Musical Building Blocks
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block jam
year: 2002
author(s): Henry Newton-Dunn, Hiroaki Nakano, James Gibson
affiliation: Sony CSL, Tokyo
publication: A Tangible Interface for Interactive Music [PDF]
website: http://www.csl.sony.co.jp/IL/projects/blockjam
Block Jam is a Tangible User Interface that controls a dynamic polyrhythmic sequencer using 26 physical artifacts. These physical artifacts, that we call blocks, are a new type of input device for manipulating an interactive music system. The blocks' functional and topological statuses are tightly coupled to an ad hoc sequencer, interpreting the user's arrangement of the blocks as meaningful musical phrases and structures. We demonstrate that we have created both a tangible and visual language that enables both the novice and musically trained users by taking advantage of both their explorative and intuitive abilities. The tangible nature of the blocks and the intuitive interface promotes face-to-face collaboration and social interaction within a single system. The principle of collaboration is further extended by linking two Block Jam systems together to create a network.
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Siftables Music Sequencer
year: 2009
author(s): David Meryll,
Josh Kopin,
Jeevan Kalanithi
affiliation: Tangible Media Group,
Media Lab Boston
publication: Siftables: Towards Sensor Network User Interfaces [PDF]
website: http://web.media.mit.edu/~dmerrill/siftables.html
The Siftables Sequencer features three "voices" - lead, bass and drums, each voice has four variations, accessible via the four sides of the siftable. First a sequence is constructed using blank "sequence" siftables, then voices can be inserted into the sequence by bumping a voice siftable against a sequence siftable. A voice can be removed by bumping it against a sequence a second time. An effect, such as reverb or a filter can be applied to a voice by bumping an effect siftable up against it. While the effect is applied, the voice siftable will show a small circle with the effect color, the effect can be tweaked by tilting the siftable. There are also effects that apply to the entire sequence, like tempo and volume. These effects are always engaged, and they can be changed by tilting. Sequences can be made shorter or longer, or re-arranged at any time by moving the sequence siftables around.
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audio cubes
year: 2004
author(s): Bert Schiettecatte
affiliation: Percussa
publication: Interaction Design for Electronic Musical Interfaces [PDF]
website: https://www.percussa.com/what-are-audiocubes/
A new Tangible User Interface, which is to be used by musicians and performers to create sounds and music in real-time and stimulate their creativity through experimentation. The interface consists of a number of programmable cubes, made of a translucent material. By positioning the cubes relative to each other, an optical audio processing network of audio signal processing algorithms can be created. The nature of the interface allows the user to achieve a level of interaction hard to achieve using audio software.
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soundmites
year: 2007
author(s): David Bouchard
affiliation: MIT Media Lab
website: http://www.deadpixel.ca/projects/sound-mites/
The Soundmites are a set of small tangible nodes that alter their behaviour according to the nearby nodes, in an asynchronous fashion. Nodes have magnets on the bottom and are deployed on a flat metallic surface. Each node is equipped with a small speaker that generates a musical tone according to the state of its immediate neighbours and a simple set of rules. Nodes also provide visual feedback on their current state by means of coloured lighting. Finally, the nodes sense touch through a thin metal rim and can toggle their state to reflect the interventions of viewers.
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loopqoob
year: 2003
author(s): Murat Konar
affiliation: Royal College of Art, Interaction Design
website: http://www.muratnkonar.com/id/loopqoob
Loopqoob is a physical performance system consisting of one or more sensor-equipped cubes connected to a computer based music generation/synthesis system. The orientation of the cubes determines an aspect of the music to be played. In the implementation presented, there are three cubes. Each face of each cube is mapped to a musical motif or loop. The 'cubist' controls which motifs are played by orienting the cubes so that the face corresponding to the desired motif faces up.
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Tangible Sequencer
year: 2007
author(s): Jeffrey Traer Bernstein
affiliation: Computer Science Department, Princeton University
website: http://www.tangiblesequencer.com/
The Tangible Sequencer is a simple musical instrument. There are 8 colored boxes each with a large triangular play button that lights up in time with music. Press play on any box and it will play a sound. Put boxes next to each other and they become aware of one another. The boxes take turns playing their sounds one after another just as you've laid them out. Just follow the arrows! Create a composition by laying out the boxes. Make some different shapes and press play on a box to see how your composition sounds. Now pick up one of the boxes and move it to change your piece of music as its playing!
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Marble Tracks
year: 2006
author(s): Wing Lau,
Thomas Fischer
affiliation: Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
School of Design
publication: Marble Track Music Sequencers for Children [PDF]
An electronically enhanced construction kits for marble tracks that act as music sequencers for music education of young children. Marbles rolling along the tracks trigger sound events to produce the
playback of musical notes and songs. Re-arrangeable tangible elements correspond to timing, durations and pitches of notes and thus allow electronic music sequencing by means of haptic programming.
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soundgarten
year: 2003
author(s): Michael Wolf,
Christoph Groenegress,
Yinlin Li
affiliation: Mars - Exploratory Media Lab,
Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication
publication: A Tangible Interface that Enables Children to Record, Modify and Arrange Sound Samples in a Playful Way [PDF]
website: http://www.soundgarten.com/
The Soundgarten is a tangible interface that enables children to create their own sound environment by manipulating physical toy objects. They can use predefined sound samples, record sound samples of their environment and modify and arrange the different elements in sound scenarios, choose volume pitch and apply sound effects.
Soundgarten consists of mushroom-formed items that represent sound samples. There are small flower- and leave-shaped attributes, which can be plugged onto the "mushroom" to modify the sound. A radio-wave microphone embedded in a shuffle-shaped device can record sound samples when a special recording mushroom is plugged into it. Last but not least, the "flower-patch", i.e. the central part of Soundgarten, allows the sounds to be activated and arranged.
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music blocks
year: 2002
author(s): Neel Yoshi
affiliation: Brown University, Technology House
website: http://techhouse.brown.edu/~neel/music_blocks/
This piece consists of four tilt-sensitive hollow wooden blocks with speakers inside. Depending on how the block is tilted (i.e. what side it is resting on) a different note is played. Each cube has three notes and silence mapped to four of the sides, the remaining two sides are not detected currently. It was constructed with hand made red oak blocks equipped with 2 axis photointerrupter tilt sensors, and surplus PC speakers. The system was controlled using with Max/MSP with 4 channel audio output which was amplified to drive the speakers. The tilt sensors were read into a basic stamp and output to Max/MSP over a rs-232 connection.
