I built an 18th century harmonograph and connected it to a 21st century modular synthesiser.
A harmonograph is an old scientific device that uses pendulums to create illustrations of harmonic motion, called lissajous figures. On this harmonograph each pendulum is connected to a sensor which triggers different elements of the synthesiser so that every time it makes a drawing, it also plays an accompanying synth soundtrack. There's also a contact mic on the drawing board to pick up the sound of the pen.
It uses three pendulums - two connected in a linear way to the pen and one rotary pendulum connected to the drawing board. You set them all swinging, lower the biro pen to the drawing board and let the pendulums run down over a period of about 5 minutes, after which both the unique drawing and soundtrack are complete.
I recorded an album of the first 18 drawings which can be downloaded from my bandcamp page:
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You can see the drawings here:
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I used proximity sensors and an Arduino to get the harmonograph talking to the synth. You can find the code, examples of drawings and sounds plus more information about the project on my website:
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I’ll do a making-of video if there’s any interest. Leave a message in the comments if you’d like to see it. In the meantime check out this video of how I connected my turntable to my modular synth as it uses pretty much the same technology:
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BANDCAMP: [ Ссылка ]
INSTAGRAM: [ Ссылка ]
TWITTER: [ Ссылка ]
WEBSITE: lomondcampbell.com
#harmonograph #arduino #eurorack
