Electric Flute
Oldbitcollector (Jeff)
Posts: 8,091
Conversion of a child's toy into an electronic synth instrument:
Ok, yeah, I know what you are thinking.. That isn't a "flute". It's actually a $1.00 child's recorder that I picked up from a local discount store, but it did make a cool Propeller synth project using Ahle2's SIDCOG software.
The "Electric Flute" actually uses two circuits. The first is a set of simple switches which are placed over the original finger holes. The second is a Piezo Transducer mounted to the bottom of the instrument as a breath "blow" sensor. When a blown into the instrument, this sensor acts a fifth switch. The Piezo creates enough current to trip the normally pulled low I/O line.
While creating this project, it took on a life of it's own. I noted that it would have also been cool to place the switches "next" to the finger holes creating an electronic addition to the existing instrument, but alas my recorder skills were lacking, so I did a full conversion instead. Perhaps someone with musical talent will grab the idea and give us a Recorder+ video
Because the project uses Ahle2's SIDCOG object, the instrument can be programmed to provide a variety of sounds and noises, from actual Flute or "Recorder" sound to space sounds.
Here's the stuff I used to build this project:
Step-by-step build instructions can be found at Gadget Gangster.
http://www.gadgetgangster.com/news/54/514
OBC
Ok, yeah, I know what you are thinking.. That isn't a "flute". It's actually a $1.00 child's recorder that I picked up from a local discount store, but it did make a cool Propeller synth project using Ahle2's SIDCOG software.
The "Electric Flute" actually uses two circuits. The first is a set of simple switches which are placed over the original finger holes. The second is a Piezo Transducer mounted to the bottom of the instrument as a breath "blow" sensor. When a blown into the instrument, this sensor acts a fifth switch. The Piezo creates enough current to trip the normally pulled low I/O line.
While creating this project, it took on a life of it's own. I noted that it would have also been cool to place the switches "next" to the finger holes creating an electronic addition to the existing instrument, but alas my recorder skills were lacking, so I did a full conversion instead. Perhaps someone with musical talent will grab the idea and give us a Recorder+ video
Because the project uses Ahle2's SIDCOG object, the instrument can be programmed to provide a variety of sounds and noises, from actual Flute or "Recorder" sound to space sounds.
Here's the stuff I used to build this project:
- A Propeller Platform (Gadget Gangster)
- A Protoplus Module (Gadget Gangster)
- Five 10K resistors (Radio Shack)
- Four Tact switches (Radio Shack)
- A Piezo Transducer (Radio Shack)
- Some wire (Radio Shack)
- A toy recorder (Local Discount Store)
- A soldering iron & hot glue gun
Step-by-step build instructions can be found at Gadget Gangster.
http://www.gadgetgangster.com/news/54/514
OBC
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355 x 364 - 10K
Comments
Paul
Living the dream of "Projects not Platforms"
Great project! I'm a bit of a recorder afficianado myself, I play and have a decent collection of vintage German recorders of all sizes.
For another nice music project, check out Lucky Larry's Piano Theremin: video ~halfway down the page. Nice.
http://luckylarry.co.uk/arduino-projects/arduino-basic-theremin-meets-processing/
Jim
/Johannes