Beam Beats is an interactive and tangible rhythm sequencer that translates the geometry of beacons on the ground into rhythms and polyrhythms thanks to a rotating laser beam. This experimental MIDI instrument is about investigating self-similarities in polyrhythms, as described in this post. Before I report more on this project with demos and videos, here [...]
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Tags: arduino, beam beats, clock, controllerism, experimental, geometric, hardware, interactive, laser, midi, midi controller, musical instrument, Physical Computing, rhythm, self-similarity, sequencer, tangible
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Following my ongoing work on a theory of rhythms and a corresponding physical instrument using lasers, here is a version of the same idea implemented into an Arduino: a generative sequencer. The idea is to generate rhythms, and perhaps melodies, from one rhythm seed, then use mutated copies of it to create something more interesting, [...]
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Tags: beam beats, beat, beatmaking, diy, drum machine, electronic, generative, interactive, midi, Music, project, rhythm, sequencer, swing
Posted in Beam Beats, Music, Physical Computing • 2 Comments »
Last week-end I have bought five noise-making plastic toys at a yard sale in Paris; I then ordered knobs and switches from ebay and from a local electronic store. What for? For the purpose of circuit bending of course! First failure Out of the four toys, one was already non working when trying with new [...]
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Tags: circuit, circuitbending, electronic, glitch, hacking, musical instrument, noise
Posted in Music, Physical Computing • 2 Comments »
Here is an example of how to use the same knobs (e-g. 6 knobs easy to connect to the 6 Arduino analog inputs) several times to adjust several parameters spread over several « pages ». This enables to « multiplex » the same knobs many times, in a safely fashion thanks to the protection mecanism: after changing the active [...]
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Tags: arduino, electronics, hacking, interface, library, midi, midi controller, sensors
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In the post “Playing with laser beams to create very simple rhythms” I explained a theoretical approach that I want to materialize into an instrument. The idea is to create complex rhythms by combining several times the same rhythmic patterns, but each time with some variation compared to the original pattern. Several possible variations (or [...]
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Tags: arduino, beam beats, beat, drum machine, electronic, experience, instrument, interactive, interface, Music, musical instrument, Physical Computing, research, rhythm, tangible
Posted in Beam Beats, Music, Physical Computing • 2 Comments »
Here are two videos, pictures and explanations about my experiments to generate rhythmic music using laser beams in a clock fashion.
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Tags: beam beats, beat, drum machine, electronic, hacking, Music, musical instrument, rhythm
Posted in Beam Beats, Music, Physical Computing • 2 Comments »
In this last part, we put ideas into practice to build an instrument dedicated to play solo for electronic music genres. We will use light sensors, buttons and an Arduino board to control MIDI synthesizers in a way that is attractive to both musicians and non musicians.
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Tags: accessibility, arduino, instrument, interactive, interface, midi, Music
Posted in Music, Physical Computing • 2 Comments »
Just like many arts, music arousal is considered to follow the well-known Wundt curve that defines the balance between attractiveness and boredom. Too much repetition is boring, not enough repetition is confusing and considered just noise. What for? Let us assert that idea to music, to generate rhythms. A very simple application of the Wundt [...]
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Tags: beam beats, beat, drum machine, electronic, hacking, Music, musical instrument, rhythm
Posted in Beam Beats, Music, Physical Computing • 1 Comment »