CUBE COMPOSER

In solo or duo, it is a chess-inspired synthesizer for relaxation and music composition.

Light sensor

prompt

Non selected

Coaches & collaborators

institute

Design Academy Eindhoven

The Cube Composer is inspired by chess and its infinite possible endings. Alone or by two, it is an instrument meant for you to relax and compose music. Put pieces on the board and notes will start playing. Try different patterns, react to each other's moves and create your own rules. Never get frustrated by wrong notes, as they belong to the same scale. Play with the knobs to experiment with effects or even change to another scale.

process & design

Project images

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the tech

How does it work?

In each box, there is an LDR. Each LDR is assigned to a frequency from a chosen scale on two octaves. The amount of light controls the level of the sound: the lesser the light, the louder the sound. The notes level are independent of each other. I had to create a default value to calibrate the synth in different light environments. By doing so, I could code the sound to start playing only when the LDR receive the defaultvalue+5 (It would mean that there is a piece on top). Two potentiometers control each reverb and damping. The last one allows you to change scales thanks to arrays in the code.

Open source code

Click here to grab this project's code

Light sensor

A light sensor detects light in its proximity

About the instrument

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