buggy boy enjoys building, hacking and modifying stuff. He started building Midiboxes in 2005 and kept on trying to find a way to build the ultimate live performance tool. But then he realized that no matter what he did, he wouldn't be able to build such a machine, because there was no such thing as an 'ultimate live performance tool'. Then he realized that there was no such thing as an 'ultimate live performance' either.
He keeps on building/modifying tools for his production and live performance needs but nowadays he focuses more on software tools that can make people interact with music.
For SR
For SR is a granular sampling tool made with max/msp. It's a highly modified version of nobuyasu sakodna's Granular patch.
For SR lets the user load a sample and choose a point to sample, and loop it in a way that it will sound like a pad. One of the differences of this tool is that the user can choose two points and decide how fast it should read the audio file. With For SR, the wave file also can be played backwards at any speed, so the user can create interesting continuous pad like sounds.
Bumdrum
Bumdrum is buggy boy's last project which he made especially for the forthcoming Red Bull Music Academy in London. Being a participant in the event, buggy boy decided that he had to come up with a special live performance for the academy. After being lucky enough to watch -and actually play with :)- Talvin Singh (a very very very talented musician/composer) play tabla, he decided that he wanted an instrument which could be sensitive enough to be played with small finger tappings. He also had in mind that the instrument should be portable -and stable- enough to be carried anywhere without the fear of breaking it, and easy enough to rebuild.
The design of the instrument is highly inspired by the Hang Drum and Aqua Drum, the difference being the number of places to make sound is modular as well as the timbre of the sounds produced is infinite. Not only one can control virtual instruments with the Bumdrum, but also can manipulate samples, effects, arrangements and so forth.
One could ask the difference between some consumer MIDI controllers such as M-Audio's Trigger Finger, Korg's NanoPad or Roland's SPD20 or Roland Handsonic with Bumdrum. The biggest difference is the sensitivity of the pads and the layout of the pads. And this is not only a hardware instrument. It also has a software part which arranges the scales/MIDI mappings so that the user only concentrates on playing. One of the other differences is that this instrument is a modular instrument. One can decide to use only 4 pads in a performance as well as 12 pads.
Also with Bumdrum, any object can be used as an instrument. All one needs to do is to stick the pads on the object.
Below is a picture of the first working prototype of Bumdrum. It is made from two mouse pads sandwiched with a cartoon wrapped with aluminum foil.
MidiTable
MidiTable is a huge and heavy project which is designed specifically for only one kind of performance. It is a MIDIBOX 64 which only uses digital input -no knobs or whatsoever-. It sends MIDI on-off messages through 54 'very' sensitive buttons and 4 foot switches. The device is divided into six virtual parts; drums, sample 1, sample 2, bass, synth 1 and synth 2. The user can record drums, trigger various samples (even can record the order and the timing of triggering) and record some musical phrases using a MIDI keyboard.
After recording all, the user can arrange a song out of the material. This way of performing assumes that the user is going to record drums, bass lines and various synths for all the songs in the performance -which is kind of challenging because the user has to come up with a 'nice' synth phrase with a decent tone for every song-. Since this way of performing also requires a lot of pre-performance preperation, buggy boy hated it after few weeks. The First working prototype of the MidiTable was presented in the first of '400 Seconds' series.
The 'Sensitive' Buttons
After disecting various usb devices, buggy boy fell in love with the way silicone -and most- usb keyboards operate. They have three layers; two of which hold metal parts and the middle layer lets them stay away from each other unless a pressure is applied. After some material research, buggy boy found that acetate papers and aluminium foil tape are perfect for mimicking touch sensitive behavior.
Some photos of MidiTable
This is the first working prototype which requires the performer to wear 'special' gloves, it looks cool in a weird way
The brain of MidiTable. The circuitboard and the LCD module attached to it enables the user to program/map the input data to MIDI messages.
Midibox Cassette Player
Midibox cassette player is the first working MIDI device that buggy boy built -after 105235 attempts-. It is an old midibox 16 project cased in a cassette player from 80's. It has 8 buttons, 2 knobs and 4 switches -which enable the user to layer the buttons to have more inputs-. The arcade buttons send MIDI note on-off events and and the knobs send some CC events.
Midibox Cassette player is used in Interactive Music Experiments to control the drums section. It is used to trigger various layers of drums and the knobs are used for delays and reverbs.
CDMIDI controller
CDMIDI controller is made of a usb mouse taped backwards to a plastic kitchenware. It is the software what makes it such a cool! instrument to play. The input from CDMIDI is translated into MIDI using the amazing software Controllermate with a custom patch, so that when the performer spins the disc, the note value changes, and when the performer presses a button, it sends a note on-off message of the selected value. Two buttons send MIDI note on-off messages for the performer to be able to use the glide function of softsynths.
CDMIDI controller is used in Interactive Music Experiments to trigger the piano loops and to play an improvised solo. The performer only has to decide whether he/she wants to go up or down in the melody and spins the disc and press a button to play the selected note -which is already mapped to the scale of the song so that the user can not play a WRONG note-.
Once a Gamepad - 1
Once a Gamepad - 1 was buggy boy's first attempt to hack a USB gamepad for his own pleasure. It is a classic usb gamepad which is modified to fit in the classic electronics-wannabe case with the usual arcade buttons and the knobs. It sends MIDI note on-off messages through the arcade buttons and the knobs are sending CC values as usual.
Once a USB Gamepad -1 is used for triggering various layers of the example song in Interactive Music Experiments. The buttons are used to trigger loops for pads, rhythmic vocal samples and the male vocals in the song. The knobs are used for adjusting the pitch and the starting points of the male voice loops and for the delay and reverb effects.
Once a Gamepad - 2
Once a Gamepad 2 is also made from a USB gamepad. There are six arcade buttons and a knob in this device. The circuitboard, the buttons and the knob are housed in an old BETA cassette rewinder -it actually had a circuit which made some music (for unknown reasons?) which was going to be a part of the instrument if it hadn't been broken. The reason there are only six buttons and one knob is to limit the performer and dedicate the device to perform only one specific thing (to be used in Interactive Music Experiments). Unfortunately this device was never used in the experiments because the casing was too old and fragile to be carried around.
