Wiimote Project

I presented my Undergrad project yesterday. It went very well. Here is some video I shot afterward of it in action:

http://mojosdojo.com/?p=351

Thanks to everyone who has offered ideas, suggestions or shown interest in my work - especially benpaddlejones. In the end, I wasn't able to include everything, such as the mixing part. And the scratching isn't quite what I had in mind either. But it's a good jumping off point for further work in this arena.

For now, I don't even want to look at code for a little while... but I definitely would like to continue doing some work with all of this in the future.

Kind Regards,

Mojo

Further progress has been made along with changes to the GUI.

The details can be read here:

http://mojosdojo.com/?p=282

Also, I have started doing some preliminary work on the DJ Scratch component of this. Essentially the IR LED dot's
motion will translate to velocity and time position of a sample. I still need to figure out the particulars, but I have a moving dot, I have X,Y coords to represent the endpoints of line in relation to a circle which can give me an angle that I can use to track a sound reference.

Or so I hope...

Quick Update.

I know it's been several months since I've posted, but I am still working on this project and have made progress.

I initially was using Brian Peek's C# Wii library, and had some success tying that to MIDI Pitch Wheel out messages which I used to control external VST instruments that I have.

However, for a comprehensive solution, I really want an integrated synth capability, and thus I have moved on to Java which IMO is better for sound and MIDI than C#. So now I have integrated, user definable synth capabilities, and would like to add the MIDI out thing as an option as well.

As for the DJ side, that will have to come later, although I am definitely enthused to get to work on that soon. I would just like to make sure I have the theremin/synth control thing mostly done before I tackle that, as the DJ thing I think will be more complicated to incorporate.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Once I'm a bit further along, I will have more information and hopefully will throw a blog up or something to keep people up to date and provide more details.

The good news is, My Senior Project class doesn't start until the Fall, so I have the rest of the summer to really get the big stuff done, and then the Fall can just be spent cleaning it up, making the GUI look pretty and doing the documentation stuff.

See you guys around,
~dj mojo

Hello,

I am somewhat new to this but have been thinking along similar lines as some of the other work I see here as well as the great work Ken Moore has done on the Wii theremin front.

I am a Computer Science student at Cal State with a minor in Recording Arts. I was a professional club DJ for a number of years and have been fascinated with music production most of my life. My interest in the theremin has ramped up recently and my initial idea for a Senior project involved creating a virtual digital theremin. Of course I thought this was an original idea until I started researching and saw all the awesome work done out there already on the web.

After seeing Ken Moore's site I decided that the Wiimote route was the best way to go, at least for the time being, as it is cheap and easy. 2 big pluses in my book.

Anyways, my idea is to create a Wii triggered application that will do the theremin thing, as well as controlling other synth parameters such as resonance or various filters, and couple it with the DJ side - the ability to scratch is a must and perhaps even, although this may be a bit ambitious, the ability to mix just like on 2 1200s with a mixer.

I see there is already some work on here done along these lines and am excited at the possibilities. I plan to completely design and code the app and UI myself, mostly from scratch, although using the available libraries that are out there for the Wii mechanics. I have already set up a Wiimote with a bluetooth dongle and IR led and found a piece of software (http://onakasuita.org/wii/index-e.html) that lets me use the LED to control my mouse. So that's a start...

In any event, as I am new to many of these concepts, I have my work cut out for me... fortunately I have some time before I have to enroll for the Sr. Project class, so I have plenty of time to research this stuff further. I am particularly interested in how timecoding works, such as used with products such as Final Scratch, as well as Midi interfacing.

Well, sorry for the long winded post, but I wanted to introduce myself and am absolutely open to feedback, suggestions, etc.

~Mojo