New year, new design. I’ve had quite a few breakthroughs with the Novakordo since I last blogged. First off, the new frame is now nearly complete. Think of the frame as a personal, wearable keyboard stand – the old one was made out of 38mm drainage pipe connected with 3D printed parts. The new one is lighter and uses transluscent Acrylic tubes. These were just begging to be lit up, so I am running LED strip lighting throughout. Each of the LEDs is addressable so I am keen to see how I can let the music change the colour patterns formed. In this video, I am just using a test sequence to change the lights but I think it shows what can be done.
My previous version had a piano keyboard for the right hand and a Novation Launchpad Mini for the left – the idea being to sort of mimic an accordion. For various reasons, I am now going to start experimenting with a keyboard and Launchpad for each hand. They are attached to the frame with a bar normally used for holding a pair of video monitors. This is how it looks (see top image for right hand, below for left) with the newly discovered XKEY 25 which, although it is rather clattery, is lightweight and a delight to play.
The next big innovation is to do with expression, by which I mean changing parameters such as the volume. Again this comes from my accordion-like ideas where I wanted something to simulate the bellows without having to pump air. The natural thing seemed to be with hand movements and my previous version had the Launchpad mounted on a 3 axis joystick. Moving the Launchpad around would allow bellow-like volume control and/or any other changes in expression such as filters, modulation or … anything. Now I have changed this around completely.
“Gloves” worn on each hand will contain sensors that monitor the position and orientation of the hands (these sensors, rather like the ones found in smartphones, measure position in 3 planes – XYZ) and information is fed back to a motorised platform which makes sure that the Launchpad is alway under the hand. I’ve tried hacking a commercial “pan-and-tile” mechanism intended for use with cameras, but found that it was neither fast nor accurate enough so am now working out how to build my own. Here’s a very crude prototype that is giving me a feel for what I need to make – a couple of stepor motors creating a pan and tilt, plus a couple of the “glove” sensors (one on top of the motors, and another far right), controlled by an Arduino Nano. It works, but some improvement needed – will report back in next blog.
And of course it may be that the hand movements will also have an effect on the frame lights – so many possibilities, so little time.
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