Sound applet idea

Years ago when she was younger, my daughter had a rainmaker similar to the picture below. Inside the tube were hundreds of little bits which when you shook the tube or turned it upside-down made a noise. I think the toy itself is based on the instrument that was used by the native American indian to try and make it rain during droughts – not that I think mine will have any impact on climatic conditions unless I can find a MAX object I can hack that is. So, that’s what I wanna make and I guess I’ll need a tube, some tilt sensors and loads of wire. I’ve got an old PS/2 keyboard and a PS2-usb converter so getting it connected up to the computer ought to be ok. I’m not sure what I wanna do for the end result. Transfering the motion to sound is probably a good place to start but maybe using it to mix video might be fun as well. Or at least I think it ought to have some sort of visual representation.

Image of an Early Learning rainmaker


One Comment on “Sound applet idea”

  1. Hi Chris,

    Your sound practice project idea is sound so far (excuse the pun) I think that you need to now look to what the controller is actually going to implement inside max/msp. My initial thoughts are along the lines of: ‘wouldn’t it be cool if you could simulate the grains inside the ‘rain tube’ and attach different sounds which occur when the collide’ However, I realise the physics behind that are daunting, but maybe this idea could give you some direction ? Although this is just speculation / a suggestion…

    Regards, your temp. IDAT 305 Lecturer, GW.


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