MU2801 – Making Music with Machines – A term 2021

Milo Jacobs, Erik Breiling, Nathaniel Hacker

Triangularity is a string instrument in which a single guitar string is wrapped around a peg in the shape of an equilateral triangle. Two servos, one on each end, adjust the length and tension of this guitar string, and two more servos pluck the strings. The motivation of the machine was to experiment with continuous pitches and variation in tension when two servos and a peg control a single string. The instrument was eventually manually plucked rather than automatically, and in the performance below titled ITSCVTLSRP57 (which stands for Improvisation on Two Strings Continuously Varying in Tension and Length Sinusoidally in which the Ratio of the Periods is 5 to 7), we explore the sonic possibilities of constantly changing tension. Portamento was definitely the most promising aspect of our machine; in ITSCVTLSRP57, you can hear the pitch constantly bending. This continuous variation creates interesting sounds that few other instruments can replicate.