User:Jimahmud/Project 2

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Project Preference
Beat Bearing, Automatic Shaker Table, Bionic Tripod Manipulator

Problem Statement
''In one or two sentences, describe the project that your group will be working on. Identify what CDIO phase (Conceive, Design, Implement, or Operate) your group will complete in this project cycle.''

Project Plan
Briefly describe your group's plan for the next 4 weeks, including major tasks that will be completed each week.

Week 1 Narrative
My task for the week was to acquire some technical knowledge about the workings of a beat bearing sequencer. This project is quite complex and it took my group and I quite some time to come to terms with what the project is all about. The previous group has come up with a very effective design which we are going to work off. The previous group has also bought some test parts which include 3 half washers, 3 balls, strip cables, flexi glass, and washer templates. As a group we had to make sense of the materials present and how to implement the existing design. For the week, I was able to gather some technical knowledge about how the beat bearing sequencer works and how we would be putting components together in the most effective way possible. The beat bearing uses an Arduino board for interfacing with the computer. The beat bearing application is going to be installed on the processing unit below the screen. This application works partly with visuals and partly with sequencing. A code is going to be written for the arduino such that while the red light is moving back and forth across the screen, when a ball is placed in a washer, it comes in contact with tiny wires woven around the split washers and completes a circuit thereby playing a specific sound. Our main objective is to put everything together in the best way possible but some aspects of the existing design need some light adjustments. For example, a washer template was printed with a makerbot to allow the washers sit in place perfectly, but because flexi glass is being used along with the metal washers which are not very thick, we have to either print another washer template because the existing one is too thick, or find a way to embed the washers within the flexi glass so it stays put. We are going to be building a base under which the main flexi glass (board) will lie with the washers and the balls. After speaking to Professor Foerster, i was able to gain more insight and a better understanding about how to tackle such a project with very complex systems and lots of coding. We will be ordering washers, some more flexi glass, and balls.





Week 2 Narrative
My task for the week was to learn drum repertoire of midi synthesizers. Because our beat bearing sequencer is based up actual beats and music notes, it is important to understand different drumming patterns and how they can be incorporated into the beat bearing. Snare rudiments originated from the Swiss mercenaries who used pole arms and use different beat patterns in different tempos to communicate different commands. Today there are four main Rudimental Drumming cultures: Swiss Basler Trommeln, Scottish Pipe Drumming, American Ancient Drumming, and American Modern Drumming. There are 40 drum rudiments, some of them include The single stroke roll (http://www.freedrumlessons.com/drum-lessons/single-stroke-roll.php), The six stroke roll (http://www.freedrumlessons.com/drum-lessons/six-stroke-roll.php), The Flam Paradiddle (http://www.freedrumlessons.com/drum-lessons/flam-paradiddle.php). It is important to know these drum patterns because when creating an interface between the arduino and the sound software that stores the musical sounds. Users can now use some of these sounds above to create beats using the beat bearing. A software that can be used is called Audacity which works with your average Operating system such as Windows, Mac, Linux etc. This software allows the user of the beat bearing to store beats made on a hard drive for future use rather than have them lose the work they did the previous day. These drum rudiments can also be stored on the audacity software such that users can create beats using these saved sounds if they choose to, or use individual components such as the snare kit to create a harmonious sound. Examples of beat patterns users can use include the Basic 16th Rock beat (http://www.studydrums.com/vids/161rep2a.wmv), the basic Blues beat (http://www.studydrums.com/vids/blu01a.wmv), the Basic Rock beat (http://www.studydrums.com/vids/8throc1w.wmv). These beat patterns form a basis for whichever beats that would be created using the beat bearing.

Week 3 Narrative
My task for the week was to find the best software to use for the beat bearing. The Audacity software was recommended by Prof. Foerster however Audacity cannot be used, or it can only partially be used to import MIDI files as projects on Audacity. This required me to look for other software online that can make our task easier and one compatible with MIDI. Some programs I found were; Musescore, Tuxguitar, Red Dot forever, Finale Notepad, Anvil Studio, Melody Assistant, Rose Garden, Anthem, abcmidi etc. Of all these programs, only Red dot forever, Anvil Studio, Melody Assistant and Finale Notepad that were compatible with windows OS alongside Audacity which limited me to these choices. Starting with Anvil studio, it allows you to record music with MIDI and Audio equipment, compose music for MIDI and Audio equipment, Sequence music with MIDI equipment, play with music using a computer, and print sheet music from standard MIDI files with the optional Print-Sheet accessory.

On Melody Assistant, a wide range of music symbols will enable you to edit scores of great quality, including tablatures and Gregorian notation. Score input can be performed through the mouse, computer keyboard or an external MIDI keyboard. Melody Assistant comes with its own embedded software synthesizer (SoftSynth), which provides high quality output on basic sound cards, even without any external MIDI device, and includes hundreds of different instruments. Melody Assistant can load and save in many formats (MIDI, WAV, AIFF, MP3, OGG, TAB, ABC.). Melody Assistant is also very good because it allows us to use a keyboard to record our music and the software reads the music directly using a MIDI format and we have both keyboard and MIDI board to work with. A video tutorial is available from within the program itself(http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/melody.htm). Finale notepad is also a great program which allows one to convert digital or graphically represented music notes into ABC format which enables the user to make better song of what music notes are being played in so e sort of letter/sentence form. Coming back to Audacity, I downloaded it on my computer and was able to get some music samples online that had mp3, RAR formats but unfortunately i didn't find any with a MIDI format. I was able to learn that mp3 formatted music can be converted into MIDI format using Bome's music converter so that would be my next line of action. If that doesnt work out, then i would have to get the MIDI board hooked up along with a keyboard all plugged into Audacity to try and see whether the software makes any sense of what is being played. If I can get some sort of Input-Output interface between the keyboard/MIDI board and Audacity, then we will stick with Audacity as our software of choice.

Week 4 Narrative
My task for the week was to come up with human considerations for the human-software interface.The user will be able to place a metal ball onto the washer system and have a specific drum sound in response. The user will be able to control the speed, volume, pitch, and timbre through a turn of a knob. The target consumers are people between the ages of 18 and 25. That being said, the product is for everyone from ages 6 and above but we specifically aim this project at the people within the 14-25 age group because the project has to do with music and we find that this group of people are more into music than any other. As a result, we had to give preference to this group of people when coming up with a human-system interface. The following questions arose;


 * How complicated or easy-to-use will the system be?


 * How expensive will it be considering the employment status of people within this age group?


 * How will it appeal to this group of people?


 * Would they be interested?

Considering all these questions, we had to systematically analyze several components of the interfaces. Judging by the fact that the target consumers are usually learned in using computer systems, we didn't really need to come up with a human-system interface that was too easy to use as opposed to creating one for the elderly. Also, because the target consumers are young and their musical tastes lie within the following genres; Rap, Rock, R 'n' B, and Hip-Hop

We had to use musical sounds that could comfortably produce music within these genres. Sounds like that from a drum kit, snear drums, piano and other percussion instruments. This ensured that the users could produce rap beats, hip hop beats, R 'n' B beats and others. The cool part of all this is that despite the fact that we used the above genres to select the sounds, other genres of music can also be produced with those sounds which helps when people who have different music preferences acquire the product. One consideration was to look for a way to allow the users to save their music because in other beat bearing projects, users could only mess around with different beat patterns and come back the next day looking blank because they want to re-create what they did the previous day, but they need not worry about that, because the audacity software allows you to save your beats into a MIDI format that is compatible with a keyboard as well as the audacity software. Coming to the question about the users being interested in the product, usually the beat producing softwares out there are complex to use and will require endless days and nights trying to make a reasonable beat, well, what makes the beat bearing so fun to use is its simplicty and its ease of use. The beat bearing can be used by a 6 year old to give an idea of its ease of use. Coming back to the question of interest, most young people have some sort of music in their heads or an idea of what they want to music to sound like but the beat making softwares out there are complex, the beat bearing comes very close in allowing them fulfill that wish with its ease of use.