Category: Interactive Installation Project

Currently in the midst of soldering my piezo pressure sensors together and attaching a ts connector on the end to go into my audio interface. I figured I could make my setup a lot simpler by not using an Arduino at all.

So instead now I have the audio signal from my piezo’s going into a track into Ableton, where I am using a Max for Live patch that is converting audio over a set level to a midi note. This midi note is then being received on a midi track where it is responsible for a certain instrument. This saves me using an Arduino board and 3 sets of softwares running simultaneously.

I currently have a piezo that is mapped to scene changing within Ableton where each scene has a different key and scale for all the instruments.

Possibly looking into this plugin as well which looks like it might come in handy

MIDI Harmonization Plug

So this week I figured I could change up my initial project plans to make something much more interesting and immersive.

My plans now are as follows:

• A drummer plays on his kit as you walk into the room
• Certain cymbals and drum have Piezo sensors hooked up to them
• These piezos are sending MIDI into Ableton
• Each drum hit is randomised in triggering an instruments to play chords and scales
• they all play together in key but are totally random in their patterns.
• Characteristics of these sounds can be changed dramatically
• the user is presented with a leap motion placed on a table that is front of them as they enter the room.
• the user uses their hands to manipulate the sound design of the drums being played live by the drummer.

Inspiration for this project after chatting with the drummer who I’m collaborating with for this project got me onto this man –  Zach Danziger

I recently discovered a program that will make my life a lot easier when it comes to tackling this project and will cut out the need to use Max.

Hairless MIDI is the name of this program that converts data over the serial port into MIDI which is then accesible to programs such as Ableton which im planning on using.

Hairless MIDI

I have began to layout my early plan for my interactive installation project. This week has been me working out what materials I will need and the costs involved to have the project up and running in time for the performance night.

I also managed to do a quick test with everything setup just to see how it would work roughly and was quite pleased with the result. Using just basic preset effects inside Ableton mapped to different MIDI channels corresponding to different hand movements that GECOmidi sends out. Without much tweaking at all I got quite a smooth input and playback feel using the softwares.

You can view my instagram clip where I had my hand height controlling the formant amount of the Ableton vocoder, hand backwards/forwards distance controlling dry wet of a ping pong delay whilst the tilt controlled the dry/wet of a flanger.

Watch Here

Now will just be a matter of playing around with effects and different MIDI mapping combinations until I find what feels the most interactive and expressive. Figuring out a way to have the kick and snare be less ‘static’. How to have them included in the Leap Motion somehow appropriately that doesn’t feel forced.

Change of mind and Project Realisation…

Initially I was planning on furthering design and improving on my ‘Interactive Guitar’ project from earlier. After discovering Leap Motion I was inspired to include this in some way.

Trying different placements (middle pickup position, lower pick guard etc.) for the Leap Motion I soon realised that none of them would really work in a meaningful way. One of the main ideas I wanted to explore with this new project was having an installation type design that could be interacted with by anybody of any age and skill level. This was a limitation of my earlier Interactive Guitar project, seeing as it was a more of watch a performance style display, I would encourage people to come and try it for themselves but due to it being a left handed guitar I felt this was another barrier in the way of being and interactive installation.

My plan currently is to have a microphone setup in the middle of a room with a table down in front of it that has a leap motion placed on top. The idea is to have someone be able to speak into the mic whilst they manipulate and morph the sound of it by using hand movements and gestures using the leap motion. For example left hand height will dictate the pitch your voice is played back at whilst the tilt of your right hand could be some ring modulation etc. There will be many different effects associated to produce a very interesting sound that will keep people interested and amused.

Im still getting ideas for visuals/lighting that could accompany this installation, this are a couple of videos I have been looking at this week:

Cool Light Installation 

Another cool one

Arduino Light Show