Chromatic is a circular sequencer that transforms colors as musical notes.
Sequences speed can be change by potentiometer, direction by a switch and you can manually changes color sequences with the finger lever along the turntable.

It uses Teensy micro controller and color/distance sensor to convert color in MIDI notes.
One sensor was also added to detect and create clock trigger for modular and old school drum machines with the white point at the edge of the turntable.

CHROMATIC is inspired by some early 20th century electronic instruments that used colors and light to create music as the Optophonic Piano from Vladimir Rossiné
(1916), Luminaphone from Harry Grindell Matthews & Bernard.J.Lynes (1925) and, Cellulophone’- from Pierre Toulon & Krugg Bass (1927).

These version is still in beta test and in the demo Xavier Gazon plays with triad chord quantizer with random chord notes order to produce variations on choosen musical scale.

There are some features to improve playability :

  • 3 MIDI controllers potentiometers
  • 1x slide controller that can be use as classic control or as manual triggers : 2 triggers at the extreme position and one in the middle.
  • One sensor count the white traces on the edges of the turntable to create an analog and MIDI clock to sync with others instruments (modular and MIDI)
  • one sensor calculate the height of the color sensor with the object to control other parameter.