L I G H T B A N D
CONCEPT
An instrument band that plays a collaboration of musical instruments which reacts with light.
We want to explore unconventional and alternative ways of producing/playing music, altering the experience and creating instruments that are unique, interesting and fun.
Music instruments: Viola, Snare & Cymbal
Viola
A light-sensitive instrument.
Consists of a main viola body with transparency strips integrated, light sensors, speakers & a LED bow. The instrumentalist will play the viola by sliding the LED bow over the transparency strips. The darker areas will reduce light and hence reduce the value that is outputted from the light sensor. The light sensor is then hooked up to the speakers and an Arduino to play a tone accordingly to how much light is received. We plan to do at least 4 tones.
Possible Sound changes
- Loudness
- GCAD notes
- Pitch (down the neck, pitch increases)
Snare
Consists of a metal can and several metal beads colliding with one another to recreate the sound of a snare. The can is attached to a push-pull solenoid
that contracts and retracts the can, shaking the beads. The solenoid is also hooked up to a light sensor and it push and pull will be affected by the light values.
The instrumentalist will play the snare by putting his/her hands to block off the light that is produced by a Lamp/LED light. By putting his hands in and out, this can form as a rhythm for the snare.
Cymbal
To create the cymbal effect, we will experiment on hitting the solenoid into the Tomato can. By theory, the solenoid hits like the edge of the drum stick. Hopefully, it creates the sound effect like hitting a drum cymbal.
Since this instrument is placed next to the snare, the instrumentalist will play the cymbal similarly like the snare by putting his/her hands to block off the light that is produced by a Lamp/LED light.
Projected Timeline
| Monday, 15th October | Low Fidelity Prototype | Testing Light > Light Sensors > Sound Replacement of sounds (beep to maybe viola sounds) Gradient strips |
| Monday, 29th October | Refined Prototype | If possible, might wanna change and sync with Ableton Live to produce quality sounds. We will work on the bass/snare instrument. |
Final Presentation
Most likely be a documented video. If it makes sound rather than noise, there can be a performance.