The Pyrosphere

This is the Pyrosphere shown in the Burning Man 2010. I think it is really cool because I like light and fire that are programmed to the music. The Pyrosphere is thirty-seven feet tall and it has ninety-one flamethrowers. So it is quite big. And the best is that it’s control by a Arduino.

Here is a movie of what it can do:

From the site Nexus Burning Man 2010 Photos, from there you can find another page where they are showing how they did it. So go there and get some inspiration.

//Lisa Ryrholm

Music Instruments

iBall

Elektrolin

Game Sound Boy

small concert.

“Simple note” an Arduino musical instrument

Introduction

Simple note works like a musical keyboard. It has 8 buttons which you can use to plays notes (C D E F G A B C) similar to a piano. Pitch and duration of the notes (Octaves) can be adjusted by a potentiometers or hard-coded in the code. The video below shows the circuit in action:

Circuit

The board is shown in the picture above. Its better to build the circuit on a bread board before soldering it on a piece of strip board. The schematics for the micro sequencer is shown below:

As shown above 6 push buttons are used on digital inputs (pull up resistors, R1-R6 can be any value from 1K to 10K ohm) and two potentiometers are on Analog inputs (potentiometers can be any range from 1K to 50K ohm).

If you intend to increase the number of buttons or analog inputs simply copy the same component and connections and change the code accordingly. You can use a variety of sensors (LDRs, IR/Ultra Sonic distance meters, Force sensors, etc.) instead of the potentiometers.

Code

This program uses the Arduino tone library to play music. Program reads the eight digital inputs and plays the corresponding tone for that key on digital pin 9 of Arduino. The music signal needs to be amplified with a small amplifier like an LM386 amplifier.

Button 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C tone in order

Analog input 0: Controls the duration of tones, if you don’t want the pot simply hard code “duration” variable in the code

Analog input 1: Controls the (pitch), if you don’t want the pot simply hard code “octave” variable in the code

Download the code from here.

You can change the tones order in the variable “Melody”, so the keys would come in another other like A,B,C,D,E,F,G.

For a complete list of tones that you can use refer to the ‘Public Constants’ here. There you can read about the tone library more.

More info

Here is a simple guide to music and music alphabets. Here you can read about mapping of frequency to notes.

‘Micro sequencer’ an Arduino musical instrument

Introduction

Micro sequencer plays a sequence of 4 randomly chosen tones on Arduino. Tempo (playback speed) and tone length (more like a tremolo) can be controlled via two analog inputs. Four buttons control the octave of the tones where another button is used to generate a new random set of tone sequence. The sequence can be stored in the non volatile memory by pressing another button.

Circuit

The board is shown in the picture above. Its better to build the circuit on a bread board before soldering it on a piece of strip board. The schematics for the micro sequencer is shown below:

As shown above 6 push buttons are used on digital inputs (pull up resistors, R1-R6 can be any value from 1K to 10K ohm) and two potentiometers are on Analog inputs (potentiometers can be any range from 1K to 50K ohm).

If you intend to increase the number of buttons or analog inputs simply copy the same component and connections and change the code accordingly. You can use a variety of sensors (LDRs, IR/Ultra Sonic distance meters, Force sensors, etc.) instead of the potentiometers.

Code

This program uses the tremolo effect that has been developed by  Jaxon BK.

Program reads the inputs listed below and plays back a sequence according to the inputs on digital pin 9 of Arduino. The music signal needs to be amplified with a small amplifier like an LM386 amplifier.

Button 1: Generates a new random tone sequence (keep pressing until you hear a beep)

Button 2: Store the sequence to the non-volatile memory (keep pressing until you hear two beeps)

Button 3-6: Holding these button will affect the octave of the tones being played at that moment. (3 Lowest, 4  Low, 5 High, 6 Highest octave)

Analog input 0: Controls the tempo (playback speed)

Analog input 1: Controls the tremolo (similar to length of playback of the note)

The tone values are also printed on serial port of the Arduino board when button 1 or 2 are pressed. So if you would like to see the frequencies you can open the Arduino serial monitor. Saved data will be loaded upon reset. So, each time you power on or reset your Arduino the saved tone sequence will be loaded from the non-volatile memory.

Do not leave the button 2 unconnected! otherwise the program might try writing to the non-volatile memory all the time.  Pull these pins high if you do not intend to place a switch in your final circuit.

Download the code from here.

More info

Here is a simple guide to music and music alphabets. Here you can read about mapping of frequency to notes.

“Virtuoso” an Arduino musical instrument

Introduction

Virtuoso is a program that plays different sequences of pre-defined notes. There are  seven push buttons which(each) add  one note  to the sequence. You can choose between two different octaves bye pressing and releasing each button. Also there are two potentiometers for changing “Tempo” and adding “Tremolo” effect.

Virtuoso_circuit

Schematics

Below is the schematics for the circuit which works with the Virtuoso program:

Circuit_Virtuoso

As shown above 7 push buttons are used on digital inputs (pulled down within  1 – 10K ohm range to ground) and two potentiometers (potentiometers can be any range from 1K to 50K ohm) are on Analog inputs (0 to 5V scale).

If you intend to increase the number of buttons simply copy the same component and connections. If more analog inputs needed the same applies. You can use a variety of sensors (LDRs, IR/Ultra Sonic distance meters, Force sensors, etc.) instead of the potentiometers. In such a case, you can simply take the potentiometer out and place the other sensor instead (as an analog voltage).

Code

Dowload the code from here.

Here is another version of the code which works with three push buttons [With the same configuration in the schematic above.Read the instructions in the code]

Uses part of the code provided by Jaxon BK (http://www.blackkat.org/Arduinoise/Arduinoise.html)

More info
Here is a simple guide to music and music alphabets. Here you can read about mapping of frequency to notes.

reacTable

Reactable is described as “a musical instrument with a tangible user interface” by its creators. It was designed at Pompeu Fabra University in 2003 and till now it is used in more than 100 concerts.

photo courtesy of http://www.reactable.com/images/cover_live.jpg

Reactable was originally designed for professional musicians as an easy, flexible live performance tool which is called “Reactable Live!”. They (Reactable Systems) also have a second product, called Reactable Experience, specially designed for museums, science centers, schools and universities and aims for children to give them a good start at discovering the world of music. Since reactable has nearly all the digital sound processing functions, it can be used as a basic tool for signal processing lessons to add some fun and anxiety.

As you will see in the video its a new dimension for live electronic music

And here is a good inspiration for the guys pursuing Game Design Track

Onur Kaya (Group-Q)