In an explosion of color, buttons, keys, velcro, and fur, and coupled with a cyborg-chic eyepiece, the VoltAxe is controllerism gone Mad Max, a post-acocalyptic keytar bred from salvaged parts. And if you want to make a unique construction of your own, creator Julie Covello – aka New York’s DJ Shakey – is willing to tell all her secrets, as well as why this was important to her music.

In modeling (the basement hobby variety, not the skinny fashionista one), “kitbashing” is the act of combining bits of multiple kits to produce one finished whole. Some custom new controllers are following a similar route, taking the best bits of, say, a keyboard and a Novation Launchpad, and going a bit nuts. Julie’s work deserves special mention not only because it takes that technique to an extreme, but it couples it with a heads-up, hands-free video display to keep feedback from the computer visible without being a distraction.

Julie tells us all the details:

The VoltAxe controller was created as part of my artist-in-residency at the Clocktower Gallery in New York City, made possible with support from the Jerome Foundation. I named my residency “Dj Shakey’s Audio Control Adventure” and wrote a pseudo-blog on Facebook.

To me, exploring Controllerism means trying to make my performance easier, more creative, and more dynamic. I did quite a bit of general research during this project, but with the performance controller, I focused on making a system that allowed me to walk around, not look at the controller, not look at my laptop (remove the barrier between
me and the audience and / or my bandmates), and have maximum flexibility and spontaneity with the sounds I was manipulating.

I had about 5 weeks to work, and I wanted a finished product that I could perform with, so I followed up on simpler solutions and left the hardcore hacking and studying for another time. I was also planning a huge finale party with 23 music and projection artists performing in multiple rooms, so that was on my plate as well.

Here’s a description of the final controller system…
I use Ableton Live — the way I perform, I want to see the laptop screen so I can pick clips at random to suit my mood. I don’t want to memorize my set and I don’t want to stare at my laptop screen either, so the solution was creating an eyepiece that shows my laptop screen within it. To build this I got help from VJ DoctorMojo aka Mark Alan
Johnson of Mojo Video Tech, Inc.. We experimented with a number of hacks, repurposing components extracted from the viewfinders of old camcorders. These experiments yeilded a number of functional miniature low-voltage displays, however these units were all black-and-white and a color image was what I needed. Very long story short, the final solution was to buy a pair of Vuzix
personal video glasses (US$250), flip them upside down and attach ONE screen to a regular pair of glasses so that only one of my eyes is looking at the screen and the other eye is looking out into the world. What I see with both eyes open is my laptop screen floating in the air on top of what I normally see. It’s amazing how easy this is to use!

There was more to do to make this work:
1. I had to run the output of my computer to a scan converter ($100) about the size of a cigarette pack and then run a wire to the little box that manages the glasses, adapters and cables were required.

2. I had to power the glasses, so that meant making the power cable about 10 feet longer so it could be plugged in while I walked around.

3. The image in the glasses was upside-down, since the unit was mounted upside-down (to avoid my nose!), so I rotated it 180 degrees via my Mac OS preferences.

4. The cursor size was too small, so I enlarged it with the Mac’s “Universal Access” preferences.

5. The image of my laptop screen was pretty low resolution, so low that I couldnt read any of the clip names, I referred to the Universal Access preferences to determine key commands for zoom in and zoom out and then programmed
my mouse keys to do the shortcut keys for these functions. Zoom out and I can see levels and stuff; zoom in and I can read type. I also fooled around with the screen resolution so it would be as clear as possible.

Speaking of the mouse, I did more research on the mouse than anything else! I wanted to attach it to my controller, which I was planning on hanging over my shoulders like a keytar. It had to have basic mouse functions AND I wanted buttons that could be programmed to do a series of keystrokes with one touch. There were some pretty cool mice on websites for the handicapped, but they were either absurdly expensive or they didn’t have all the functionality I wanted. I ended up using the one I had on my desk, the Kensington Expert Pro Turbo Trackball. I’ve had several over the years and I love them. They don’t make them any more, so they are hard to get and costly. (US$150 – 300) Also, the trackball is not secured in the socket. I basically just duct-taped this to my controller backing, and secured the trackball (with help from Mojo) with a piece of silver solder and a rubber band so it could move freely but securely. The mouse comes with programming software and I programmed the buttons to do — whatever I wanted!

The controller backing is 3/4 foam board ($5). I need this thing to be light! It is solid and doesn’t flex at all. I attached a number of controllers to this backing, a Novation Launchpad (triggering clips, punching clips in and out), Korg nanoPAD 2 (fx, samples), Korg nanoKONTROL 2 (mixing, fx), and two Vmeters (fx). I also messed around with a Keith McMillen Softstep foot controller which I like a lot and am still incorporating into the set-up. All of these run into a “Plugable”[-brand] 10-input powered USB hub on the back of the unit. I had to add a 12-foot usb extension to reach my laptop, as well as extending the power brick cable. All these long cables were bound into a single cable sleeve running to the laptop and power strip.

In an effort to use the controllers without looking at them, I added textures to many of the keys so I could find them by touch (velcro, rubber, fur). I covered up the keys that I had no plan to use so I wouldn’t hit them by accident. I divided the Launchpad up into 4×4 quandrants with miniature wire and ductape ridges. I’m still adapting to this set-up.

After the whole thing was put together, I hung it from a strap I grabbed off a gear case I had in the room. It took some trial and error to determine where to place the ends of the straps on the controller so that it would hang properly and my hands reached all the controls comfortably. I spent some time with the prototype attaching and re-attaching items until everything was in the right place before cutting out the foam board into the final shape. At this time, everything is attached with checkered duct tape from Home Depot; soon I will upgrade this to velcro (but keep the checkers as
decoration!).

The VoltAxe was ready to test play at midnight the day before the huge event where I was going to perform! Thanks to
Moldover and Mojo, who were with me doing ongoing troubleshooting, configuring went quickly and I was able to rehearse for a few hours and pull it together just in time! At the show, everything went as planned and I couldn’t have been happier – it was
so much fun! I can’t wait to evolve this set-up! My next move is to make it mobile and take it to the subway station to do some busking.

More information:
DJ Shakey : Clocktower Artist-In-Residency [as written up by the video whiz behind the project, Mojo]

Radio interview, talking DJing, “controllerism,” producing, and complete with remixes and original music from Shakey:
DJ Culture: DJ Shakey, The Illustrated Interview

If you like the project and want to see it developed more, you can also vote for it on Artists Wanted

Here’s a track with the controller in action:
Minor schwing by FreebassBK

Thanks, Julie!

Stockholm-based design technistas and boutique synth shop Teenage Engineering have evidently worked out how to keep busy and brighten those dark Swedish winters. They showed up in Southern California this week with a slew of new stuff to show off. And while mention of their OP-1 synth may elicit controversy in comment threads online, their booths are crowd pleasers. In contrast to the buttoned-up, business-like atmosphere of a lot of tech vendors at NAMM, TE’s whimsical science lab seems to spill out onto the show floor, and – along with more analog-tilted booths Big City and Analog Haven – attracted crowds like no other tech.

What was actually going on? There’s a new OS update and a new product. The OS update delivers new drum and sequencer modes and badly-needed MIDI sync, plus cool MIDI modulation. Combined, it seems the OP-1 has really matured – sync alone removes a major obstacle for some adopters.

The new hardware is Opbox, a combination USB host / MIDI / CV box with analog sensors – and it has pretty plug-in modules and even custom-made shoes to match. The shoes may not be terribly practical, but the Oplab fits a unique niche in hardware I/O and DIY projects – provided it’s a niche that people actually want. We’ve got some details plus some exclusive images.

OP-1 Update

New in the OS:

• Finger step-sequencer, with 32 step patterns per key and 14 polyphonic patterns. (It’s an unfortunate name, given that’s also Tim Exile’s excellent Reaktor creation. Toe? But it looks cool.
• DrumBox, a drum synth. More on that in a second.
• MIDI LFOs for modulating four parameters at once – very cool.
• MIDI sync – at last, you can sync to clock messages.

Bonus: you get Reason integration (if you enjoy superior Swedish engineering), and, oddly, a game.

http://www.teenageengineering.com/products/op-1/os-update

I ran into CDM reader Neil Bufkin on the show floor, and he’s back with a new video of the OP-1 update and other goodies. Watch:

Teenage Engineer David Ericksson also shares some thoughts with CDM on DrumBox:

The idea behind DrumBox is to provide a spiced up version of classic beat box designs with everything from digital wave-shaping to FM and more. You get 24 keys each with a custom 2 oscillator setup where you can morph between different modes. The same knob also includes a volume envelope to balance the drum sounds. It’s been very tricky to build this up using only 8 parameters and still get a versatile drum machine. The payoff is that it’s pretty hands on and when you start using the LFO’s to control these params you can really do crazy stuff.

TE also shares with CDM the rough sketch from which this feature originated, plus a look at how it looks in the final product:

Oplab

Oplab is an all-new product. It’s marketed as complementing the OP-1, but it’s really a general-purpose board. Imagine an Arduino-like prototyping platform on steroids, with stuff you’d want to use for music applications. And then imagine that, much to the surprise of me and a number of other people with whom I spoke, that they made a bare circuit board look strangely beautiful and finished. This board looks better than a lot of housings. In one box, you combine lots of I/O connections and inputs for sensors.

• Three USB connections. One turns the Oplab itself into a USB device, so you can connect to a computer. But the other two are USB hosts. That means you can use the Oplab with USB devices and no computer in sight.
• Three MIDI connections. MIDI IN, MIDI OUT, and then a third MIDI port that can be either THRU or SYNC24.
• 2 CV in, 2 CV out for analog connections – using any analog connection you like.
• Program select switches. Easy access to settings.
• Ins and outs for anything else. 2 12-bit connections can be switched to input or output, so you can do everything from add sensors to use as music controllers or drive lights or motors. Now, that’s not many connections – but notice also the headers and coming development kit.
• Plug-and-play sensors. For those who want something that lets them hack around without having wires pop up or worrying about delicate, exposed boards, TE is making ready-to-use sensors. Flip is an accelerometer, Poke a pressure sensor, and Tap a piezo. You could also make your own and save some scratch.

http://www.teenageengineering.com/products/oplab/

All of this goodness costs you – US$299 is the price for the board, sensors costs $49 each, and the pretty red tray with the sensors and board all put together top US$425. But you do get some fairly sophisticated functionality in the form of adding MIDI and CV and USB hosting. Hosting isn’t easy. This also opens up some new interconnections with devices like iOS and Android and the OP-1, since the USB hosts can negate the need for a dedicated computer for USB MIDI gadgetry.

In fact, it’s nice to see a polished, designed product that does this kind of DIY stuff; that’s something we had seen in past entries from vendors like Eowave but had largely fallen away in recent years. There’s just no question that if you’re on a budget you should look to other ways of doing this. And I think the bigger question is whether people will like this I/O setup. It won’t suit people with lots of CV, and it’ll be overkill for people with simpler setups. My guess is it’ll make a lot of people happy in between, but I honestly don’t know. Let us know if you’re intrigued.

All of this is capped off by more Teenage oddities. The latest addition: they’ve designed their own custom shoe, complete with a pouch to hold their accelerometer.

More information – and lots of ideas for how you might use the Oplab, put quite articulately if a bit scant on technical details – at:

http://www.teenageengineering.com/products/oplab/
http://www.teenageengineering.com/products/op-1/os-update

Updated: Making Over Your Lifestyle with Design

Comments are getting a bit … heated … below. So, I simply wish to take this opportunity to say, if you don’t like the chic design of Teenage Engineering’s products, you can be easily replaced.

(PS – IKEA is now based in the Netherlands, so it’s fitting this is a Dutch, not a Swedish, film. But watch and learn. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to pop open a can of Budweiser and use a real synth – one with wooden endcaps – in the back of my truck, before catching the NFC championship football game. None of this Swedish nonsense. And remember, all national stereotypes in your head are completely true! America!)

It bears saying: a lot of the taste for Scandinavian design was cultivated in the US. Along with other European modernists, key designers settled places like Los Angeles, and their style mingled with American style. If you don’t like the looks (or, crucially, function) of this, tell us what you do like: more variety is better.

When we last saw Onyx Ashanti, he was speaking of a grand vision to remake himself into a music-performing Tron. Now, the elements of that vision are coming together, with a crowd-sourced funding campaign that ends today, Friday. Update: Apparently after seeing this story, IndieGogo extended the funding deadline for five days, with the new deadline Thursday, December 1.

I knew Onyx back when he was playing more conventional wind controllers. Now, that fingering arrangement is freed from the virtual wind instrument, handheld and movable through space. Because of the plans to open source everything he’s making, you might yourself pick up that hand controller – or, if you’re like Onyx, go full-tilt with physical training to make your body do new things and a carbon fire, full-body prosthetic transformation.

Onyx has been at auditions for the main TED (the big one, not TEDx), experimenting with a beatbox configuration, and honing alien-like futuristic human reinvention with the help of artist Christopher Logan, aka Loganic. Loganic makes the art, then prosthetic engineer Uli Maier – with doses of carbon fiber – translates those notions into physical form. And the whole thing is mobile; Onyx draws on his busking background to take this thing wherever he goes.

Initially built as an open/proprietary hybrid, the new system is increasingly open source from the ground up, from customized Linux-based software to Pure Data (Pd) patches to open source designs for the molds. The wearable system can be 3D printed. Plans for the system also were featured in Make Magazine.

It’s actually quite a lot to digest, but Onyx has been posting videos, the most recent and illustrative of which I’ve included here. And because there’s a lot to do physically, from personal training to buying clay to engineering the prosthetics, Onyx is relying on crowd-sourced funding. In place of Kickstarter, which has specific requirements for minimum funding and other restrictions and requires US-based banking, he’s opted for IndieGogo.

If you invest just a few dollars, you at least get music; with successively larger donations, Onyx throws in his software, custom artwork and posters, t-shirts, or starting at US$500, the custom hardware itself for your use.

The IndieGogo campaign ends Thursday, December 1:
IndieGogo: Beatjazz System

– but we’ll be in touch with Onyx on an ongoing basis, so let me know if you have questions for him or want to watch this continue to evolve.

Videos showing the making of the elements of the system:

Above: New visualizations in 3D have vastly expanded the now-Pure-Data-based audio system with heads-up displays worthy of the spacesuit. Below: Some of the beautiful concept artwork produced for the project.

IndieGogo Campaign

Previously: Onyx Wants to Make Himself Into Helmeted, Wearable-Music-Tech Tron, With Your Help

You might imagine sound in space, or dream up gestures that traverse unexplored sonic territory. But actually building it is another matter. Kinect – following a long line of computer vision applications and spatial sensors – lets movement and gestures produce sound. The challenge of such instruments has long been that learning to play them is tough without tactile feedback. Thereminists learn their instrument through a the extremely-precise sensing of their instrument and sonic feedback.

In AHNE (Audio-Haptic Navigation Environment), sonic feedback is essential, but so, too, is feel. Haptic vibration lets you know as you approach sounds — essential, as they’re invisible. The work of Finland-based DJ/VJ Matti Niinimäki, aka MÅNSTERI (“Mons-te-ri”), the project is part of research undertaken at SOPI Research Group at Media Lab Helsinki. Like some sort of sound sorcerer, the user is entirely dependent on movement, feel, and sound as they move unseen sound sources through space. (More technical details below.)

It’s labeled, as always, “proof of concept.” The creator promises more videos to come; we’ll be watching as this evolves, as it looks terribly promising.

Below, “Tension” is a fair bit simpler, in which users walk through a space and control synth parameters. (“You are the knob,” one might say, though I don’t suggest shouting that at someone you don’t know. They could take it the wrong way.)

More descriptions:

AHNE

This is a demonstration video of AHNE – Audio-Haptic Navigation Environment.

It is an audio-haptic user interface that allows the user to locate and manipulate sound objects in 3d space with the help of audio-haptic feedback.

The user is tracked with a Kinect sensor using the OpenNI framework and OSCeleton (github.com/​Sensebloom/​OSCeleton).

The user wears a glove that is embedded with sensors and a small vibration motor for the haptic feedback.

This is just the first proof-of-concept demo. More videos coming soon.

HEI Project 2011
SOPI Research Group
sopi.media.taik.fi/

Aalto University School of Art and Design

AHNE – Sound and Physical Interaction

Tension

A brief video showing Tension. An interactive spatial sound installation for multiple users.

A person enters the space and a generative sound is assigned to that person. The sound pans around in the 6-channel speaker system following the user in the space.

Up to 5 users can use the installation at the same time. Each person modifies the other sounds based on the distance to the other users. The closer you are to other people the more the tension in the sound increases.

Tension – Sound and Physical Interaction

Side note: watching these two videos makes me want to consult with someone on non-verbal expression, posture, and stage presence. That criticism is mounted at myself – I could use it. Perhaps we need an all-physical, unplugged music event for laptopists, controllerists, and electronic musicians. And I can at least say I’ve had some experience in this, working in the dance program at my undergraduate alma mater, Sarah Lawrence. Anyone game? (Sounds like something we could do while CDM is in Berlin in the fall.)

For their part, the Finnish research facility is working with dancers, along with Nokia Research Center. (Sadly, I can’t find documentation.) But I think interesting things happen when us non-dancers learn movement technique, too.

You may have already seen FaceOSC, free software that eases the use of facial tracking from a computer camera for use as a controller, here with music software (top). Synthtopia picked up the story in July, featuring artist and engineer Kyle McDonald. But one FreeKa Tet has done his own implementation (second from top), and while the video is a bit grainy, he sounds wonderfully terrifying, as if his face is trying to slip out of The Matrix.

Sometimes, I’m rendered entirely silent (no, really, it happens), and it’s best to let videos speak for themselves. So here, after the jump, are some whimsical and wild prosthetic sound light-up … hell, I don’t have any idea what’s going on, but I’m enjoying it.

I dare you to start some conversation about musicality. Just don’t be surprised, comment trolls, if you find yourself abducted by a glowing and oddly glitchy-sounding creature with long, monstrous fingers. I’d watch what I say, frankly. Remember the old saying “on the Internet, no one knows if you’re a dog?” I expect that extends to space aliens, too.

Plenty more where those came from.

Oh, look, I could have done my research and seen there’s a bio for Mr. FreeKa Tet, aka Bacon ClapCLAP.
:

Extreme violent bursts, silence, speech, hard rock samples, strange atmospheres, Burgers , American Idol Icon, crackles, retardation, puking static, rocking a gabber party, cutting a worm in half and watching both parts moving, get a watch tatoo on his wrist, confusing videogames with music, drawing little puke characters on friends faces …

Right. Okay. That cleared everything up.

Enjoy your weekend, folks, and stay high and dry, those of you here on the Eastern seaboard of the US.

Music made by machines need not turn its back on traditional musical skill – least of all when you literally strap the machines on the back of a master musician. In a fusion of Brazilian tradition and modern wireless, wearable sensor technology, Kyle McDonald shares with us a project that makes drums into an interactive suit.

Kyle has plenty to say, including all the details on how to do this in case it inspires a project of your own, so I’ll let him take it away:

The project is a wireless drum suit that I built with Lucas Werthein for a popular Brazilian musician named Carlinhos Brown.

Brown wanted to try something experimental — which is relevant because it’s probably one of the first alternative interfaces anyone
in this city has ever seen. Salvador might be one of the biggest open air-festivals ever, but it’s full of traditional music and the local
pop music (“axé”). Nothing but the usual guitars and drums, and some Bahian + Brazilian instruments.

The system is based on a multilayer, laser-cut design we developed:

It uses acrylic, metal, rubber, and piezos to create a really solid module that feels nice to the touch. I’ve always been annoyed with the
force required to hit something like an [M-Audio] Trigger Finger or an Akai pad, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that if you build your own, you can really get that bottom end to be super sensitive. They probably just pull it up in commercial devices to avoid triggering from
shaking, or cross talk.

The pads run to the brain via 1/8″ cables. The brain is about the size of an Arduino Mega + 1 9V battery, and also laser-cut acrylic:

The Arduino Mega is then connected to a MIDI shield from Sparkfun, which goes to a CME WIDI wireless MIDI device that was surprisingly more robust than the more expensive Kenton MIDI device we tried.

I had a ton of fun making this, and we’re planning on open-sourcing the design for the pads so other people can build them.

Onyx Ashanti is insane – in the special, essential way that makes certain brilliant musicians. An experienced busker, having crossed from the US to Berlin, he’s a rare virtuoso of wind instruments and electronic improvisation, the kind of musically-free soul who can just let loose live. But his latest project really crosses into some new territory.

He’s making himself into Tron.

No, really – just having some handheld touch control wasn’t enough, so he’s preparing an open source, wearable rig. He’s hardly the first to attempt this sort of thing, but he has two major advantages: first, he’s already developed the musical idioms and chops he needs, rather than leaving that for some indeterminate time after the thing is built. Second, he has on his team not only himself, but people with experience in prosthetics, plus the co-founder of Ableton. And the work isn’t just a crowdsourced pipe dream: it’s already well on its way.

I could try to describe it all, but this is a project only its mad-scientist, mad-musician creator can really do justice. So I’ll let Onyx take it away.

My Name is Onyx Ashanti. I am a Busker, Author, Beatjazz Artist.

Beatjazz is a term and style of music i came up with back in the late 90s, which described my playing of my wind MIDI controller with beats I had pre-programmed into Fruity Loops [now FL Studio]. That was cool for a while, but as time went on and I got older, It became boring. I wasn’t writing new beats as often as i should have. I had an Ableton phase which gave me a different means of using beats as a sort of hybrid, chopped-up DJ/live set kinda thing, but i got bored of that, as well. It wasn’t until a family tragedy that I realized that it was time to walk that tight-rope, in a sense, to do the weird and the crazy stuff that you convince yourself not to, for the various reasons you give yourself. So beatjazz evolved into a beat-centric form of live music based on live looping, software synth-based sound design, and jazz improvisation. That was three and a half years ago.

It wasn’t easy. It took a year just to get proficient enough to play beats live without a metronome using the wind controller. But after that, Beatjazz evolved in ways i couldn’t have imagined — styles of music that I may have heard once in my life, springing out of one of these extended improvised sessions, which sounds oddly like DJ sets in their continuity.

Over time, I have outstripped the capabilities of my [Yamaha] WX5 wind MIDI controller. It was not designed to do multi-elemental improvisation. There are many things to do and keep track of during a live beatjazz performance, so I have, over the last few years used a wide variety of different secondary controllers, such as the M-Audio Trigger Finger and the Korg microKONTROL, but found them all to be to distracting in performance. A wind midi controller is constructed like a horn. It looks like a clarinet, and as such, it’s hard to play and simultaneously tweak a knob on a secondary controller, because your hands need to be on the horn. And I never liked foot pedals, especially in clubs, because they limit my movements to a very small area — and get drinks spilled on them CONSTANTLY.

Last winter, I started experimenting with using TouchOSC, interfacing with [open source multimedia development environment] Pure Data on my computer, as a gestural controller. In that way, I could simply wave or shake my hand and control many parameters at once, which opened up many new stylistic trajectories that are still very exciting — so much so that I can’t do what I consider to be “my music” without an iPhone running TouchOSC strapped to the back of my hand. This is great and very cool, but isn’t optimal because there are so many gestures I have created and only one accelerometer/GUI, so I set out to design a system that was designed specifically for the presentation of beatjazz. The result is the TRON Beatjazz controller system.

I called it TRON because the system is made up of three main components; a helmet (above) and 2 hand units (top). Each unit is wirelessly connected to the computer. The hand units together are “fingered” the same way one would finger a saxophone or a clarinet, known as the “Boehm” fingering method [see video / below], but the hands do not have to be in a stationary “horn” position the way they are with those instruments. Each hand will have switches for keys, a joystick, an accelerometer, and a color synthesis system based on RGB LEDs to tell the audience what element i am playing (for instance, blue for bass and green for drums,etc). Part of the performance of these units is hand motions very similar to that of a raver using glowsticks (image below), which results in light trails reminiscent of the light effects from the movie TRON.

The purpose of this system is to provide a complete live performance system that incorporates lights, sound, and dance in one cohesive new form. The helmet, which looks like an afro, is made of carbon fiber and will house lip and breath sensors, a wireless microphone system, in-ear monitoring with ambient mics (so I can hear things around me without taking the helmet off), a digital compass for directional processing, an accelerometer, and two very powerful PC fans so I don’t have a heat stroke while wearing it. Why have a carbon fiber helmet? Primarily because a friend who is a professional creator of artificial limbs offered to help me make use of the material, and also because it’s durable and very lightweight. Oh, and I almost forgot — BECAUSE ITS f&%(ING CARBON FIBER! It’s the coolest-looking material on Earth! Ahem.

The brains of the system will reside on the host computer by way of Pure Data [above]. This is for two main reasons. First, as I stated above, I get bored easily. This system will be permanently malleable. Since the controller is just a wireless array of sensors, I can change and adapt them to do many thing I can’t imagine at this time, which leads to the other reason:

This is an open source project. This system would not be possible without open source software and hardware in the form of Pure Data and the many Arduinos that will make up the core components of this system. I am releasing all notes associated with this project once it is completed, as well as detailed notes on the concept and methodology of Beatjazz. By keeping the brains on the computer, by design, the concept should evolve exponentially in multiple directions. People can use these notes and patches as a jump off point for their projects, and it is also a not-so-subtle way of spreading the gospel of open source, of which I am a zealot.

Beatjazz is part of an atomization of sound culture. It is pure, computer-enabled improvisation. I never know what I am going to play onstage, even while I am playing. I combine the vibe in the room with what I am feeling at the moment, limited only by my skills and my sound set, and construct/deconstruct a narrative that provides a singular soundtrack for that moment. It may come out as house or be-bop or latin jazz — that’s the point, I have no idea, and it is very exciting.

I am doing this project now because, for lack of a better way of putting it, it’s just time! I’ve “practiced” for 20 years. This is the stuff i grew up dreaming about. When you reach a point in your life where you have the skills and the determination and the “people resources” to make something actually happen, you have to act! I have direct access to some of the most amazing people with the skills that make this a much more viable project.

Uli Maier is the Prosthetist (video above) that is helping me cast the molds we will use for the helmet and hand units. Chris “Loganic” Logan draws the ideas out in a form that conveys exactly what i see in my head, Tomas Henriques is wind synthesis legend, having already created the Meta-EWI [customization of the Akai wind controller] and the award-winning Double-Slide controller and Native Instruments co-founder Stephan Schmitt is offering to help me design the custom looping system that will form the backbone of the system. (The controller is open source, not the synths and looping system — yet.) I’d be mad not to go for it with all of these stars aligned at one time! These are just a few of the people that make the project real.

This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever been part o, as an artist, but its also, by far, the most expensive, so i am “crowdfunding” it through indiegogo.com, which is another amazing aspect of the modern Internet — the ability to bring people directly into this project that may be really interested in it. I have a created a wide array of “perks”, i.e. cool items in exchange for contributions to this campaign. From an exclusive EP of the twisted beatjazz that I will create with the new system ($5-available in late May), at onyxashanti.bandcamp.com, to a hand-bound copy of my book entitled “The 21st Century Musicians Guide to Busking” ($50, completion by late March). Options go all the way up to various versions of the controller system itself, in wired and wireless varieties, including the $5000 “Ultimate Package” in which you get the same carbon fiber controller i am making for myself (with a different helmet). I will it deliver to you personally, spend two days teaching you how it all works, and then you and I will give a concert for your friends and family! See: www.indiegogo.com/tronbeatjazz.

I have been told that saying that I want to create “the most amazing live music performance system ever” is a bit “bombastic”. But I wouldn’t say it if it weren’t the intended goal and if it didn’t think it were possible.

www.beatjazz.blogspot.com
www.indiegogo.com/tronbeatjazz

What is essential or new to the craft of fabricating electronic music? Who are we, today, as digital artists?

As a certain natural sameness descends on some computer-based music performance as the medium matures, artists at gatherings like next week’s In/Out Festival push out toward the fringe. And like the shifting pixels in Rosa Menkman’s imagery, these events indicate an emerging – sometimes glitchy – self-image of a scene.

In/Out hits New York Friday, September 17 – Saturday, September 18. The workshops on offer attack convention head-on. Sarah and Lara Grant make their circuits out of felt, crocheted sensors, and other fuzzy, furry, soft things. Rosa Menkman, above, turns file formats themselves into a medium. (Rosa’s workshop description alone might blow your mind.) Philip Stearns makes digital circuits from the most basic of elements.

You can attend the festival for US$15-25 if you’re in the New York Area. Disclosure: I’m one of the artists playing. But don’t let that stop you. Workshops and talks are mostly free.

http://inoutfest.org/2010-schedule

But if you’re hiding out in New York on this 9/11 weekend or anywhere in the world, here’s a brief audiovisual portrait of this gathering of boys and girls and their work, as well as a crackling, humming track from Protofuse (France) for CDM readers, for play or WAV download via SoundCloud.

And wherever you are, they offer an opportunity for audiovisual reflection.

From Some of the Artists

Jeff Thompson (NYC) makes a cascade a lovely sounds, lit by flashlights, in a Texas Firehouse performance. Check out his collection of contact mics.

Stephen McLeod (Toronto), aka Island Dweller, turns frying an egg into a pulsing, ambient wonderland. (No word yet on whether Mimosa music might accompany; I think I may need to schedule a brunch and propose and duet.)

Music for Cooking: Eggs from Stephen McLeod on Vimeo.

Look out, keyboardists: using CV/gate control, drumsticks rule over musical input in the the work of jredsmyth/Smyth:

CV Gate Control – Drum Triggers – In/Out Fest 2010 from Jred Smyth on Vimeo.

Chromatic Textures by Unearthed Music, below, feeds layers of shadow and light as video feed into the Gestural Music Sequencer (available for Mac/Windows download), their real-time generative music software, for a fused audiovisual experience:

Chromatic Textures from Unearthed Music on Vimeo.

And for some dancing, here’s mtn (Making the Noise), a prominent creator from the monome community, making electronic collaboration by feeding his work through Lukas Johnson’s rig for additional sonic manipulation. From a performance at Boston’s Music Ecology:

mtn live @ music ecology Boston Part III from makingthenoise on Vimeo.

Workshops at In/Out show the range of perspectives on music technological technique, from bare-bones CMOS music to Brian Crabtree (of monome fame) talking about open source, from a future that looks like the spaceship-worthy Protodeck…

protodeck first demo from Julien Bayle on Vimeo.

…to one main entirely of felt. (See Lara Grant’s thesis blog for technical details, or Rhizome for a studio visit with sisters and makers Sarah and Lara.) It’s difficult to read online, but these things are absurdly fun to play.

For more work by France’s Protofuse, here’s an extended live set:

protofuse at Apero Codelab #8 fest from Julien Bayle on Vimeo.

Finally, as promised, here’s a download for CDM of Protofuse’s Pulse:
Protofuse – Pulse by cdm

So, to sign up and buy tickets:
http://inoutfest.org/

And stay tuned for more artist goodness and how-to’s right here.

What if blowing tunes on beer bottles was raised to the level of musical science?

Through even the mundane medium of packaging, design can transform the everyday. DJ and designer Matt Braun of Philadelphia, collaborating with Chris Mufalli, use labels to tune the level of beer remaining in the bottle for musical results. Pitches are printed on the labels, allowing you to exactly match the liquid inside to a pitch you want, and join along with your fellow imbibers for a performance.

It’s not just a label that’s different. Ridges on the sides of the bottles make them double as Guiro-style percussion. The neck was adjusted for ergonomics. Even the wooden box becomes a tongue drum.

It’s all decidedly non-digital, group fun – Create Beer Music? (Actually, technically, they’re printing with digital tech, the quantization of liquid to discrete equal-tempered pitches is a digital process by definition, and you hold it with your fingers. So there.)

So far, this has been used in a microbrew, but the duo are looking for a partner. I’d love to have this at our next Handmade Music, if any of you are in the bottling business.

Tuned Pale Ale [2d3d5d.com - project site]
Found via the wonderful, whimsical design blog etre, maintained by a usability and design consultancy
Thanks to Johan Strandell / 40hz for the tip.

The Tuned Pale Ale are just one of a number of unique designs from Matt Braun, all emphasizing making the ephemeral world of sound more physical.

Matt’s site is a smörgåsbord of design concepts, many involving creative uses of lasercutters and 3D forms. There are “tuned gig buckets” for busking similar to the beer bottles, useful tools for DJs using 45s, and wooden drums made from digital images of the sounds of other drums, producing “generations” of instruments in which the sound of one gives form to the shape of another.

Two of my favorites are pictured here. Custom-made shirts use user-modifiable CAD illustrations to produce wearable art made from analysis of any sound file – below, Michael Jackson’s P.Y.T. becomes a pink tee. Another project in early development explores making skeletal three-dimensional forms from the structure of musical harmonies.

I look forward to seeing how these projects evolve; Matt’s looking for collaborators.

http://2d3d5d.com/

Shoes are the new turnables.

Or at least that’s the conclusion you might reach after watching a new Japanese campaign for Nike’s Free Run+ running shoes. Apparently wishing to tout the bendable qualities of its new footwear, Nike enlisted sound artists to transform its product into a musical instrument. The shoes get plugged in, switched on, and mixed up, battle-style, as they sense when the shoe is flexed or moved in space. And yes, everything you see in the video is real: the shoes really are controlling digital sound live. We even have the Max patch to prove it.

Lovers of experimental sound art will immediately recognize one of the Shoe-Js: it’s Daito Manabe, a bleeding-edge sound artist and alternative interface guru with a background in turntablism. I spoke to Daito, and convinced him to share the software that makes the project tick. Daito says he used flex sensors (see examples) and accelerometers to make the shoes interactive. He then processed the control signal and converted it to sound using the modular visual programming environment Max/MSP and Ableton’s Max for Live. (For another example and other resources, you can check out the article I wrote for Make Magazine issue 8, in which I stuffed flex sensors into a sock monkey and connected it via MIDI.)

What’s striking to me about the Max patch is its elegance. For all the power of these interactive environments, sometimes they’re at the best when you do something really simple. In this case, that frees up someone like Daito to focus on the performance aspect.

Here’s what Daito had to say about the project. It doesn’t hurt that the whole team does such nice work:

The agency is W+K Tokyo.
Hardware programming is by Tomoaki Yanagisawa (4nchor5 La6)
and software and sound programming is by me.

My patch is not interesting at all..
Ed.: I respectfully disagree; see above comment – sometimes performing a simple task is the strength of a tool like Max. -PK

I used max for serial communication between the shoes(arduino) and a macbookpro,
and max for live sound.
The serial part crashed many times,
so I separated serial part and sound part.
I use OSC and midi for communication between max and maxforlive.

For making and triggering sound,
I used simple msp patches and Ableton’s sampler
and I used some effects in Ableton live.
The effects are also controlled by the shoes.

The sound settings are a bit strange.
We didn’t need to use a loop machine
because we used Ableton live, but
everything was decided at the last minute,
so we used the loop machine for sampling and looping (i think it was roland machine)

I hope people think it is not fake

I actually like the impromptu feel. That’s usually the sort of thing the advertisers want. (Oh, look! An abandoned tunnel! Open the vodka! Text your friends! Let’s have a disco! Wow, everyone we know is a model!) Of course, in this case, some of the sense of “let’s set up some shoes and make digital music” is just as improvised as it looks. And this clip is making the rounds, because my Dad sent it to me!

Somewhere, Charlie Chaplin smiles.

See also (for coverage of this and many other wonderful things):
CreativeApplications.net

Be sure to check out Daito’s other work; he’s done some really beautiful sound art and interactive pieces, and his site is full of inspiring ideas:
http://www.daito.ws/#5

He’s also known for body hacks, like making music with parts of his face.