The ArcaMIDI

YouTube Uploaded by Hatchinatore on Apr 25, 2010

"My name is Alex . (Hatchinatore@gmail.com) and this is my award-winning instrument, ArcaMIDI. The ArcaMIDI itself is a computer controlled instrument. essentially it encases a laptop, and with help from an iphone, and a Wii remote's electronics, plus a bit of custom circuitry, it relays messages to the laptop, for the laptop to process with an end goal of producing music. On the protocol side, the laptop is relayed OSC routings and messages from both the Wii remote and the iphone. the iphone uses an application called Mrmr to relay these messages, and is able to have custom interfaces. combined with jailbreaking, i replaced images for the buttons in the application to make it look more of a part of my instrument. on my laptop, i am running mac OSX 10.6. my iphone connects to my laptop via wifi, and to minimize the interference, i host a network with its own password from my laptop to the phone, so only i can connect, and it will work anywhere I am. the Wii remote connects through bluetooth directly to the program osculator where both messages from the Wii remote and iphone are interpreted. the commands are then transferred into midi events, and they are sent to ableton live, where the magic takes place. with my iphone i am able to change to preset instruments on the fly, as well as control volume levels, wether or not it is the only instrument playing, muting and effects the Wii remote hardware is connected to buttons spread throughout. the note board plays notes and or chords on whatever the selected instrument is. those sounds can be modulated with the joystick. there are 13 buttons which includes a full octave of notes, plus an extra note. when a button is pressed, a backlight led lights up. on the right near the joystick, there are also two strumbar-like elements, the one closest to the noteboard controls the key. i it is pressed upward, the entire noteboard moves up a half step in key, and downward the same. on the far strumbar is octave control. as longs as the strumbar is held downward, the entire noteboard shifts exactly one octave downward, and up shifts higher. the remaining three buttons are for looping control. combine on the fly instrument changing with looping, and you get a one man, one instrument band. the user can start by playing a drum loop, presses the loop button to start the loop, and once again to end it. that loop plays continuously until it is stopped by the controls. the user can then switch to rhythm guitar, and if the want to loop that instrument on top of the previous track, they only have to press the recording button once. the code already recognizes how many bars the previous instrument recorded based on time and beat, and is able to make the next recording last exactly as long, double, half, or whatever the user decides the length to be. once multiple instruments are playing, they can be muted or soloed individually.

If anyone wishes to know more, or would like to contact me direct, I am always free to talk, and i am always in need and want to pursue new opportunities. please feel free to contact me at once again: Hatchinatore@gmail.com"