The Time Machine: A Time-Based Audio Effects Box

Summer 2018 saw the successful realization of a MURI Project (Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Initiative) carried by students in Music and Arts Technology and Engineering Technology. Music Tech students Michael Baurhert and Collin Eades collaborated with Engineering Tech students Alex Perr and Kacie Darrough to create a music electronic effects box for live performance.  Elaine Cooney of ET and Scott Deal of MAT supervised the projects, together with their graduate assistants Harry Chaubey and Andrew McNeely.  The project was demonstrated during a poster session highlighting the campus-wide Summer MURI projects.  Following is a description of the project.

The team designed a mobile DSP device inspired by Gross Beat, by utilizing C language in order to create a time-based audio effect. In real time, the device manipulates the playback rate and looping of audio stored in a buffer.  The team compared four DSP development boards to find the one best suited to host the program. The group designed a touch-screen user interface to control the program and compared two different microcontrollers to host this interface.  The best hardware options were chosen from what was available and a functioning program was created to implement the design.  While the team had to make several compromises on hardware choice and software design, the project ultimately demonstrated a successful path to creating an audio effect module.