Microtonal Musical Robot

Research project on the development of new tools for musical expression at the University College Ghent

<Horny>

an automated french horn

Godfried-Willem RAES

2013

[Nederlandstalige versie]

Robot: <Horny>

The design and construction of this automated instrument started with the purchase of a brand new F-horn, made by Arnolds & Sons, model nr. AHR-301, serial number 121267. It came with an extra short piece of tubing, such that it can be turned into a Bb horn as well.

The horn has three rotary valves and force measurement revealed that the minimum force required to start movement of the valves was 2 Newtons. The required movement trajectory is 12 mm and the force required to fully push the valves raises to 2.5 Newtons. This determines the specification of the solenoid valves to be used. The physical placement of the valves on the instrument however, dictates a few more restrictions: the distances between the activation points of the valves are 30mm and 20mm, so the use of standard Lucas Ledex tubular solenoids (diameter 1" (25.4mm)) capable of meeting the specifications becomes problematic. Hence we went for August Laukhuff register magnets with a pivoting action and a force of 10 Newton.. The mounting width of these type is only 18mm. The solenoids are connected in series with a 24V halogen bulb (10W), operating as a voltage dependent resistor. As we power the solenoids from 48V, we now doubled the force developed at the start of the trajectory. The starting force of these solenoids, even after carefull adjustment of the anchor and the trajectory is only marginally large enough otherwize. The solenoids are mechanically coupled to the valves using tractures made of flexible M4 threaded nylon rod. Nuts and felt washers were used to minimalize mechanical noise production. The operation of the valves is controlled by a Microchip PIC controller type 18F2525. There are selectable lookup tables for both the fingering on the F-horn and the Bb horn.

For the excitation of the horn we once again used a compression driver followed with an acoustic impedance convertor. In this case we used the original mouthpiece of the horn without any modification other than the construction of a new clamping system to connect the mouthpiece firmly with the driver. The compression driver is steered -after amplification- by an ARM-microprocessor.

Horns are normally played with the bell pointing backwards. On occasions, composers do ask for the bell to be brought 'cor en haut', pointing to the audience. This request can for instance be found in the score of Strawinsky's 'Le Sacre du Printemps'. In our robot we also wanted to implement some form of control over the sound projection from the instrument. Since the mounting of the horn appeared to be quite complicated it was not possible to perform all calculations and drawings beforehand since for fluent motion it is mandatory to know the axis of equilibrium. Therefore we started by making the essential holding structure including the valve solenoids and the compression driver and only after that job was finished, we empirically found out where to place the balancing point. Unfortunately this balancing point appeared to come too close to the compression driver. Thus for technical reasons such as accessibility of mounting bolts and nuts and for ease of disassembly, we did move the axis of movement slightly to the backpoint. To restore equilibrium we sufficed by adding some extra weight. A stainless steel ladle at the same time serving as a protection cap for the compression driver fullfilled this function very well. As it came out, the final result is a bit crab like as the wheels had to be placed under a weird angle to the instrument.

Very probably this robotic horn is the very first horn player in music history that ever succeeded in playing his musical parts always perfectly in tune. Users and composers that like the 'out of tune-ness' of real hornplayers can always implement this as we gave the instrument ample possibilities to play in just about any imaginable tone system with high precision.

Power supply voltages and currents:

 

Midi Mapping and implementation:

Midi channel : 14 (counting 0-15).
Midi note range: (23-29), 35-94 if used as an F-horn with the appropriate crook and controller setting. Note on, with velocity is implemented and has a wide control range. The external input may be mapped onto the note range 110-119 (way above the normal ambitus and the extended range) This implements vocal/instrumental multiphonic playing. Note that the range 30 to 34 is only available when the Bb tube is inserted and the appropriate controller (#33) is send..
Note Off commands are required, but can be dropped for pure legato playing. A note-off releases the valves and unpowers them. It starts the fast decay section of the mouth driver according to the parameter set with controller #19. The note release byte, if not 0, can be used for what it's standard function is for. If used, it will override the setting of controller #19.

Controllers:

Controller 1: Wind controller, steers the amount of noise in the sound. Default = x. Advised setting: 20
Controller 2: LFO3 frequency applied to the filter. Default = x. Advised setting: 2
Controller 3: Vibrato depth (LFO1 amplitude). Default = x. Advised setting: 20, to turn vibrato off, set this controller to 0.
Controller 4: Vibrato speed. (LFO1 frequency). Default = x. Advised setting: 5
Controller 5: Tremolo depth, amplitude modulation. (LFO2). Default = 0
Controller 6: Tremolo speed. (LFO2 frequency). Default = 0. Advised setting: 16
Controller 7: Global volume control. Can be used for crescendo and decrescendo effects whilst notes are sounding. This also affects the sound color of the instrument, as normal for horns. Default = 80
Controller 16: Note attack speed controller (0= slow attack, 127= fast attack) . Default setting: 100. Advised setting: 25
Controller 17 is used to control the maximum sound level reached after the attack time. This controller is always larger than or equal to the level set by the velocity byte. For sfz or staccato playing, this controller must be set to high levels and the velocity byte kept rather low. Default setting: 127. Advised setting: 0
Controller 18 is used to control the speed of the transition between the attack level once reached and the sustain or hold value set by the velocity byte.(0= slow transition, 127= fast transition) default setting: x. Advised setting 50
Controller 19: is used to control the release time after reception of a note off. Here again a value of 0 will give a slow release whereas a value of 127 will give a very fast release. Note that with very low values, the note may not even turn off completely. Default setting: 96. Advised setting: 65. Note that if real note-off commands are used, the release value sent with them, if this value is not zero, will override controller 19, such that the value of controller 19 will be set to 128-release value.

The following graph gives a picture of the mutual dependencies of all these controllers. Note that the implementation is different than what we have implemented in monophonic instruments build prior to <Fa>, <Asa> and <Klar>!

Controller 20: Basic tuning of the instrument. The range is + or - a semitone.(Defaults to value 64 for A=440Hz)
Controller 21: minimum solenoid power PWM controller (for development only) (default = 64)
Controller 22: Vertical inclination controller. (0-63= downwards, 64=central, unpowered, 65-127= upwards). (default = 64)
Controller 25: Filter cut off frequency. Default = 62. Advised setting: 49
Controller 26: Filter resonance amount. Default = 90. Advised setting: 120
Controller 27: Echo mix. Default = 0. Advised setting: 2. Only use this for experimental sounds, as it can generate multiphonics.
Controller 28: echo feedback. Default = 0. Only use this for experimental sounds, as it can generate multiphonics.
Controller 29: LFO3, filter depth. Default = 20. Advised setting: 20. (large values give a wha-wha effect)
Controller 30: Valve release time out after note-off's.

Controller 33: F-horn or Bb horn selector. (0= F-horn, 127 = Bb-Horn). On cold boot the firmware will always assume F-horn. The setting of this controller obviously changes the lookup table for the fingerings.
Controller 40: Bendrange for the pitchbend. 0= no bending, 1=+/- 50 cents. Default = 1.
Controller 43: Wait time for vibrato start after reception of a note-on command. Note that in legato playing, vibrato will continue. The wait time starts again after a note off is received. Default = 100. Advised setting 8.
Controller 44: Wait time for the tremolo (AM modulation) to start after a note-on command. Default = 10. Advised setting: 3
Controller 66: Power on/off switch (0 = off, any other value is on). Power off, resets all controllers to their cold-boot values.
Controller 100: Can be used to override the fingering used in the lookup tables. Only the three lowest bits of the value are used. Bit 0 corresponds to the 1/2-tone valve (the middle valve, named valve 1), Bit 1 to the 1-tone valve (the valve closest to the mouthpiece, named valve 2), bit 2 to the 1 1/2-tone valve (named valve 3). This controller can be sent any time, even when no note is sounded. If you want a note to be played with a fingering different from the fingering in the default lookup table, you have to send this controller right after the note on command.

Controller 123: switches the sounding note off, unpowers the movement solenoid, dims all the lights. Does not reset any controllers.

Program change: not implemented so far. May be used later for interactive robotic modes of functioning, exploiting the audio input possibilities on the ARM-board.

Lights: The lights are mapped on very high midi-notes as follows:

With velocity values between 1 and 126, the lights will be flashing with speeds proportional to the velocity value. To switch them just on, use velo = 127. Velo=0 switches them off.

Pitch bend: implemented with a range of a semitone (a quartertone up or down). The coding for a fragment of a quartertone scale (here shown for the <Heli> robot, but its identical for <Horny>) is as follows:

Most good sequencer software (such as Cakewalk or Sonar) use the signed 14 bit format. Note that one unit of the msb corresponds exactly to a 0.78 cent interval. To convert fractional midi to the msb only pitchbend to apply, follow following procedure: if the fractional part is <= 0.5 then msb= 63 + (FRAC(note) * 128), if the fractional part is larger than 0.5, we should switch on the note + 1 and lower the pitch with msb= (1-FRAC(note)) * 128. Note that the pitch bend range on <Horny> can be modified with controller 40. By default this controller sets the range to plus or minus a quartertone. By setting this controller to higher values, large continuous glissandi become possible. Setting this controller to zero disables pitch bending.

Classified by function, we have the following groups of controllers:

Technical specifications:

Design and construction: dr.Godfried-Willem Raes

Collaborators on the construction of this robot:

Music composed for <Horny>:

Pictures taken during the construction:

Valve solenoids: Finished horn holding part, with provisions for horizontal movement: and some views on the finished robot:


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Nederlands:

Robot: <Horny>

Een nederlandse beschrijving is voorlopig nog niet beschikbaar.


 

Construction Diary:


Robody picture with <Horny>:


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Last update: 2023-10-11 by Godfried-Willem Raes

 

Technical drawings and data sheets:

Horn:

Arnolds & Sons, type AHR-301, serial number 121267. Arnold Stoelzel Gmbh, Postfach 5523, D-65045 Wiesbaden, Germany. Website: www.arnolds-sons.de


Mechanical parts & construction:

Ball bearings and flange holders in cast iron for the horizontal movement: INA RASEY20-N, LAG135030273 (from MEA)

Wheels: Spoke wheels with polyurethane tires: Large wheels Tente, 350 mm diameter, width 45mm, axis: 12mm. Small wheels: Tente 125 mm diameter, width: 35mm, axis: 8mm..
All chassis parts made from stainless steel AISI 316 or AISI 304

Electronic circuitry:

Overview:

Midi-hub board:

This board controls the three valves, the movement solenoids and three lights. It also hold the components for the +5V power supply.

 

 

 

Driver generator:

A development board for an ARM microprocessor is used here: An STM32f4 discovery board.

 

Power supply: This is the picture of the valve power supply module:

 

 

Compression driver unit: Model PADU 100, power rating 100W, impedance 16 Ohms. (Made in China) We have measured this component carefully and found the impedances in function of applied frequency as follows:11.4 Ohms @ 100Hz, 23.68 Ohms @ 1kHz, 26.7 Ohms @ 10kHz and 45 Ohms @ 25kHz. The acoustic load does influence the measured impedance at 1kHz over a 1:2 range: with the mouth completely closed it measures 32.8 Ohms and with the mouth completely opened but without any resonator, 15.35 Ohms. This phenomenon does not occur for the very low neither for the very high frequencies. The measurements were performed with our Hameg LCR meter, model HM8018. The frequency response is 100Hz to 10kHz. The thread for mounting is 1 3/8"-18 TPI. The 100W rated power of this driver must be understood as 'peak power', and thus in true rms terms would correspond to ca. 35Watt sine wave. Thus the maximum voltage that can be applied to the driver is 25V.

Solenoid valves:

Two different approaches were carried out. After evaluation, we decided to go for the second approach, using Laukhuff solenoids, as they operate much more silently than the tubular solenoid solution.

1.- Tubular solenoid assembly: (abandoned)

Solenoid type used for the valve pushers: Lucas Ledex (now distributed by Saia-Burgess) STA type 195207-228 (13.8 V DC @ 100% duty), 10 Watt, 7.8 N @ 5mm with 60 degree plungers. 26 mm diameter, height 52 mm. The required anchor displacement for the horn valves is 12 mm.

Note on the push tubular solenoids used to activate the rotary valves:

The following specs are valid at 20 degrees Celsius. Maximum holding force is 29 N

13.8V 100%

10 W
1.166 A.turns

17.78 mm in 41 ms
2 N starting force

2.54 mm @ 10 N
19.6V

50%
max. ON-time: 470"
pulsed: 360"

20 W
1.649 A.turns

17.78 mm in 32 ms
3 N starting force

2.54 mm @ 18 N
28.0V

25%
max. ON-time: 120"
pulsed: 32"

40 W
2.332 A.turns

17.78 mm in 22 ms
9 N starting force

2.54 mm @ 27 N
44.0V

10%
max. ON-time: 32"
pulsed: 8"

100 W
3.688 A.turns

17.78 mm in 15 ms
12 N starting force

2.54 mm @ 40 N

These solenoids may not deliver enough starting force to start the valve movement. Thus our design for pulse-hold solenoid drivers may be used here. This was the approach in <Bono>. This approach necessitates a bipolar power supply. The positive hold voltage can be reduced to 10 V, the negative velo-pulse voltage should be between 24 V and 36 V.

2.- August Laukhuff pull down magnet assembly : Type 300810, having a traject of 10mm at a force of 10 Newton. (24V types have R=57 Ohm and draw 420mA current). We made this assembly as it performs inherently more silent than the tubular solenoid version. However the starting force is only marginally large enough to activate the valves. Hence the circuit with the series bulbs working as voltage dependent resistors from a 48V supply voltage.

3-- The horizontal movement makes use of a single large August Laukhuff bidirectional solenoid operated from 24V. The two windings have a DC resistance of 12 Ohms, hence the current drawn is 2A. Since we never activate both coils with the same power at the same time, a 2.5A power supply ought to be powerfull enough here.

Lights:

 


References: