max msp

Hi guys here is a screen grab of us bringing music into max. There is sound wave with the frequency number showing in the box off it (there are two because the computer is used to running a left and a right speaker, we have connected the one contact microphone to both. This means that the two boxes will show the same numbers) . We now need to set it up to save these numbers from different time increments and export them from the program.

Music Box

A musical box is a 19th century automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc so as to pluck the tuned teeth of a steel comb. They were developed from musical snuff boxes of the 18th century and called carillons à musique. Some of the more complex boxes also have a tiny drum and small bells, in addition to the metal comb.
Concept idea -simply in design,extremely beautiful

1. The bedpan (or bedplate) is the relatively heavy metal foundation on which all the other pieces are fastened, usually by screws.
2. The ratchet lever or the windup key is used to put the spring motor under tension, that is to wind it up.
3. The spring motor or motors (two or more can be used to make playing times longer) give anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or more of playing time.
4. The comb is a flat piece of metal with dozens or even hundreds of tuned teeth of different lengths.
5. The cylinder is the programming object, a metallic version of a punched card which, instead of having holes to express a program, is studded with tiny pins at the correct spacing to produce music by displacing the teeth of the comb at the correct time. The tines of the comb 'ring', or sound, as they slip off the pins. The disc in a disc music box plays this function, with pins perpendicular to the plane surface.
6. Multiple-tune cylinders have more than one set of pins intertwined on the same cylinder, with, for example, the B pins for a second song lying halfway between the B and C pins of the first song, etc. Offsetting the cylinder slightly relative to the comb brings the different set of pins into contact with the tines, thereby playing an alternate piece of music. Many modern music boxes will have as many as four sets of pins intertwined, with a mechanism automatically shifting the cylinder from one song or movement to the next.

MakerBot. Object.

MakerBot. Object.
Beauty of the MakerBot can be seen in the objects it produces. The small printed objects hold a great deal of aesthetic value, from the detail of form and structure through to the way layers are built upon one another to give a sense of growth.

Intro. MakerBot.

MakerBot.

A small, affordable and accessible 3D printer, that prints and constucts computer generated objects out of extruded ABS plastic.

Before the big dismantle

Before the big dismantle

Sound Horn(s)

This is a little larger than we are aiming for but representational of our concept none the less... impression

Dimensions of a sound horn are generally as follows:

Length = 1 wavelength of lowest frequency to express

Circumference of open end = 1 wavelength of same lowest frequency

From that frequency the horn will be effective at sounding the next 3 octaves. A smaller horn is required for higher frequency sounds and therefore it follows that more than one horn may be required to adequately sound all frequencies of our 3D print interpretation...

please check this website for further explanations of a sound horn:

http://www.lenardaudio.com/education/07_horns.html

Robotic Font

Thinking robots, bots, robotic making machines, robotic melody machines... Robot font for the BOT in melodybot?

testing of contact microphone

I have a bunch of sound files for review next class.

Thanks james for coming to the workshop to

construct this wee test rig :)

Draft concepts for logo/aesthetics.

Not finalised, still just playing around.

new horns

finding the horn geometry, through Solidworks models, as we (Sarah, Jess, Ruth, James) measured out the intended circumference, and determined it a tad too big, thus the horn will perhaps also be supported by little spindly legs.
I like James' idea on making the horn square, (left img) what do you guys think? it'll def make it easier to make, and esp the wallpaper panels.
development photos to come..

contact microphone on 10cm of piano wire

max msp

http://cycling74.com/products/maxmspjitter/graphics/

max msp

We can use max msp to convert sound files directly into form :)

Here is a video recording sound into max msp with a contact microphone.

measurements

solidworks initial mock-ups to garner a beginning idea to form and measurements.

light projection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-5TbXZrt5Q

Our Contact Microphone

Piezoelectricity is where certain materials like crystals, some ceramics and biological matter( DNA, bone and some proteins), to create electric fields from the response of mechanical stress. In our case we're using this type technology in the form of a sensor, much like a pick-up on a guitar. If you've ever seen the game Guiatr hero and played the Rock Band edition the drums and guitar work the same way. The drum is hit creating a vibration through the sensor which is then communicated to the console device to play a certain sound associated with what ever drum that has been played.

BFG

Surveying equipment

Surveying or land surveying is the technique and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the surface of the Earth, and they are often used to establish land maps and boundaries for ownership or governmental purposes.

To accomplish their objective, surveyors use elements of geometry, engineering, trigonometry, mathematics, physics, and law.

An alternative definition, per the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), is the science and art of making all essential measurements to determine the relative position of points and/or physical and cultural details above, on, or beneath the surface of the Earth, and to depict them in a usable form, or to establish the position of points and/or details.

Furthermore, as alluded to above, a particular type of surveying known as "land surveying" (also per ACSM) is the detailed study or inspection, as by gathering information through observations, measurements in the field, questionnaires, or research of legal instruments, and data analysis in the support of planning, designing, and establishing of property boundaries. It involves the re-establishment of cadastral surveys and land boundaries based on documents of record and historical evidence, as well as certifying surveys (as required by statute or local ordinance) of subdivision plats/maps, registered land surveys, judicial surveys, and space delineation. Land surveying can include associated services such as mapping and related data accumulation, construction layout surveys, precision measurements of length, angle, elevation, area, and volume, as well as horizontal and vertical control surveys, and the analysis and utilization of land survey data.

Surveying has been an essential element in the development of the human environment since the beginning of recorded history (about 5,000 years ago). It is required in the planning and execution of nearly every form of construction. Its most familiar modern uses are in the fields of transport, building and construction, communications, mapping, and the definition of legal boundaries for land ownership.

An expensive option to project just an idea

eye height

Standing eye level for men is on average 1540mm to 1785mm,
and 1440mm to 1675mm for women. thus, the average height for both male and female is 1610mm.
hence the measurements for the median box heights gained. Double this for the circumference of the horn. 3220mm (feasible?)

image notes: Illustration of the geometrical rules of optics that express the height of the object as a proportion of the perceiver-actor’s eye height (i.e. an eye-height ratio), where Y is the object's total height, E is the portion of the object below the horizon, and y and e are the respective heights expressed as visual angles. The height of the object depends on the eye height and is expressed as a visual angle: Y/E = 1 + tan(y-e) / tan(e).

Some cool noise

Eclectic Method - Robots from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

possible sounds?

zotx robotic tobot from Banu Taylan on Vimeo.

David Byrne - Playing a Building

Live Scanning vs. Mechanical Scanning

Okay, so for the past week Shannon, Sam and I have been looking into what sort of equipment would be needed in order to scan an object and what kind of software would be needed to make the thing go just to get some sort of outcome. The idea would be using a 3-D scanner to scan a profile of an object and then to convert that profile into a wave that could be imported into a CAD application to create a virtual model while playing the sound that the 'profile wave' would create at the same time. Unfortunately this isn't a 'push one button' process so it takes time to set up, import and export to just extract a basic profile.

Lucky for us we were pointed into a slightly more suitable direction called 'Structured Light Scanning'. If you haven't heard of this term it's where cameras and a projector are set up in certain configuration that allows images to be captured and decoded into 3-D point cloud(converting image information into something digital that can be read in CAD application). A great example and precedent of this kind of 3-D scanning is Radiohead "House of Cards" video for more information follow the link http://www.instructables.com/id/Structured-Light-3D-Scanning/



However this process, even though it's amazing beyond compare, is a tad too complicated to create within the time period we have. This leads to the happy accident Jess and I had while searching for open source software that could do this.

Taking Ruth's elegant concept of the turntable and trumpet and Shannon's brilliant idea of picking up sound through the contact microphone, we came up with a mechanical concept that used a more reasonable and more aesthetically suitable way of making 3-D prints do what we want them to do through the Melody Bot.

The idea would be to have a turntable that held a maker bot print in someway. Then a turntable arm with a contact microphone attached, rather than a needle, would be used to bump or scrape against the maker bot print in a rhythmic way. This would create the sound directly from the print itself without having to scan it. The sound wave taken from this would be imported into the computer like a DJ would as if they were mixing on the spot to create a live scanning in take. The sound values would then be turned into a new maker bot print. What makes this more 'out there' is that hopefully there will be multiple arms that bump or scrape against the print that's being read.

Once that was rigged up the further pushed idea would be to set up multiple turntables with their own respectable arms reading other prints at the same time so that the DJ mixing the print sounds had multiple imports that could be used like creating a song with each print being read representing a respective band member. This would mean that one print would represent a rhythmic drum beat, one would be the acoustic strum of guitar etc. The final print at the end would be a 'song' compilation that re-represented the original prints used to make it through the sound they produced.

Check out this Rotato!

contact microphone

A contact microphone, otherwise known as a pickup or a piezo, is a form of microphone designed to transmit audio vibrations through solid objects. Unlike normal air microphones, contact mics act as transducers which pick up vibrations and convert them into a voltage which can then be made audible. Often used as acoustic leakage probes, they also enjoy wide usage by noise music artists experimenting with sound. Plain contact microphones are passive and high-impedance and this can cause them to sound 'tinny' unless used with a matching preamp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_microphone

researching horns

http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?imgurl=http://lionhug.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/moz-screenshot-231.jpg&imgrefurl=http://lionhug.wordpress.com/2008/08/&usg=__Cdqjhw8D3KSfr3wpvWhoSCkYuRk=&h=485&w=349&sz=27&hl=en&start=11&sig2=Kxo9c4Ze26-JGD0pDauI-w&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=o0H66rjkaoaKyM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=93&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dresonance%2Bof%2Ba%2Bhorn%2Bshape%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2GPEA_en%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=aa30S6uoF4r66QOIv-D-BQ

http://www.goodsoundclub.com/Site_Images/CowHorn.gif

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.luxist.com/media/2007/09/hornspeaker.jpg

compositional ideas, either tethered on spindly legs, like that of a maker bot strand, or held up by a group of midgets, as a semi-permanent installation. the juxtaposing of scale between the minute makerbot printed object, and the idea of getting sound off it, results in an out-of-proportion horn.
just some ideas, NB. there was no turntable in the attic (that was permissioned to dismantle, lets go for this one, (is this the one you were looking at sarah?)?)

Slinkies and Star Wars Sound Effects

makerbot star wars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzDZLwaDzys



heres also a link to the G-Code of how this was produced.
http://wiki.makerbot.com/imperial-march

Dispersion of Sound Waves in Ice Sheets

http://silentlistening.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/dispersion-of-sound-waves-in-ice-sheets/