MUSC 420 Special Topics: Capstone Project in Music Technology
MUSC 420 Music Technology Capstone Project (Pritchard/Hamel)
Term 1 or 2 (3 credits)
A significant project dealing with music technology at a high level of expertise, resulting in new software, or application of software, or a performance project demonstrating a high level of technological expertise. Private instruction with music technology instructor. Open only to students in the Minor in Applied Music Technology. Prerequisite: MUSC 100, MUSC 119, MUSC319, MUSC 320 and MUSC 419, or equivalent, and permission of the instructor.
Project Title: Wizarding Wand of Visuals and Sound
Name: Ploykarn Kunkonlakarn
Proposal:
Provide a description of your project including the expected outcome(s). Mention both musical/artistic and technological issues.
This project uses a wireless wand as an instrument, which consists of a gyroscope and accelerometer, to manipulate sound and visuals. The user will be able to move the sound around 8 channel system or move the sound left and right for a stereo system. For visual, the user will be able to control particles and other parameters on the screen. Due to the function of the gyroscope and accelerometer, many variables can be tracked, and therefore many unique gestures can be created and be recognized.
Why is your particular project of interest? What is/are the main problems that it sets out to address?
This particular project sets out to address an interface that uses gesture to control sound, sound processing, video, video processing by collecting data from x, y, and z acceleration in addition to yaw, pitch, and roll. Additionally, this project uses 3 different languages: C, MaxMSP, Unity. As for why this project is of interest to me, I think this project is where childhood fantasy intersects with technology. The wand is often portrayed as a tool to channel magic, and I think it’d be cool to use it as an instrument to control sounds and visuals.
Approach:
Briefly explain how you will approach the problem(s). That is, how will you solve it/them?
In this project, there will be hardware components and software components. For the creation of the wand, I’ll approach by buying necessary hardware which is: MPU6050 accelerometer/gyroscope, LiPo battery ($20 rechargeable), wireless Arduino board ($35-40) with included LED, and including materials to make the wand structure. As for software, I’ll be using, Max/MSP, UBC Toolbox, Unity for video triggering/processing of particle system, and MuBu (Max/MSP) for gesture tracking.
After acquiring the necessary items, I’ll write code that will read the data coming off MPU6050 and write another code in C for the Arduino board to send to MaxMSP. The second part would be to decide what gesture the wand will track. I will have to write code so certain gestures will need to happen in a certain order for a particular bang or trigger to happen. After I decide on what gestures to recognize, I’ll have to decide on what aspect of video (including Unity particles) and the sound gets turned on or manipulated. I’ll also have to decide how I can utilize different parameters such as roll, pitch, and yaw to shape and manipulate the sound.
The final part of this project will be composing a piece to present this instrument and what this wand is capable of. The presentation may demonstrate an instrument that plays one sound at a time and one that is also capable of a live remix using many existing sound files in addition to video manipulation.
Provide a biweekly timeline of how you expect the project to proceed over the three months. Use week numbers and point form for this outline
Week 1-2:
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Learn soldering and wiring things together
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Learn how to read a few electronic symbols and values on those components
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Work with MPU5060 and Arduino board (uses C) to read data and send to MaxMSP
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Make project website to start documenting progress
Week 3-4:
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Refine data and learn to use it to trigger sounds using accelerometer data and UBC Toolbox
Week 5-6:
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Make the wand wireless and will work on processing sounds using gyroscope data
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Work on sound specialization (moving it around 8 channels on Roy Barnett Hall using UBC Toolbox)
Week 7-8:
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Work with MuBu simple pattern recognition and triggering
Week 9-10:
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Integrate triggering unity particles
Week 11-12:
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Composing the final piece
Week 13:
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Continue writing for a piece
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Prepare for PowerPoint presentation
Outcomes:
Describe the outcomes of this project and how it will contribute to your further activities in music technology
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I’ll have a wand that will allow me to control sound and visual in performance and I will be able to use different sound and video and manipulate different effects with this setup
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I can keep composing pieces for performance
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Gain familiarity with multiple software languages
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Understanding how to assemble electronic circuits
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Better understanding of the interaction between hardware and software
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Improvements in the ability to compose and perform and improvise music
This will give me an opportunity to further continue down the path in the music technology industry. I will also be able to improve this wand to add more functions such as changing LED lights, and I can potentially use this project to get into a master’s program in music technology if I choose to take this path.
