First Arduino instrument complete (ish)

[BJG145]

I thought I'd start with something simple: a bagpipe chanter.



It consists of a piece of trunking with a set of screws (including one at the back for the thumb), wired up with a length of CAT5 network cable. This goes into an RJ45 breakout...



...which goes into an MPR121 capacitive touch sensor.



This basically allows you to sense touch on up to 12 attached metal surfaces, and it's connected to the Arduino, with which it communicates via a protocol called i2c.

The Arduino has a MIDI shield which I'm using to drive a VST (Blue). Add a bit of percussion and it sounds like this...

https://soundcloud.com/qchord/eletrunk

I've called it the "eleTrunk". I'm using Northumbrian style fingering, which simply assigns ascending notes of the scale to successive open keys, though I've thrown in a twist by using a minor scale. (Usually the holes on a Northumbrian pipe chanter play a major scale, although additional keys are used to provide accidentals. Kathryn Tickell is the maestro.)

...cosmetically, yeah, there's some work to do.

Ultimately I'd like to design something more bizarre and original like the Samchillian with a 3D printed case...

[Folderol]

I like it

[zenguitar]

Bravo

Andy

[Sam Spoons]

Brilliant

[Jumpeyspyder]

Looks fun - congrats

[Dr R]

We'll done!

[ConcertinaChap]

Lovely idea. Northumbrian pipes is a good choice because the closed chanter means you can have separate notes instead of the continuous sound of most pipes.

I know I've got myself an Arduino kit in the BF sales but it'll be a while before I try anything like this

Where did the MIDI shield come from, BTW?

CC

[Sam Spoons]

Am I mistaken or have I seen players of open small pipes block the open end of the chanter on their leg to play a rest?

The minor key piece sounds great but I assume you can easily remap the midi note numbers to any key you choose either in the Arduino or the DAW/VSTi?

[ConcertinaChap]

Am I mistaken or have I seen players of open small pipes block the open end of the chanter on their leg to play a rest?

You have. That's the Irish uilleann pipes where the players do that. They close the open end by resting it on a pad on their leg to get the same sort of effect as the Northumbrian pipes players but lift the chanter from time to time to get certain notes that wouldn't be available otherwise. They may look like a heap of random plumbing but the uilleann pipes are definitely the aristocrats of the piping world.

CC

[Drew Stephenson]

Excellent work!

[Sam Spoons]

Thanks CC, I know a little about them, and will read more now.

[BJG145]

Lovely idea. Northumbrian pipes is a good choice because the closed chanter means you can have separate notes instead of the continuous sound of most pipes.

I know I've got myself an Arduino kit in the BF sales but it'll be a while before I try anything like this

Where did the MIDI shield come from, BTW?

Cheers CC, it's this one from SparkFun. The Arduino IDE includes a library manager that lets you search for components like the MPR121 and pull in the relevant libraries along with sample programs very easily, so these add-ons are fairly straightforward to work with.

[Folderol]

For the ultimate in MIDI IO you could use an Arduino Mega. Even with the hat on, that will give you about fifty IO lines and up to sixteen of them can be 10bit analog inputs you can directly connect to pots/sliders (which in reality matches what commercial ones chuck out).

Also if you're a bit lazy and get one of the fairly cheap MIDI to USB converters then combine the two, you've got properly isolated USB MIDI

[Martin Walker]

Woo-hoo - I nearly missed this, but having just listened to the Soundcloud clip I must add my congratulations to the pile.

The eleTrunk sounds like a wonderful morph between pipes and synth, and very nicely played too BJG145

Martin

[Dave B]

So, all I need is one of these, some tubing a bit of wire, a dozen LEDS and photorecpetors and I have a makeshift laser harp?

Sign me up!

Edit : it's a capacitive trigger. Right. Still interesting. Still worth having a look and learning to work through "electronics for dummies" ..

[Sam Spoons]

This has prompted me to dig this out of the storeroom