Blog number 3 baby.
I realise I started last blog with the same phrase but we are rolling with it. I'm sitting at Gang Gang cafe waiting for my friend to show up (I am early). So what's been happening in my life? I finished uni for the semester and have just been doing quests in my endless free time. I need to call my aunt, and my friend from Brisbane (shoutout Dave). I am having a friend over for dinner tomorrow night which should be nice too.
I went to such a good gig here (at Gang Gang) the other night. Private Function the band. They're a punk band. I watched the lead singer climb into the ceiling rafters and fall onto the crowd. They gave Nik the microphone for some reason too. He was meowing into the mic.
So my projects. This is what I have actually been filling my time with. I have been working on a few different things at the moment, mostly music related.
I built an audio spectrum display. It's a little 8x8 LED matrix connected to a microphone and microcontroller, and displays the frequency information of the sound. It splits your voice up into 8 different frequency bands, from low frequency to high frequency, and then displays how loud each frequency band is. So when you speak in a lower voice, the lights on the left light up more, and if you speak in a higher voice the lights on the right light up more. It's going to be turned into a prop for a movie my housemate wants to make, but so far only the electronics have been completed. It'll be some sort of translator device thing, I am not really sure but it will look cool.
Yesterday I built the internals to the baby shaker midi instrument. It's a little Lillypad board with an in built accelerometer. An accelerometer measures how much force you're putting on something, and in which direction. With this information, I calculated an average force over a period of time, and then that information is sent over midi to a computer. It uses something called Control Change to send the information, which means it is essentially just acting like a knob that can change the music in some way. The plan is to put this device in a baby doll, so it will measure how hard you shake the baby.
The actual board that I used is an off brand arduino board on sale at Jaycar for ten bucks, so I think I might go back and buy some more later today. They also have LEDs, temperature sensor, light sensor, microphone, buzzer, and push buttons. It would be mildly interesting to make a basic sound art piece, where the environment around the device influences how the music changes, but I digress.
My two big projects though have been my drum synth I think I mentioned last blog, and this 3D print design project. The drum synth progress has been slow, I have been putting it off a bit becuase it's been quite challenging. I've started making a looping feature, where you can record a drum beat and it will continue playing it endlessly. It makes a record of when you press a button and for how long, and then takes that information and synthesises the drum sound in the specified pattern. This is instead of just recording the sounds and playing them back, it actually resynthesises it every time so you can adjust the knobs and the drum sounds in the loop will change.
And finally, the 3D print design project. I've been working with one of my mum's friends, a dude named Paul, to design this container to go on the back of the seat post on his bike. He does triathalon, and ordered this custom 3D printed container from Germany to hold his inner tubes and CO2 cannisters during a race, but it didn't fit his bike. So I am making a new one for him. I think I am going to try and turn this into a business with Paul's help. We will see how we go though.
I did a bit of hand stitching and fixed my pants too! I don't think the stitching will hold for very long, but it fixed it and that's all that matters.
Anyway, that is mostly what I have been up to. Sorry if you're reading this and I haven't replied to your messages btw. I do care I just struggle a bit. You know how it be though.
Sweet dreams,
Ben
4:12PM 22/06/2025