My home made Light Harp

[KnucklesEchidna125]

This sounds really cool! Do you know what the instrument you play with your hands is called? You don't touch it with anything... you just wave your hands and play it in a space between two metal bars. And it's on a wooden base. I forgot the name of it.

[jarleinar]

@KnucklesEchidna125 A Theremin!

[wax78]

Damn very impressive, my poor homemade harp seems sucky now ^^

[Calempaine]

Very good work indeed :)

[djtonyxxx5]

surely thumb up... one of the most interesting light arp i've seen...

[lightharp]

ach! sorry for the multi-comment. this "new YouTube" confuses me. see what i mean?  i can't handle complexity! :?P

[lightharp]

hey, i just watched this video again (i've seen it a handful of times already) and it seems more impressive every time! you should be proud of yourself for such an amazing achievement. i went on your tinkartank site and looked at the pictures of the guts of this thing... it's FAR more complex than anything i've built! you are seriously smart, dude!  killer idea to use a radio as the frame. probably a lot cheaper than buying all those switches / buttons individually. Cheers! -- Peter

[Danielhertz]

Impresive...

[RiverDesendantNelson]

Hey dude, amazing build. Any chance of getting the schematics? I'd really like to build one of these and yours seems to be one of the better ones out there. Also, is there any way to change it from light to laser? I know you said you did light for the look and all, but I prefer the look of the lasers personally. Well man, I would be so grateful if you could post all the schematics and whatnot. One final question, cost. How much did it cost to make this stunning peace?

[jarleinar]

@RiverDesendantNelson

there are schematics and software under the "resources" page on the blog.

[jarleinar]

@RiverDesendantNelson However, I'll see if I can make a post about the making during Christmas holiday. My total cost where around 300$ but that depends. Could be much less. Could be much more..

[jarleinar]

@RiverDesendantNelson

Oh crap, the link in the sidebar was wrong. It should be correct now!

[RiverDesendantNelson]

Thank you, a million times over. I now have something to live and die for. Lol.

[buzzz121]

Very Cool! can't wait for them to start production in China and sell at Walmart.

[jarleinar]

@buzzz121 Ha ha, won't happen in a while ;-)

[IvelliosshadowLord]

Yours is by far the better sounding. I have heard some and they all sound very..hmm dark I guess. Not a lot of range and what not. Very cool indeed. You should sell these. :D

[jarleinar]

Thanks :-) Usually a light or laser harp just trigger some midisound. I spent a lot of time and effort working on the feedbacker patch to make it more like an organic instrument, not just "note on / note off"

[jarleinar]

I got view number 1000 on my own video :-) Weee!

[marlonrandom]

U R A NARCISSIST!

[jarleinar]

@marlonrandom Well, that's the "You" in the "YouTube"...

[AndyGuarro]

lol. putting your bad english on the internets for all to see...we play our music load...

[rfoshaug]

You who are sooo good in English should write English with captial E. And why "internets" in plural? Why be so rude?

[pallipadath]

wow..it was awasome..........can you plzzz tell me the way or steps to make it?.....i want to make it for my exhibition plzzz......

[jarleinar]

Thanks! What kind of exhibition are you making?

[jarleinar]

I will update our blog, with schematics, drawings, source code etc. soon. It should all be there before May 11.

[jarleinar]

The height of the string alters the octave played. It can play two octaves of each note depending of if you pluck it low down or high up. There is also some height sensing when using feedbacker in "hold" mode that changes the resonance of the feedback, but the height sensing is rather rudimentary.

There is no lasers involved, only high power LEDs with lenses light sensors for each beam sensing the visible light reflected back.

[shobley]

I see - it's very beautiful. My laser harp was more of a technical exercise than anything else.

I've been working on some other instruments that have more playability.-

[jarleinar]

What kind of instruments? I did not like to find out that you are working on theremin projects as my next project is building an ehterwave from the bottom. Now it will look like I am copying your every move ;-)

[shobley]

That's very attractive - and a nice case for it too.

It's difficult to see exactly what the interactions are.

Does the height of "plucking" alter the sound?

Does this use a laser, or another source of light?

[jarleinar]

All buttons and knobs on the radio is interfaced. I use the Band selectors to chose sound. You can press down several sounds simultaneously. The bass and treble knobs are used for controlling reverb and feedback.

The Feedbacker is a feedback loop using reverb, distortion and tuned resonant filters to simulate the feel of controlled electric guitar feedback.

The tuning knobs are also interfaced but not used presently. I will might use it for resonant filter or something..