Jaco’s Random Writings

Ahoy folks!

Been a while. I’ve been a busy man. So here is the progress report. On the side of the circuit, I have the chip reading the input (though it is still a little low). It outputs to Serial a string that says “NoteOn” followed by the velocity (how hard I struck the prong) when the prong is plucked and then a “NoteOff” when the signal diminishes below a threshold or if I strike the prong again.

It requires a little fine tuning as it isn’t terribly accurate with the velocity yet. So that needs to be tweeked before I start formatting the Serial for MIDI.

On the design front: The instrument has been redesigned. Following the advice of my professor, I decided to take the instrument away from the handheld design, as it would be too awkward in the one hand. Instead, the instrument will be situated in the lap of the player. This reduces the strain on the hands and thus makes the instrument easier to play.

So first I sketched the design onto the computer. I then took the sketches (I did a front and side view) and used them to model a 3D mock-up of the instrument just to get a general idea of what the instrument would look like in space. Here’s a gallery of the different views that I rendered out:

This is designed to minimize stress on the wrists of the player. The instrument rests on the person’s right knee (if they’re right-handed, left knee if left-handed). With the right hand, the player pluckes the steel prong, initializing the note and setting the volume by how hard the prong is struck. The left hand controls a slider that gives the player 12 possible notes. I plan to place a button under the index finger of the right hand to allow the player to raise the note value by an octave (much like an octave key on woodwind instruments). It also looks a bit like a penguin. Awesome.

Currently, I’m now mocking this up with foam so I can start testing the usability of the design on people. I shall be watching them like a hawk. Hopefully, I’ll only have to make small adjustments to the design.

So there you have it. In the next post, expect pictures of the improved circuit soon along with a MIDI file recorded from the instrument.