So you may have noticed that we have numerous posts about applications made with Cycling ’74’s MAX/MSP. Max is an object oriented programing language that is awesome for building audio and video applications. Now for all of you that went to Cycling ’74’s website to get a copy of the software but then saw the not so cheap price tag, don’t worry you still have another option. This is where Pure Data makes its entrance. I would describe Pd as the little brother of Max, and best of all it is free to the public. For a full description of the software click here. I was using Pd before I even found out about MAX/MSP, and when I switched over to Max I found out that everything I knew about Pd had a direct correlation with Max. If you check out the post “Sequencing Kids Toys”, the software I am running in the video is the last patch I ever made with Pure Data. The video was filmed right before I got a copy of MAX/MSP. So if you are now ready to give Pd a try you can go to the download page by clicking here. Pure Data is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. As always the illuminated sounds team is interested in what you guys are doing, so if you make any fun patches send them our way so we can play with them too. Also below I have included some of the videos that helped me get started with Pure Data. Enjoy.
So a while ago me and a couple of my coworkers got bored on a slow day at work, and being dilagent musicians surrounded music gear, we decided to make a song. The point of the song was to make cell phone answering message. The main beat was made on a Playstation Portable (PSP) with the program Rythmn, vocals were done using the vocoder on a Korg R3 synth, and eveything was quickly and easily recorded and mixed down in Apple’s Garageband. Check it out, it turned out pretty gangster. Big ups to DJay Hayes on the vocoded vocals.
So I have been getting a few requests for the source file of Random7. So in the spirit of open source here it is. I am excited to see how people will integrate this into their builds, so make sure to keep us updated.
Alright it’s finally here the update for mac. Sorry it took so long. So test it out and let me know what you think and if you find any bug. Also if you make any music with Random7 send it this way I would love to see how other people use it.
So Mike and I found some cheap $2 touch screens from a used computer parts store. They are 4-wire resistive touch screens from various manufacturers. Now everybody knows about the Arduino, and if you don’t it’s basically a Quick-n-Easy prototyping board equipped with 14 digital pins (6 of which can provide PWM output), and 6 analog pins. the chip is an ATmega168 with limited functionality. It reads a modified version of C++ so writing code for it is fairly straight forward, without much variance from that of C++.
I used two analog pins and one digital pin for this project. I wired the touch screen to the 3v pin, the Gnd pin and the analog pins 0 and 1 set to input. In the code (digital) Pin 3 is set to PWM out. I wired the output jack to Gnd and Pin 3. The code generates a sine wave that has it’s frequency and volume variables mapped to the touch screens X and Y. So for example I have my finger at 0 X, 0 Y then my frequency will be 30 and my volume will be around 1 db. As I move up the X the frequency changes and as I move up the Y so does the volume. The frequencies jump up the pentatonic scale and if you put multiple fingers on it then it adds the values together and you get into the way higher frequencies.
I added leds underneath for looks and for functionality so I could remember the location of particular sounds. Altogether its pretty basic but kinda fun. here are some recordings of it that I just made while sitting here making this post.
Just updated the Random7 for windows. I added some new features and made it a little bit easier to assign the midi i/o. Check it out and let me know what good and bad. Mac version will be coming soon.
I made a device that simply sends audio through an infrared LED and on the other side you hear the results. There is an RGB LED inside to cause different levels of different colors of light on inside the box. Its kind of an odd thing to do and it causes pleasing distortion of the audio effects being sent though when you lower the threshold of light. There is also a nice thing that happens when you send audio as a beam of light flashing on another led underneath the IR control, you get a splicing effect that I cant explain, here are some of the results.
This is a sample of me turning down the RGB light on the inside of the box bringing the brightness of the light inside the box from full to min. you can hear the high frequencies start to roll off then the crunchyness start to come though. I have automated this control with the beat in previous recordings and you can make some great effects like bringing in one drum hit nice and clear and making the rest of the beat all squashed and crunchy.. I do this and make layers of beats that sound nice and complex. Click here to play dirty.wav
Here is the same beat with misc voices talking that I recorded off the radio and have played into my “led speaker” wheres it can effect the audio being sent through the infrared LED. Click here to play Format.wav
This is a LED speaker like the one is inside the odd
So a couple of months ago, James and I were playing with manipulating music and sound using light. While doing this we stumbled on what seems to be the simplest light thermin. The circuit has a total of 4 components; 150 Ohm resistor, 9 volt battery, a speaker, and is mainly driven by the TSL230R Light to Frequency Converter made by Parallax Inc.
We got the circuit to work with speakers and various audio jacks. All components were bought at our local Radio Shack for around 10 dollars. This is a real simple project for people new or just interested in sound and light manipulation, and it only takes five to ten minutes to build.
Charles Martin made an awesome patch in Pure Data last year that analyzes an audio input and then uses pitch and amplitude information to output a midi control value. This works great with the Light to Sound converter, and turns it into a cheap easy to build midi controller. Check out the link below.
