08/08

MANUS

Play light with your hands.

About

A camera instrument you play with your hands, in the browser. Eight beams you play by pinching, a theremin you can switch off, and a songbook where you catch each note as it arrives. Twelve sampled voices, one screen, no account.

In numbers

sampled voices: 12
beams you play by pinching: 8
songs in the book, one note per beat: 3

Problem

A camera theremin is easy to start and hard to play a tune on: the pitch slides with the hand, and every movement makes a sound. MANUS needed notes you can aim at, then play, so a song can be caught one note at a time.

Constraints

Hand tracking runs in the browser; camera frames are not uploaded
On a desktop, the whole console fits one screen
It still plays with a mouse or the keys when the camera is off

Decisions

An open hand only aims. A pinch plays the beam under the finger.
Moving across the beams makes no sound, so a melody can be aimed one note at a time.
Height is a theremin for the filter, the vowel and the reverb, and it can be switched off.
The filter then stays where the knob left it.
Each riff and each song keeps its own tempo.
Slowing one does not slow the others, and slowing a backing loop does not drop its pitch.
The songbook draws the melody as gems on the beams; you pinch a gem as it meets the line.
Misses can be replayed until they are caught, and the stage and the mix can be saved as a video.

Outcome

A free instrument in the browser. No account. Local patches, a setlist, MIDI clock in, and a footer that says how long the sound and the picture are taking.