To make sure this project isn't simply one man's fantasy, like so many bad electronic music projects, I've formed a band of local musicians to meet regularly and practicing playing and give feedback. This is Juliet. She's a multi-instrumentalist, with some mild programming experience.
This is the "Crank Scale" shell. Curiously, it borrows flashlight hardware - a generator form one flashlight and a shell from another. The purpose of the shell is resonance. The generator is to supply another microcontroller with power.
The light output of the flashlight is replaced with a speaker and several controls for pitch, vibrato and volume.
The completed prototype, which Juliet plays has three main parts: body, electronics and controls.
Trying it out before putting it all together.
One of the issues in this project is how to assign fingering. I've been studying traditional fingered instruments, such as recorder, basson, flute, etc to learn how to do this smoothly. The domain of traditional instruments is based on physical air resonance and quite different from the digital domain. There are lots of lessons to be learned here. Shown is the 2nd revision of the fingering chart, playing 16 chromatic steps. Real musician feedback was key to choosing the direction and polarity of the fingering.
How the device is held during play.
