chuck
New Member
Posts: 39
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Post by chuck on Aug 8, 2022 19:34:52 GMT
Sometimes I make flutes out of bamboo. I was reading up on Karplus-Strong modelling, where you can take a noise source and a delay and a filter and get a tone which has a frequency based on the length of the delay. This is basically how flutes actually work, except using standing waves in air molecules instead of electrons. Here's the start of an EWI that uses high-frequency noise from wind at the mouthpiece, detected by an ultrasonic capable electret condensor microphone instead of a pressure sensor. So far it's just a noise source, I still need to build the rest of the circuit. It is fun to feed the noise into the AE filters as it is though and change the tone based on the cutoff and resonance.  I have ideas about how to do partial-covering sensing of the finger pickups and embouchure distance modulation... but first I need to make an actually functional Karplus-Strong circuit and I'm waiting on some chips for that. |
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Post by pt3r on Aug 8, 2022 21:45:00 GMT
You can do karplus with the multifx module and a noise source.
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chuck
New Member
Posts: 39
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Post by chuck on Aug 8, 2022 22:53:16 GMT
That hadn't occurred to me, and it should have. Thanks!
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Post by pt3r on Aug 9, 2022 8:12:07 GMT
I made a post about it on these forums.
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Post by rodney on Aug 10, 2022 3:42:26 GMT
I really like the idea of using the ultra-sonic portion of the breath noise as a noise source for driving a delay-based 'model'. I was thinking to use an air pressure sensor, but this is cooler (could actually use both for control but I love this approach to synthesis, grounded in the physical world).
I have a pretty big pile of little switches and was thinking to make a MIDI sax for my son, but then he got into keyboard instead... However, I'm a 'recovering clarinetist' myself and tempted to dive back into electronic wind things again. I played a Roland Aerophone last time we were in Japan, and very nearly bought one. What I like about the aerophone is that it doesn't try to look like a saxophone. It just puts the switches where the keys would be on a real sax. |
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Post by pt3r on Aug 13, 2022 19:12:41 GMT
How about the EWI?
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chuck
New Member
Posts: 39
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Post by chuck on Aug 14, 2022 4:06:16 GMT
I wouldn't mind having one! I believe they use air *pressure* from blowing into a reservoir as an input, along with switches for fingering, like every other electronic wind instrument I've heard of. You make a seal with your mouth and blow. I think this is an excellent match for reed instruments and brass. Some instruments also measure bite pressure for another input, also great for reed-style playing. I want instead to use the noise from a well-formed stream of air cut by an edge as an input to a circuit that resonates like a flute does with two open ends. It would be a bonus if the changes to the color of the noise from changing your embouchure was reflected in the sound. More articulation! At first glance Karplus-Strong seems a good fit but Karplus-Strong uses an initial burst of noise that settles down via the filter and delay feedback, like a struck string or tapped tube. I want to continuously introduce the noise to produce a sound like a bowed string or blown tube. I think providing an exponential gain (or logarithmic falloff?) of the noise signal before adding it to the delay circuit may be what I need. Or there is a significant probability that I have no idea what I am talking about. Won't be the first time! |
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Post by pt3r on Aug 14, 2022 7:35:09 GMT
I have been looking at ewi/aerophone to have some kind of travel option to practice my sax chops but I think that it's a whole different instrument. Already the whole concept of tonguing you have on the sax/clarinet? how would that translate? Does it do multi-phonics like a sax? Or is it really just a very convenient midi controller for woodwind players?
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Post by rodney on Oct 24, 2022 0:20:00 GMT
I don't think the Aerophone will make multiphonics like a sax, unless there is a model designed specifically to do that. They tend to go for neat, conventional-sounding models but they can overblow from blowing harder and stuff like that. I vaguely remember the Yamaha WX5 had a sensor attached to the reed to get bite pressure to map to a midi controller, velocity, bend etc.
Getting cool things like multiphonics, growls etc. would need a more complex model than KS and have various parts of the model linked to different sensors. I imagine It might be possible to map certain fingerings that produce multiphonics and squeaks on a real instrument to mess with the model to do something similar.
I found this thing while googling this morning. I like the way they have moved the hand position (since the conventional finger position is dictated by physics, not ergonomics)
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Post by rodney on Oct 24, 2022 0:35:20 GMT
The above instrument uses the MPR121 chip to handle the touch sensors. It can give you 12 capacitive touch switches (not sure if can be set to respond to pressure at all) and connects to the I2C bus of your Arduino or whatever. The chip can select between 4 different I2C addresses so you can use up to four of them to get 48 separate touch switches.
It might even be possible to rig up some capacitive sensors around the mouthpiece for tongueing and other stuff, but I'm not sure if they can be set up to be dynamic or if they are just on/off.
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Post by rodney on Oct 24, 2022 0:49:48 GMT
... and I also stumbled onto this nice way of making folksy wooden touch interfaces ...
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Post by rodney on Oct 24, 2022 1:19:55 GMT
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Post by pt3r on Oct 24, 2022 5:37:51 GMT
I don't think the Aerophone will make multiphonics like a sax, unless there is a model designed specifically to do that. They tend to go for neat, conventional-sounding models but they can overblow from blowing harder and stuff like that. I vaguely remember the Yamaha WX5 had a sensor attached to the reed to get bite pressure to map to a midi controller, velocity, bend etc.
Getting cool things like multiphonics, growls etc. would need a more complex model than KS and have various parts of the model linked to different sensors. I imagine It might be possible to map certain fingerings that produce multiphonics and squeaks on a real instrument to mess with the model to do something similar.
I found this thing while googling this morning. I like the way they have moved the hand position (since the conventional finger position is dictated by physics, not ergonomics)
This reminds me of this pre ewi thing michael brecker used to play. |
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