Hey! I'm an electronic music producer / artist and completely new to Arduino but heard that it could be a good route to go down for supporting a new project I'm working on.
I want to essentially create a Sunlight powered instrument - one that takes in light and converts it to MIDI data which I can map to software instruments etc. Also, ideally it would be ace to set the midi parameters based on GPS co-ordinates, which would result in different continents emitting different key etc.
I'm London based but traveling through Europe, NY, LA, Tokyo this year and I really want to get a different track for different geographical sunrises. This would amalgamate in an concept album.
Is that possible? Is that stupid? Not sure.
Help.
Thanks!
TG
one that takes in light and converts it to MIDI data
Can you define that better? Do you mean to split the spectrum and use an instrument for each color or something like that? This thread discussed ways to measure the spectrum of sunlight. The device in reply#5 is interesting.
Arduino compatible GPS modules are inexpensive and pretty easy to interface.
Add a SD card module for recording data. Data then easily transportable.
All easily interfaced with most any Arduino. Tutorials and libraries (with example code) are readily available for each part.
The question now becomes, what does the Arduino do besides record light and GPS data?
It's certainly possible and interesting. Getting light and other data including GPS data into an Arduino is fairly simple. Getting MIDI out is no more difficult. So you could add on things like temperature as modifiers if you wanted.
Deciding on the parameters of the conversions to MIDI and the mapping to sound generators is going to be the fun part.
Steve
I had considered splitting the spectrum, yes - so I'll definitely look into the thread mentioned. Thanks so much for your help. Very much looking forward to getting stuck in now.
slipstick:
It's certainly possible and interesting. Getting light and other data including GPS data into an Arduino is fairly simple. Getting MIDI out is no more difficult. So you could add on things like temperature as modifiers if you wanted.
Deciding on the parameters of the conversions to MIDI and the mapping to sound generators is going to be the fun part.
Steve
Thanks for you help. If I wanted to stick with just light sensor / GPS and converting to midi for now, which would be the most sensible Arduino hardware to purchase? And presumably to accompany this -
Just about any Arduino could handle GPS plus that spectral board or others. To make life easier getting the MIDI out over USB I would probably go for a Pro Micro or Leonardo as they have as standard the onboard USB features that you'll want.
Steve