This keyboard hack is about music and nature, as an electronic music maker I always had the interest of mechanizing sound. Triggering notes automatically and programming sound from a sequencer. The main idea of this keyboard hack is to sequence notes in a non common fashion. This controller involves two worlds that has been always separated by a prohibitive distance. Less people think that to mix water and electronic its not a good idea because water is conductive, just like a wire. If we use it in a controlled environment we can make interesting approaches. Furthermore, I have always noticed the big presence of the sound of a water drop, this constant sequence of falling again and again make me wonder if I could actually use this resource as a sequencer.
Think - Try!
I needed to think in a mechanical system to trigger MIDI notes every time that the water drop falls. My first idea was using piezoelectric microphones. They are sensitive to pressure but my water drop was not heavy enough to make a voltage change on the piezoelectric surface. Also the the constant contact with water would finally oxidize the contacts making the system not last for long.
So I decided to give a try with aluminum foil and thinking about a trigger system of two contacts. I made many tries of building a trigger system for the water drops and I came across many shapes, but none of them has enough tension for coming back to the normal state after the water drop touched it. I was looking at my Palm plant on my desk and I recognized the perfect shape. The one of a sleeve. It worked perfectly, it had enough tension in its form to come back after the water drop touched it. I just had to make a couple of holes in the middle for avoiding the aluminum to get stuck when the drops fell too fast.
For regulate the flow of drops I used the typical water drop regulators for gardening. The feeling is really similar to a potentiometer, used to sequence notes with an analog sequencer.
The structure for holding the other part of the contact its made of drinking straws and aluminum foil.
After a lot of hot glue and being afraid to not wet my computer came the moment for a musical test!
Setting up!
The setup was easy. Every trigger it’s linked to a key on the keyboard. I have chosen 4 letters. The software used is Ableton Live. This software allows to trigger MIDI notes from the keyboard. So the big part of the job was already made! To give more variety of sounds I attached two MIDI effects to the incoming notes. A pitch controller and a scale generator. Both effects were linked to an extra MIDI controller. An audio delay was also used to enrich the sound.
User test
I asked some friends to give a try with my new sequencer. This people were involved with electronic music, the most of them not. Its was wonderful to see how they got the understanding to use this “Water Based Sequencer” without further instructions. The instrument was an interactive interface.
Conclusions
Working with this keyboard hack it has been a great experience and open my knowledge to unknown fields. The form that took the aluminum foil trigger of a sleeve was really surprising and also a beautiful manifestation from the common sense of the nature. This brought me to the thought of, as we are run out of ideas, many times the answer its near to us, just give a break of thinking, maybe you will find the answer in the nature. Just like the most of the technologic approaches are inspired in animals, insects and phenomena of our nature.
I really liked the sequence of water drops. They are not completely accurate; it has a certain groove. This make the act of playing electronic music very organically.
I have the wish to build this controller in a more stable way. I would like to get out of the prototyping phase and build it with a better structure, better triggers, and a integrated MIDI controller.