*edited with completeness*
If this should be in a different forum, then move it, i figured music is where this should be though.
Music, and looking cool.
Two things that haven't met since the days of Bootsy Collins.
Shown for referenceI should also note, that this project was heavily inspired by Future Man, of Flecktones fame, and his synthaxe drumitar.
This will be a sort of tutorial/just me documenting how I plan on bringing the two back together/a project im doing for uni, called "So Fucking Rock- The Fisher Price Experience.
Once this is done though, ill probably just put together a webpage with it.
What you will need.
1. A copy of Miraton (mac only, but free from
http://www.garagecube.com, or Ableton Live (theres a demo available on
http://www.ableton.com or you can buy it at alot of music stores, it runs about AU$700 from what ive seen)
2.A toy with buttons, preferably one that makes sound. Aim for around 15 buttons.
I went with this.
3. A soldering iron, some of the wirey stuff i forget the name of that you solder with, and a few wires to connect junk up.
4. An old PS2 keyboard, and possibly a PS2 to usb converter if you are like me and have no ports for that.
5. A screwdriver.
How to do it.
First, ill start with the keyboard.
Take your keyboard and unscrew the back panel, removing it, and the thin sheets of plastic.
You will have something that looks like this.
Pretty simple start eh?
You'll find if you pull that little circuit bit out, you can connect two bits together and make keystrokes, play around with this in notepad for a while, try take note of which combinations produce strokes.
(If you are using miraton, you can just open that, and watch keys light up as you make connections.)
While i could go more indepth on this topic, ill leave it to exsisting pages.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1610432,00.aspSo this is all we need to do with the keyboard for now, so put it aside, and once again, take out your screwdriver.
You'll want to pull apart the toy, make sure you keep all the screws though, because you'll want to put it back again.
You should get something pretty simple inside like this.
Basically you want to take out anything unnecessary, so anything that isnt a switch.
There should now be plenty of room for you to fit in your keyboards guts.
Thats all for now, ive started connecting everything together and i will have it finished in about two weeks. (Essays to do.)
so connecting bits together....
I used that little oval bit of cardboard from the top of a tissue box to make sure i didnt leak any solder across the tabs.Turns out soldering is pretty easy, despite my dads constant insistance he do the job whenever something comes up requiring it.
I attatched a wire to everytab on the x axis, and only the three with the most letters on the y. it looked something like this.
Kind of messy i guessso i ended up connecting the switches in the neck of the guitar through to the wires coming from the tabs on the keyboard guts and closed it all up. of course makeing sure to insulate any open attatchhments with electrical tape.
then i plugged it in, and played.
There might be a video up of it soon on youtube, depends how i feel.
Its not due for another week still.
Once the uni break starts i have a similar project but with midi in mind.
More on keyboard hacking:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1610427,00.asphttp://www.mameworld.net/emuadvice/keyhack2.htmlMore on Futureman and the Synthaxe Drumitar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumitarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Manhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVkeNuXkX58
