A brave man makes his own 'laser harp' that can play music by manipulating laser light



This article, originally posted in Japanese on 19:00 Oct 04, 2018, may contains some machine-translated parts.
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A laser harp is an instrument that can play music by blocking the laser light of a device linked to a PC. A self-made laser harp was released in a movie by

Gaue , in which a song by Susumu Hirasawa , a musician who is also known for using a laser harp, was played, and at the time of writing, it has become a hot topic, with over 8,400 retweets and over 19,000 likes.

You can see how Ue plays Susumu Hirasawa's music using his homemade laser harp in the following movie. The phrases are played according to the movement of the hands, and the music can be played by blocking the laser at the right time.



Switch on the control board at hand ...



When you place your hand between the posts, music plays.



It plays short phrases, and the phrase that plays seems to be determined by the position of the laser you touch.



Each time the hand passes between the pillars, the phrases flow together and become one song. The audio of 'Logic Air Force' that is being played is not an actual song, but a karaoke version created by volunteers.



It's hard to understand what's going on just by looking at it, but Ue has also released a movie that clearly shows how he operates the laser harp. The laser harp works in conjunction with the sampler of the DTM software ' FL Studio ', and by blocking the laser with your hand, a pre-specified phrase is played.



Below are detailed photos of the homemade laser harp uploaded by Ue. A laser device with a toggle switch is fixed to a metal support. The laser is invisible in bright places, but if you darken the room, you can see a green laser being emitted from the harp's support.



The circuit board that controls the laser harp looks like this.



The song 'Logic Air Force' that Ue played is a song released in 1999 by the band 'P-MODEL' led by musician Susumu Hirasawa. In addition to the laser harp, Hirasawa is known for using many unique instruments in his live performances, such as Tesla coils and Yamaha's ' Miburi ', which can be played with body movements. You can see Hirasawa actually playing the laser harp live in the movie below.

Susumu Hirasawa DVD 'WORLD CELL 2015' Digest02 - YouTube


You can also get a good idea of what kind of laser harp Mr. Hirasawa actually uses by looking at the following site.

Susumu Hirasawa INTERACTIVE LIVE SHOW 2013 'Nomonos and Immuum' Super Close! Live & Equipment Report!
https://www.ikebe-gakki.com/web-ikebe/pr_susumu-hirasawa-interactive-live-show2013/



Hirasawa has explained how the Laser Harp, an indispensable device in Hirasawa's live performances, works on Twitter. According to Hirasawa, some of the 12 lasers are just for appearance, and the physical movements created by using many lasers are a 'show.' The system, which works in conjunction with PC software to control the phrase performance by blocking the lasers, is almost the same as the laser harp that Ue made himself.



For more details about Ue's homemade laser harp, please see the article on his blog, ' ue's tech .'

I made my own laser harp - ue's tech
https://uetra.hatenablog.com/entry/2018/10/05/010439

in Hardware,   Video, Posted by log1i_yk