Reactogon: chain reactive performance arpeggiator ..

[Chris Strellis]

It doesn't see to do anything much more than what I posted about before
- namely BeatPad on a Palm VX with a MIDI interface. Except mine is
much, much more portable.  I'll be bringing this setup to Synth DIY UK
2008 :D

Here's my previous post.......................


I've been experimenting with mini-music after getting inspired by the
Nintendo DS capabilities.  I dusted off my old Palm VX PDA*, found plans
to build a midi interface for it**, downloaded some nice software for
it***

http://71.18.227.106/Download/BeatPad/Firstlight.mp3

Live unrehearsed real-time tweaked improvised performance recorded just
before "The Apprentice" last night.

So it's my Palm VX plus MIDI interface, going into my much unused Roland
D110 module.  The Palm is also doing the percussion simultaneously.  I
could seem to find a bass drum on the Roland, but still some nice little
percussion stuff. I limited it to only 8 steps instead of 16 and only
worked on the one pattern instead of the 32 is can do.  Also I didn't
change the notes in real time, only the sequence transposition.  There's
so much it can do!!

I tweaked the velocity of each step which affected the cut-off freq on
the patch I had on the D110.  Also duration, tieing notes and muting
notes all live on the fly. There is a point where the poor VX can't keep
up with all the data or perhaps it was MIDI itself?

Echo and reverb added in mastering.

BeatPad absolutely rocks.  Also Palm VX are about 10GBP on eBay and
although I build the interface for free out of bits I had it would cost
you less than 5GBP.

Can't wait to try out other apps and software.  There are programs that
turn your Palm into a Theremin and a MIDI X-Y pad.

Note you can't use a UDB Palm PDA, it has to be the old serial hot-sync
type.  USB PDA can't act as USB hosts which is what you need to add a
USB MIDI interface.

Cheers

Chris

* http://www.amazon.com/Palm-3C80401U-PalmOne-Vx-Handheld/dp/B000031KIM
** http://www.elby-designs.com/midi-interfaces/midi-ifd-cct.pdf
*** http://www.minimusic.com/beatpad.html