Birbla

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  • Sweet!
    by mattmar96
  • It seems like it will be fun but my headphones just come in under the activation threshold, but I can't see a way to add some input gain
    by comradesmith
  • Try setting the gate to a higher number?
    by jefftk
  • How feasible would it be to add MIDI out support to this?

    I often find my improvised melodies are more interesting when I whistle them, so this would be a handy feature.

    by admash
  • I wouldn't expect MIDI to be a good fit, and when I experimented with it a few years ago I wasn't able to get anything I liked. Pitch and volume are continuous, and while this can be encoded in MIDI it's awkward. If you send too many updates you can overwhelm the synth, and if you slide a single note too far it will re-trigger the note. Also when the sound starts you know "there's whistling" before you have a great estimate of the pitch, but MIDI wants to know the initial tone (and many voices have tuned onsets).

    But if you want to try it, checking out https://github.com/jeffkaufman/whistle-synth and asking Claude or Codex to add MIDI support would probably work!

    by jefftk
  • This is something I think about making every time I sit in front of my PC - thank you and I look forward to trying it!
    by n738
  • The first time I saw it, I thought about playing a drumkit and whistling a bassline at the same time, with someone else on guitar and vocals, making a full rock sound with two people. But then I was too lazy to try it.
    by cousin_it
  • There been some people doing the whole "one man band" thing with a back pack drum, guitar and harmonica. I bet someone crazy enough could do one instrument per limb + harmonica and maybe even a theremin with some remaining appendage too.
    by embedding-shape
  • Sounds a bit like imitone https://imitone.com/ (I have no affiliation)

    FYI, Imitone has a patent, I don't know what it covers or claims though.

    by azornathogron
  • The relevant patent is from 1986, long expired: https://www.jefftk.com/p/ugo-contis-whistle-controlled-synth...
    by jefftk
  • Very cool idea. It would be nice if you could enable your camera and then control mod/pitch with head up/down left/right motions.
    by bonestamp2
  • This is gonna accidentally activate some old forgotten MKULTRA code-key in some poor fella’s amygdala and bang!, they’ve Manchurian Candidated Sonic the Hedgehog
    by maybelsyrup