Fun with Tape-Heads

Hello all, for one of this weeks experiments I made a device for manually playing back magnetically stored data ( eg credit cards , cassette tapes, floppy disks, etc). This idea was taken from Nic Collin's Homemade Electronic Music book.

This was made using a tape head that was taken out of a standard cassestte player (preferably broken, as it definitely will be afterwards). Hopefully with the wires intact, we can then solder these onto a standard guitar lead which has been cut in half (about an inch of the outer coating stripped back ,the outer wires braided together, and then the inner coating stripped also about an inch).




I then made a sound board out of a cassette tape and a bit of cardboard (it is better if you mix a few together to give you a more varied sound). This was done by simply taking a cassette, cutting the tape at the opening, and wrapping it carefully around the piece of cardboard, until you have something that looks like this -



What we have done is essentially taken an analog mobile music playing device (the cassette player) and hacked it so that we can have more control about the sounds that we produce from the data provided. In effect, it acts a bit like a primitive sampler, allowing us to skip, scratch, speed up, slow down, and mash together tracks on top of each other.

Experiments like this are very simple, but allow us to consider all the data around us, as it can also sonify those old credit cards and magnetic data which sit collecting dust. Hacks like this also allow us to explore and understand sound and technology, by stripping it back to its bare components.

First steps with Arduino or How to make a cheap, quick, awful synth!

This week I attempted to make the most basic synthesizer using the arduino, some potentiometers and a piezo. So heres the setup,

I put the three potentiometers in a circuit, with a ground and power supply. Then on a separate circuit we plug in a piezo. Each potentiometer is connected to an analog input so the values can be read, and the piezo is connected to a digital pin.

This is basically an upgrade and mish-mash of a few basic examples on potentiometers (http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/AnalogInput) and on tones (http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Tone). The piezo generating tones depending on the values given by the potentiometers.



For this synth, as shown in the video, one potentiometer controls frequency (Hz), one duration of tone, and the other the frequency (time) of the tones. It makes a pretty horrible little sound, so I definitely wouldn't watch the whole minute of this video, but I am pretty impressed by how quick this sort of project can be put together.





Complete Code-


int sensorPin = 0;
int sensorPin1 = 1;
int sensorPin2 = 2;//
int ledPin = 13;
float sensorValue = 0;
float sensorValue1 = 0;
float sensorValue2 = 0;

void setup() {
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {

sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin); //0-342
sensorValue1 = analogRead(sensorPin1); //343-712
sensorValue2 = analogRead(sensorPin2); //711-1023
Serial.println(sensorValue);
Serial.println(sensorValue1);
Serial.println(sensorValue2);
tone(8, sensorValue, sensorValue1);
delay(sensorValue2);
}

New York?

Hello all!

This week (actually 2 weeks ago now, took a while to publish this!) I decided to plot a route navigating some of the top 5 tourist spots in New York, using a map of the big apple, and the set out from brighton train station and document these spots, walking the same route. Basically the idea is to reflect on space and place in an inventive way. Also I have never been to NY and thought this might be a good chance!

A. Central Park -

B. Carnegie Hall -



C. MOMA -



D. Rockefeller Center -



E. Times Square -

Synthesizer

Thought i'd share a picture of a digital synthesizer i'm currently working on in SuperCollider. It basically generates sine waves which can be modulated, enveloped, reverbed, sequenced, and filtered. Still a way to go to make it as I want it, but I can already get some boss sounds out of it!





Later, once i've finished and boxed it up, i'll place the program for free download