The JoyStyx: A Quartet of Embedded Acoustic Instruments
Matthew Blessing, and Edgar Berdahl
Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression
- Year: 2017
- Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
- Pages: 271–274
- DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1176246 (Link to paper)
- PDF link
Abstract:
The JoyStyx Quartet is a series of four embedded acoustic instruments. Each of these instruments is a five-voice granular synthesizer which processes a different sound source to give each a unique timbre and range. The performer interacts with these voices individually with five joysticks positioned to lay under the performer's fingertips. The JoyStyx uses a custom-designed printed circuit board. This board provides the joystick layout and connects them to an Arduino Micro, which serializes the ten analog X/Y position values and the five digital button presses. This data controls the granular and spatial parameters of a Pure Data patch running on a Raspberry Pi 2. The nature of the JoyStyx construction causes the frequency response to be coloured by the materials and their geometry, leading to a unique timbre. This endows the instrument with a more ``analog'' or ``natural'' sound, despite relying on computer-based algorithms. In concert, the quartet performance with the JoyStyx may potentially be the first performance ever with a quartet of Embedded Acoustic Instruments.
Citation:
Matthew Blessing, and Edgar Berdahl. 2017. The JoyStyx: A Quartet of Embedded Acoustic Instruments. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1176246BibTeX Entry:
@inproceedings{mblessing2017, abstract = {The JoyStyx Quartet is a series of four embedded acoustic instruments. Each of these instruments is a five-voice granular synthesizer which processes a different sound source to give each a unique timbre and range. The performer interacts with these voices individually with five joysticks positioned to lay under the performer's fingertips. The JoyStyx uses a custom-designed printed circuit board. This board provides the joystick layout and connects them to an Arduino Micro, which serializes the ten analog X/Y position values and the five digital button presses. This data controls the granular and spatial parameters of a Pure Data patch running on a Raspberry Pi 2. The nature of the JoyStyx construction causes the frequency response to be coloured by the materials and their geometry, leading to a unique timbre. This endows the instrument with a more ``analog'' or ``natural'' sound, despite relying on computer-based algorithms. In concert, the quartet performance with the JoyStyx may potentially be the first performance ever with a quartet of Embedded Acoustic Instruments.}, address = {Copenhagen, Denmark}, author = {Matthew Blessing and Edgar Berdahl}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1176246}, issn = {2220-4806}, pages = {271--274}, publisher = {Aalborg University Copenhagen}, title = {The JoyStyx: A Quartet of Embedded Acoustic Instruments}, url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2017/nime2017_paper0051.pdf}, year = {2017} }