Creating the Synes-tone

The idea for the Synes-tone comes out of two main avenues, the complicated and tumultous history of the Steel Pan alongside my interest in creating a non-conventional recording instrument for my music production. For a long time, I have been interested in creating a device that helps to bridge the gap between feeling music and hearing music. My hope is to take in touch/pressure as an input and then have a MIDI note as a final output.

• One of the most pressing questions that I still have is what kind of sensors I am gong to use fo rmy final project so that I am able to start testing with them as soon as possible
• Since I have already determined what kind of board I am going to use, and I have some exprerience in KiCAD, (hopefully) starting in W06, I am going to begin development of my PCB, but in order to make that work, I need to know what kind of sensors I will use.

W01 Research

My research for this project started off actually several years ago when I was around 8 years old when I decided to start playing guitar. Since then, I have moved on to music production and development releasing my own songs. In order to arrive at this project, I have already done a variety of research projects on how to Ethnomusicology and the history of musical instruments as well as the needs of music production and DAWs. One of the most important things that I am not really sure where to start (and am starting to talk to my node instructor about) is how to source some kind of pressure sensor (potentially a piezo-electric sensor based on limited research?) or how to integrate that kind of functionality into a PCB.

W04 Embedded Programming

During Week 4, I started to understand how to use LEDs alongside the RP2040 board. In order to apply this to my final project, I am hoping that underneath the buttons for the MIDI controller, I will be able to install different colored LEDs in order to differentiate between the different scale tones that I am using.

W05 3D Printing

During Week 05 I printed a basic shell for the MIDI controller, parametrically controlled, so that, at scale, I would understand exactly what the shell would look like scaled up to have internals inside of it.

W06 Electronics Design

During Week 06, I was excited to learn about designing PCBs. As I continue to do research into the kind of I/O devices/sensors that I want to use, I can continue to use KiCAD and practice designing and milling PCBs.

Going forward, with continued practice, I am hoping to be able to have a PCB design in progress, situated around the RP2040, still, that I can use for my final project and simply add/change/modify it as I learn more.

W07 CNC

For my final project, if I want to do anything with the CNC milling process, I will want to think wayyyyy ahead about it. Additionally, although I'm not entirely sure how this could fit in right now, if for example, I wanted to package or create a case for the project, then I might choose to do that through CNC milling

The milling machine is a powerful and fun to use tool, but I'm not sure exactly how much my speed it is. Although, I will say, I do like the independence in the kinds of materials I can use with it between wood and metals (using both the router and plasma on our CNC).

W08 Electronics Production

I will need to be doing some soldering for the final project. As of right now, my biggest question (and perhaps this will be answered this week for Input Devices?) is what kind of sensors would be best to use? I am wondering about using other material other than just FR1 to create a board, and perhaps using one that is flexible? This is definately not strictly necessary, but it might be somewhat useful.

As soon as I know what kind of sensors I am going to be using for my final project, I will be excited to start on my KiCADing as soon as possible. If I can get my board fabricated as soon as possible, I will be much, much better equipped to finish the project ontime and with all of the spirals that I want!