MU 2801 – Making Music With Machines – A Term 2023

By: Joshua Miller, Reid Atchison

Picture of the final system

Bass Percussion Robot is a collaborative musical machine that allows the user to play bass and a drum track. Inspired by percussive bass jazz solos, it accomplishes these tasks using four solenoids mounted in different spots on an acoustic bass with different striking materials attached to each solenoid. These solenoids are mounted to the bass using two 2×4 pieces of wood and a clamp, the reason being the system is modular and can be attached to any acoustic instrument.

Picture of the Module

The initial idea is the whole thing clamps onto a bass guitar, then you plug it in, and you are set up. The solenoids strike the instrument’s body, controlled by an Arduino and a h bridge on the breadboard. We were successful in accomplishing these tasks, albeit with a few challenges. The starting and stopping of the piece were difficult to time with the playing; to rectify this, we added a button to the system to allow easy turning on and off.

Initial design sketch

The code was written using the desktop Arduino IDE and utilized a serial connection between the Arduino and Ableton Live. This is very helpful because it allows the translation of MIDI composition straight from Ableton to the solenoid array, saving time and making the system more accessible for any musician.

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