Sensors scan the sky waiting for movement, changes in color, weather, + light qualities; small portions are analyzed and are broke down into patterns of light + dark. This data is collected, compared, + used to manipulate the shifting surface; depending on the level of change.
FORCES + VIBRATION - Sensors record the force exerted by passing trains at both end of the Annabella bridge; the data from each side is compared + used to to determine the rotation of the drawing surface. Similar sensors are placed throughout Point Douglas recording changes related to force + vibration; the Red River, the Disraeli bridge, etc.
Plan of Institute
Section AA
Section BB
South Elevation