MU2801: Making Music With Machines (A-term 2021)
Team Members: Benjamin Mangold, Tommy Kneeland, Cameron Pelletier, Jaya Mills
The general design for our project is a PVC tube, with holes and pads (think saxophone-like) that gets struck on top to produce a sound, as opposed to a reed buzz (as a saxophone has). Each of the tone holes are covered and uncovered using a foam piece that is connected to a servo motor, one for each tone hole. At the end of the tube (left side in the image above), there is a foam paddle that is struck from behind which then “slaps” the pipe in order to excite it and create sound. There is a solenoid (not depicted) that is attached right behind the back of the foam paddle, so that it strikes the foam paddle which will then strike the pipe.
In order to control the Slap-a-Tone, a midi signal is received from Serial max in Ableton Live and then translated into notes. Depending on which note was sent, it would adjust the servos to the fingering required to produce that note. When the midi signal is received, there is a small delay (in order to account for the time it takes for the servos to move to the correct positions) and then the solenoid activates, striking the foam which strikes the pipe, and therefore producing the desired note.
Foam Paddle (actuator not depicted)
Alternate Top-Down view
Here is a video of The Slap-a-Phone playing a Major scale. Unfortunately, the notes aren’t entirely correct. When we made the holes, the notes were correct, but we hadn’t accounted for the fact that the notes produced might change once it was attached to the stand. This in turn caused our major scale to be a bit off.
A demonstration of The Slap-a-Phone playing a common musical piece: Hot Cross Buns
This is the fingering chart that we drew up which represents the notes of the scale. Each column represents one note of the scale, with the root being on the left, and the leading tone being on the right. The bottom hole in the chart represents the bottom hole on the pipe (i.e. the hole furthest from the point of excitation), and the top hole is the hole highest up on the pipe (i.e. the hole closest to the point of excitation). If a hole is shaded in, it means it should be covered, and if a hole in unshaded, it means the hole should be uncovered.