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Hans Leeuw, a trumpet player, composer, and designer, explores the fusion of electronics and trumpet playing. With no prior experience in instrument making, Hans designs and creates the Electrumpet, a wireless, modular instrument that allows for expressive manipulation of acoustic and electronic parameters. Through the use of sensors, buttons, and valves, the Electrumpet offers a new playing experience and opens up possibilities for new sounds and musical functions.
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Who am I • Hans Leeuw • Trumpetplayer/Composer/bandleader/ • Designer? • Couch Industrial Design (Technical university Eindhoven) • Lecturer at music Technology (College of the arts Utrecht) • No experience before in instrument making.
Design by a rookie • No prior microcontroller knowledge • Some MAX/MSP experience • Some knowledge of electronics • Seen a lot of concerts and design projects. • Completely solo design • Lots of advise from friends/colleagues/shops
Why electronics? • To have more layers. • To be able to play other musical functions. (bass, rhythm) • New sounds. • Inspirational reasons (sound- and composition wise).
Why trumpetcontroller? • Focus purely on the instrument. Not on a seperate controller or even the computerscreen (future implementation) • To translate trumpettechnique to an electronic extensions. • Expressive manipulation of acoustic and electronic parameters in one instrument.
Requirements? • No influence on trumpetaction. • Easy to use with normal and extreme trumpetplaying (learning curve) • detachable • modular • wireless • Comparatively small in relation to trumpet. • As low Latency as possible
Controllers • Four special potentiometers that I first saw in STEIM’s spiderWEB. • Two pressuresensors. • Nine switches in different constellations (will be more) • Ribboncontroller (future) • Breathcontroller (future)
Process • First model: Students TU-Eindhoven and me. Plastic • Second model: New start. Aluminium • Third model: After this workshop (Brass). • Aesthetics
Proces 2a • Phase 1: Paper model around the valves. Getting a feeling for 3D placement (playing with it!!!) • Phase 2: Carbon model. Getting sensors and place them on the model.
Proces 2b • Phase 3: Used the print as the basic construction (not common) • Phase 4: Metal frame. Sawing, milling and bending. • In between: Mounting the Arduino on the trumpet
Proces 3 Phase 1: Patches to get a feel of the playing Phase 2: Functionality mapping development Phase 3: Making etudes for the development of virtuosity Phase 4: Get other people to write for the instrument.
Bluetooth issues (Low latency) • Write your own code for the Arduino and pay attention to efficiëncy for transmitting DATA. (can be very short) • Pack digital data together. • Use bytes instead of ASCII characters or ints. • This device can sent its DATA theoretically in 1 ms.
Arduino program code, analog • void loop() { • if (Serial.available() > 0) // Check serial buffer for characters • { • if (Serial.read() == 'r') {x++;} • } • if (x > 0) { • for (z = 0; z <= 3; z++) • { y = analogRead(z); // read an analog pin • Serial.print (y >> 2,BYTE); // print y after deviding it by 4 so it will fit in one byte • if (Serial.read() == 's') {x=0;} • } • for (z = 4; z <= 5; z++) • { y = analogRead(z); // read an analog pin • y = 800 -y; • if (y < 0) {y=0;} • if (y > 510) {y=510;} • Serial.print (y >> 1,BYTE); // print y after deviding it by 2 so it will fit in one byte • if (Serial.read() == 's') {x=0;} • }
Arduino program code, digital • y = 0; // make y zero so it can receive data from the digital pins • for (int z = 2; z <= 6; z++) • { y = y << 1; // bitshift to the left (same as multiply by 2 but faster) • y = y + digitalRead(z); // read the digital pin and add to y • } • Serial.print (y,BYTE); // print y as a single byte that contains the values of 7 digital pins!!!! • y = 0; // make y zero so it can receive data from the digital pins • for (int z = 9; z <= 12; z++) • { y = y << 1; // bitshift to the left (same as multiply by 2 but faster) • y = y + digitalRead(z); // read the digital pin and add to y • } • Serial.print (y,BYTE); // print y as a single byte that contains the values of 7 digital pins!!!! • Serial.print (127,BYTE); // add two times 127 so MAX can recognise the end of the data • Serial.print (127,BYTE); • delay(1); • } • }
Four sorts of controllers • Functionality is very important when making an instrument controller. It is something though that you have to sort out in practice. • The electrumpet uses four different sets of controllers. • The digital valves (4) • The pressure sensors on the left hand (2) • The digital choice buttons (5) • The set parameters (3 parameters (4 buttons))
Philosophy behind using controllers on an instrument • The controls should give a ‘playing experience’. That means that it should be possible to have a intuitive way of interacting with them. • To make this intuitive playing possible you have to make sure that you program the functions that the sensors and buttons have correspond to an expressive way of playing. It should also be ‘difficult’ to play them. • One of the beauties of an acoustical instrument lays in the fact that the player has used a lot of his/her time to master an instrument that has in the base ‘chaotic behaviour’. • My assumption is that a controller that feels like a real instrument should in a certain extent mimic this ‘chaotic behaviour’.
Digital Valves, mechanical operation • The idea behind the digital valves is that they feel exactly the same as the normal valves of the trumpet thus using the natural ability of the trumpetplayer to use these. • The placement of the valves is such that they are just next to the normal valves. The correct action when playing the trumpet is to squeeze the valves and the leadpipe together between your fingers and thumb. The thumb stays in the same position as in normal trumpet playing. • The pressure resistance of the sensors that I am using is almost the same as for normal trumpet valves. The travel of the valves is 12 mm which is only a few milimeters short of the normal 14 mm of the trumpet. It does feel very natural.
Digital Valves, functionality • When programming a patch for these valves the aim is to find a translation that gives the same feel of feedback or stays close to the feel of feedback from normal trumpet valves. • The drawback of the digital valves is that you have to think how to use them in a patch together with the acoustical valves since they are pushed by the same fingers. • Possible options: • The valves lower audio information in the same way as normal trumpet valves lower the natural overtone series. • The valves alter the sound in a filter (formants) like manner in the same way as the sound is altered when using halve valves on the trumpet • Controlled playback of buffers and/or granular sounds since this asks the same kind of precise fingering and listening to feedback as does filterplaying.
Pressure sensors, mechanical operation • The pressure sensors feel like real expressive buttons. By pushing them harder you feel a hightening of expressive value. • They are placed on the third valve under the two fingers that normally stay in the same place while playing. • Squeezing the trumpet more or less while playing is a new action but does not feel as an obstruction to normal play. • It is important to note that the squeezing action is not influencing the pressure that the trumpet player is putting on his/her lips with the instrument.
Pressure sensors, functionality • The pressure sensors are not stable sensors and thus not suitable for actions that require precise control but they are very good for parameters that may vary in a natural way. • In contrast with the digital valves they do not interfere with normal trumpetplaying (you can push them in the same instance as when you push one of the (acoustical) valves). • Possible uses: • Altering the roughness of the sound • Altering the lifeliness of the sound (for example changes in direction of the sound faster or slower, changes in speed of chorus etcetera) • Altering the feedback in a certain effect
Digital choice buttons, mechanical operation • The 5 digital choice buttons are placed next to the valves so they are easy accessable. The acoustic valves function as a reference so it is easy to find the right button to push. • The buttons are not placed evenly. There are two buttons assigned to the little finger since this finger is not involved in the normal playing action of the trumpet. Those two buttons are closer together than the other buttons which are directly opposite the acoustic valves. • It seems a good idea to make these into toggle switches and to have the state of the toggle switch represented by leds on the instrument.
Digital choice buttons, functionality • The digital choice buttons are used for static actions. Activating a certain button to record or activating / deactivating a preset. • Possible uses: • Activating / deactivating buffers • Choice for a certain preset • Assignment to different parameters of the ‘Set parameter buttons’ • The placing of the buttons is such that they are also suitable for trumpet like playing. As such they could be seen as a ‘trumpet keyboard’ • Possible uses: • Lowering audio information in the same way as normal valves lower the natural overtone series. • Percussive/rhytmic playing maybe together with the digital valves.
Set parameter buttons, mechanical operation • The ‘set parameter buttons’ are placed directly next to the thumb. • They are placed in such a way that pushing forward or backward with the thumb on different hights can change three different parameters. • The versatility of the buttons is not so great since they are only push buttons but also because it is not easy to manipulate them while playing. • It is possible though to change them while playing the trumpet just not when you are playing virtuoso. I estimate though that this can be learned. • The mechanical construction of these buttons is something that should be reconsidered and improved upon in a future version.
Set parameter buttons, functionality • The set parameter buttons are used for parameters that are static for certain periods but may have to vary during the course of playing. • Possible uses: • Input volume • Output volume • Certain delay settings • Parameters that are varied randomly but can be set around a certain value. • Can be used together with the digital choice buttons so it becomes possible to set more then three parameters.
Future functionality • The controller is not yet complete. Four more additions are scheduled: • Breathcontroller • Ribboncontroller • LED feedback • Mouthpiece microphone
Breath controller, mechanical operation • Breath is the most expressive parameter used by a trumpetplayer. Although we can measure breath by measuring the noise of an air stream all extra information is handy. A breath controller can measure directly the speed / pressure of the air stream.
Breath controller, functionality • Breath control information has more to it than only the speed of the air in itself. The change in the speed in 1st and 2nd order can provide very interesting information as well. Especially since a trumpet player has great control over them. • To a certain extent the breath control information is comparable to the pressure sensor information. They can work together in creating expression. • Possible uses: • Use of pure information to control volume • Measuring breathattacks • Use airstream “area’s” to control certain musical moods with different effects. • Use 1st order derivative to add to suspense. (pattern recognition in controller value’s)
Ribbon Controller, Mechanical operation • The Ribbon controller can be mounted just above the Bell of the trumpet at the height of the valve house and is to be operated by sliding or thumping the controller. • It is an analog controller, but it is very suitable to have some fixed points on the controller as well. • Since the thumb is used for stability when holding the trumpet it is not very easy to operate the ribbon while in the same time playing normal trumpet.
Ribbon Controller, functionality • The Ribbon controller can be used quite versatile. • It can be an expressive instrument (scratching it like scratching a record or thumbing it like a slap bass) • It can be a button row. Use it for a choice. • Possible use: • Scratch pad (1-dimensional chaos pad) • Slap pad (like a bass or guitar) • Choice of presets • Quick set parameter possibility
