my first time
The "Textural CrossFader" is my first attempt at building an embedded acoustic instrument. This instrument uses two commercial keyboards, a Korg NanoKEY2 and a Keith McMillen QuNexus, to interact with a custom sample player programmed in Pure Data. Custom source sounds were sampled and uploaded to a Raspberry Pi. The Korg keyboard is used to select up to five sounds from the sample bank, while the QuNexus's aftertouch features are used to pitch-shift and crossfade between the selected samples. The QuNexus can activate up to five polyphonic voices that are randomly spatialized across the stereo field, allowing for complex, slowly morphing sonic textures.
A custom body was designed and digitally fabricated using a laser-cutter. This instrument was conceived as a tutorial to get myself familiar with the process of designing and building an embedded acoustic instrument from the bottom up. This design follows in the tradition of the Lap Boxes, created by Dr. Edgar Berdahl.