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NSYNTH SUPER / COOLEST PROJECTS
GOOGLE NSYNTH SUPER
Image courtesy of Google
AI instrument gets a body agenta, a Google research project to ‘make music and art using machine learning’, has collaborated with Google Creative Lab to create a musical instrument that uses AI to create entirely new sounds. The project is a hardware implementation of the previously announced NSynth algorithm. This ‘neural audio synthesis’ algorithm doesn’t blend different input sounds – instead it analyses the sonic characteristics of the sources to ‘birth’ an entirely new sound.
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The NSynth Super takes the NSynth algorithm and implements it in an easy-touse hardware form. Each of the four corner dials allows you to select one of four instruments, and then you can set the level of combination by dragging your finger across the touchscreen ‘sound map’.
The custom PCB and bill of materials are open-source, as is the code, but assembly requires advanced soldering skills – see the GitHub page at magpi.cc/kUvRKn and Andrew Back’s build guide for RS-Online at magpi.cc/uNBJqG. You can see the NSynth Super in action at nsynthsuper.withgoogle.com.
COOLEST PROJECTS UK Hardware category winner Ayve demonstrates her creation: the Voice O’Tronik
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June 2018
First Coolest Projects show in UK “mind-blowing”
oolest Projects UK was “the same level of mindblowing” as any Coolest Projects International show, says Rosa Langhammer, CoderDojo’s general manager, outreach and engagement. Held on Saturday 28 April in London, the event “had over 40 projects,” says Rosa, “presented with enthusiasm and confidence by each of the project presenters… In total we had over 500 people attend.” It’s these presenters that make Coolest Projects events so special – they’re CoderDojo Ninjas, aged 7–17, showing off their self-made projects. Among some brilliant projects and presentations, Rosa
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particularly loved ten-year-old Ayve’s ‘Voice O’Tronik’, which “responded to voice commands such as ‘move arms’ or ‘roll eyes’.” Rosa was equally impressed by Ayve’s “confidence and depth of knowledge” when presenting Voice O’Tronik, which was written in Python and uses the Google Cloud Speech API. “Coolest Projects is absolutely not possible to run without project presenters (Ninjas), parents, and volunteers,” Rosa acknowledges. “So to each and every person who contributed: thank you!” Coolest Projects North America take place in Santa Ana, California on Sunday 23 September. Head to magpi.cc/izcDmt to register your project or book your ticket. raspberrypi.org/magpi