Avols » Music

Compass, Gyro & Accelerometer device

Arve Voldsund — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:01:15 +0000

I’ve got a new device for inertial sensing from eboy.no, and it’s multiple axes of sensor data are for sure a lot of fun to play with: It has a 3d accelerometer, a 3d gyroscope and a 3d compass.

Today I have made some software snippets that tilt compensates the compass, and translates gyro data and the z-axis of the accelerometer into positive/negative motion triggers: It is like having a drum stick that triggers when it is rotated, pitched, rolled and moved vertically. Triggerpoint is set by a simple threshold value, and could be updated dynamically if such behaviour is desired.

I will write more about this when I get time to map it to something that make sound, and that something might very well be aVoon.

cheers Arve

Contact microphones

Arve Voldsund — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:38:40 +0000

Sensors are often a requisite for a successful end product when making a new interface for human-machine interaction. Contact microphones are one of my favourite sensors, and now we have a new batch of them in the workshop.

Contact mics are designed to pick up sound transmitted through hard materials: A contact mic glued to a table will pick up sounds that are made when things hit the table, but not what those around the table talk about.

Glue it on your floor, and make your computer aware of feet, toys, parts hitting your floor. By using a grid of contact mics you can even get a rough approximation on the position of things that are moving around!

Contact mic on my MacBook touch plate

Cheers
Arve.

Stompstock

Arve Voldsund — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:53:10 +0000

So this is the Stompstock beta version.

It is intended for testing of the ….avols modules that I’ve written about before. Obviously I will write a longer text about this system when it is ready for intensive testing as a finished product, but for those who are interested I hope that these tiny posts about Stompstock is somewhat interesting and I will keep posting as new features gets implemented. On the list is preset morphing, mapping module for timed events, a granulation module and hardware. The hardware is on the drawing table, and will be there until I am sure it is flexible, scalable and has a splendid artwork.

Oh, and here is another module: The Playavols:

The Playavols is a player for uncompressed audio files, and is as simple as it gets: You drop a file in the white region, hit the buttons to get it to play in a loop or just once. You can do pause and resume and off course play and stop. Playavols does not react to input signal but passes on the output from the module that is before it in the signal chain. The bypass switch mutes the audio file, but it keeps on playing in the background always ready to resound.

Cheers
Arve

This is beta 0.5 of the AvolsFX-system

Arve Voldsund — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:48:28 +0000

AvolsFX

The AvolsFX are ready for beta testing (other testers than myself that is…). More modules will be available as they are finished, but these five are the starters. The sonic possibilities goes from nada (bypass) via subtle tremolo, delay, kompression and drive to complete madness. The ringmodulator can be anything but subtle, however capable of some very nice sounds.

There are so many things going on right now, and I am working on a project that occupy my daytime, so now as this system is ready for beta testing, it is a matter of bugfixing and polish before I put it out for anyone to get it. Pricing is still TBA.

Cheers
Arve

The Driveavols!

Arve Voldsund — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:47:45 +0000

The “My Screen is My Repatcher”-thing is coming together and the Driveavols is almost done:

I really like this drive. It growls at the low end, smoothes the middles and tames the treble. It is basically what I have wanted in my signalchain for a very long time. I’ll post audio examples along with those other modules when everything is finished at version 1.0. It will not be long now.

Operation: The gain controller goes from zero to noise and the cutoff balances the trebles. The volume keeps everything at the right side of too loud. I like it and use it on vocals as well. I like singing through this thing as the drive is easily controlled by the loudness of the voice.

Cheers
Arve

Tom Waits concert

Arve Voldsund — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:18:12 +0000

I don’t know where I read about this recording first but I sure did read it and went to www.npr.org and got me a 2 hour and 20 minutes Tom Waits concert. That is like getting fed on the 120th day on a desert island without nothing to eat but stone. Perhaps not, but ever since the Norwegian opera said no I have been almost in tears when reading reviews of his masters concerts.

Even if you do not like Tom Waits’ music, go to NPR anway because there is a lot of other good stuff as well!

cheers
Arve