computoman

Just an idea or two, My brother is an awesome guitar player and he said I could download the audio of him playing. Export files as .mp3 and then move them to the server.

In http://computoman.blogspot.com/2015/01/arduino-music.html I showed you how to do music on the arduino using a speaker. The code to extract the notes for a listing was done using bash, so I decided to do an update using basic instead. Freebasic is free and is available for most platforms. compile with fbc -lang qb filerdr.bas filerdr.bas [code] open "file" for input as #1 open "notes" for output as #2 open "notes-cs" for output as #3 do while not eof(1) input #1, a$ b$ = left$(a$,2) c$ = mid$(a$,4,2) print #2,"NOTE_";b$;", "; print #3, c$;", "; loop close #1 close #2 close #3 [/code] file G3-3 F4-8 notes NOTE_G3, NOTE_F4, notes-cs 3 , 8, ---------------------------------------  

Now let us take a look a remote music controller called mpd. With mplayer we could do everything from the command line, mpd we should be able to use the gui on the remote machine. We will not need to use ssh here either. You will want to set up your host machines with speakers as before. Then we need to add a new piece of software called mpd. It is available for a wide variety of systems including Android. http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients $ sudo apt-get install mpd Server does not have to have gui installed. Copy your music files to the server if they are not already there. Then you will want go edit the config file for you file settings and etc. $ sudo vim /etc/mpd.conf Once you have that done, you will need to go to the client machine and install the following: $ sudo apt-get install mpc gmpc Then go to the gui menu for the  sound and video.   Choose the gnome-music-player-client. Everything is gui from there. You will need to set the servernam...

Thinking about getting a stereo  for the office area, but really did not want to spend any money if I could use an old pc.Love to play free open source royalty free music.  If you think about it, the footprint of a stereo is like a pc but without the monitor. Maybe I could just use an old Linux box to get the job one. Then I thought would it be nice if I could lt the pc stereo stand alone and then access it from a remote machine.  Something linux can do very easily using the ssh environment. Installed a switch and ran the cables from the desk top to the music server. You could also do this via wifi, but that can be a security issue. Once you have everything set up, you will want to move your music files and then organize your music in some way before starting the shell command. so  $ ssh oeorgan1 $ sudo apt-get install mplayer Execute the shell command to play all the sonegs in the subdirectories from the main subdirectory. Note: if you know how to...

Notice: this article is for linux based users. see also: http://computoman.blogspot.com/2015/05/arduino-music-starter-update.html The Arduino is one of the neatest microcontrollers.  For something so simple, it can do an amazing amount of projects. One such project that interested me was the Digital melody project. If you have one the the Arduinos where the Atmel chip can be removed, you can make your own project without the board once the programming is done. For this project, all you will need is the Arduino, usb cable (for programming), computer, some wires, optional 100 ohm resistor, and an old eight ohm speaker. Usually the back of speakers on the magnet have what resistance they are. So grab the old dead radio or the like that has a speaker and see what it has. Old personal computers are likely to have one too that you can borrow for a minute. Now you need to build the circuit. It is minimal and you should be able to set it up quickly. Resistor adds safety for pr...

If you are a musician, one of the most useful tools is a metronome. It graphically displays the beats for you to follow while playing music.One particular program is all text based so it will run on a variety of systems even without a sound card. To invoke the program, you use the program name followed by the speed you want to use. Then the program will start. The program uses a simple cursor to mark the time of the beats. The program seems to do some compensation to keep the metronome accurate. To build the program, you would: $ gcc metronome.c -o metronome Here is the code: #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <stdint.h> #include <signal.h> #include <time.h> #include <sys/time.h> struct timeval start, last; inline int64_t tv_to_u(struct timeval s) {     return s.tv_sec * 1000000 + s.tv_usec; } inline struct timeval u_to_tv(int64_t x) {     struct ...

Thinking about doing animated shorts. On to doing a real video. Used the Openshot video editor. Imported the music clip and then imported the picture. The picture was copied repeatedly until the pictures filled the second time line for the length of the audio. . See video at: http://itcartoons.blogspot.com/2014/11/music-video.html

Shame that computer makers have pretty much eliminated the parallel port. You can use the usb parallel cables or if you can find them pci cards are available on a declining basis. The usb parallel cables are not completely compatible with the traditional parallel port.  This a shame because so many options are available for the parallel port. Everything from the old Covox fake sound card interface, digital interfacing including I2C, and even doing CNC machining.  So many options taken away from users. Using the parallel port is as easy as making a cable. The centronics parallel interface has the available thirty-six pins. Coming off the computer the computer has only twenty-five pins. If you really look at the parallel port only eighteen pins are only what is used. With two ten pin terminal bars, you can access the eighteen usefull pins from the parallel port. You can control stepper motors, led lights, and a host of other pieces of equipment. One of the reasons like to...

There are several media servers on the market that work well with TVs and PlayStation 3’s. I prefer MediaTomb , a uPnP -compliant server, because it is simple to install and configure. MediaTomb works flawlessly with my WD TV Live, and allows me to stream video (mostly AVI files), audio (mostly AAC files with .m4a extensions), and photos from my server to my TV. Install MediaTomb MediaTomb is simple to install on Ubuntu Server because a Debian package for it is in the repositories. To install MediaTomb, simply install the mediatomb package. $ sudo apt-get install mediatomb The MediaTomb daemon will start automatically after installation. Configure Port Number By default, MediaTomb will pick the first available port starting with 49152. When restarting the server, it may pick a different port, such as 49153. I prefer to lock MediaTomb down to a certain point, so my bookmarks for the web interface are always correct, and so I can set firewall and networking rules consisten...

There are several media servers on the market that work well with TVs and PlayStation 3’s. I prefer MediaTomb , a uPnP -compliant server, because it is simple to install and configure. MediaTomb works flawlessly with my WD TV Live, and allows me to stream video (mostly AVI files), audio (mostly AAC files with .m4a extensions), and photos from my server to my TV. Install MediaTomb MediaTomb is simple to install on Ubuntu Server because a Debian package for it is in the repositories. To install MediaTomb, simply install the mediatomb package. $ sudo apt-get install mediatomb The MediaTomb daemon will start automatically after installation. Configure Port Number By default, MediaTomb will pick the first available port starting with 49152. When restarting the server, it may pick a different port, such as 49153. I prefer to lock MediaTomb down to a certain point, so my bookmarks for the web interface are always correct, and so I can set firewall and networking r...

$ sudo apt-get install forked-daapd Installation instructions for forked-daapd ------------------------------------------ There are two ways to install forked-daapd: from a tarball or from the git tree. The tarball contains a working build system and pre-generated ANTLR3 parsers; the git tree doesn't and requires more tools to generate the build system and the ANTLR3 parsers. In both cases the installation procedure is the traditional ./configure; make; make install. Please read this file carefully before proceeding. System-specific requirements: - Linux: + glibc 2.13+ (bugfix: process-wide setgroups(), glibc BZ#10563) + libasound (ALSA sound support - or you can use OSS4) - FreeBSD: + OSS4 sound support + libiconv Tools: - The clang C compiler from the LLVM project. forked-daapd uses Blocks, an extension to the C language that is not supported by gcc. Along with clang, you'll also need the Blocks runtime, libblocksruntime. - pkg-config -...

Musical arduino. (from Arduino.cc) Play a Melody using the tone() function This example shows how to use the tone() command to generate notes. It plays a little melody you may have heard before. Hardware Required Arduino board 8 ohm "small" speaker 100 ohm resistor hook-up wire Circuit image developed using Fritzing . For more circuit examples, see the Fritzing project page Connect one terminal of your speaker to digital pin 8 through a 100 ohm resistor. Connect the other terminal to ground. Schematic click the image to enlarge Code The code below uses an extra file, pitches.h. This file contains all the pitch values for typical notes. For example, NOTE_C4 is middle C. NOTE_FS4 is F sharp, and so forth. This note table was originally written by Brett Hagman, on whose work the tone() command was based. You may find it useful for whenever you want to make musical notes. The main sketch is as follows: /* Melody Plays a melodycircuit: ...

$ sudo apt-get install forked-daapd Installation instructions for forked-daapd ------------------------------------------ There are two ways to install forked-daapd: from a tarball or from the git tree. The tarball contains a working build system and pre-generated ANTLR3 parsers; the git tree doesn't and requires more tools to generate the build system and the ANTLR3 parsers. In both cases the installation procedure is the traditional ./configure; make; make install. Please read this file carefully before proceeding. System-specific requirements: - Linux: + glibc 2.13+ (bugfix: process-wide setgroups(), glibc BZ#10563) + libasound (ALSA sound support - or you can use OSS4) - FreeBSD: + OSS4 sound support + libiconv Tools: - The clang C compiler from the LLVM project. forked-daapd uses Blocks, an extension to the C language that is not supported by gcc. Along with clang, you'll also need the Blocks runtime, libblocksruntime. - pkg-config -...

Mom use to have an autoharp. She would play it once in a while. Kind of missed that old thing. Did not want to go out and purchase one. Saw a minimal bash script to let a linux box with sound emulate an autoharp. I modified that script to do a bit more.  It only has a few chords, but it is the most I will need for a while. Working on a super version, Just like a regular autoharp, all you have to do is press a key for the chord sounding. Use it. (super simple example): On Top of Old Smokie    Old (C)On top of old (F)Smokie, all covered in (C)snow, I lost my true (G7 3)lover, by courtin' too (C)slow (C)on top of old (F)Smokie, I went there to (C)weep For a false hearted (G7)lover, is worse than a (C)thief (C)A thief he will (F)rob you, and take what you (C)save But a false hearted (G7)lover, will put you in your (C)grave (C)On top of old (F)Smokie, all covered in (C)snow I lost my true (G7)lover, by courtin' too (C)slow (C) They'll hug you and (F)kiss yo...

Want to increase the sound volume of your touch pad or the like? This is for units that have the speaker on the bottom of the unit.  Try this neat trick. Take a length of about seven inches of one inch diameter pvc pipe. Your size may vary,   Most hardware stores carry pvc pipe, but you might have to get a long piece just to make a short piece. I had about a two foot long piece already,  Cut a groove in the pipe just wide enough to insert your pad. You probably do not want it too tight. You will also need two elbows. I just used right hand elbows as they were a lot cheaper than the slight angled ones. Press the two elbows on each end. Get your music going on your touch pad and insert it. You should have more than twice the volume without using any kind of electronics with your new megaphone!!

Thought this was awesome. Gave me ideas for doing other things. Arduino version. and how it was done: Source code::  https://github.com/SammyIAm/Moppy/ Using the parallel port: More details: http://georgewhiteside.net/projects/diskette-organ/ http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/16715/Controlling-Floppy-Drive-Stepper-Motor-via-Paralle