Furby organ update

So i've come to the decision, i've had to put everything else on hold. (ie the Robodoc, and the step sequencer posts) until this is done!

I have put the self inflicted deadline on myself of shooting the video this Thursday, which leaves about 85 hours in total i have to complete this machine!

i've been back on it for the past couple of days, and yes. There is a to do list as long as my arm. Thanks to the rather eccentric way i had designed it. That being it acting like a polymoog, each key having a separate voice section. If your interested this is what i have in store for the next few days :-

- Finish modifying the Furbies themselves (a rather time consuming task, i am 36 in, and then 9 to go. equalling a lovely 44).

- Create the midi to trigger section (this is what translates the midi signals coming from the keyboard, turning them into pulses to tell the separate voices to play).

- Wire up the midi keyboard (the key-bed is off an old organ, and it isn't wired, basically i'm wiring up each key separately to an Arduino mega. which will talk to the Furby synth, meaning for future, it can be sequenced by other means).

- Make a front panel to house the controls (each furby will have 1 knob to control how its voice will sound, from a singing bird, down to a monster, along with attack and release times, and vibrato, OOH also the collective awakening switch... hopefully a collective glitch button too)- a foot expression pedal to control the overall vowel which is being sung, (Aaaaah eeeeeh oooooooh errrrrrr and so on).

- Another foot pedal for the hold function, this freezes the furbies. It may or may not happen these circuit bends, but i will try my hardest to include them as there is a wire leaving the furby for this and the glitch functions!...... if you are interested i have found, you only need 1 wire to control both of these functions, if you have ever circuit bent a furby before, this is because you send it 5volts it will freeze, you pop it to ground it will glitch out. A very welcome discovery!

- Make an LFO. (for the vibrato).

- make another voice bank (my maths was bad, i've only got 36! i need 44)!!.Im debating on making it a split keyboard. with the upper and lower having possible different release times, meaning the bass notes don't have to sustain as long as the high notes.

- Reskin the furbies!!! by popular demand, they will be nice and colour coded, with all of the furbies looking like their former selves.

So yes! i will keep you updated this week on the progress!

fingers crossed you will see the finished video on friday! However if it isnt looking probable i will have it completed, i will do the robodoc video, and push furby organ back a week to finish it!

FINGERRRRRSSSS CROSSSSSED

Thanks everyone! Its been a massive undertaking already, and it certainly hasn't been cheap! 

Luckily the Arduino's ended up being only about a quid each from china. So i lucked out there. Because i wouldn't have looked forward to using bare Atmega chips.