We had our first EEG-Synthesizer jam with a smoothly working setup! Quite a milestone!
In the following video and SoundCloud recordings (removed), you hear several interesting and evocative synthesizer patches created by Jean-Louis that are fully controlled in real-time by the EMG signals from my hand and arm. So in fact, during the recordings Jean-Louis was not actually doing anything! (Except filming, that is).
Let me quickly describe the setup you see and hear here: We measured the electrical activity from the hand/arm muscles (EMG) with the OpenBCI board. That data was transferred via blue-tooth to a laptop, wherein the FieldTrip real-time buffer was collecting the data. The data was processed by our MATLAB code (using FieldTrip as a base). Connected to the laptop was also the LaunchControlXL MIDI controller, we used to calibrate the analysis beforehand, although it works in real-time as well. Based on an analysis of the characteristics of the EMG signal, MIDI signals were send to the Endorphines Shuttle Control via USB. The Shuttle Control translated these MIDI commands into Control Voltages and gates (CV/gate), which were used to modulate patches of Jean-Louis’ modular synthesizer rig. The audio recordings were done with a Zoom H2n. Technically we could have used 8 different EMG channels. However, 4 were already extremely complex to control with the hand. It will be interesting to see what a more experienced physical artist, i.e. a dancer, can do!
The following Eurorack modules were used:
- VCA matrix by 4MS
- Benjolin by Epoch modular
- Rene, telharmonic, optomix and Erbeverb by Make Noise
- Dinky’s Taiko, pip slope and Pamela’s workout by ALM
- Grids by Mutable Instruments
- Ma35 vcf/a by Manhattan Analog
For such a quick and dirty setup I think we can be pretty happy with the result. We are in any case excited about finally reaching this stage of the project. In the next weeks we will fine-tune, update, upgrade, brainstorm, practice and perform as much as we can. Stay tuned!