Tonight at Phoenix First Friday: Laser Harp

Laser Harp
It’s Matt here, dusting off the old blog (grr!) to invite you to come visit and play with the laser harp tonight! I’ll be at the corner of 5th Street and Garfield, right near Conspire. Here is a map:

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Thanks to the fine folks at Conspire for offering their space!

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2 Responses to Tonight at Phoenix First Friday: Laser Harp

  1. Glenn Hill says:

    Hi Matt

    Very cool, playing a laser harp on the street cornnor! are you using a lap top for the sounds ?
    Tell me more about what midi system and such you are using? And take a look at my website and blog and u-tube videos.

    I assume you are using 5mw lasers ? Do you use filters to block stay light, or just have the sensors set to not recieve it ?

    Are you using set notes or ‘play any beam’ type of programing, or do you have it set up to have one beam as the controller to change programing ?

    I am working on trying to use low powered green lasers in an ‘infinite beam’ type of laser harp.

    OK, Very cool, have fun and keep up the good work !

    Glenn Hill

  2. mahto says:

    Hi Glenn,

    Thanks :-). I’m using a microcontroller board that I designed to generate the MIDI signal, and a Korg Micro X synthesizer as an output device. Yeah, they are 5mw red lasers, arranged so that they are pointing upwards at cheapo photocells that sit in recessed holes to block stray light. It’s really sensitive, but kind of a pain to align correctly after it has been moved. Its of the fixed-note variety, and the beams are ‘tuned’ chromatically, but this can easily be changed in software or by reprogramming the synth. I’ve been thinking of using a foot pedal to do program changes, but haven’t experimented with it yet. Your harps are beautiful!

    Good luck with the low-power green harp- that sounds like a really challenging project!

    Cheers,
    Matt

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