OK! Whew! The proposal critique on Friday was pretty intense. Big, Huge thank yous to all of my fellow students who were supporting me on that day.

One of the things that came out of the critique was dimensionality and causality. In short, it's not enough to simply have the Decay of the instrument coupled to the input power. I need to come up with a way of connecting a larger number of expression points, or dimensions of control.

Anyway, the problem of mapping, as Joe Paradiso calls the coupling between sensor signals and synthesis needs to be resolved here. Prior to the presentation, I had culled a sketch of a simple circuit for combining the output of three generators, such as those prototypes listed in my Generators chapter. It belongs to that special family of electronic synthesis circuits which does not require a microcontroller, but the complexities of its tuning remain to be explored. Would anyone like to see some equations related to this sort of thing? They would belong to a family of non-linear summing circuits comprised of transient, audio-frequency signals of seventh or ninth order combining in three-dimensions. Expected frequency ranges would be 0-200Hz. The entire system would be reverse-transformed through the delta robot equations of motion.

But now that additional curiosity has been raised in this area, I have been considering new multi-generator configurations in which N motors are mechanically connected and attached to various points of the analog synthesis circuitry. For example, one dimension powers the oscillator, the second dimension powers the filter, and the third dimension powers the amplifier.



I have put together some generators capable of producing power from multi-dimensional gestures, including the inverted delta robot, in which linear movement is translated into a complex (yet predictable!) non-linear movement. I predict people will like that better because of a conversation I had with the band OK GO! As performers, video actors, and composers, they are familiar with digital media technology in video as well at least to some extent modern synthesizers. They requested that any one control, such as a slider or knob, NOT map to any single synthesis parameter, but to a group of them. A story accompanied this request, which was centered around the topic that two people can play the same piece of music and it could come out completely differently. They were visitors of the kind I especially relish because they are currently performing and have lots of experience.

also, wouldn't it be cool to have a "basketball generator" which is like a delta robot, but springs back?

In the meantime, the latest conversion algorithm for arbitrary audio into 1-bit continues to evolve. As my friend told me this weekend, "You've been approximating waveforms for 10 years!"

some new code for approximating arbitrary sample waveforms with 1-bit unit steps: http://pastebin.com/kWnm8iGu

received a great many Pictures from Peter Bennett from the January workshop at TEI. Thank you very much, Peter! I will be going through these soon.

Some light jitters now as I rehearse for the Thesis Proposal Critique tomorrow morning.

xferred pix of the stefan & noah build, began sorting them.

Developing presentation for Friday February 26th, 2006, at 11 AM in E14-633.

Went through dry run of presentation today with the boys of CompCult. Lots of good feedback. Thank you guys.

Also, the hub design for the NEMA17 D-Shaft has been updated.

I've added some dynamic range tests for the Violin-Shaped Electric Eels:

• http://exertion.pbworks.com/Instruments

And a graph of the Impedance of the inexpensive JVC/Parts Express Speaker which we have ordered a number of for this research:

• http://exertion.pbworks.com/Speakers
  

Uploaded graph of JVC Loudspeakers

http://exertion.pbworks.com/Speakers