Building low-cost music controllers

Abstract

This paper presents our work on building low-cost music controllers intended for educational and creative use. The main idea was to build an electronic music controller, including sensors and a sensor interface, on a "10 euro" budget. We have experimented with turning commercially available USB game controllers into generic sensor interfaces, and making sensors from cheap conductive materials such as latex, ink, porous materials, and video tape. Our prototype controller, the CheapStick, is comparable to interfaces built with commercially available sensors and interfaces, but at a fraction of the price.