I'm building a mobile, open source, midi controlled pipe organ. I'm calling it the Anywhere Organ. This site is here to document my progress, acknowledge all the awesome people who are helping make it happen, and spread what I've learned in making this colossal instrument.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
The Anywhere Organ made it to the Kickstarter blog! I was interviewed about the project, my thoughts on organs, and some fun technical stuff. You should give it a look.
Also, there are only 4 days left to go to raise the last $1000 for my Kickstarter. Please give it a look.
I’ve just released the source for the Anywhere Organ up on Thingiverse. I’ll be making modifications and alterations to the files as time goes by, but I wanted to have it out in the public domain even if it does have a kink or two.
The release includes laser-ready DXF’s, basic instructions and notes, and a RAR of all the SolidWorks files used to design and build the final sculpture.
If you like the work that’s been going on here, please donate to the Anywhere Organ Kickstarter. There’s just over a week left to donate and I need your support.
Here’s the video pitch for my ongoing Kickstarter. I’m trying to raise enough money to triple the size of the Anywhere Organ in the next 6 months. http://kck.st/anywhereorgan
I couldn’t have made the vid without @willowbl00 as camerahuman extraordinaire and the Livingston Lancer Robotics Team #3415 on the keys. You guys are astoundingly cool.
The Anywhere Organ playing Bach’s Prelude #2
I’ve got everything working smoothly and sounding fantastic just in time for World Maker Faire, NYC. Check out the kickstarter and help me make this the most impossible, incredible, gigantic mobile pipe organ ever - http://kck.st/anywhereorgan
The Anywhere Organ is going to World Maker Faire, NYC! I’m so excited to be bringing the organ to this enormous event. I’ve got it working better than ever before and even have it hooked up to a keyboard so anyone can give it a try.
I’m also going to be featuring some delightfully geeky MIDI tunes and there’s a chance some friends might drop by with their own electronic instruments for a jam session. Keep on the lookout.
With Figment just a few weeks in the past I thought it was time to do a wrapup on where things have gone, how far I’ve come, and what’s left to do.
Check out Sxip Shirey’s kicstarter while you’re about things.
I used some CC video and audio for this update and want to thank the people who provided it. The additional footage and music were instrumental to this video, and it would have been complete without them.
Video: skyline timelapse - Chuck Heron
Video: car timelapse - Michael Aschauer
Music: “Time is Wasting” by White Life - Ehse Records
The Anywhere Organ premieres at Figment, NYC!
Wow, this has been a long haul. After a year of trial and error, mucking about, and experimentation the Anywhere Organ has finally arrived. It premiered at Figment, NYC which spanned the entirety of Governer’s Island.
This version, which features seven laser cut wind chests each containing seven pipes, is driven by a MIDI controller pumping out i/o signals to my bank of 49 organ valves. For a portion of the event it was getting those signals from an Arduino using a program developed by myself and Matt Mets (of Makerbot fame). Once it started to drizzle I brought everything indoors and broke out the laptop to do some looping and more extensive MIDI stuff.
It’s been a wild ride. Now, it’s time to recoup, regroup, and start building the project out. It still needs some tweaking and fiddling to survive the kind of environments I’m hoping to put it in eventually. However, I’m ecstatic to have it out in the world and not hanging around my head any more.
Check out some more photos of the Anywhere Organ at Figment on Flickr.
After a week spent in Providence, picking up laser cut parts and visiting the local hackers around there, I finally got back to the shop and put the first working version of the Anywhere Organ together. This box of pipes represents 1/7 of the final sculpture.
I’m using a J-Omega MTP8 to control the valves from a midi signal. I’ve also got a USB to MIDI converter running from my laptop.
The housing was cut from 3/4” plywood drawn from a configuration based Solidworks model. Setting up all the 3d models correctly has been the biggest effort, but I’m pretty confident all the work will pay off when I’m cutting seven of these buggers out all at once.
My theme music is from the album “Don’t Touch My Chiptune”
You can check out progress shots of the whole thing going together on Flickr
Things are starting to come together as I mock up all the components that are going into the Anywhere Organ. So far I’ve tested the magnetic valves that will control the wind going into each of the organ pipes, and have gotten my MIDI system to turn piano key strokes into on and off signals. Next comes more design, some CAD, and a few long nights spent researching parts on Mcmaster Carr.
A little bit about pipes
I spent the afternoon dimensioning my new set of pipes to start mocking them up in CAD. It was really interesting putting together the data and seeing such a clear trend emerge. See that pretty parabola in blue down there? That curve more or less represents the volume of the air column in each pipe as it goes up in pitch. The less space there is for the air to pass through the closer the pattern of interference of air knocking around inside and the pipe produces a higher frequency sound as a result.
Wikipedia, which is my source for sounding well informed, has this handy formula to offer:
Essentially it means that the pitch of a pipe (F) is equal to the speed of sound (V) over twice the pipe length (L). Let’s work this out.
A small C note should be 130.81hz in an ideal universe. From my chart the C I’ve got is 58.5 inches long or 4.875 feet. That means my frequency equals 1130 fps / 2(4.875) or 116hz. That’s quite a bit off. It seems like my pipes aren’t tuned to precise eight foot pitch. Somehow my C2 is somewhere between A2 and B2 on the concert pitch scale. Further investigation is necessary. I might have to make sure there are options to change the tuning of the instrument if it’s interacting with other instruments or recorded tracks. It should be a pretty simple MIDI transpose.
For the moment I’m simply stoked I have pipes to play with.
