⚖ helping assess the Icelandic school system at Skólapúlsinn
Pronouns: they/he
Video: Lights in the Sky (Barnaby Walters)
Finally the first video from my trip to Canada last month! Playing with Emilyn and John is always a blast, and this time we recorded a bunch of tunes. More to come!
Just a few more days now until Vaka 2017 in Akureyri! I’ll be there the whole week, and will be teaching some tunes and dances with Wilma and Benjamin on Thursday. There are still tickets available!
#pd [freeverbcontrol] — I tried to make a little pd GUI abstraction for [freeverb~], but couldn’t find a simple (or even complicated) way of storing parameters which are unique per instance of the abstraction.
The approach I eventually came with up is simple, if a little cludgier than I’d like: provide a template patch with the actual GUI as a subpatch, which must be copied/pasted into the patch you actually want to use it in.
decided to give up strings on my gurdies. best listened to with headphones.
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rknDE:
Hey @BarnabyWalters do you know where @free_bear_rides can find a hurdy gurdy impulse response sample?
@rknLA@free_bear_rides impuse response sample as in for conv. reverb? Not sure what you mean, the hurdy gurdy isn’t a space you can sample (…is it?) Such a recording almost certainly doesn’t exist already, but I might be able to make you one if I know exactly what it is you need…
The old Fitbit and Fuelband which Aaron Parecki gave me a few years ago (thanks Aaron!) don’t hold a charge anymore. The Fitbit battery is near impossible to replace, and with the Fuelband I decided that as there’s no way of loading custom firmware (which would let me get at data without an internet connection and proprietary apps), it wasn’t worth trying to get replacement batteries. So before throwing the devices away, I took them apart.
I didn’t find out much which I hadn’t already seen in teardowns, but these devices have such strange form factors that it was fascinating to see the engineering up close.
The rubber coating comes off very cleanly. Here you can see some of the funny curved traces used on flexible circuit boards:
The LED array, with “Just Do It” written on the top of the PCB (invisible to the end user). On the sections of flex between the more solid boards you can see the unbelievably fine traces:
On the back of the LED matrix section, with a part number. To the right you can see the jaggedy bluetooth antenna trace:
The fitbit isn’t so interesting. Removing the cap with a heatgun reveals a tiny circuit board with a tiny battery and vibrating element.
I also opened up the dock, as I noticed that the USB cable was power only, with no possibility of wired data transfer. The third pogo pin must be for the reset switch, which is mounted in the dock. There’s a little IC in there too, but I was more interested in seeing how the pogo pins were attached to the board. Turns out they’re just soldered straight on:
I’d love to have been able to flash custom firmware to the Fuelband, it’s a lovely bit of hardware, and manufacturing something like that is completely out of the question for a hobbyist. There are so many fun things which could be done with a device equipped with an LED matrix, accelerometers and bluetooth — a wearable MIDI controller, for example.
That possibility would also have made replacing the batteries worth doing, and in doing so saved the device from the landfill. Free software and open hardware isn’t just political, it’s better for the environment.
Doing some prototyping+testing for the next MIDI-enabled gurdy board:
My current approach is an Arduino (Genuino) Uno with a custom made board with a line of hall effect sensors, and the various other boards plugged into the Arduino. It works, but there are various problems — wiring the whole thing together is a hassle; the limited I/O on the Uno requires me to multiplex the sensors, introducing delays; hand-soldering through-hole sensors means they’re all in slightly different positions; and a single line of sensors isn’t enough to cover the whole throw of a key, resulting in notes turning off when they’re bent too far.
I heard about emsproto.com and was initially considering designing a board containing the sensors and microcontroller myself, and having it built, but after drafting up a very simple one-component test board and seeing that there’s a base cost of €200 per board for PCB and assembly, I decided on another approach.
The next version of the board will be a custom designed sensor and breakout board with two rows of surface-mounted hall effect sensors, into which I can plug a Teensy 3.5, removing the need for multiplexing, vastly increasing the speed at which the system can run, and opening up various possibilities like easy-to-implement USB-MIDI support.
@t happy oneoldernessday Tantek! Congrautlations on another successful lap around the sun ;)
The first two instruments from this winter’s series are now for sale. The new design is an evolution of my previous instruments, aiming to be more compact whilst having a loud, mellow, balanced sound. The instruments fit nicely in Ritter Alto/Tenor sax bags (I’ve flown several times with this model as hand luggage without any problems).
2x melody strings (G and g)
2x drones (C and G)
2x trompettes (C and G)
4x sympathetic strings (C, G, D, A)
4x capos (one for each drone and trompette string)
Three channel active amplification system
Fully chromatic two octave keyboard (including F# in the upper octave)
Height-adjustable melody string bridge
Adjustable drone bridges
Some more photos:
Both instruments are now sold, but I may be available for new builds over the next year, Contact me at barnaby@waterpigs.co.uk if you’re interested.
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Aaron Parecki:
What!! This is amazing! Do the keys send midi messages? What else is acting as midi input?
@aaronpk thanks! Drone and trompette (buzzing) sound are acoustic, the melody is just the synth. Magnets in the keys + hall effect sensors on a board underneath, a magnetic rotary encoder on the shaft controlling noteon/off and expression, and an arduino inside the keybox putting it all together and sending MIDI signal out. The whole thing is built into the instrument, which also works great acoustic or amplified. There are a lot of improvements to make, but I think this is a good start!
MIDI-enabled hurdy gurdy playing NI Reaktor… a preview of a prototype, more of this to come in the future ;)
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Quinn's internet 👻:
will think on this, thankshttps://twitter.com/teirdes/status/834892646430687232
@quinnnorton I have observed this too on varying scales, call it the “pendulum effect”. Pushing a society/group/individual really quickly to one extreme of an axis seems to result in it “swinging” to the other extreme, and (in theory?) back and forth. GDR and aftermath is one good example of this. Usual disclaimer: not an expert/historian, someone else probably figured this out in much more detail than me already.
New singing goal: be able to sing all of Moondog 2, which just blew my mind
I couldn’t find the lyrics for all of the tracks collected together in one place, so here are as many as I can find or figure out.
00:00
Bells are ringing dinga linga linga linga ling-a linga linga linga ling
dinga linga linga linga ling-a linga linga linga ling
dig all the kids who carry bells, merry bells
who are they?
why they're the
hippies
01:21
Voices of spring were in chorus
each voice was singing a song
I could not sing in that chorus until I wrote me a song
I wrote my song and joined the throng (source)
03:10
What’s the most exciting thing about life?
tell me or I’ll tell you
come on come on
I know you know what I know it’s in your eyes
I’ll have to tell you, I can’t wait
it’s L O V E it’s love
and I’m in love; I’m so happy
it’s L O V E it’s love
I’m incoherent my dear
oh happy happiness
in love
in love
in love
oh happy happiness, happiness
Darling the answer is love (source)
05:43
All is loneliness before me
loneliness before me
loneliness
07:12
My tiny butterfly butters my bread
my briny flutterby keeps me well fed
why should I mutter?
08:26
Why spend a dark night with you?
what a fearful price to pay
other nights nights would but be
lonely dark ages for me
09:37
Coffee beans make the finest coffee of all
it’s time to take
a coffee break
to sit a while and savour
the rarest coffee flavor
of bean coffee
I make with bottled spring water
is my day (source)
11:50
Down is up and so up is down because the earth is round
there is no such thing as up or down
12:58
Be a hobo and go with me
from Hoboken to the sea
14:08
Remember, remember, remember, memeber
to vote the way
the way we say
or else
or else what
I won’t
16:03
I love you
for your lovely still small voice
I will love your still small voice
till my voice
is still
17:14
Nero’s expedition up the Nile
failed
because the water hyacinth
had blocked the river
denying Nero’s vessels passage through
the Sud of Nubia
19:08
No, the wheel was never invented.
no, no, no, no
your legs are spokes of a two legged wheel
and your hips are knobbly axles
the world was always on wheels
20:28
With my wealth I wish I had lived when great genius lived
what I would not have done
Fool, the writings of your dying beggar reveal that he is
by far the greatest one
22:05
This student of life
has enrolled
as that student for life
his Alma Mater
is all the world
with father time as mentor
23:31
Some trust all
some trust some, ho
some trust one
I trust none, ho
not even myself
25:01
Wine, woman and song are too, too much for me
I am contented with the latter two
for
woman and my song are simply
wine enough you see
27:25
Sadness was so mixed with gladness
that she wept with joy
she was so sad
tears filled but enhanced the smile on her face
she was so glad
28:48
Maybe, maybe, maybe someday
I’ll be recognised for what I am
before I’m dead and gone
or if not before then after it all
30:53
Each today is yesterday’s tomorrow which is now
now is all I have
now is all I need
now is all I want
now
32:32
Imagine what it's like to have a long suffering
night walker walking on you
I’m standing there barefoot, facing the meadow
oh, oh, something is crawling on my muddy foot
what the, it's a wet worm
I tell you I started walking, too
I mean we parted company
maybe we think it safe enough to say,
we had quite enough of us that night
34:51
You, the vandal
plunder the village as you will
the earthworm will pillage you
the vandal
when you are under
37:01
Trees against the sky
fields of plenty
rivers to the sea
this
and more
spreads before me
38:22
Behold the willow bows before me
but not the oak I’m uprooting
remarked the wind
39:51
Sparrows wake me in the morning in Gotham where I live
except when I’m up to Tioga
other birds wake me there
so fair their singing
Experimenting with hurdy gurdy bridge designs…
Happy 2017! Here’s what Emilyn Stam (fb) and I got up to as the year changed:
Emilyn Stam (5 string fiddle) and Barnaby Walters (hurdy gurdy) playing some tunes in the basement at Folk Marathon 2016 Tübingen. 2016 changed into 2017 half way through the third tune (in our timezone, at least).
High Park Schottisch (John David Williams) Squat Waltz (Barnaby Walters)
Kathryn’s Yellow Schottisch (Emilyn Stam)