161–170 of 216 posts
What kind of hardware would you suggest (preferably something with Rust!bindings). Is the one used in the original post a good starting point?
I've minimal to no experience with embedded.
Thanks for all the kind words and feedback. There are some comments expressing interest in supporting a Kickstarter etc. If you're interested in receiving updates you can leave your email here: https://tally.so/r/Y55dXv Thanks again - this was a bit of a surprise!
That is fantastic, I love it! If I may submit an extremely pedantic music nerd bug report: at 46s in the video demo ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qboig3a0YS0&t=46s ), the display should read Bb instead of A#, as the key of C minor is written with flats :) (The precise rule is that a diatonic scale must use each letter name for exactly one note, e.g. you can't have both G and G# in the same key, and you can't skip…
Regarding flats and sharps: one could ignore the Pythagorean stuff and go full well-tempered dodecaphonic, thinking purely in terms of semitones in the intervals. This toy sort of nudges towards this. It would be fun to add 12 small LEDs along the faders, and show the number of semitones with them, relative to the previous fader's position.
On one hand, the fact that the same sound can be named A# and Bb may be puzzling for a kid (they could differ on a violin, I suppose); OTOH if the kid later learns formal music notation, this becomes helpful, so your comment holds.
Putting aside the beauty of both the synth and its purpose, what I'm curious about is the learning process in making this. The running theme is that you picked up several new skills 'from cold'. That in itself is impressive enough. How did you approach learning: - the necessary basic electronics; - PCB design; - 3D CAD; - your particular iterative process, among other things? I get the impression you built things inc…
I therefore focused initially on simply getting readings from a single potentiometer; if I could do that then I felt pretty confident I could read from four of them. If I could generate a midi message I was pretty confident I could send it to something that could read it etc.
When I started on the PCB design I had a simple circuit already so it was a case of translating that onto a board.
I didn't get too deep into any of the various parts but I found that it gave me a birds-eye view of the whole process and I now feel confident in isolating parts of them and 'zooming in' to them and refining them, building on the foundation I've developed.
Looks amazing! Reminds me of a funny reddit thread about a man who built a fiber optic star ceiling for his daughter. The top comment was "First child?". :) https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/8g8pce/fiberoptic_star...
Don't assume: Could be an only child, or the spouse is stay-at-home, or the author has family wealth and doesn't need a full time job.
> Could be an only child
In which case, odds are that they're also the first child ;)
> or the spouse is stay-at-home
Which is a full-time job in itself
> or the author has family wealth and doesn't need a full time job.
which is far far less likely than the assumption you're rebuttelling
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is fantastic, I love it! If I may submit an extremely pedantic music nerd bug report: at 46s in the video demo ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qboig3a0YS0&t=46s ), the display should read Bb instead of A#, as the key of C minor is written with flats :) (The precise rule is that a diatonic scale must use each letter name for exactly one note, e.g. you can't have both G and G# in the same key, and you can't skip…
The device is fantastic indeed! Regarding flats and sharps: one could ignore the Pythagorean stuff and go full well-tempered dodecaphonic, thinking purely in terms of semitones in the intervals. This toy sort of nudges towards this. It would be fun to add 12 small LEDs along the faders, and show the number of semitones with them, relative to the previous fader's position. On one hand, the fact that the same sound can…
> A 3D-printed enclosure is fine for a prototype, but a real product likely needs injection-molded parts, which require expensive tooling. For kid-friendly toys, yes. But for older users not necessarily: https://teenage.engineering/products/po
How are these, are they worth the money? I have seen these before, but thought they might be crappy "jokes". However, if they are decent, I would love to play around with them.
Thanks for all the kind words and feedback. There are some comments expressing interest in supporting a Kickstarter etc. If you're interested in receiving updates you can leave your email here: https://tally.so/r/Y55dXv Thanks again - this was a bit of a surprise!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is fantastic, I love it! If I may submit an extremely pedantic music nerd bug report: at 46s in the video demo ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qboig3a0YS0&t=46s ), the display should read Bb instead of A#, as the key of C minor is written with flats :) (The precise rule is that a diatonic scale must use each letter name for exactly one note, e.g. you can't have both G and G# in the same key, and you can't skip…
The device is fantastic indeed! Regarding flats and sharps: one could ignore the Pythagorean stuff and go full well-tempered dodecaphonic, thinking purely in terms of semitones in the intervals. This toy sort of nudges towards this. It would be fun to add 12 small LEDs along the faders, and show the number of semitones with them, relative to the previous fader's position. On one hand, the fact that the same sound can…
I think that, given the toy is (currently) diatonic, and doesn't really have any ability to visualize the chromatic scale (like a piano keyboard does), using the formally correct note names is more intuitive. That way, only the accidentals change when you change modes ("when I change it to C minor, the B becomes a Bb"). This naturally teaches a simple and correct mental model: "the slider chooses a letter and pushing the orange knob makes letters flat or sharp".
If you only ever use sharps instead of sticking to the correct notation, then the notes change inconsistently between different keys ("changing from C major to C minor turns the B into an A#, but changing from C# major to C# minor changes the F into an E"). This is incomprehensible unless you've already memorized the piano keyboard layout.
The OP's choice of restricting to the diatonic scale seems sensible to me -- it helps the kid learn the vocabulary of Western music (if that's your goal!) and it benefits the parents as well by making it hard to create something that sounds bad.