pongg paddlinz;edj ov no control

[c.j miller]

     Aloha,
   Regarding your inquiry,Paul Perry, about utilis-
ing AD's accelerometers,I have not yet done so,but I
 have actually been very curious about the possibil-
ities!
   There is a printer here,now out of toner,with 
which I tried to print up some of those relevant specs,this printer chokes on the graphs on Anolog De
vices data sheets!I can only rarely peruse ADCDROM..
   I don't recall the form of those sensors or even
know how to interface them yet..I've been idly won-
dering about the difference between "drumsticks" w/
an accmeter stationary or sliding within,but I will
only speculate in the meanwhile, as I need to real-
ize some projects before then.
   With my fourth week of employment in '99,the bench is still sparse of tools and components.I had
never enclosed a circuit before,so moving has been
hard on some of my early stuff..This week I'll work
towards making a decent regulated power supply(+/-15
v;I've only ever powered circuits from a crummy wall
 wart,supposedly 12v,but anywhere from 10 to 18 v).
Since I want to try some deep fm,at least the possi-
bility of reproducable results would seem to be con-
dusive to the learning processes.(what does Heisen-
berg say about this?)So I try to parallel a supply
and rack with some "tune"able vco's -then I'll be
much more active in my research of control sources.
   This week, I acquired for 10$ two single-bus key-
boards (3 1/2 octave? I'll dig them out again very 
soon.)I am considering making conductive foam press-
ure sensors to fit under the keys.A little bit more
tricky,for me at least,is some whims that I may real
ize of touch-plates on the key surfaces.(I might try
 to apply PAIA's programmable drum UI)
   Research from trajectories of PAIA history also
suggest conductive elastomer controllers(ala gnome!)
That stuff was VF-10, a 10 mil sheet from Emerson
Cuming in Canton,MA.Discontinued,but superceeded by
VF-30 AND the whole "eccosorb" line.I know from over
hauling my old mountain bike suspension that elastom
ers can age in peculiar ways-but who knows.
   About 5 years ago I had an Edmund Scientific cat-
alog which offered piezo electric putty!It was about
 100$ for a cassette tape sized ingat of the stuff,
but that was through Edmund. I haven't found any oth
er sources for such a thing,so I might check back
thru ES,but not if I can help it! As a unique ware,I
 would think that I could find a manufacturer..
   The most far-out controller that I have contemp-
lated has been the cloud chamber!There must be much
more elegant ways to do something like this..
--posit a cloud chamber;a clear dish with a mildly
radioactive source,such as the radium-coated hand of
 a glow-in-the-dark watch,or a coleman lantern mantle.If you put the dish on a dark surface and cool it with dry ice(or cooler) you should be able 
to see wee vapor trails resulting from some of the
particles.(no I've not made one,but the description
is fairly accurate)
   It probably takes quite a field to affect those
particles,but consider putting an electromagnetic
transducer;jamming your choonze-under the chamber 
and using a camera(optical or otherwise) to bitmap
note messages,continuous,cvs,etc. from the vapor
trails.This gives all-new meaning to the term "vapor
ware"!I will eventually do my homework on this.It 
could be anywhere from rack sized to several miles,
for all I know now.(not much) I have never heard of
anybody using actual subatomic matter modulation in
music,but it could be neat.
   If you could relate some accelerometer interface
experinces I would be most interested,and grateful.
      -- VF-30, eccosorb,etc.
    http://www.emersoncumingmp.com/applications/
      -- for more on PONG simulations :
    "ricochet",Tangerine Dream ,1975-6
         Aloha! CJ


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