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A work (of sorts) in progress. I'm not quite sure where this is going because my original plan did not pan out as expected. I have many more sprockets, aluminum frames, fire extinguishers, etc. to fill out the ensemble, so the overall klang will be very full.
All metal parts were obtained at a recycling center and worked over in my garage. The motors are also recycled. They are driven by Make Controller Kits (now defunct, much to my disappointment. It will require three separate Arduino boards to duplicate the features of a single MCK) which in turn are driven by OSC network messages sent from my Mac using SuperCollider. And though they look funny, cheap screwdrivers are the best sounding mallets I could find..
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I'd like add realtime DSP to enrich the harmony and registral span.
Yet another mechanism. The cylindrical solenoids at last offered reliability, but they are still too noisy. I purchased more conventional "pull" type solenoids on ebay (only $1 each!). These solenoids allowed me to insert felt into the cavities as well as light compression springs on the shafts to reset the mechanisms after each strike. The mechanics consist of simple levers that push the mallets. The string connecting solenoid to lever is not a great idea (breaks too easily), and one solenoid still requires adjustment, but this design is dramatically quieter than anything else I've tried.
Here are three clips of the ensemble with different kinds of dsp (phase shifting, bin shifting, and bin scrambling -- all are standard FFT ugens in SuperCollider):
Lower the voltage for a mellower tone (accompanied by crickets and cicadas). The second clip adds granular synthesis on signals captured from two of the sprockets.
