Raspberry Pi Creates Melody
For those who are not into prog rock in the 70s or old radio shows from the 40s; the Theremin may be an unfamiliar musical instrument. As a purely electronic device, it’s well outside the realm of conventional musical instruments. Two radio antennas detect the position of the musician’s hands; to make a unique sound traditionally associated with eeriness or science fiction.
Normally a set of filters and amplifiers are used to build this instrument; but this build instead replaces almost everything with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2; and instead of radio antennas to detect the position of the musician’s hands; a set of two HC-SR04 distance sensors are used instead. With the processing power available from the Pi; the modernized instrument is able to output MIDI; as well which makes this instrument easily able to interface with programs like GarageBand or any other MIDI-capable software.
The project build is split into two videos, the second of which is linked below. The project code is also available on the project’s GitHub page; so anyone with the Pi and other equipment available; can easily start experimenting with this esoteric and often overlooked musical instrument. It’s been around for over 100 years now; and its offshoots (including this build) are as varied as the sounds they can produce.
Read more: https://hackaday.com/2022/03/28/raspberry-pi-creates-melody/
