Week 1: Final Project Idea
For the final project, I have a few ideas that I want to explore over the course of the semester. One of the projects that I would really like to see finished is a fusion of two Asian music instruments - Ektara from Bangladesh, and Erhu from China. I tried to build a 3D prototype using Autocad student version, but the learning curve was a little steep given the time. So I tried 2D drawing instead.
I drew the following using Krita Studio, using my novice drawing skills, and a Wacom digital tablet. Erhu is a two stringed instrument that is played using a bow that rests between the two strings. Ektara has only one string, mostly used for a string based percussion in traditional Bengali songs.
Combining these two instruments to build a unique instrument and sound requires a lot of experiments and musical expertise. Instead of trying that route, I plan to build an instrument that is smaller than both of these, retains the easyness of playing these instruments, and acts as a midi interface too.
The base of the instrument will have two holes for plugging the strings in. On the surface, a contact microphone will be used to pick up the vibration of these strings. The signal will be channeled to a microcontroller unit, amplified using a pre-amplifier circuit. The MCU will convert the sound to midi signal, based on the rules I impose on the incoming frequency.
The two holders that lead up to the tuners will be covered with force-based resistors at intervals (depicted by white patches in the image). These will provide options for pitch-shifting, or delay/reverb parameters based on the settings in the MCU.
Additionally, I plan to attach an accelerometer at the top notch where the tuners reside. This will be an experiment to see if the performer's movements can be somehow translated into the MIDI interpretation.
This will require some signal processing in the MCU, a higher-end MCU compared to the hobbyist's choices (like Atmega328p) might be required.