A live MIDI sequencer input for the Digitech Whammy IV
The Digitech Whammy is a guitar effects pedal that includes a number of pitch-shifting effects. It has a MIDI input that can be used to control all the settings on the pedal.
watt turns the Whammy into a sequencer by playing programs into the MIDI in. A program cannot control the input pitch, only the effects added to the input pitch. So rather than defining absolute pitches, a program defines output intervals based on the input to the pedal.
The result is a unique sounding programmable pitch shifter than can make a guitar or any other input sound like a polyphonic synth and sequencer while not destroying the characteristics of the original signal.
A number of key commands are available to allow live modification to the program or the effect currently playing.
Above all watt is a technology-in-music experiment created to explore composition through programming without losing the live component that makes music spontaneous.
- Digitech Whammy IV
- midi cable
- computer with a midi output running OSX, WIndows, or Linux
- pygame
####Programs
List the available programs:
python watt.py -l
Run a program:
python watt.py -p [program]
This will run a sequencer program in a loop.
While a program is running you can adjust the BPM using the keyboard:
+ : go faster
- : go slower
####Live Run without a program:
python watt.py
This will put watt in octave mode with no sequencer. Use these keys like a keybaord:
w e t y u
a s d f g h j k
These will map to the following intervals from the input pitch:
m2 m3 A4 m6 m7
P1 M2 M3 P4 P5 M6 M7 P8
watt programs are not easy to create yet, but there are a couple of tricks:
- Feed a tone generator into the pedal while composing (a looping pedal works great for this)
- Use the live keyboard to write melodies and sequences
Thinking in intervals is a great exercise for learning composition.
- more program banks
- more live controls
- MIDI file input/output support
- recording live key commands to a program
- audio input as a control source
- a watt hardware device