MIDI Mad Science and Mayhem (Soundhackers #5 "Controller Crazy")

Leif Bloomquist

Soundhackers Meetup #5 “Controller Crazy”

@ New Adventures In Sound ArtArtscape Wychwood Barns, Toronto, ON

June 26th 2014

MIDI Mad Science and Mayhem

1. Introduction

2. SonicWear SoMo as a MIDI Controller

3. LEAP Motion as a MIDI Controller (demo)

4. MIDI Interfaces for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 (demo)

5. midifire16 MIDI-controlled flame effects controller

6. Organic Evolution: MIDI-Controlled Pipe Organ concerts series

7. MIDIMapperX

8. Contact info

Controller Crazy!

• “Classically trained” in clarinet and percussion including several summers at the International Music Camp in North Dakota, USA

• Have been dabbling with music, composing, and technology since the 1980s

• Moved to Waterloo in 1992 to study Systems Design Engineering

• Moved to Toronto in 1997 and discovered the Ambient Ping, Riot Art and other experimental music communities

• Occasional “live” gigs as Schema Factor / Interweaver

• Playing with the tech is half the fun!

• In general I release my tools and techniques open-source

• Enable other electronic musicians to build on ideas!

• “Day job” in software engineering at MDA, creators of the Canadarm

Introduction

• Some early experiments with Arduino-based accelerometers and MIDI (NAISA TransX 2013)

• Discovered Loretta Faveri’s SonicWear project at OCADU in 2013

• Exactly what I was looking for!

• Wrote some Arduino code and found some open source applications to adapt it to a MIDI controller to use in any audio software

SonicWear SoMo as a MIDI Controller

SonicWear SoMo as a MIDI Controller

SonicWear SoMo

Wireless Serial/USB Driver

loopMIDI (Only needed on Windows)

“Hairless MIDI Bridge”

DAW(Ableton, FL Studio, MAX, etc.)

• Interactive input device that tracks hand and finger positions through infrared sensors

• Music is a natural fit!

LEAP Motion as a MIDI Controller

• Several music apps in the LEAP “Airspace” store:GECO, Chordion Conductor, AirHarp, AeroMIDI…

• Chose GECO MIDI, simple and intuitive ($9.99)

• Windows or MacOS


demo


LEAP Motion

LEAP Motion Driver

loopMIDI (Only needed on Windows)

GECO MIDI

DAW(Ableton, FL Studio, MAX, etc.)

LEAP Motion Visualizer

• I adore my Commodore 64!

• The C64’s longevity has been in part to its innovative SID (Sound Interface Device) chip and its distinctive sound (specs next page)

• SID chip was designed by Robert "Bob" Yannes, who went on to found Ensoniq

• Highly sought after by DJs and composers

• Subculture of remixing classic game tunes

• “Chiptunes” music generated by classic video games and computers (Nintendo, GameBoy, Atari, Commodore…)

• There were several MIDI products during the heyday, with more coming

Commodore MIDI Projects

• Three separately programmable independent audio oscillators (8 octave range, approximately 16 - 4000 Hz)

• Four different waveforms per audio oscillator (sawtooth, triangle, pulse, noise)

• One multi mode filter featuring low-pass, high-pass and band-pass outputs with 6 dB/oct (bandpass) or 12 dB/octave (lowpass/highpass) rolloff. The different filter-modes are sometimes combined to produce additional timbres, for instance a notch-reject filter.

• Three attack/decay/sustain/release (ADSR) volume controls, one for each audio oscillator.

• Three ring modulators.

• Oscillator sync for each audio oscillator.

• Two 8-bit A/D converters (typically used for game control paddles, but later also used for a mouse)

• External audio input (for sound mixing with external signal sources)

• Random number/modulation generator

MOS Technology 6581 SID Specifications

• “MIDI SID Software Integrated Applications and Hardware” released in 2006

• Based on the previously released Prophet64 cartridge (no MIDI)

• Sequencer

• Mono Synthesizer (TB-303 style sequencer)

• Bassline (TB-303 style sound)

• Drummer (TR-909 style interface)

• MIDI Input

(I have no involvement in this, just a satisfied customer. www.prophet64.com )

Commodore MIDI Projects – MSSIAH 64

• Brand new MIDI cartridge for the Commodore 64 coming August 2014

• Includes:

• Synthesizer software Pro 16 by Steinberg

• MIDI version of Cynthcart synthesizer

• SID-Wizard Tracker

• Much more

(I have no involvement in this either, I just think it’s super cool and supported the successful StartNext campaign: www.startnext.de/en/kerberos )

Commodore MIDI Projects - Kerberos

Commodore MIDI Projects - VICMIDI

• The Commodore 64 is well served by MIDI interfaces, but what about its predecessor, the VIC-20?

• VIC-20 has its own distinctive sound

• Three pulse waveform channels and one “noise” channel

• Create some incredible drones and beatingfrequencies

• 15 new waveforms were discovered by “viznut” (Finland) in 2003


• No commercial MIDI interfaces were ever made

• “Electronics, The Maplin Magazine” published schematics and some simple code for MIDI back in the 1980s

• Francois Leveille and David Viens (Montreal) built a prototype several years ago, which I took over

• Code updated to be a full-featured MIDI implementation

• Hardware design was picked up by Jim Brain of

Retro Innovations (2nd Prototype shown)

• Gearing up for a small production run “soon”

Updates: www.go4retro.com


demo

Organic Evolution

• St. Andrew’s Latvian Lutheran Church in downtown Toronto (College/Jarvis)

• Casavant Frères pipe organ built in late 1800s

• Refurbished/upgraded a few years ago by Classic Organ Works (Markham)

• These upgrades included MIDI control of the organ!

• Concert series demonstrating the technical and artistic possibilities 2007- www.organicevolution.net

midifire16

• Solid-State Relay board for controlling Flame Effects

• Hardware designed by Seth Hardy of Site 3 Fire Arts / Propane and Electrons

• Controlled through MIDI – 16 channels• Note On to turn flames on, Note Off to turn

flames off• Safety features: Separate power, triggers,

timeouts

• Arduino compatible

• Open Source: Board designs and code on GitHub

• Live tests this summer!

• “What could possibly go wrong?”

midifire16

MIDIMapperX

• VST (Virtual Synth Technology)

• Use with any Digital Audio Workstation

• Allows you to specify and “map” custom MIDI messages

• Convert Note On/Note Off or CC messages to any other MIDI message (even SysEx!)

• Great for controlling custom hardware

• Currently Windows-only, but working with VST Library developer for MacOS/Linux port (built on .NET/Mono)

• Open Source [MIT License], code on GitHub

www.schemafactor.com/midimapperx/

MIDIMapperX

• www.schemafactor.com (music)

• www.jammingsignal.com (blog)

• www.facebook.com/SchemaFactor

• @schemafactor

• [email protected]

Looking for opportunities to collaborate!

Contact Info