happypedal

I am a clarinet player and I often perform in the context of electroacoustic improvised music with this instrument. My setup usually involves the real-time processing of the clarinet sound. This situation implies the real-time control of a software unit that manages the manipulation of the instrument sonorities. It is therefore important to conceive and design a suitable interface that could allow a direct and reliable control of the Digital Sound Processing (DSP) algorithms. In this context, a standard practice is to use MIDI controller.

A foot controller represented a suitable interface solution in regards to the practice of the clarinet. While playing the clarinet the hands are clearly involved in the interaction with the body of the instrument. A pedal rack seems therefore appropriate to simultaneously interact with the clarinet and the electronic. The idea of the project is therefore related to the design of a digital pedal rack that could provide multiple input controllers.

The Happy Pedal is an Arduino based foot controller that can be easily transported due to its foldable properties. Since I often travel for gigs and concerts, I generally look for portable and robust equipment. The Happy Pedal was indeed designed to fit into my backpack. It features nine different controllers: five happy switches, three knob and the possibility to connect an expression pedal.

The Happy Pedal can be easily transported due to its foldable properties!

A Max-MSP patch was developed for the Happy Pedal. The DSP algorithms designed are conceived to process in real-time the clarinet sound. Their sonic output is characterised by dense and complex timbres. Rather than sound effects, these algorithms can be conceived as processes that generates the sections of a composition. Consequently the use of the Max patch should be associated an exploration of the various outputs that it produces. Instead of constantly switch between the various DSP the musician should explore in time the potentiality of the various algorithms. Furthermore, each time a process is triggered its parameters are set slightly differently. The inclusion of constrained random processes was indeed an intentional choice. The goal is to define stochastic processes that can introduce little variations to the sonic output.

Here it is possible to listen to some of the sounds that ithe patch can produces.