The Wormhole Actualization Machine (WAM)

Alan Watts, a freelance hardware and software engineer based in Austin, Texas has created a fascinating Arduino + GinSing based contraption he calls the WAM:

Since the dawn of man, we have looked to the stars in awe and wonderment. Gazing into the heavens has inspired age-old questions like “Why am I here?”, “Are we alone?”, and “What's it like to get sucked into a blackhole and travel at hypersonic speeds through a wormhole?” Well, with an Arduino, 120 LEDs, an infinity mirror, and some old-school NASA-inspired hardware, CLAW Amusement Technologies is at least pretending to have an answer to that nagging last one, if it were posed to a team of NASA engineers in 1960, with the Wormhole Actualization Machine

 

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babbletron is here!

In addition to the free tweaker tool for experimenting with realtime waveform synthesis, we now have a free tool for realtime experimenting with voice synthesis. The babbletron, like the tweaker is a java program that runs on your PC to communicate to the GinSing shield to explore the shield's capabilities for synthetic voice, build up a dictionary of words and phrases, make some songs, and export the code diretctly into your Arduino projects.

 

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charles peck - 443

About a year ago, Charles posted his custom electronic instrument Sharpy, which uses the Ginsing Shield and infrared distance sensors. Well he just finished up a piece for two percussionists and Sharpy that he wanted to share. Its a nice example of the GinSing being integrated into a musical setting, which is one of the unique aspects of a chip originally designed for voice synthesis.

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tweaker video

We've just created a video that will take you through the basics of the tweaker program. If you are not familiar with tweaker, its a program that you can run on your computer that provides you with an onscreen realtime interface to play with the GinSing. The java based program talks to the GinSing shield via the USB on your computer so you can visualize and experiment with all the waveform synthesis functions on the GinSing as well as save off register sets to create your own preprogrammed sound effects. You can find out more here:

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babbletron

We're just back from the 2013 Albuquerque Maker Faire where we presented a Ginsing based interactive display. The project is called "babbletron" and features a bunch of candy colored buttons, an arduino, an 8x8 LED display, and of course a GinSing shield.

The layout of this device is a direct mapping between the GinSing allophone codes and the buttons, so this might be of use to you if you are going to be generating your own phrases - its easy to prototype and build words and sayings when you can record and preview the sequence as you go.

You can find out more about the project at the Engeldinger Engineering Services website.

 


 

musical poi

Here is an intriguing project sent in by maker / composer / graduate student Sangbong Nam from the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He calls his creation the mPoi ( musical poi ).

Poi refers to both a style of performance art and the equipment used for engaging in poi performance. As a performance art, poi involves swinging tethered weights through a variety of rhythmical and geometric patterns. Poi artists may also sing or dance while swinging their poi, and in this case the mPoi is doing the singing.

Poi can be made from various materials with different handles, weights, and effects. In this case, Sangbong has integrated an Arduino, GinSing, Gyroscope sensor, and a speaker into his device. Sangbong welcomes your comments on this project in our forum.

 


 
 

airmonica

If you want to get an idea of what you might be able to do musically with the GinSing shield, you can check out the airmonica project, which is uses a Nintendo-like nunchuck accelerometer as an input device. Along with a software arpeggiator, a harmonizer, and metronome you can improvise tunes along with a backing track. This project uses the Ginsing in voice mode, using 1 voice for the backtrack, 1 for the metronome, and up to 3 for the lead voice - which still leaves another voice open if an good idea for it comes to mind. You can find out more about the project  here .