It's alive!


Long time no update, but I've been busy porting the MidiGurdy electronics to the new platform. Finally I've got the prototype working again! The following features have been added or improved in the last weeks:
  • internal sound production: just plug in headphones and start playing
  • an LCD (see above :-), a few buttons and a rotary encoder to set various configuration options (like trompette sensitivity, volume and pitch per channel, sound selection, etc)
  • 4 preset buttons which can save and load different configurations
  • mute buttons for melody, drone and trompette "strings"
  • an improved sensor for the crank position with higher resolution, so that even very slow turning speeds get detected properly
  • much improved latency on the trompette and keys
  • the trompette modelling now takes the acceleration into account, resulting in a more realistic attack
  • monophone and polyphone mode for the melody string
This means that electronics and programming are ready for the beta test. In the next few weeks I will work on the hardware and try to figure out how to produce the body, the keybox, crank and brake system in larger quantities. Watch this space!
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Open-Heart Surgery


Although it is more like a full heart transplant... careful, very technical post!

Until now, the MidiGurdy used a small 8-bit microcontroller as the main computing unit, handling everything from sensor reading, modelling of sensor values to implementing the MIDI USB connection. And all of that with just 16 MHz!

But feedback from players suggests that a built-in sound module is actually very important. Most players would want to pick up the instrument, plug in headphones or an amp and crank away. Fiddling with iPad apps or even more complicated synths is great for some people, but not for the "casual player".

So... we need internal sound production! Doing it properly and with good quality on the 8-bit microcontroller is difficult (if not impossible). We need more power!

I've decided on a dual-core ARM board running at 1GHz. The board is fast enough for very high quality software sampling in addition to all other functions previously handled by the microcontroller. And all of that running on a real-time Linux! Also has the added benefit of giving me a much easier development environment...  it's a Linux system after all... and it's got WLAN connectivity :-)

I still have to see how long the battery lasts with this little baby, but early tests suggest more than 10 hours. That should be more than enough for the odd practice session or a stage performance.

Oh, and the Linux base system and the MidiGurdy software will be released under an open-source license. So you could even fiddle with it yourself, if you are so inclined.

I need a few more days to recreate all the functionality onto the new core. After that, I will add a few more hardware controls to the instrument.
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Welcome to the MidiGurdy Dev-Blog!


After the great feedback I got in France, on Facebook and via other channels, the decision really was  a no-brainer: I will develop the MidiGurdy further and will try to make it into a proper product! :-)

On this blog, I will document my progress and keep you up-to-date on the current development. It is still a long way to go... but the first steps have been made!

I'm currently working on an integrated sound module for the MidiGurdy. So no need for an external synthesizer anymore if all you want is quiet and hassle free practice: just plug in your headphones and crank away! Watch this space for more details in the next few days...

Marcus
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