What:

I will see if I can use a Phidgets-kit on a dancer, it is NOT wireless.

Why:

I am waiting for the Eowave-system to arrive from France and I want some progression in the project.

How:

I will go trough available sensors and think of possible solutions.

——–

Sensors:

These are the available sensors and my thoughts on using them:

Circular Touch:

Too Big.

IR reflective (5mm):

Measures too short distance (max 5mm).

IR reflective (10cm):

Measures too short distance (max 10cm).

Force sensor:

This is both small and sensitive enough to work with.

Magnetic sensor:

Not favorable since the dancer would have to wear a magnet and the distance to where it starts to sense is too short.

Rotation sensor:

I don’t want the dancer to turn knobs, I want her to dance. I could have made something with some strings and springs connected to the knob, but that seems extremely stupid to me.

Touch sensor:

Initially a relevant sensor, but as I tried to put it on a glove, it sensed being on the glove as being touched. I even tried with rubber gloves, still it told me it was getting touched just by sitting on the glove. So I can’t use it.

Motion sensor:

Initially I thought I would be able to use this, but apparently it just senses when there is movement, not on what axis there is movement and how much tilt. That is probably why it is called a motion sensor. Then again, I could use it, but it would not be very clear what it is doing since the numbers I get are quite messy, I would have to try to filter them somehow.

Slider:

Once again, I don’t want the dancer to turn knobs or slides, I want her to dance.

Joystick:

Basically a good idea, but too big for this project.

Temprature sensor:

Cool, but it would be hard to control the temperature instantly based on immediate reactions to what happens in the music.

——–

Wearing the system:

That leaves me with only the force sensor:

I imagined it would be best if the dancer could press it with her fingers, so I put two of them on each their glove:

The dancer would have to wear the interface as well, so I put it on an old belt:

And of course I had to try it on:

Summary:

It felt quite comfortable wearing it, let us just hope that the dancer feels the same way.

Since this system is not wireless, there is a major challenge to actually dance with it, but since I am no dancer, I didn’t bother even trying to figure out how that would work.

As mentioned, this is just a temporary solution until I get the wireless system from Eowave, then I will put together a more permanent solution.

The most important aspect I want to research with this solution is how I will map the incoming data to the processing of the audio. This setup facilitates the concept of starting and stopping a loop as mentioned in the idea sketch:

The two flexion sensors are to decide when to start and stop the looping and also the initial length of the loop. When the left hand closes (if the dancer is close to the drums) is sets the starting point for the loop/starts recording into the looper, when the right hand is closed the en point is set and the loop starts playing. When both hands are opened again the loop stops.

I am thinking that after starting a loop, if more pressure is put on the sensor, that decides the speed and pitch of the loop.

I will also look for a gyroscope to go with this solution so I can use the rotation of the dancers hand(s) to control parameters like we did with the Eowave-system.

The post Testing sensor system on a dancer – temporary solution appeared first on Drums and electronics.

I will test Eowave’s Eobody2 HF on a dancer.

Why:

I want to see if this system works with our project.

How:

I will have the sensors control simple parameters.

——–

After the first day we met I made some enhancements to the setup.

If anyone is interested, this is the current MaxMSP-patch.

I consider pitch, speed and volume as three essential parameters to investigate further as those are quite relevant parameters in traditional music.

In the first example, by turning her hand around the z-axis, the dancer would control the pitch and speed of a simple drum loop.

The reason why we chose not to separate pitch and speed was that after some intents with just controlling the speed we felt that excluding pitch was very unnatural, probably because they both reinforce each others effect and historically we are used to them being tied together (slow down a tape or a vinyl and the pitch will drop).

The original idea was that I would measure the distance between her hands to provoke this action, but we figured out that it would be easier to “fake” it by turning her hands while pulling them apart. I got this idea after an inspiring session with Alexander Refsum Jensenius who made it clear to me that to actually measure the distance between her hands was harder than I initially thought.

As you can see, we are starting to enjoy this. And the system is behaving exactly as expected.

Next, I made turning around the x-axis control the volume of the drum loop.

It is quite obvious that the dancer found this somehow more boring, but it had to be tested and I think we can get a use for it because the link between the movement and the music is so clear.

And again, the system is behaving exactly as expected.

In the next test, I combined the two above, so turning around the z-axis will change the speed and pitch and turning around the x-axis will change the volume of the drum loop.

This clip is notably longer since the dancer is now inspired to explore the possibilities further and we felt that we were ready do to a test performance.

I wanted to emulate that I was playing the drums since that is where we are going, so instead of the drum loop we used a loop from a solo performance I did almost a year ago.

I also wanted to challenge the dancer with some other parameters. This time she controls delay feedback and pitch. You can see the parameters in Ableton Live being modulated in the upper left corner.

I like this. Of course it gets boring after a while, but I would gladly make this a part of a performance.

If I were to play instead of the loop there would be an extremely direct interaction between the music and the dance: I would be playing with both what I hear and see the dancer do and she would be inspired by what I play and what she hear she is doing with the music.

I have now applied for some funding to buy the sensor system and develop a performance with this setup.

Even though this seem quite poor from an artistic point of view, I feel that we are on the right way to do something quite original and the possibilities of what this can bring are just starting to show.

More on this project when money comes around.

The post Testing sensor system on a dancer – day 2 appeared first on Drums and electronics.

I will test Eowave’s Eobody2 HF on a dancer.

Why:

I want to see if this system works with our project.

How:

I will have the sensors control simple parameters.

——–

The dancer:

I was lucky enough to make Hedvig Sønstebø Bang, professional dancer and long time friend, interested in joining the project.

Bang has a BA in jazz dance at The National Academy of the arts (Oslo, Norway) and is currently working as a freelance dancer.

I am utterly grateful for her participation and enthusiasm for the project.

Sensors:

We taped the following sensors to the dancer to control and modulate a simple drum loop:

• Flexion

When she closes her hand she can control the loop.

• Gyroscope

One axis controlling the speed and another the reverb.

Transmitter:

Both sensors are connected to a wireless transmitter attached to the dancer.

——–

First tests:

The fact that nothing sounds like it should and the dancer says that she is getting shocked explains most of the outcome of the first test quite well, but that is how a first test should be, right?

Now the sound is more stable and we got the dancer a glove so that she won’t get shocked. Apparently the flexion sensors that Eowave deliver electrify you if you have the conducting side on your skin, it operates at extremely low voltages so it won’t harm you, but it seemed unpleasant.

Now we tried something more relevant to the project, she looped me saying “blablabla” and then she modulated it.

I think I am starting to see the link between music and dance I have been looking for. As you see at 1:16 the dancer is associating the sounds she is creating with her body.

We felt that the range on the speed is too large: the fastest it way too fast and the slowest might be too slow. Also, the mapping seem to be wrong: both axises are controlling the speed.

——–

Sensor placement:

We wanted to experiment further with the sensor system so we decided to place the gyroscope on other parts of the body. We had no specific method, we just wanted to see if we suddenly would stumble upon something.

In later tests it will be reasonable with a more specific method, but since this was our first encounter with the sensor system, we decided to do it like this.

Now there is no sound in the videos, just an image showing what values we get from the sensors, this might be a little to technical for some, but try to think of it like this:

• All the faders you see jumping up and down I can make control any parameter of the music.
• The faders are jumping up and down because of the movements of the dancer, try to see the link.
• If you try to imagine the faders controlling for example reverb, speed and volume you might understand why we are doing these tests.

Stomach:

We get quite clear readings here, this could definitely be used for something. But as Hedvig made me aware of, dancers doesn’t normally dance just like that, so we did a test with some more movements with the gyroscope still on the stomach.

I should probably have put on some music and let her dance, because this seemed somehow too forced.

But the fact that the faders start moving seemingly randomly when she starts dancing could be an interesting aspect. Maybe that way we will stumble upon ways to modulate sound that would never have been done if it was not a part of a dance.

Knee:

It would be cool to “kick” sound, and this way it is certainly possible.

Apart from that I don’t see any immediate use for a sensor at the knee. Suggestions are more than welcome.

Foot:

A sensor placed at the foot also enables the emulation of kicking a sound. Also it seemed more flexible to have it here than at the knee. Maybe a “straight” foot could enable another set of effects than a “flat” foot. For example a “straight” foot would make the stomach sensor control reverb whilst a “flat” foot would make it control a filter?

The post Testing sensor system on a dancer – day 1 appeared first on Drums and electronics.

I will determine what sensor system to use.

I have to find the most practical and effective solution for collaboration with a dancer.

Why:

I want to be sure I am using the most convenient system before i involve the dancer.

How:

I will discuss the subject with Alexander Refsum Jensenius.

Alexander Refsum Jensenius (BA, MA, MSc, PhD) is a music technology researcher living in Oslo, Norway

www.arj.no

——–

Sensor system:

Jensenius and I discussed the selection of sensor systems and I will narrow it down to this solution based on the following criteria:

• It has to be wireless.

Dancing with a cable going to the computer would be very inconvenient.

• It cannot be based on Bluetooth.

Jensenius explained to me that he has had bad experiences with Bluetooth based systems. They could be stable for a while, but suddenly on some occasions it wouldn’t work. His theory was that many in the audience might have a cellphone with Bluetooth enabled and that could interfere with the system. Also that the structure of some venues simply wouldn’t allow Bluetooth to operate.

• It cannot be based on WiFi.

Most WiFi solutions demand a lot of power which would mean we would have to recharge the system very often. I considered an Arduino system with an Xbee shield and from these battery tests, it seemed quite good. But I have just barely tried to program an arduino and it would demand too much of my time.

• It has to be flexible.

Since I do not yet know what movements I want to register with what sensors, the system i choose has to be flexible in these aspects.

• It has to be affordable.

I am a student.

The available sensor system which met all these criteria was the Eowave Eobody2 HF (how affordable it is can still be discussed).

Time consumption vs productivity:

The fact that that I am skilled enough to get this system up and running quickly is an important aspect.

As my main focus on my masters degree is to create music, using a lot of time programming a setup would be considered time consumption. This has been one of my main challenges this year, to balance the amount of time used on technology and the amount of time for creating music.

The best way to do this would be to get a system, as simple as it might be, up and running as fast as possible and rather develop it further parallel with the creation of the music and choreography. Then I will know what the system is lacking since I know exactly what I expect it to do. Yet this is a hard situation since I do not know exactly what the system should do before I start creating the music and I do not know exactly what musical possibilities I have before the system is up and running.

It is important that these statements are subjective, you might not consider programming time consumption. Here are some slightly different thoughts on productivity vs. time consumption seen trough the eyes of blogger and programmer Trevor Pascal:

The post Choosing the right sensor system for a dancer appeared first on Drums and electronics.

(…) a sensor based setup for a dancer and a drummer, where the dancer can pick up sounds played by the drummer and process them with movement (…)

My project description

What:

Dancer wearing sensors – controlling sound.

The idea is that the dancer can approach my drum set (sound source) and pick up the sounds I am making at that instant. Then he or she can modulate the sounds with movements and try to make it artistically interesting and fitting to the rest of the music if there is any.

Why:

Concrete interaction between music and dance.

The main motivation behind this is that I want to experience a more concrete interaction between a dancers movements and a musician sounds in a live performance setting.

How:

I will make a patch in Max/MSP, buy sensors and rehears with a dancer.

Equipment and procedure:

The dancer will have to wear some kind of gloves and maybe some socks/shoes with the following sensors:

Gyroscope:

A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. Thanks to the fast development in smartphone technology they are now extremely small and quite cheap and can look for example like this (not the coin):

In this context the gyroscope will be used mainly for detecting the rotation of the dancers feet and hands.

More on gyroscope sensors here.

Flexion (bend):

Flexion sensors, (from Latin flectere, ‘to bend’) also called bend sensors, measure the amount of deflection caused by bending the sensor. There are various ways of sensing deflection, from strain-gauges¹⁾ to hall-effect sensors²⁾. The three most common types of flexion sensors are:

• conductive ink-based
• fibre-optic
• conductive fabric/thread/polymer-based

www.sensorwiki.org

The flexion sensors will be used to detect when the dancer is closing or opening his or her hands.

More on flexion sensors here.

Distance (Infrared):

These sensors uses infrared light whose waves are those just below the visible spectrum of frequencies. I will use one of these to determine the distance between the dancers hands.

More on infrared sensors here.

Radio-frequency identification:

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that uses radio waves to transfer data from an electronic tag, called RFID tag or label, attached to an object, through a reader for the purpose of identifying and tracking the object.

I will place a RFID tag on the dancer and RFID readers by the drums and in the buckets (see explanation further down) or the other way around so that when he or she gets close to the buckets or drums it gets registered.

RFID tags can look like this:

RFID readers can look like this:

More on RFID sensors here.

Movement tracking:

I would also like to track the dancers movement on stage, for example with a Kinect so that the sounds that are being carried can be panned to the corresponding location on stage.

Buckets:

The idea also includes some buckets with RFID sensors where the dancer can place the sounds so that they stay looped while he or she continues the performance. It would also be convenient with some lights in the buckets representing if they contain a loop or not.

…

Mapping:

Once again the most challenging factor is the mapping, mapping is to choose what the sensors/controllers should do. A crucial point for me is that the sensors functions are obvious.

I am not quite sure of the gyroscopes function yet, but I guess it will be a filter, delay, distortion or a reverb or a combination of all of them. I could of course say that the dancers placement on stage or another parameter should decide what effect to use, but I will try to keep my feet at the ground and restrict my self until further on in the process so that it will be easier to start working on it.

The two flexion sensors are to decide when to start and stop the looping and also the initial length of the loop. When the left hand closes (if the dancer is close to the drums) is sets the starting point for the loop/starts recording into the looper, when the right hand is closed the en point is set and the loop starts playing. When both hands are opened again the loop stops.

The distance sensor in one of the hands sees the distance to the other hand and, if a loop is playing, decides the speed and pitch (not sure about pitch yet) of the loop. When the hands are closer, the loop plays faster and when the hands are further apart, the loop plays slower.

The RFID sensors, as already mentioned, are to decide if the dancer can record new sounds or not and to tell when a sound is supposed to keep on looping “in a bucket”. If the closed hand is in a bucket wile it is released, it keeps on looping and the dancer can go make another loop.

So the left hand has:

• Flexion.
• Gyroscope.
• RFID.

The right hand has:

• Flexion.
• Gyroscope.
• Distance.

For now, the feet will just have each their gyroscope.

Hypothesis:

I think the first rehearsal will just be amusement over the feeling to “touch sound” and over-using it – like when a guitarist gets a new pedal. Further down the road we will probably encounter problems if we want to play in time and we want loops to be in sync, then I will have to create some kind of transport control and we will need a metronome or backing track.

I think the main challenge will be for the dancer to merge the performance of music and dance. I might have to compose something that he or she can dance, maybe not down to the finest detail, but I think it will be a challenge to improvise well with this setup, then again, hopefully I am wrong.

Reflection:

We will obviously have to practice a lot to make the end result a good experience. I feel that the concept is not strong enough to stand by it self for more than the first 5 minutes of amusement over the technology. I might realize that this is just a dead end, but I have a strong feeling it will not result in that because of earlier experiences with the common denominator between music and dance (see the “Dancers-section of this blog).

Special thanks to Haakon Berg Mathisen for thoughts on how to write well for the internet.

The post Dancer controlling sound with sensors – Idea sketch appeared first on Drums and electronics.

What is great with this concept is that you’re not limited to a products intended usage, you can buy or find and kind of sensors and attach them, so the possibilities are quite extensive.

I have experimented with a force sensor attached to the leg of my drum chair, so, when I lean slightly backwards, I could trigger for example a looper to start recording. This has the advantage of not having to stop playing to start the looper, but it would be hard to do it in time, unless I quantize it to a transport control and play on a click.

I have also tried to attach sliders and knobs to my snare for quick access, but then again, I would have to use my hand. It’s more practical than the launchpad and I could implement visual feedback using LED’s.

I will continue working with this concept.

More info on sensors and i/o-boards at sensorwiki

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Lately, I’ve been looking into methods of controlling the computer without using my legs or my hands. EEG-scanning was one of them:

EEG-scanning is a way of analyzing your brainwaves. Brainwaves are weak electric signals, so the EEG-scanner amplifies them and sends them to a computer for processing. I got the chance to test an EEG-scanner called IBVA (Interactive brainwave visual analyzer).

This scanner sends the amplified brainwave signals to a computer via bluetooth and is compatible with OSX and comes with many interesting and crazy applications, among others a VST-synth.

Basically, what you get are signals over a serial port which you can process the way you find it necessary, for example with Max/MSP.

This can be used to many things, but apart from the 1Hz-signal you get from blinking your eyes, it’s quite hard to control.

I was thinking of using it as a kind of “organic random”, but my conclusion was that it was to much hassle to just get some random numbers and the audience would definitely not hear a difference (please comment on this statement if you feel for it).

One method for implementing this in my playing that could make some sense is to record both the music and my brainwaves from some sessions playing improvised music. Later add effects to the music that enhances my musical intentions, for example at a musically “dirty” section of the performance, I could add some distortion, and at more “romantic” parts, I could add some reverb etc. Then I would link the corresponding brainwaves to trigger those effects and see if I try to do this live, that my feelings, reflected in my brainwaves, would trigger the right effects … Well, it has to be tested.

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In the aspect of diversity and portability, this controller presents many advantages. You have 64 + 16 buttons (8×8)+(2×8) located at a fairly small space, and you can flip through pages which multiplies your number of buttons endlessly. You also get visual feedback from the buttons in three different colors and four different brightness levels per color. It gets all it’s power from the USB-port and is easy to map to basic functions in Ableton Live with two-way communication.

But …

If you are in a hurry, the buttons are to small to hit with a drum stick. And the concept of having to take your hand away from playing isn’t appealing to me and to make it control more advanced functions, I had to make a m4l-patch for it, more on this in a later post.

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