davidnsousa/sonification

A sonification extension for Makecode micro:bit

Open this page at https://davidnsousa.github.io/sonification/

Sonification for Makecode

This micro:bit Makecode extension was developed in the context of the SoundScapes project, a creative and inclusive approach using sonification to empower teachers and students in the digital era.

What is sonification?

Have you ever wondered what it would sound like if you could hear the stars shining, the atmospheric pressure variations, or someone's thoughts and feelings? What could you learn from that? Would it sound nice? It turns out that all of this is possible. Some phenomena are actually emitting sound waves that we can amplify, others emit electromagnetic waves that can be scaled to audio frequencies and others cannot be described as "waves". But all of them are described by physical parameters which can be translated to sound. The process is called sonification. Learn more about it on the SoundScapes wiki.

Usage

Map and play directly from a micro:bit sensor

To map and play directly from a micro:bit sensor you can use the following block with a dropdown menu for choosing the sensor. The input range is automatically selected to match the minimum and maximum values that can be obtained from the micro:bit sensors.

basic.forever(function () {
    sonification.playSensor(sonification.InputSensor.Light, 262, sonification.chooseScale(sonification.Scale.Major))
})

This example is equivalent to the real-time sonification example using the sonification map function for single values further in this tutorial. Using this block can be useful to test and focus more on creating and experimenting with music scales before diving deeper in more complex programming.

Map and play a single value on a music scale

The map function returns an integer number from mapping a number on a certain range [low, high] to a specified music scale on a specified number of octaves.

For instance, the following example maps the light level value on the range [0,255] to Middle C Major on 1 octave and plays it for 500 ms forever:

let tone = 0
basic.forever(function () {
    tone = sonification.map(input.lightLevel(), 0, 255, 262, sonification.chooseScale(sonification.Scale.Major), 1)
    sonification.playNote(tone, 500)
})

Other sensors (including external sensors connected through pins to the micro:bit) and different input ranges can be used as well. This is useful for real-time sonification, when you sonify the data at the same time you collect it.

Map and play an array on a music scale

The map function for arrays returns an array of integer numbers from mapping an input array to a specified music scale and number of octaves.

For instance, the following example collects light level data for 10 seconds (one value per second) while mapping it to the Middle D Minor scale on 2 octaves, and plays the data after collection, each tone sequentially for 1000 ms:

let data: number[] = []
for (let index = 0; index < 10; index++) {
    data.push(input.lightLevel())
    basic.pause(1000)
}
let data2tones = sonification.mapArray(data, 294, sonification.chooseScale(sonification.Scale.Minor), 2)
sonification.playArray(data2tones, 1000)

Any array of numbers can be used as input. This is useful for a posteriori sonification when you want to sonify the data after collecting it.

Map and play on a custom scale

You can easily create your own music scales with arrays and serve them as input to the map functions to map and play any number value on your custom scale. The input array must contain the frequency ratios relative to the root frequency.

For instance, the following maps the light level value on the range [0,255] to Middle C harmonic on 1 octave and plays it for 500 ms:

let harmonic = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
let tone = sonification.map(input.lightLevel(), 0, 255, 262, harmonic, 1)
sonification.playNote(tone, 500)

where harmonic is an array of numbers containing the frequency ratios of the harmonic scale. Since each tone in the harmonic scale is exactly one octave apart from the previous tone, changing the octave number in this particular case will just expand the range of the harmonic series.

Use as Extension

This repository can be added as an extension in MakeCode.

• open https://makecode.microbit.org/
• click on New Project
• click on Extensions under the gearwheel menu
• search for https://github.com/davidnsousa/sonification and import

Edit this project

To edit this repository in MakeCode.

• open https://makecode.microbit.org/
• click on Import then click on Import URL
• paste https://github.com/davidnsousa/sonification and click import

Metadata (used for search, rendering)

• for PXT/microbit

<script src="https://makecode.com/gh-pages-embed.js"></script><script>makeCodeRender("{{ site.makecode.home_url }}", "{{ site.github.owner_name }}/{{ site.github.repository_name }}");</script>

License

MIT

sonification=github:davidnsousa/sonification