Driving castagnettes using midi

| Dear All,
|
| I am new to midi as well as to this group so forgive me in case
| of "stupid" questions...
|
| I am looking for software/hardware to control 16 solenoids using midi.
| In fact I am building an instrument consisting of 16 automated
| castagnettes.
|
| My goal is to find a solution as simple as possible to drive the
| castagnettes.
|
| My basic idea is:
| 1) Use a MP3 player to store different (rhytmic) midi files
| 2) Use a simple 16 channel interface/electronics (connected to the
| MP3 player) to drive 16 solenoids.
|

1) How are you going to store MIDIs on an MP3 player, and have them play
back?  MIDI is not a waveform (but you knew that didn't you...)

2) Have a look here: http://www2.netdoor.com/~rlang/xylotron/xylotron.htm  -
this is a MIDI controlled Xylophone, and will give you an idea.

D.

This is actually a MIDI-controlled glockenspiel, mis-named "xylophone" though
the bars are not made of Xylos (wood). But the idea is the same.



--
        Matthew H. Fields http://www.umich.edu/~fields
                         Music: Splendor in Sound
  To be great, do better and better. Don't wait for talent: no such thing.
    Brights have a naturalistic world-view. http://www.the-brights.net/

An MP3 player might function as your disk drive, but probably won't
take the place of a notebook computer. Here's a link to get you started on
some folks who have taken this to its natural extreme:

http://kalvos.org/logos.html

http://www.logosfoundation.org/


--
        Matthew H. Fields http://www.umich.edu/~fields
                         Music: Splendor in Sound
  To be great, do better and better. Don't wait for talent: no such thing.
    Brights have a naturalistic world-view. http://www.the-brights.net/

Hi Matthew and Virginner,

Hmm, right; midi is not a wave form! Sorry!
I already contacted Dr.Godfried-Willem RAES, LOGOS FOUNDATION, Center for
Experimental Music Production; he's a real expert concerning midi controlled
instruments.
Take a look at his site: http://logosfoundation.org/

However, I am looking for a really simple approach.
This is my first experience with midi, therefor I am trying to keep things
simple.

****************

I also thought about using DTMF tones to do the job:
My goal is to find a solution as simple as possible to drive the
castagnettes.

1) Use a MP3 player to store a "song" consisting out of differtent DTMF
tones
2) Use a simple DTMF receiver connected to the MP3 player to detect the DTMF
tones
    (e.g. MT8870D / MT8870D-1 Integrated DTMF receiver)
3) Use simple electronics connected to the DTMF receiver to drive 16
solenoids.
   (Solenoids: 12VDC)

Note:
- I would to drive one solenoid at a time; I can imagine driving more
solenoids (each related to a specific DTMF tone) simultaneously would result
in problems concerning the decoding?
- The solenoids should only be "on" when their DTMF tone pairs are hot; I
simply would record a "DTMF-tones song" and store it on a MP3 player.

******************
I would be very pleased to hear your comments!
Eibert Draisma.



http://www2.netdoor.com/~rlang/xylotron/xylotron.htm  -

|
| This is actually a MIDI-controlled glockenspiel, mis-named "xylophone"
though
| the bars are not made of Xylos (wood). But the idea is the same.
|

(yeah, I know.... ;-)))

D :)

on www.avrfreaks.net there is alot of info in the projects section on
midi control and stuff with AVR microcontrollers.  If your infamiliar
with the inner and electrical workings of microcontrollers, you should
start with soemthing like one of brians maveric boards
(www.bdmicro.com).  He's got everything set and ready for you to go and
you dont ahve to worry about making sure the micro works.  Then
AVRfreaks is possibly the most comprehensive avr site in existance, and
there is plenty of code available as well as interfacing circuitry.
between the two, it shoudl get you on the way to one hell of a setup!
Tha'tsd what I would suggest anyways.


--Andy P




Eibert Draisma wrote:

http://kmt.hku.nl/~pieter/HARD/MIDI2SW/MIDI2SW.html , cut out some parts,  
add a serial eeprom, clock it to play the midi back.

--
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You might check out the Logos Foundation in Gent. They have a whole set
of Midi-driven percussion.

Dennis