Interactive Rock Show (mobile)
An examination of the Bass iPad, with the loop library below the live sequencer.
An explanation of my final product hours before the event.
Watch Bradley's official recap of the event here.
A video prepared by my class to explain our ideas for the event to the public.
An explanation of the overall event from a month before.
Details
Winner of the All Festival Grand Prize at the 2011 iBradley Media Festival
The Rock Show was a three hour event attended by over 1500 students at Bradley University. These students were provided a number of activities using technology designed and built by my class.
Read about it in a Bradley Works magazine article.
My 8 iPad Dance Party
Four of the iPads allowed students to control the music within the space. Each of the four represented a different instrument: drums, bass, guitar, and sound effects. Each then featured a beat sequencer and a collection of pre-made music loops, different for each instrument. These loops could then be chosen and dropped within each sequencer. As the beat traveled through the sequencer, the loops chosen would be played appropriately. This then brought together the loops chosen by four different students to create one complete live remix.
Why didn't it sound like complete crap? Because all of the loops were 140bpm and in the same key. Most importantly, they were all kept on beat by wirelessly communicating back and forth to an OS X application that I built as well. This application would tell the iPads what beat it currently was. The iPads would then respond with what loops were in that beat, and the OS X application would play the appropriate loops in musical time.
The remaining four iPads controlled the lights. They featured Guitar Hero-like games and when the falling loops were hit in correct time, the lights would respond accordingly. Each was color coded one of four colors and triggered lights of the same color. Again the OS X application kept them in time and when a light loop was triggered appropriately on the iPad, it would let my OS X application know that it should fire a light cue using a lanBox.
I did a majority of the programming of the three applications using C++ and openFrameworks. A classmate handled the audio loops, another the graphics, while a third programmed the light cues.
The event also involved two large-scale games built in class that utilized computer vision with glow sticks, as well as Arduino boards and magnetic sensors. Not to mention, performing Theatre students also played a large role in keeping attending students engaged.