Perfect Find

Very brief post, here is a link to a project that I will be using as a guide and reference for the arduino side of mine.

I have mentioned the MSGEQ7 a few times before, this project uses it and the Arduino to generate data to drive the LED's via PWM (Pulse Width Modulation. There are a few other components needed, however I am going to be buying them all soon and commencing my build, so I would rather save listing them all and going indepth about what they do until then. I am going to spend the rest of the evening getting together a list of prices for all the components and where I can get them. Hopefully I should be able to commence building within a few weeks rather than a month as previously stated.
I also live with another Honours student, and we have talked about the possibility of integrating such a system with acoustic treatments in order to give them far more vibe and presence within a room - this could be pretty marketable to the next generation of bedroom producer. My aim would simply be to keep my device priced below $100 and I reckon it would sell with treatments for sure  Exciting stuff!

So much goin on

At the same time as looking to use this blog as a means to demonstrate where my project is at and where I am going with it, I also want to to continue to contextualise the project as I feel that some people may not see the need in the system i'm proposing, maybe even not understand why you may even want it.

There are tons of music tech things going on at the moment if you have been keeping up with NAMM 2015, a music instrument and technology messe in the US.

Something of interest with regards to this project is a new range of video synthesis modules aimed at the Eurorack format of Modular. These will enable the user to generate their own VJ show, in tandem with the music that the modular synth is producing. It also give the user the ability to have it set up in their room they can see what their music is doing, in a manner of speaking anyway.

The beauty of this is that the device is under voltage control, meaning that whilst we can of course have complete and accurate control over all the parameters, we can also set up a modular to run and change of its own volition. Here is another example, this time running in tandem with a Korg Monotribe.

There is actually a new modular system for within ableton live that has only just been released. I could actually look at intergrating one of the simple systems I have already demonstrated and try to create an in the box version. I quite like this idea, more on that later.

OSCILLIOT - Max for Live Modular System

It has also got me back thinking that I need to look into whether or not the Arduino can be controlled under CV. This wqould open up a whole new world of possibilities.

As this project is also focused around how music related to sound, I am shortly going to start posting a track of my own composition that has then had a max for live visual patch applied in order to create a music video. I feel this will be a great way to keep you in the loop of everything I am doing within the project - a window into my testing through use of the system. Although at this point it is more developing the system through use. The next post shall be back to practical stuff that I have created.

Been a while

Hey there, sorry it was pretty hectic over Christmas New Year etc... Getting right back in the swing of things now though.

So here is a cool video the I stumbled across recently, made cooler by the fact it has links to some really useful places online, namely an Arduino forum with a post about FFT data driving LED colour spectrums.

Although I can already see this being to rapid changing for any sort of analytical use, it could be fun to include this as a setting on the arduino to get a bit more vibe going when you are just listening back to what you have created or other peoples work.

On the more analytical side, we can look at something like the setup in the video below, I am pretty sure this could be calibrated in order to use it as a VU meter and RMS meter. As the ideas keep coming the device I am envisioning is a modernise real time analyser, I will make sure to get my ideas down in a drawing soon.

This is neat because I could give the user control over certain parameters, enabling them to tailor their visual experience to the way they like it. The beauty of Arduino is they can be loaded with multiple libraries of code that can be cycled through very simply for different uses.