Final Artefacts Demos and Explanations Part 2

I first have to say that formal testing of the system in terms of using it whilst working on music was impossible with my current setup - I dont have two computers. However at the expo I have access to another computer loaded up with music software, so it will be possible to demo the systems together in that capacity.

For these examples, I have run the two systems together as colour organs in order to demo and analyse the efficacy of the systems.

While I am waiting for the videos to upload to Youtube, here is a quick phoo to get the idea and allow me to keep typing!

Before I go on, I want to talk about some of the immediate issues I noticed with te system, that perhaps you too have noticed.

I really hadn't considered the fact that one light source cast on to such a surface would cast shadows onto shorter pillars that were off center. When far enough back, you can hit all the longest pillars easily, however the deeper the other pillars are by relation to the longest, the more extreme the shadows cast become.

There is a way round this, however there is only one - to have multiple projector rigs. this is expensive, space consuming, time consuming and noisey. Realistically, for use as a tool for analyitical insight into audio in the studio, it doesn't have much future. This is certainly not to say that it hasn't been extremely insightful as a method for analysing the light speaker though. It has also been a gret way for exploring the power of FFT analysis for splitting up incoming audio rather than traditional filter based EQ's in the analogue domain, such as the MSGEQ7

At this point the diffuser is unpainted as I relly dont have the time, so there is a very slight tinge of orange to the colour, as seen in the above picture. the colour being shown on the acoustic diffuser then should match the laptop screen, which is extremely similar to what the colour organ above is displaying - a kinda of pinky off white tone. As a note, this means there was a pretty even balance of audio frequencies at that point in time, with a slight tendency towards the lows and highs. Turns out that you can gain meaningful insight into audio from colour ;)

The first of the demo videos of these two in action are taking a while to upload, so for now Im going to get on with seting up my Ableton set ready for testing later on this evening on the flatmates.

I have decided that I'm going to be asking them to listen to a bunch of material chosen by them first, then me, in order to get used to the systems first. During this time, I will be going over a bit of basic colour theory with them to make sure they can understand just what is going on. Once this is done, I am going to go through a set bunch of material such as drum loops and musical stems to demonstrate what certain types of sounds look like, I am then going to ask them to indentify what they are listening to without the speakers, using only the light. If they can determine what they are listening to, roughly at least, without listening, then I would say the system has real legs as a tool for metering audio in a creative manner.

I shall also do an intermediate piece about how a made the colour organ within Resolume. Cheers!

Diffuser PJ Mapping Screen Built!

It is so easy to underestimate how quickly time flies! You may remember two weeks ago I posted about having chopped all the wood and I just needed to get glue, well yesterday I finally got it, and was up until three this morning getting as much as I could done. I ran out of No More Nails about 3/4 of the way through, so I got up first thing this morning and went to get another tube.

Below is a photo gallery of the build from start to finish for your amusement. I have to say, considering the issues I had with the original cuts (breaking a circular saw and having to hand cut half the posts, I am really happy with the results, it looks really beautiful. All that remains now is to let the glue set hard and then get it sprayed matt white, as this will give the best surface finish for the Projections.

1) So as I have touched on before, QRDude is the software I used to create the design for my diffuser. This is a 2D QRD design, with a Scatter characteristic of 333hz, a diffusion characteristic of 666hz and a high frequency cutoff at 3750hz.

2) Here we have all the posts for my build stacked on a secondary baseplate. I intend to build another three of these after university, so I have bought extra MDF for baseplates. The wood used for the posts is Planed treated Red Wood Pine,  44mm x 44mm. The "well" depths vary from 0mm upto 24mm.

3) Here is another baseplate cut and ready to be filled.The well spread is 13, giving the baseplate a width and length of 572mm

4) I decided to go from the two axis first and then build out from there. This isn't really standard practice, you would normally just go row by row, however as I said the circular saw broke, so from 14mm posts down, the hand cut is slightly uneven on a lot of posts. To eliminate the chance of an uneven design, this way lets you glue two sides of every post you place after the axis are done, resulting in a more stable build as you go along.

5) Here you see it at just after the half way point, around one thirty this morning. I knew by this point that I had made the right choice as the lines and block placements were still going smoothly and perfectly.

6) This was just a couple of arty angles before I went to bed.

7) The first of these three was a quick one before I started again today with the fresh No More Nails. This will be painted white as I said, and then placed behind the speakers, central to my mix position. Happy Days!

Nearly There!

So nearly all the parts for the project have arrived, I thought I would take this time to give you a little photo gallery of the parts I have received. The only parts I am waiting on are the button/switch, a bag of cables, the breadboard and the MOSFETS. Hopefully they should be here by the start of next week. If they aren't, I am going to go to Maplin and pay a little more to have them on that day. Anyways, here is what I have so far.

I am going to wait until its dark later on and show you the LED strip in a dark environment. As I said its not audio reactive at present, but a brief impression of what the environment is like is important; it is already a more productive and pleasant environment to work in, in my opinion anyway.