How Do You Know When a New Music Instrument Design is Done?

Reviewing the Pyramid Eel and reflecting on other instruments, I set my foot down in the sand and label the first Pyramid Eel "done." Watch the video to hear the full details!

Adding Sensitivity and Expression Using Optical Encoders on Electric Eel Generators

I recently upgrade the generators on my Electric Eel instruments to include optical encoders.  Check out this video to see how it works.

This means I'll be able to measure the speed and acceleration of the bow, leading to much more sensitive and expressive instruments.  I've been wanting to do this for YEARS and now it's finally happening...  

Over the years of playing my generator-based Electric Eel instruments, I have been enjoying how pushing them hard increases the sound volume.  It makes for sound so much more expressive than even my best MIDI keyboards with aftertouch.  It's slowly becoming apparent to me, though, that if I had a better idea how fast the player is pushing/sliding/bowing the generator, the sound could be even more sensitive and expressive.

Early on, I tried to do this by measuring the voltage on the temporary capacitors.   That approach works a little bit, but it doesn't change fast enough and different sound outputs consume the voltage at different rates, so it's way too entangled with the output sound, rather, than focused on what the player is doing.  Therefore, I decided to go WHOLE HOG and use an optical encoder.

This wasn't an easy decision.  These are more expensive and the algorithms get much more complex.  However, I am working again and don't have children (my instruments are my children!), so I went for it.  And actually I had a nice surprise---- over the last ten years, prices have come waaaaay down for these parts.  What used to cost about $300, can now be for only $40.  Yes, it's hard to believe.  It must be through the mass quantities of these parts that get used in factories.  Anyway, I picked up two of them and I've been wiring them up and writing code for them.  Soon I'll be putting them right into the instruments.  I can't wait.  It's going to be a whole new era.  In the meantime, please my newest video so you can share some the excitement that I'm going through!

New Synth Knob Multiplexer - 64 Analogs in one! Part 3

You've seen it run with 5 synthesizer knobs, but now the stakes are higher!  I'm going to daisy-chain three of my circuit boards together.  Then I'm going to run them at top speed.


And if that wasn't enough, I've been preparing a special treat, so watch through the second half of the video :)

New Synth Knob Multiplexer - 64 Analogs in one! Part 1

New! Fresh in the mail. A circuit board I designed. Check out the edgy and powerful design!

It muxes 64 analog signals, especially synthesizer knobs, into 1. It lets you read a wholllle lot of knobs with just a few pins.

You can use three pins from an Arduino or other microcontroller and read all 64 daisy-chain knobs!

You need this board to make professional synthesizers with lots of knobs.

Axoloti - Embed A Digital Modular Synth In Your Instrument

This is very special to me.  This is exactly what I have been looking to do with the digital music instruments I have been designing and building - Give them a modular synthesizer editor.

This is a software and a hardware project.  It lets you graphically edit a patch for a DSP-based music instrument, then upload it into a small circuit board.  That means you can put that instrument into a box with sensors and controls, make a digital guitar, tune it to sound just the way you like it and even put all kinds of digital effects on it!  It's a very difficult and important project and I am sure it will lead to very many interesting kinds of new instruments, songs, performances and possibly even genres of art!

Here are the specs:

• Two 1/4" jacks
• Stereo headphone output
• MIDI Input
• STM32F4 processor (168 MHz w/ FPU)
• USB
• Modular synth editor on Desktop
• Cross-Platform support (Lin/Win/OSX)
• Approximately $100 incl. shipping

I highly recommend supporting Axiloti on Indiegogo.  I look forward to working with it a lot in 2015!

New Playlist For Electric Eel Christmas Carols

 My new playlist: Electric Eel Christmas Carols

Subscribe to find out when new songs are added on my upcoming trip to Germany!

This is me playing traditional Christmas Carols like Silent Night, Joy to the World, etc., on an instrument I designed while at the MIT Media Lab.  It's called the Electric Eel.  I designed it because I was stuck between the two worlds of electronic and acoustic music.  I like the sounds of electronic music, but I also like the spontaneous, collaborative, nature of acoustic music.  So I designed this instrument which responds to the intensity of sliding the belt up and down by generating more power to emphasize notes.  If you're really curious, check out my wiki Exertion Music where I show how to design and build your own.