I’ve been working on some software and electronics for Robin Mandel in order to realize his Storm. First I made a Arduino-MIDI-output-translator application that converted MIDI out of GarangeBand to on and offs on the Arduino’s Digital Outputs. Then I integrated the MIDI playback into the translator application.

But ultimately, best if the Arduino simply did it all, this way the Storm installation can run without a computer. The latest implementation does just that: first you translate the midi-file to a text format; then you load it on the the arduino as a part of a sketch; the sketch also integrates a potentiometer for setting the threshold of the light-sensor, and an LEd on pin 13 that gives visual feed-back about passing the threshold.

There are a couple of ingredients:
-A Stand-alone application that converts MIDI to a peculiar text file format. Get it here.
-An Arduino Sketch that takes care of the playback from the score, as well as the triggering using a light-sensor. Get that here.

Here’s a video:

and here’s the circuit, close up.