here's a rough outline of my project idea. I currently don't have access to making a website. 
I'll bring some sketches in to class.


Project Idea:

1)	I want to make an instrument that interacts with other instruments, acoustic or electric, 
maybe in an ensemble. It would be able to choose sounds very specifically and filter/process 
them in an interesting way.

2)	The physical interface would be a baton or some sort of pointer. It would have possibly a 
microphone attached to it. I would point the baton at a sound source and process the sound in 
real-time in some way, maybe related to the movement/position of the baton. 
	Another idea is that I could have the baton sample a sound for, say, five seconds, and 
	then the baton’s movements would change how it was played back, in ways like Arvid’s 
	Squid Scratcher – I could, say, move through the sound linearly by moving side-to-side, 
	and change the speed of playback (or maybe direction and speed) by moving along the y-axis. 
	There’s also the possibility of synthesis controlled by the accelerometers. I might even 
	have more than one baton, so I can control different things with them. I might put a 
	contact mic or two on one of them so I can hit things with the baton.
	Another idea: I could attach it to a shoulder-mounted speaker that played from my shoulder, 
	like a horn/trombone setup (diagram should make it clearer). The only problem with having a 
	speaker and a microphone: how can I avoid feeback, or, failing that, only feed back when I 
	want to? I was thinking I could even put the speaker on a different wand, and use two. I 
	like the idea of a shoulder-mounted brass speaker, though. That would have interesting 
	spectral effects. 

3)	This would be accomplished with an accelerometer (or two, or three) and a (very) directional 
microphone that can withstand shaking. From my research, an accelerometer seems to return an 
output of amount of acceleration over a particular axis. I’m sure I could use max to turn that 
into a variety of variables.

4)	uh… there is no 4).

5)	I don’t really have any idea of a budget, but I’ll need some amount of accelerometer 
(I don’t really know how much those go for), a portable, directional, shakable microphone 
(I don’t know how possible that is). A stick or broomhandle thing I can probably find somewhere. 
I’ll also need some way to connect it to my computer. USB cable, maybe? I might possibly want to 
add a light sensor or something, or maybe a distance sensor. But I need to figure out how all 
these things work better first.

6)	I don’t really have a schedule in mind. I hope to get accelerometers as soon a possible, 
so as to see how I can mount them and what kind of data I can get from them. If I can get some 
to work with, I’ll mount them as soon as possible to make a prototype. Same with the microphone. 

7)	It would be cool do use my instrument with an ensemble of musicians, maybe even an acoustic 
ensemble playing sheet music (not necessarily – I could also do a jazz combo or a bunch of 
people jamming), or a number of electronic musicians. I think it might be more interesting, 
however, if it’s acoustic instruments, because most electronic instruments just have one output, 
i.e. a speaker. Now that I think of it, I could even use my instrument with a bunch of people 
talking, or reading (or acting in) a play or something, and I could sample them real-time and 
do cool stuff to their voices. Or I could just record the audience.