Author: ThomMarkies

Storytelling

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I got assigned the storytelling because I couldn’t do much else with my neck injury.
I made 3 possible concept stories.

  • You have to destroy the 7 seals to start the apocalypse and release the 4 horseman.

You destroy the 7 seals by making a song by using either all 7 planets or make 7 different loops. This is inspired by revelations in the bible.

  • The only thing that can protect the kingdom of man against the terrible dangers of the universe is the musical barriers created by the 7 planets of sound

The human race is weak and needs protection from the vast and endless universe out there. An ancient race called the celestials created 7 planets of sound for this purpose.

  • The united 7 planets of mankind are an established force in hte universe. But to become a more dominant power they must be renowned by others. The only way to do this is the Universion Song Festival.

The 7 united planets of mankind audition for the Universion Song Festival. It is up to the player to win this festival by playing music.

After some discussion and rewriting with Oyvind we went with the second story. Only a slightly different version:

The universe. An endless expanding space full of chaos and danger. Amidst the chaos arose the kingdom of man. These humans will one day be a great and prosperous power within the universe. But as of now they are still young and weak unable to combat the ever-expanding universe. Fearing the promising humans might perish an ancient race of sentient beings created 7 planets. These 7 planets of sound would fill the void of space with sound, protecting the kingdom of man against the vast expanding nothingness. The 7 planets would make music to illuminate the darkness and fill the void. You are the conductor of these seven planets. It is up to you to create this music and save mankind from an otherwise inevitable doom.  

We went with this story because you are the protagonist and there is a clear threat/antagonist. It is also a classic good vs evil storyline, which always works.

@uselessmarkies

@oyvindknustadgmailcom

Neck Trouble

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Unfortunately I got myself a neck injury. One of my upper vertebraes has ‘gone wrong’. Now I can barely move my head and almost everything hurts. I couldn’t get out of bed by myself for the past two of days. So the project is on a halt for me for now…. I also canceled my trip to Le Mans. I did this to aid the healing process and so that I may be able to work on the project a 100% next week. It is 200 euros and a great experience down the drain, but in light of the project I think this is the best choice. #Sacrifices

@uselessmarkies

Drumpad Research

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This weekend I did further research on the drumpads.

When researching/brainstorming I discovered three main ways to do this

  1. Premade drum pads drumpoad

   

This is a good option to get the drum pads we need and not having to do a lot of soldering and tinkering. These pads are made by companies who know what they are doing, and they will work out of the box. We can buy them either used or new or even look to get them somewhere for free. The only problem with it is that we either have to use them in the shape they come, reshape them or get the piezo out anyway. It will still require some work to get them integrated in the machine we want to build and get them working with the Arduino. But it will be a more solid functioning drum pad in the end, opposed to if we build one ourselves.

  1. Homemade drum pads

homemadedrumpad

It is very much possible to make your own drum pads out of piezo sensors, maybe some cd’s or other materials and rubber. This however does bring some problems with it.

First of all it is very hard to nail the actual triggering and functioning of the piezo sensor. Even some professional drum pad manufacturers struggle with this, if they have to do it on a budget. It will most likely be the cheapest option but it will take a lot of effort and, judging from what I have read and seen on the internet, be very difficult to function like a proper drum pad. Building the main concept ( a piezo sensor with some rubber on it for triggering) is easy and there are lots of websites and videos that can teach you how. However making it function like a proper drum pad has proven to be more of a challenge.

  • Rubber layered button drum pads

ButtonIdea

This one is an idea on my own, and it might work or it might be a disaster.  The idea is to use regular buttons for the triggering. Then but a layer of thick rubber on top of the button to use as a hitting surface, so that the button doesn’t brake and it still functions as a drum pad instead of a button This can’t register how hard you hit it and it may be less responsive if you hit it fast multiple times in a row, but it will register a hit (hopefully) and will be less tricky to manufacture and set up (in my mind). Now this is an idea of my own so it might not even work, the buttons might brake or whatever. But if the first two are a no go, this one might just be an option. Also this is very prone to breaking.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4BPpfFGcIE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmt0yo4xzCc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcH606S4S2c

https://www.instructables.com/id/MIDI-Arduino-Drums/

https://www.instructables.com/id/Electronic-Drum-Pad/

https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/330

https://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Electronic-Drum-Kit/

https://www.gear4music.nl/nl/Drums-and-Percussie/Digital-Drums-Electronic-Drum-Pad/VKA?origin=product-ads&gclid=CjwKEAjw__fnBRCNpvH8iqy4xl4SJAC4XERP1sXwThyJF3Q_n-WURfUTL6CaCBa-eSPdiMQ0hFRw0hoCKm_w_wcB

https://opencircuit.nl/Product/14272/Groot-piezo-element-met-behuizing-en-draden

https://www.marktplaats.nl/a/muziek-en-instrumenten/instrumenten-toebehoren/m1420788364-remo-drumpads-oefenpads.html?c=8c285449651fa109c354bbabe740c1b&previousPage=lr

 

@uselessmarkies

 

Design Sketches Refining and building method sparring

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I refined the rough design sketches, I went with a design with the asteroid belt on seperate supports. But we went with the second design, the ring attached to the installation because of the building method we chose today. We chose to build the installation with a sturdy wooden ‘box’ in the middle. Then wrap around it with a very thin MDF sheet of wood and directly attach the asteroid belt to it with PVC piping. So the asteroid belt is now attached directly to the structure with no empty space in between. The layering would look like this from above:

WhatsApp Image 2019-06-07 at 14.02.06.jpeg

Design1Design2

 

 

 

 

 

 

@burdetiadrian8

@izabelatyprowicz

@oyvindknustadgmailcom

@uselessmarkies

@ruhrexp

@appleflapjc

Material and Sponsor scouting

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Today Vasil and I went to multiple building markets. We found some interesting new possibilities for building our installation but also thought of some new problems. One very useful material we discovered is a large thin sheet of MDF wood. This we can wrap around the pedestal to get a round shape.

WhatsApp Image 2019-06-18 at 11.32.38(1)

I also approached the employees if sponsoring might be an option. Only the praxis might be able to sponsor us, since the rest didn’t do sponsoring. I made an appointment for next tuesday to discuss it with the store manager.

@ruhrexp
@uselessmarkies

WhatsApp Image 2019-06-18 at 11.32.38

Prototype Testing

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We tested the paper prototype. It didn’t go as well as we hoped. We should have practised doing the drum sounds. We mimicked the sounds the drum module will make with our mounths and looped it using an app. This was the part where we need some practice. We did get some useful feedback from our test subject however. We will use this feedback for our second prototype and for our final installation as well.

 

@appleflapjc

@izabelatyprowicz

@oyvindknustadgmailcom

@uselessmarkies

@ruhrexp