http://public.fotki.com/po0pie/events/parsons-instruments/

Enjoy!

taken by Melissa Hom

melissahom@gmail.com

best,

Kyle

@ soho open house video 1

@ soho open house video 2

<prototype>

prototype video

video

toypiano video

I’ve had this big obsession with synth-drums for the past four years; the image of the stoic, austere Peter Hook rhythmically hitting the Simmons tom on Top of The Pops in 1983 was probably one of the most prominent images I associated with synth-pop of the 1980s(probably my favorite genre of music ever). Additionally, after building revision 3 of my VGA video synth(a synth that I was working on in Ranjit’s other class) earlier in the semester, I still had the idea of doing visuals for class stuck in my head like light-blue fun-tak or something.

I decided to make a video synthesizer, in which Red, Green and Blue VGA output would be generated by a set of logic chip oscillators triggered by drum pads(the construction of which I assumed to be piezo-something, but I <i>still</i> have no idea about piezos–where the heck do you find huge piezo elements?). It was gonna be really cool.

After Thanksgiving, I decided to start working. I previously got a single logic chip oscillator to work, with a little LFO-type thing happening by tying a second chip into the voltage of the first one. I tried really hard to get that to generate video output, but that didn’t end up working. In fact, the chip blew up. Subsequent attempts to get other chips to work failed as well. At one point my breadboard started to smoke!

In a moment of desperation, I turned to my various tiny speech chips. At first, I destroyed my brand-spanking new Soundgin chip by accidentally reversing the pinouts in my head. A few minutes later, however, I successfully set up one of my Speakjet chips, getting it to interface properly with my Arduino. I even got a potentiometer to trigger all 128 different preset sounds(the result was really cool and IDM-y)!

The next challenge was finding a way to make drum pads. My first instinct, the whole piezo thing, just sucked. My second idea was to replicate the technique literally patented by Kraftwerk: to basically create a big button. While one end of the circuit, V+, would be connected to an aluminum drum stick, the other end, the drum pads themselves(also in aluminum) would be connected to Ground with a resistor and an arduino digital input to detect the whole thing. When the Arduino detects the completion of the circuit, the Arduino sends serial out to the Speech chip. After roughly a week of trying to find makeshift drum pads, I found(with Ranjit’s help) perfect pads and sticks at Pearl, which sold nice metal plates and rods. Once I got everything put together, the whole thing worked really nicely(although the speech chip just wouldn’t interrupt any speech playback, resulting in some kinda weird rhythms). The video part was supposed to be next, but then it just sort of fizzled out(mostly because I found out that the performance space didn’t really have any convenient video inputs, and I didn’t really want to destroy my video synth by having it fly across the room). So, I got a nice big piece of soundproof foam and mounted that and I was finished! I went on to practice n’ stuff with Sam and Yelena.

We now have a record deal.

No, not really.

As you all know, Teddy lost his life on the way to the performance. I was excited to share his sound with everyone. I had recently learned how to loop his sounds and create a few new ones by touching certain points on his board. Unfortunately, I can’t post and samples because he is dead. I do plan on bringing him back to life though, so that is good.

I played Teddy at the performance and it actually worked out better than I had expected. I was worried that our song wouldn’t sound right because we had practiced it all along with Teddy. But, Freddy stepped up to the plate and did a great job. I had a great time performing and wish we could do a few more events…

Here are a few pictures of Xing from the performance. Thanks for a great class. I learned a lot and had a great time. You all made some really cool instruments.

“Mr. Resistor!” – networked music review

And plenty of coverage, including video, from Peter over at Create Digital Music.

Don’t forget to email me – and keep up with this blog – if you are interested in performance opportunities next Spring and Summer.

Success!

^this is a little precussion instrument i called “mothra” because mike gave me godzilla stickers for it and it sounds like a monster through reverb. i used it like a rainstick and a shaker. i also ate the rice in it a couple days after the show haha.

^ this is my little resonator string instrument. its made from tuning pegs, some scrap wood, garden wire, and a ginormous altoid tin!

^ heres some pictures of the tentatively titled “timebomb” which was a mattel synsonic drum pad i was circuit bending. it had an LDR controlling the volume and another controlling the pitch. it met an untimely demise when i found a really neat sounding overdrive kinda bend. turns out after like 30 seconds of doing this it fried the whole thing :(

‘last of the super sine wave generators’

This instrument uses two microchips, both are a Intersil ICL8038. The controlled with a resistance duty cycle and can produce sin, square or triangle waves. For the purpose of this project I was just using sine waves. I purchased these microchips after doing research into making a wein bridge oscillator which was invented in 1891 by Max Wien, also the inventor of the “Löschfunkensender”.

At this point I am hoping to miniaturize the project and organize the functionality better – that and figure out how to play it. Here is a recording with added phaser:
test recording

Naming History:
4. knapp jabberbox.03
3. Sine Wave Interference Synthesizer (SWIS)
2. knapp electrobox01
1. The Knapp Electric Questioner

more photos

My tape cylinder machine never quite got finished. I spent too much time setting up this nifty lever to

operate a speed control only to find out that actually making that control was more difficult than I expected. I figured that if I just put a potentiometer between the power supply and the motor it would give me a variable voltage that would vary the speed of the motor. While this is true, finding the right potentiometer for the job was difficult. I started with what I had at hand a one mega-ohm pot. This was way too big. by the time I turned it one tenth of the way up, the resistance was so high that the motor stopped altogether. Same results with a 500 kilo-ohm, 100 k-ohm and a 10 k-ohm pot. I think that a 25 ohm (no prefix) might have worked. The end result was that I had a fancy on-off switch and no time to make any tape samples.

Like every unfinished project, I hope to find the time and motivation to work on this next semester but we will just have to wait and see about that.

On the other hand, my harmonic Cello came together really well and exceded my expectations.

You’ve all seen it but I should just take a minute to describe it fully. It has two strings about 4 feet long. These strings are made of heavy piano wire. I had to use this because guitar strings are not long enough and actual cello or bass strings are very expensive. The strings are attached to screws at one end and guitar tuners at the other. The key to making this a harmonic cello is that there is a bridge in the middle which divides each string into two equal lengths. The pickup, which is a normal electric guitar pickup is at one end (the bottom) and any bowing plucking and fingering is done on the top half. This way the pickup only hears echoes and overtones from the notes played on the other half.

The instrument was very simple to contruct. It was based on the harmonic guitar which is described in the Bart Hopkins book. What surprised me about it was the variety of sounds I was able to get out of it. Cascading harmonics, bends and plucked open notes all give amazingly resonant sounds. By sliding my finger lightly down the string while bowing, it makes natural arpeggios running through the overtone series. The best part about it though is the natural reverb that rings on every note. The unbowed, unfingered portion of the string continues to ring even though the bowed part is dampened.

All in all, I was really happy with the work I did in class as the tape machine was a great learning experience and the cello was a musical success.

Material: wood, metal slice, screw, iron box, attached mic, jack, metal guitar strings, tuners, paint

This is a slide guitar with a slide rod on a track. It can switch pitch easily by moving the slide and be connected to an amplifier. The total cost is about 10 dollars.

original appeareance

Test Video
Sound sample01
Sound sample02