Things Look Different Here

Electric cello system, custom-built data glove, Cycling '74's Max, and Symbolic Sound's Kyma

No longer confined to its sweet resonant acoustic form, the cello is free to realize more complex and daring sounds. An instrument I have known well for the majority of my life has certainly taken a new form these last few years.  

Special thanks to Liz Bert for the use of this beautiful instrument.

The electric cello used in the performance of this piece is an Orion model made by the late Seattle-based instrument maker Eric Jensen. It is equipped with an RMC Polydrive IV polyphonic pickup system providing individual audio signals for each string out a 13-pin DIN cable. These signals are received by a modified Boss GP-10 foot pedal system. The GP-10 provides two footswitch buttons, a rocking “wah-wah” style fader, and performs a frequency to MIDI analysis of the incoming signals from each string, all of which is sent via USB to Max. Audio signals from the electric cello are also passed through the GP-10 to a custom-built breakout box to facilitate the direct audio signal input of each individual string into Kyma.

A number of different options were attempted in acquiring data representing the movement of the cello bow, including attaching sensors directly to the bow, wearing sensors in a wrist-worn housing, and using optical sensing devices. I set out three main goals in the development of this module of the interface: the sensors had to be lightweight and unobtrusive, the device had to be wireless, and it needed to take advantage of every data stream available.

After exhausting options of attaching sensors to the bow or around the wrist of the performer, influenced substantially by the obstruction that such placement of the sensors would have on the natural performative actions of playing the cello, I settled on a lightweight fingerless glove with a microcontroller and sensors sewn to the top. This proved to be the best option as it was the least obtrusive to the performer with the most accurate digital representation of movement. The custom-built data glove houses an Adafruit-made Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE Arduino-based microcontroller, a Bosch BNO055 nine degrees of freedom sensor, and a small battery.