[HN Gopher] Show HN: I made a tiny device for automatically reco...
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: I made a tiny device for automatically recording digital
pianos
Hey HN! A few years ago, I left my cushy big tech job to make
hardware. And made the device I always wanted - an automatic piano
recorder! I usually play piano improvisationally, and manually
hitting record never meshed well with that. But there are always
moments I wish I recorded, and now they are! Hopefully it
scratches a similar itch for some of you as well! A few of the
tech details: * built on an esp32-s3 * custom injection molded
enclosure * BLE comms, sd card storage, DS1302 RTC * android & ios
apps with Flutter * Shadertoy vfx support for video sharing - Chip
Author : chipweinberger
Score : 125 points
Date : 2024-11-07 23:41 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (jamcorder.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (jamcorder.com)
| usagrow wrote:
| Looks cool. Have been looking at something my keyboard that would
| record what i play for fun
| zecken wrote:
| wow this looks really cool -- I like that it doesn't lock you
| into a specific keyboard / manufacturer
| liamconnell wrote:
| > I usually play piano improvisationally, and manually hitting
| record never meshed well with that.
|
| So relatable.
|
| Congrats, looks like a great product. I just ordered one for my
| piano-player buddy for Christmas.
| Yenrabbit wrote:
| Fantastic product! Just perfectly solves a real issue. Great
| work, I'll have to get one if any of my piano-playing family
| members go digital :)
| chipweinberger wrote:
| @dang, why didn't this show up in
| https://news.ycombinator.com/show ?
|
| just curious. Thanks.
| mh- wrote:
| I see it there (now) at number 2.
| unwind wrote:
| Very neat, congratulations!
|
| Is it recording 25,000 hours of actual audio which it analyzes,
| or is it recording midi data?
| perk wrote:
| It's MIDI
| dvh wrote:
| How much current it draws? My experience with esp32 is about
| 200-300mA.
| saaaaaam wrote:
| Very cool. I recently switched from an acoustic piano to a
| digital one. Would love to read something about your process
| getting to market and building the hardware.
| Tempat wrote:
| Great work. When sending a video to someone else, how is the
| sound created - does your app convert the midi to audio with its
| built-in piano sound?
| savikko wrote:
| I assume it is using built-in sound. But of course, you could
| play saved midi on your keyboard and save that audio if using
| some specific sounds.
| porphyra wrote:
| Looks awesome, does it also record the pedal? Also I am worried
| that if it just records in MIDI, the output sound may be
| different from what I was hearing when playing unless I somehow
| have exactly the same sound banks as my digital piano.
| Fannon wrote:
| The MIDI keyboards I know will always output the pedal as part
| of the overall MIDI out. The pedal is connected to the keyboard
| via jack cables - or do you have a pedal that has its own MIDI
| output?
| marpstar wrote:
| I believe you're correct. The 1/4" pedal goes into the
| device, but anything emitted from there on should be an
| aggregation of any MIDI going out (provided they're on the
| same channel).
| vunderba wrote:
| From the FAQ: _" synthesizer support - all midi messages & all
| 16 midi channels are recorded"._
|
| Since most sustain pedals come through as a CC message I think
| it's supported.
| chipweinberger wrote:
| correct! And a surprising amount of care went into that
| feature well.
| nativeit wrote:
| There should be a way to run the MIDI back through your digital
| piano (or keyboard) to record the audio That said, software
| pianos are relatively easy to find with impressive sound banks.
| pimlottc wrote:
| Awesome idea! Does it record other MIDI events like pitch bend or
| control change events? That would be very useful for synths.
| cjdenio wrote:
| > all midi messages & all 16 midi channels are recorded
|
| Looks like it does.
| snom380 wrote:
| Love the product, love that you don't need a cloud account.
| Congrats! I'm in the same situation where I seem to improvise
| better when I haven't hit the record button.
| savikko wrote:
| This is great! Thanks for creating this - and as someone asked
| already, I would love to hear more about the process how you did
| this. Especially I am interested how you came up with injection
| molded enclosure (I thought it just costs some enormous amount to
| make the mold).
|
| I was about to order but frankly it does not feel good to pay
| about the same amount of shipping (to Finland) as the product
| costs.
|
| If you can do anything about it, I would be happy to order. 90EUR
| for shipping is just too much, 20-30'ish would be reasonable.
| Fannon wrote:
| Looks really great! If I had a standalone keyboard I'd be
| considering this!
|
| Your project got me thinking - here's one idea: Windows should
| get MIDI 2.0 support soon, incl. non-blocking MIDI reading if I
| understood correctly. That should make it possible to create a
| small background application that records all incoming MIDI from
| all (or chosen) connected MIDI devices. It would work very much
| like your recorder and could share the same mobile app?
|
| This I would be interested in. Since it's a software only
| solution, it could be cheaper and lower entry barrier.
| coolius wrote:
| I actually coded that as a macos toolbar app. If anyone's
| interested, I could share the code to GitHub.
| cesaref wrote:
| I'm not sure why you need midi 2.0 to achieve this? Recording
| midi on windows is totally trivial, and for this sort of
| application, only capturing the notes and relevant CCs (e.g.
| pedals) is all you need.
| Nition wrote:
| This is really neat.
|
| It'd be so easy to do a version of the "infamous Dropbox comment"
| on this ("you can already build such a system yourself quite
| trivially by getting a MIDI cable, an audio interface, and a
| raspberry PI...") but of course what you have is exactly a sort
| of Dropbox Of MIDI here where it Just Works(tm) and backs up all
| your music automatically with no hassle.
| vunderba wrote:
| Great job on this! With the ability for it to send midi over
| Bluetooth, it sounds like it could also act as a de facto
| replacement for my Yamaha Bluetooth USB adapter UD-BT01 (which
| has always been a bit fiddly), would that be a fair assumption?
| chipweinberger wrote:
| yes, it has that feature built-in! So it can replace your UD-
| BT01. (and is not fiddly)
| vunderba wrote:
| Awesome, I just ordered one! Absolutely love the "always on"
| feature - kind of reminds me of the "Midi Dump Last X
| Minutes" you can use with many DAWs. Thanks!
| sureglymop wrote:
| Looks amazing! Any easy way to get the midi into ableton live?
| (E.g. if my piano is in another room)
| chipweinberger wrote:
| If you want live midi, it support Bluetooth Midi.
|
| If you want historical, it's also exposed over the web
| interface and wifi API.
| Liftyee wrote:
| All-around great product - the best part for me is how there's an
| offline option, no mandatory app or subscription BS. There's too
| much of the latter nowadays.
| egypturnash wrote:
| I am not a musician so I have no use for this but this is a
| delightful idea that arguably belongs as a standard feature of
| every MIDI device being made now.
| worldmerge wrote:
| This is awesome! I love that you don't need computer and deal
| with a DAW for it.
| finger wrote:
| Do you ship to Europe?
| chipweinberger wrote:
| Yes!
| ch1kkenm4ss4 wrote:
| Hardware, but relying on 'an app' No thanks, a Zoom / Tascam
| recorder is much nicer.
| mh- wrote:
| Apples and oranges. OP's device captures midi not audio.
|
| Also: Less space than a Nomad.
| _Microft wrote:
| "Do i need to use the app? - No. You can also access your
| recordings directly from the SD card and by using wifi setup
| you can do things like set the date & time without the app.",
| from the FAQ
| chipweinberger wrote:
| you can also access the full api over WIFI! nothing hidden.
| mh- wrote:
| Congrats on launching, OP!
|
| This might be the first Show HN that I insta-purchased after
| reading your landing page. The mobile interface looks
| extraordinarily well thought-out.
| chipweinberger wrote:
| Wow that's a really nice compliment!
|
| You should have seen the original UI concepts I made, they were
| terrible!
| sssilver wrote:
| This is amazing. It's amusing that you can be Roland or Yamaha
| and have decades of experience building digital pianos and all
| sorts of other digital music devices, yet even your high-end
| digital pianos that sell for $3000+ do not have this feature.
|
| Would have loved to not have lost so many improvisations, and
| consciously recording every time before you start playing is too
| much hassle.
| montag wrote:
| The bookmarking feature is crucial. And Bluetooth? It's an
| instant buy for me. Great project!
| YesBox wrote:
| This is great!
|
| If this launched 5 years ago, I would have immediately purchased
| it! At the time I was using pencil & paper, Sibelius, or my phone
| to record improvisations and all of them were very poor
| solutions.
|
| I've reached the point where I use a DAW (Reaper) + MIDI keyboard
| + sound libraries. Conveniently, Reaper can record & display
| everything as editable MIDI output. Pencil + staff paper can be
| great if you're slowly exploring something though.
| chipweinberger wrote:
| Thanks for all the questions guys, I will try to respond to them!
|
| Btw, for anyone that purchases, there is also (very new)
| subreddit!
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/jamcorder/
| huhtenberg wrote:
| Consider sticking a "welcome" post on the sub so that it's as
| blank and empty.
| cluckindan wrote:
| You can monetize further: provide OEM boards and whitelabel
| apps/libraries for electric piano manufacturers so that you get a
| licensing thing and an ecosystem going. This door is not open for
| long, start cold-calling those companies now!
| anotheryou wrote:
| How easily could I play back in to a piano? Would be very useful
| for non-piano things like snythesizers.
| bobsmooth wrote:
| Surprised this didn't already exist. Congrats on the launch!
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-11-10 23:00 UTC)