[HN Gopher] Show HN: Haxophone
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Show HN: Haxophone
I built this during Covid. When I released it, some of the parts
went out of stock or skyrocketed in price, no longer making this an
economic DIY project. Now that things are getting back to almost
normal, I thought I'd share it here and request feedback. This is a
very niche project for people who like the same things I do:
saxophones, Rust, mechanical keyboards and the Raspberry Pi.
Author : javier_cardona
Score : 329 points
Date : 2022-11-20 17:07 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| jader201 wrote:
| The video doesn't seem to load on iPhone (Safari). It loads a
| tiny thumbnail, then just spins forever.
|
| Edit: it may be because I'm opening it from the mobile link
| (which sends the video to Safari), but I tried pulling up the
| repo directly in Safari, and it shows a whitespace placeholder
| for the video but that's it.
| javier_cardona wrote:
| FWIW, I just tried it on iPhone and works for me...
| code_runner wrote:
| As the owner of a (recently revived) ewi-usb... I'm really
| curious about the mouthpiece bit. What kind of analog sounds are
| happening while playing this? Do you notice that reed age,
| strength etc are as impactful as on a real saxophone? Do you feel
| a need to swap mouthpieces for different styles of playing?
|
| I love the idea and ingenuity to make this happen!
| bwanab wrote:
| As a sax player who also plays a Roland Aerophone, I have a
| similar question. Is the mouthpiece a real sax mouthpiece and
| reed? If so, that means it's making a lot of noise. One of the
| main appeals of windsynths is that I can play at times when the
| people in my household (and neighborhood) don't really want to
| listen to it.
|
| That said, it's a cool project.
| tgv wrote:
| The design says that it measures air pressure. So it's just
| blowing into a tube, much like e.g. the Yamaha BC-1. I've got
| one, and in the demo video, I hear the same rapid changes in
| volume/pressure. I would guess it could benefit from having a
| small, adjustable opening (like the BC-1), which makes it a
| bit easier to control.
| polishdude20 wrote:
| Yeah and is the pressure sensor closed so you're actually not
| blowing but just increasing and decreasing pressure?
| jcard0na wrote:
| No, not really. There is sensing tube (which terminates on
| the sensor) and a venting tube (which lets the air flow
| through). This is the same technique used in other similar
| commercial instruments. You can see both tubes in the
| assembly instructions: https://github.com/jcard0na/haxo-
| hw/blob/main/docs/assembly....
| javier_cardona wrote:
| The sounds are synthed sounds (I used fluidsynth) and the
| haxophone just uses the sound pressure to infer velocity of
| the notes.
|
| The mouthpiece is optional: you can blow on the neck of the
| device and will get the exact same sound. But as a sax
| player, I really prefer to use it with a mouthpiece blowing
| through it but without making the reed vibrate (so no sound).
| I find that it helps me maintain proper embouchure and feels
| more comfortable. And after a solid practice session, I still
| get that gratifying tingling lower lip feeling.
|
| Thanks for the feedback!
|
| https://github.com/jcard0na/haxo-
| hw/blob/main/docs/assembly....
| code_runner wrote:
| Very cool! Awesome project
| skybrian wrote:
| Looks like just a pressure sensor. You might be interested in
| the KontinuumLab channel, from a guy who has done EWI projects
| with more sensors.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/@KontinuumLAB
|
| Most recently: https://youtu.be/1CXjADjIM1s
| jefftk wrote:
| Reading the assembly instructions it's only an air pressure
| sensor. You can use a real mouthpiece with reed or not, but it
| won't make noise actually. It also won't detect anything you do
| with your mouth.
| willcipriano wrote:
| Needs a reed sensor.
| jefftk wrote:
| If your goal is full fidelity, sure, but they're trying to
| make a cheap practice device. If you want the former you're
| probably better off just buying something commercial, at
| least an AKAI.
| pepepep wrote:
| pepepep wrote:
| squarefoot wrote:
| You can overcome the RPi scarcity by migrating the code to the
| Teensy platform, which aside being cheaper and less power hungry
| than the 2,3,4 RPi, is a lot cheaper and more easily available.
| Not an easy task since there's no Linux under the hood, but there
| are some excellent audio/midi libraries to help. They already
| built commercial-level synthesizers with it. By combining the
| breath sensor data with other pressure sensors you could end up
| with a very expressive instrument.
|
| https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/index.html
|
| https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Audio.html
|
| https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_MIDI.html
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2674LdYW5I
| ruleforty wrote:
| Before I'd do any of that would be vibrato. Without it it is a
| emotionless keyboard with a blowtube.
| postalrat wrote:
| I don't know. Looks kinda easy to do vibrato through your
| blowtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtsZZKZcNC4
| schappim wrote:
| Pretty challenging to do vibrato w/ momentary switches
| (discrete). For vibrato you need something like flexforce
| pressure sensors[1].
|
| [1] https://www.tekscan.com/flexiforce-load-force-sensors-
| and-sy...
| [deleted]
| code_runner wrote:
| If I had the knowledge/ability/skills to build an
| "emotionless keyboard with a blow tube" I'd be pretty damn
| happy. I don't think a lack of vibrato diminishes what is
| going on here.
|
| Am open sourced wind synth made with a custom keyboard?
| Pretty sick IMO
| skybrian wrote:
| I like Teensy but it looks like their boards are either low-
| inventory or out of stock too:
|
| https://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy41.html
| WickyNilliams wrote:
| This is extremely cool. Surprised how good it sounds in the
| example video. Wish I knew enough about hardware to build one
| (OK, i also wish i knew how to play sax). Shame there's nobody
| shipping all the parts for assembly at home. In any case this is
| awesome, and one of the cooler things I've seen on HN recently!
| tomcam wrote:
| > This is a very niche project
|
| _rockets to #1 on Hacker News_
| nabakin wrote:
| We are the niche
| amelius wrote:
| Since it's using keyboard keys I'm guessing it doesn't have any
| analog touch sensitivity (?) Not sure if that would be even
| needed on this type of instrument though.
| jedimastert wrote:
| This is also true of the EWI, all of the keys are just metal
| plates that detect contact, and also generally true of
| saxophones (although very much _not_ the case with clarinets,
| which have open finger holes)
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| It seems the keyboard is pressure sensitive (reference to a
| pressure sensor in the HW section)
| seniorsassycat wrote:
| Pressure sensor is in the mouth piece.
|
| I've always thought saxophone keys were on or off
| javier_cardona wrote:
| Actually the pressure sensor is on the PCB. Pressure is
| transferred from the mouthpiece through a flexible silicon
| pipe. You can see the details in the assembly instructions
| here: https://github.com/jcard0na/haxo-
| hw/blob/main/docs/assembly....
| zwkrt wrote:
| From what I understand of playing a saxophone the variability
| would come from the mouthpiece. On a type of instrument like a
| saxophone the valves should always be cleanly opened or closed.
| jefftk wrote:
| Half fingering is a thing, but very rare and fine to be out
| of scope for a project like this
| javier_cardona wrote:
| Yes, there is no analog touch sensitivity on the sax: keys are
| either open or closed. The pressure sensor is for volume and
| note attack.
| junon wrote:
| There exist analog keyswitches, have you considered playing
| with those?
| jcard0na wrote:
| While it would be interesting to play with analog
| keyswitches, it would depart from the experience of a real
| sax, where the "half pressed" key is of not much use. And
| it would dramatically increase the complexity of the
| design.
|
| But the full design is published, just in case anyone wants
| to try :)
| mkl wrote:
| I'm really interested in this idea for other DIY instrument
| purposes.
|
| Razer has keyboards with optical ones, and some people have
| made them by putting inductive sensors underneath
| mechanical switches, but I couldn't find any analog
| keyswitches for sale. Do you have some examples?
|
| How can you deal with a large number of analog inputs to a
| Raspberry Pi or similar?
| throwaway413 wrote:
| This is one of the coolest things I've seen on HN. I am
| definitely going to try to follow the instructions on this in the
| near future! I don't even play saxophone, but now I am not
| definitely going to learn. I would 100% buy one of these, if not
| 3 so I could give some as gifts.
|
| Thanks for sharing and seriously, awesome project. Almost brings
| a tear to my eye.
| apienx wrote:
| So this is how holophonors came about...
| xavdid wrote:
| This is great! As someone who used to play sax a lot but doesn't
| have hardware experience, it's 100% the sort of thing I would buy
| if it were commercially available. Makes sense that it's not
| (ecommerce is a whole thing), but I don't really have the
| patience to source all the parts and assemble it.
|
| Awesome project though!
| klaff wrote:
| Are there sound samples anywhere?
| simlevesque wrote:
| The video in the repo's readme shows a solo from Stevie
| Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely"
| mftb wrote:
| I'm not exactly in the target audience, but this is brilliant.
| Bravo!
| matthewhartmans wrote:
| Love this! Well done OP and thanks for sharing the code!
| seniorsassycat wrote:
| There are some really cool wind synths out there
|
| https://m.youtube.com/@EddieEWI
| postalrat wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYWxCrz3vmQ
| based2 wrote:
| https://aodyo.com/sylphyo/
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(page generated 2022-11-20 23:00 UTC)