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JAZZ HANDS #14
Official announcement Ph.D. Public Defence @ KMSKA. Welcome! More info & tickets here
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JAZZ HANDS #13
Very pleased to inform you that my Ph.D. pre-defense was admitted by the honourable jury. This means I can start preparing for the grand concert at the esteemed KMSKA, and this evening will be my public defense, granting me the title of Doctor in the Arts! How cool is that? Please note I will not…
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JAZZ HANDS #12
I finished making the DIY guide and I’m happy to announce the project is now live on the Instructables website. So in short: Now YOU can make your own hybrid sax! All files including the firmware, test code and PCB fabrication files are published on my Github page. You can find all the links in…
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JAZZ HANDS #10
On December 21, I will be presenting the Hybrid Saxophone at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. The concert will draw on everything I have learned during the course of this Ph.D. trajectory and will feature the Goeyvaerts String Trio, enlarged with double bass player Pieter Leenaerts and my robot friend, dadamachines!! Keeping…
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JAZZ HANDS #9
My Ph.D. is almost finished! Preparing the internal defense, scheduled on November 22nd. Being a Ph.D. in the Arts, the thesis is presented as a book rather than an academic paper. The book is documenting my progress from a jazz musician with a passion for patching synthesizers, drumcomputers and generative systems in environments like NI…
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JAZZ HANDS #8
New prototype!! I finished another POC prototype. This time I upgraded a 1927 Lyon & Healy C-melody sax. The cables are smaller, the octave system works better and I chose to omit the breathsensor completely. This may seem an odd choice at first, even a step backwards, but I’m trying to make this thing as…
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JAZZ HANDS #7
The Hybrid Sax is approaching completion!! Proud to present you world’s first Hybrid Sax Proof of Concept model. This version features an analog envelope follower circuit. The saxophone mouthpiece is equipped with the perfect sensor for picking up sound from the mouthpiece: Viga Music Tools Intramic. The Intramic is read out through the envelope follower…
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JAZZ HANDS #6
Bring me the octaves! This version features a handy octave system. I used the capacitive touch inputs available on the ESP32. Touching the first metal sensor transposes the MIDI output one octave lower, Touching both sensor 1 and 2 simultaneously transposes 2 octaves down. Touching only the second sensor will transpose the data 3 octaves…
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JAZZ HANDS #5
Proof of Concept getting ready! As promised, here is a video showing off the saxophone as a MIDI-controller. All keys are read out through hall effect sensors, interpreted by a ESP32 microcontroller. MIDI-notes are send through both Bluetooth and DIN-connection. In this instance, digital breath information is provided by the Photon breath controller. This is…