~ MIDImorphosis: recording audio and sensor data

During an experiment which monitors a music performance it might be a requirement to record music, video and sensor data synchronously. Recording analog sensors (balance boards, accelerometers, light sensors, distance sensors) together with audio and video is often problematic. Ideally standard DAW software can be used to record both audio and sensor data. A system is presented here that makes it relatively straightforward to record sensor data together with audio/video.

The basic idea is simple: a microcontroller is programmed to appear as a class compliant MIDI device. Analog measurements on the micro-controller are translated to a specific MIDI protocol. The MIDI data, on the capturing side, can then be converted again into the original sensor data. This setup has several advantages:

• It makes it easy to record sensor data together with audio data in a standard DAW software package. Recording a recording a midi track and audio track simultaneously in, e.g., Ableton Live, is easy.
• Communication with the micro-controller is bi-directional. The micro-controller can be programmed to react to certain MIDI messages. A note-on can, for example, be used to start analog sensor recording. These MIDI commands can be send from any possible source that can ‘speak’ MIDI.
• Thanks to the Web MIDI API this construct presents an easy way to let analog sensors and websites interact.
• Real time sonification of the sensor-data is also supported. There are many ready to go options to sonify MIDI. Axoloti, Max/MSP, Zupiter are some of the environments that can be pugged into.

Fig: Visualization in html of analog sensor data, captured as MIDI

While the concept is relatively simple, there are many details to get right. Please consult the MIDImorphosis github page which details the system that consists of an analog sensor, a MIDI protocol and a clocking infrastructure.

UGent, Code, and Computational ethnomusicology

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