via DeftAudio – a quick demo of a new laser harp, 40K points/s, X-Y scanning, 300mW version.
Seeing this makes me think that the world needs an inexpensive DIY laser harp kit. Visually, they make stunning MIDI controllers, but they’ll need to be available and affordable before musicians will really be able to explore their potential.
A couple of years ago, we featured Steve Mobley’s impressiveĀ DIY laser harp. He estimated the cost of building his harp at around $600. He’s posted updated information on his laser harp at his site.
There are lots of small companies creating excellent DIY kits for electronic musicians now – so I wonder if there’s enough interest in laser harps to make a kit viable.
What do you think of the idea of a laser harp kit? Would you be interested in building one? And, if so, what would you be willing to pay for one?
Depending on the quality I'd gladly pay 300 euros for such a kit, its's about the same price you will have to give for a nice theremin. The breaking point being of course – what it would cost just to plug in a laser into a modular system like the Doepfer A100. With most of the modules already in place, maybe even 150 euros would be realistic. Send the idea to Doepfer, they must be able to do it in a comfortable way.
In fact I posted a suggesting question to Doepfer just seconds ago. Lets await the answer š
It turns out there was fast reply for this one. And this is it, directly from Mr Doepfer himself actually. This sollution could be worth checking out.
"We have built already a laser harp for exhibitions by means of the low cost
CTM64. Details about the CTM64 are available on our website:
http://www.doepfer.com > PRODUCTS > OEM / DIY Products > CTM64
We used phototransistors instead of the switches mentioned in the CTM64
user's manual and illuminated each phototransistor by a low cost laser
pointer (with a common power supply for all laser pointers). The only
"problem" is the mechanical fixing of the laser pointers and the
phototransistors."
I built a laser harp of sorts with my dad who is an electronic engineer from Steve Mobley's specs. It costs a little less than $200 I think, but def isn't for everyone (like me, I could never build it myself.)
Why didn't end up doing the laser part of the laser harp, b/c we'd need dry ice or fog in order to see the lasers and that wasnt practical for our shows.
All you need is a decent webcam and a laptop, plus some ten-quid from ebay laser pointers, surely ?